Benedict Pulsifer Descendants

 

Generation No. 1

 

1.      BENEDICT1 PULSIFER was born 1635-1640 in England, and died 1710 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass.. He married (1) UNKNOWN Abt. 1661 in prob. Ipswich. He married (2) SUSANNA WATERS February 1673/74 in Ipswich, Essex, Mass., daughter of RICHARD WATERS and JOYCE PLASSE.

 

BENEDICT PULSIFER:


Benedict was born in England about 1635. We know he was in America by 1659; but possibly could have arrived a few years before. Around the year 1661, he married his first wife. Unfortunately her name has been lost to history.

 

In 1663 we have a record of Benedict buying a home and a son born to him. He bought a residence with outhouse, orchards, etc. from Moses Pengry of Ipswich, one of the town deacons; who had obtained the land in 1652 from Richard Schofield, leather dresser for 17 pounds. The home was situated on the intersection of East Street and Hovey Lane. Across from his lot lay what had been the home of John Winthrop Jr.; son of the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Ownership of this property entitled Benedict to the right of pasturage in the domain beyond the "common fence", but the felling of timber or cultivation of the common land was prohibited.


In the mid 1600's these lands were held by all householders in common. This system was a vestigial relic of the ancient system of land holding in England and Germany and was naturally reverted to in the necessities of primitive colonial life. By 1664, the idea of permanent individual ownership had gained enough acceptance that the town voted that Plum Island, Hogg Island and Castle Neck be divided among those who had rights of commonage, based upon the amount of personal and property tax paid by each individual determined by lot. This right belonged to 203 individuals including Benedict.


Benedict's first wife died at Ipswich, Jul. 16, 1673. It was a common English practice to name the first born daughter after the wife.   If this being the case here, then it is likely his first wife's name was Elizabeth. No way of proving this however.


Benedict marries 2nd to Susanna Waters 1674.


His children gave him a good deal of frustration and embarrassment. He had to defend them in court and even took one son to court for some wrong committed to him by his son.


During the 1690's the notorious Salem witch trials occurred. We can only guess how Benedict reacted to such goings-on.    His wife, Susanna, was from Salem, so certainly they were aware of the trials.


In 1700 Benedict was assigned a place on "one of ye short seats" among the elderly in the Ipswich Meeting House and referred to as "Goodman". On Aug. 1, 1709, Benedict conveyed his property to his son, Capt. Joseph

Pulcifer, of Boston. Benedict died the following year.


 

 

SUSANNA WATERS:


A quaint Ipswich law punished "commoners" for overstepping the bounds of propriety by daring to wear fine garments which were beyond their proper rank in life. As early as 1651, the General court of Ipswich had expressed its "griefe...that intollerable excesse and bravery hath crept in upon us and especially amongst people of mean condition, to the dishonor of God, the scandal of its professors, the consumption of estates and altogether unsuitable to our poverty." It was later ordered that no person whose visible estate did not exceed L200, should wear gold or silver lace, or any bone lace above 2s. per yard, or silk hoods or scarfs. Penalty for each such offense was 10 shillings.


In the year 1675, Ipswich was in a general state of terror over the string of Indian attacks that became known as King Phillips' War. The Ipswich General Court saw in such attacks evidence of rebukes from God Almighty himself, and promptly issued fresh edicts some of the more flagrant abuses of wearing "finery" and displaying the sin of pride.


Susanna, the newly wed wife of Benedict, appeared one Sabbath morning in 1675 meeting house proudly displaying such a silk scarf and hood, along with a number of other wives of the town. Benedict was duly fined for the violation of social decorum. The incident implies that Benedict's estate must have been valued less than L200.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BENEDICT (JR.) PULSIFER:


One of the most interesting stories revealed in the old Ipswich court records involves the conviction of Benedict Jr. in 1682 for burglary aboard a sloop. This incident was a profound embarrassment to his father. Benedict Sr. submitted a lengthy written petition to the quarterly session of the court seeking to defend his son against conviction in May 1682. Benedict Sr. was ahead of his time, in a way, in his use of defense which, with some embellishments, has become popular in the latter half of the 20th century, known as the "diminished capacity" defense. The profile presented, quite a lengthy, and written in the first person, is of a father persistently concerned about the value of education for his son, despite the son's apparent dull-wittiness. This account shows that Benedict Sr. was quite literate in an age when education among Englishman was rare. Benedict Sr. painted a picture of his son as a dull-witted lad hopelessly unable to learn to read despite the extraordinarily painstaking efforts of his father and who was innocently led into mischief by a Negro slave who was more cunning. His pleas for mercy was in convincing to the court. Benedict Jr. was convicted of " being with Stephen Crose's Negro aboard Crose's sloop, stealing wine, sugar, and biscuit to the value of 36s". The court ordered Benedict to pay half the treble damages to Crose and also to be whipped.


