Stephen HUSSEY

                   "He was a sea-faring man, had lived at Barbados and had accumulated alittle property. At the time of the organization of the Friends' Society,in 1708, he was one of the petitioners, a somewhat anomalous condition ashe was a most persistent litigant. He several times held office andappeared to be quite a politician, and during the local turmoil followingthe temporary overturn of the New York government, he was severelydenounced by Peter Folger for endeavoring to improperly affect thevoting."

   According to The Great Migrations:

      "All sources give Stephen as the eldest child of Christopher andTheodate (Bachiler) Hussey, and claim that this couple had married inEngland prior to 1632 and came to New England with Reverend STEPHENBACHILER. There is no evidence, however, for placing Stephen as theeldest child, and his marriage date of 1676, and other records, argue fora date of birth in the 1640s, and so he has been placed here as thefourth of five children. Thus John becomes the eldest child, which isconsistent with the page of baptisms, apparently kept by Stephen Bachileras he travelled from Lynn to Newbury to Hampton, where John is the firstchild baptized, at Lynn in 1636. (This also puts the lie to the myth thatin the first week he was at Lynn Bachiler had baptized his own grandsonStephen Hussey before the child of another couple.) "


Stephen Hussey was born in 1630 or 1632[1] to Christopher Hussey andTheodate Bachiler. It is said that his grandfather Stephen Bachilersfirst duties as a minister in America was to baptize two infants, ThomasNewhall and Stephen Hussey. Thomas was given to Bachiler first but heinsisted on baptizing Stephen first. The accuracy of the story, however,is questionable.

Page 41 (1632)
The Reverend Stephen Batchelor, with his family, arrived at Boston onThursday, the fifth of June. He came in the ship William and Francis,captain Thomas, which sailed from London on the ninth of March, withabout sixty passengers. He immediately came to Lynn, where his daughterresided, and fixed his abode here. He was now 71 years of age. In hiscompany were six persons who had belonged to a church with him inEngland; and of those he constituted a church at Lynn, to which headmitted such as were desirous of becoming members, and immediatelycommenced the exercise of the ministerial duties, without installation.One of his first ministrations was to baptize four children, born beforehis arrival; two of whom, Thomas Newhall and Stephen Hussey, were bornthe same week. Thomas, being the oldest, was first presented, but Mr. B.put him aside saying I will baptize my own child first.

Source:  Lewis, Alonzo, History of Lynn, Boston:  J.H. Eastburn, 1829.


Stephen went to sea as young man and settled for a while in Barbados,becoming a city official there. There, he acquired some property andpurchased slaves whom he brought with him to Nantucket. He was brought tothe court in Hampton, New Hampshire in 1668 for disturbing thecongregation on the Lords day and reviling Mr. Cotton. In 1671, hisfather deeded his interest in Nantucket to Stephen and his brother John.By May 1673, Stephen had permanently settled at Nantucket. John sold hisinterest to Stephen in 1694.
      He was influenced by Quakers in Barbados. However, he still ownedslaves and was litigious, despite the Quakers disapproval of thesepractices. He was in court, including for charges of disrupting bothcourt and church services and to sue the constable for taking his rum(Stephen ended up being fined for smuggling the rum and for contempt ofcourt).
Stephen married Martha Bunker 8 October 1676 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.Returning from the wedding, the ship Stephen and Martha were sailing inencountered a hostile French privateer laying off Nantucket harbor. Thewedding party watched from the shore. Meanwhile, the cake burnt and adrunken Indian broke his glass whiskey bottle in the punchbowl byaccident. All of this led Martha to declare that the very heavens andstars were against us.

Stephen was a yeoman and freeholder of Sherburne and a representative tothe General Court. He lived first on the south side of Nantucket harborand built three houses on Nantucket. Stephen and his brother-in-law, JohnSwain, refused to swear an oath of office because of their Quaker beliefsand were refused an office. He entertained a Quaker preacher fromBarbados, Thomas Story, and hosted a meeting of the Society of Friends in1704. Stephen was one of organizers and petitioners when the Society ofFriends was organized in Sherburne in 1708.
      Stephens will is dated 17th 5th month 1716. He died 2nd 2 month (2Apr) 1718 in Nantucket, Massachusetts and was buried in the FriendsBurial Ground, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Martha died 21st 9 month (21Nov) 1744 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.


Sources for Stephen and Martha Bunker Hussey
http://www.boydhouse.com/michelle/hussey/stephenhussey.html

Sources:
1. Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol.IBirths (A-F), Boston:  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1925.
2. Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol.IBirths (A-F), Boston:  New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1925.
3. Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol.IIIMarriages (A-G), Boston:  New England Historic Genealogical Society,1927.
4. Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol.IVMarriages (H-Z), Boston:  New England Historic Genealogical Society,1927.
5. Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol.VDeaths, Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1928.
6. Database of the Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, NantucketHistorical Association (created from records collected by Eliza StarbuckBarney (1802-1889)).
7. Savage, James, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of NewEngland, Before 1692, Vol. 2, Boston, MA, 1860.
8. Hussey Millennium Manuscript, courtesy of the Gowen ResearchFoundation, www.llano.net/gowen/hussey_millenium.htm, 2001.
9. Noyes, Sybil, Libby, Charles Thornton, and Davis, Walter Goodwin,Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Portland, Maine:  TheSouthward Press, 1928.
10. Austin, John Osborne, One Hundred and Sixty Allied Families, Salem,MA, 1893, pgs. 147-8.
11. Lewis, Alonzo, History of Lynn, Boston:  J.H. Eastburn, 1829.