Thomas Reeves, 13th Great-Grandfather

June 27, 2013 — ancestors, blacksmith, Colonist, drummer

Passengers on the Bevis 

Thomas Reeves is not the only one of my ancestors who arrived in America on the ship Bevis, nor is he the only one who came as an indentured servant.  He landed after becoming a freeman in the colony, in Springfield, MA  (a city I drove right past in May) where he was a blacksmith and the town drummer.  How cute, the official drummer!! I wonder who the official town fife player was.  His son Thomas, who moved to Long Island after his father’s death, seems to have continued the family trade of blacksmithing.

Thomas Sr (generation #1 in America) came from Southampton, England in 1638 on the “Bevis” and arrived in Boston. He was an indentured servant to Henry Byley, but became the servant of John Gore and lived in Roxbury, MA until 1644 when he became a freeman. He married Hannah Rowe on Apr 15, 1645 at Roxbury. They moved to Springfield, MA where he was a blacksmith and the town drummer. He died at Springfield on Nov 5, 1650 in his late twenties after fathering three children, two of which survived to adulthood (Thomas, Mary, John). His wife later remarried Richard Excell (or Exile) of Springfield on June 4, 1651, by whom she had four children (Mary, John, Lydia, Abigail). She died in 1660 in Spreingfield. He was still in the Springfield are in 1681. Mr. Excell presumably then moved to Southampton, LI with his step-son Thomas Jr and died there Feb 24, 1714, after suffering financial problems, according to his will. He also suffered from wounds received in King Phillip’s War.

There was another Thomas Reeves in MA who was born earlier and married a Mary Purrier.

Thomas Sr may have had an aunt Mary who immigrated with him and married William Webster, or the story about her is inaccurate in her age at death. Her husband was a the son of Gov. John Webster of Conn. She was accuased of being a witch in Hadley 1n 1673 by the county court in Northampton, but was acquitted at her trial in Boston in 1683. She died in 1696, her husband dying in 1688.