In the summer of that same year, Benedict Jr. again got himself into trouble with the law. In August 1682, Benedict Jr. was convicted in Salem court, along with two other youths of stealing 37s in silver which they took from a box from the house of Nathaniel Treadwell to finance their plan to runaway from home. In July of 1682, 19 year old Benedict Jr. along with John Yell and James Dunaway made a secret agreement to abandon their Failes and leave town. They also took a boat from Thomas Clerk and "a sayle and oare from Robert Cross". The youths left the boat at York and went by land to Black Point, where they were apprehended by Andrew Birdsley and brought back to the great island in Pascataquay, and from there returned to Ipswich. Benedict avoided a public whipping by paying a fine and his share.


His restlessness continued, and in September of 1688, he had wandered north to the banks of the Royal river in what is now the town of Yarmouth, Maine, but then called Westcustogo. He became involved in the first bloodshed in the state of Maine in what came to be called, "King Williams War". This involved a number of bloody outbreaks between white man and Indians. The abundance of fish and game and large stands of timber attracted the white man to this region. Yet the Indians resented the encroachment into their homeland and considered it a violation of treaties. Benedict was among those involved in building a stockade against the Indians on the west side of the river. On one fateful morning in Sept 1688, Benedict and a man named Larabee and a few others were sent over from the block house before the rest of the workmen to make preparations for the days work. The Indians were lurking in ambush. With their faces smeared with war paint, the Indians sprung from the bushes to attack. One of the Indians gave Larabee a violent push. Larabee immediately lifted his gun and shot the Indian dead. While he fired, a second Indian seized Larabee and Benedict struck the Indian squarely on his shoulder with the edge of his broard axe and the Indian fell to the ground. The fight now broke into general chaos. The Indians ultimately retreated with two captive men who they put to death by torture back in their camp. The settlers fled the region, and it was not repopulated with white people until 1713.
Benedict continued his travels and in 1690 Benedict Jr. enlisted in Sir William Phip's expedition to Quebec as a member of Captain Abraham Tilton's company. It is quite possible he was killed or taken prisoner in the unsuccessful attempt to take the Canadian stronghold. No further records on benedict Jr. are available. He apparently died unmarried and childless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Children of BENEDICT PULSIFER and UNKNOWN are:

i.

 

BENEDICT (JR.)2 PULSIFER, b. Abt. 1663.

 

 

 

2.

ii.

 

JOHN PULSIFER, b. Abt. 1667, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. August 27, 1737, Gloucester, Essex, Mass..

3.

iii.

 

ELIZABETH PULSIFER., b. December 04, 1669, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. 1754-1755, Hampton Falls, N.H..

 

iv.

 

WILLIAM PULSIFER, b. 1671, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

 

Notes for WILLIAM PULSIFER:
No further information available on William. It is likely he died young.


Children of BENEDICT PULSIFER and SUSANNA WATERS are:

4.

v.

 

RICHARD2 PULSIFER, b. May 31, 1675, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. February 09, 1762, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

 

vi.

 

WILLIAM PULSIFER, b. December 12, 1676, Ipswich, Essex Co., Mass.; m. MARY LOVELL.

 

vii.

 

SUSANNA PULSIFER, b. September 05, 1678, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. Bef. 1689, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

5.

viii.

 

JOSEPH PULSIFER, b. November 13, 1680, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. April 04, 1711, Boston, Mass. (from Judge Samuel Sewell's diary).

 

ix.

 

BENJAMIN PULSIFER, b. May 19, 1683.

6.

x.

 

DAVID PULSIFER, b. September 25, 1685, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. Abt. December 1720, Boston, Mass..

7.

xi.

 

JOHANNA PULSIFER, b. September 25, 1687, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

8.

xii.

 

JONATHAN PULSIFER, b. September 25, 1687, Ipswich, Essex, Mass.; d. August 13, 1763, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

9.

xiii.

 

SUSANNA PULSIFER, b. Abt. 1689, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..

 

xiv.

 

ELIZABETH PULSIFER, b. Abt. 1690.

10.

xv.

 

MARGARET PULSIFER, b. February 14, 1692/93, Ipswich, Essex, Mass..