Benjamin WHITNEY

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In 1685 Benjamin and Jane Whitney, of York, sell to Jonathan Saywood for L10 and 14s, 'a certain tract and par cel of land which I have improved, possessed and have builded a small tenant upon planted and lived upon these several years,; which was granted by the town of York in 1680, and ten other acres granted by the town of York in 1674. It is probable that his wife died about this time and soon after, leaving his young children with relatives of his wife, he returned to Watertown and soon located in Sherborn, near the Natick town line. He married his second wife in marlboro in 1695 and lived on land belonging to Harvard College, which he leased of Gov. Danford. In 1718 he received a legacy of 10s. per annum from his nephew, Benjamin, son o his brother Jonathan. he d. in 1723; res. York and Cocheco, Me., and Sherborn, Mass.

Family/Spouse: Jane ?. Jane died on 14 Nov 1690. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Benjamin married Mary POOR on 11 Apr 1695. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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"Whitney Genealogy": The Whitney family is very numerous in America; not only in New England are they abundant, but in nearly every state and territory in the United States. A very large share of those who bear the name are descendants of John and Elinor Whitney of Watertown, in the Massachusetts colony. No relationship is traced between this family and that of Henry Whitney of Norwalk, Conn., who located there in 1685, and the genealogy of whose descendants, both male and female lines, has been published by S. Whitney Phoenix, being the most exhaustive and expensive work of this kind ever published in America. (The Whitney Family of Connecticut and its Affiliations, Being an attempt to trace the Descendants, as well in the Female as the Male lines, of Henry Whitney, from 1649 to 1878)

John Whitney was born in England in 1589, and dwelt in the Parish of Isleworth-on-the-Thames, opposite Richmond, nine miles from London, from may, 1619, to January, 1623-4. The record "of persons permitted to embark at the port of London after Christmas, 1634," manuscript folio page 35 in Rolls office, Chancery Lane, gives the following names and ages: John Whitney 35, Elinor Whitney 30, John 11, Richard 9, Nathaniel 8, thomas 6, Jonathan 1.....

They settled in Watertown, in the Massachusetts colony, in June, 1635, where his son Joshua was born the 15th of July following, he being the first of this line born in America. JohnWhitney was admitted freeman 3d of March, 1636, and the following year was for the first time elected by his associates as one of the Select Men of the town. he held the office for many years afterward, until 1655, at which time he was elected town clerk. June 1, 1641, he was appointed constable at Watertown by General Court at their quarter session held in Boston.

At that time, constables were appointed by the General Court, and besides the duties attached to the office in latter ties, they were required to collect the taxes of the town and the levies by the General Court; to pay the debts of the colony due to individuals in their respective towns; to supply the town with sealed weights and measures; to set or order in those towns where no captain dwelt, and to inflict the punishments ordered by judicial authority, "where there was not another appointed to do it within his own town, unless he can get another to do it." As a badge of his office a constable was required to carry a black staff five or five and a half feet long, with a tip or head five or six inches long.

His very early admission as a freeman and his election as a Select Man show that he held a respectable social position in the community...

John married Elinor UNKNOWN. Elinor was born in 1599; died on 11 May 1659 in Watertown, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]