BENEDICT PULSIFER Named by Mather, ii. Magnalia, 509
[Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England, 237]

Benedict was born in England about 1635.  We know he was in America by 1659 though the record of his arrival has been lost and he could possibly have arrived a few years earlier.  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, a 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., the 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 1600s 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 on 16 Jul 1673.  It was a common English practice to name the first born daughter after the wife.  If this was the case here, then it is likely his first wife's name was Elizabeth.  This, however, is in no way certain.

Benedict’s second marriage was 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 1690s 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 1 Aug 1709 Benedict conveyed his property to his son Capt. Joseph Pulcifer of Boston.  Benedict died the following year