Samuel WHITE

                   Historical information included in notes.



Robert Brown's research indicated Samuel White was born in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts.SOURCES: N. E. History and Genealogical Register, Volume 5, page 88. Certain Comeovers by H. H. Crapo, Volume 1, page 56-57.The AM Genealogist, Volume 17, April 1941. Rochester Vital Records, Volume 1, Pages 302-304. Researched by Gertrude Clifton Pierce Nelson.Samuel White and four others viewed the lands of Sippican and determined where the lots should be laid out and finally each lot was laid out in 40 acre sections. Samuel White drew a house lot in what is now Mattapoisett which he does not appear to have taken up.The deed of the territory called Sippican was turned over to the court, July 22, 1679 to the purchasers who organized the same dayat Plymouth. Samuel White settled in North Rochester near Sniptuit and after his death his son-in-law, Peter Crapo, bought from hisgrandson his Mansion House at Scituate.The earliest list of freemen in Rochester in 1684 gives the name of Samuel White.He was of the first board of selectmen in 1690. October 15, 1689 he took the oath of fidelity under Governor Hinckley. In 1709 his name appeared in a list of seventeen male members of the First Church of Rochester, Massachusetts. In 1722/1723 Samuel White and Timothy Ruggles examined one Mr. Josiah Marshall and did approve of him as a fit person qualified as the law directs to be a school master.SOURCES N.E. Hist. and Gen. Reg. (1960-1961) Col. CXV April 1961 P14.5 Interstake Library, Oakland, CaliforniaRebecca Lapham, wife of Samuel White or John Washburn? by Mrs. John E. Barcley, F.A.S.G. of Whitman, Massachusetts. A paper originally read in October 1960 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Genealogists, Concord, N. H. and revised somewhat in publication. Researched by Gertrude Clifton Pierce Nelson.NOTES: In the original records of the Town of Rochester, Massachusetts, Volume I, page 4, there appears the following:"Samuel White, Senior and his wife were born in March about ye 13 in ye year 1646 taken from his own record with ye births of hischildren." Then follows a list of his eight children and their birth records, all on the same page. This shows they were all recorded on thesame day and not at the time of birth.By comparison the vital records as printed alphabetically do not give an accurate picture of the records as they are, a fact which is especially true in regard to those of this particular family. As they are printed, the impression is given that all of the children were born in Rochester, yet such was not the case and the most significant facts escape notice. Since all of the data appears together on the same page in the original records the basis from which to work is provided and a challenge to solve the problem is created.The most interesting and significant thing about this record is the fact that Samuel White and his wife were both born on the same day,the same month, and the same year and that it was "taken from his own records". This is the only record of its kind that the writer has ever found. Yet, we are baffled by the fact that there is no marriage record and he does not tell us her name. There is no record of his wife's death as such. However, it is believed that she was the Rebecca White who died in Rochester 25 June 1711 in her sixty-fifth year, hence born about 1646. This at least agrees with the birth of Samuel White's wife.We know quite a little about Samuel White. According to the Scituate Vital records he was born 13 March 1646, the son of Resolved White, and who, with his parents, came in the Mayflower. This verified his own statement about the date of his birth. Judging from the date of the birth of his first child, 24 August 1669, he was married about 1668, when he and his wife were twenty-two. In 1671 he sold some land in Middleboro to Benjamin Church (Plymouth Colony Deeds, 4:229) amd is called "of Sandwich". This indicates that he removed to that town about the time he was married or soon after and that their first five children probably were born there, although their births were not reco
rded on the town books. There is evidence that he was in Sippican as one of the proprieters 10 March 1679 and that the rest of the children were born in this new plantation, later called Rochester, which was established as a town in 1686, only about four years beforehe had all of his children recorded, as we have noted above.SOURCES: The following information was obtained from TAG, Volume 17, The Parentage of William White (GS0066); Records of Plymouth Colony1633-1689, by Shurtleff-Records of James Torrey, Towne Clarke of Scituate 1654. Researched by Robert Arthur Brown.He removed to Sandwich at some point since in 1671, Samuel White of Sandwich, and wife Rebecca, deeded land to Benjamin Church,acknowledged 8 June 1677. Before, and after that time they lived in Rochester, Plymouth County,Massachusetts.