Stephen PECKHAM

Notes:

Name:
This last marriage was solemnized in the Meeting House of the Society of Friends, to which both parties belonged. He was a farmer and lived in that part of Dartmouth, Mass., now called New Bedford. His will mentions his children, Elizabeth, Eunice and Richard as minors at that date, 1757, March 19. His estate was divided among James, Stephen and Richard.

Family/Spouse: Content ?. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. James PECKHAM was born on 4 Oct 1716; died on 14 Apr 1783.

Stephen married Keturah ARTHUR on 8 Jan 1739. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Stephen Peckham lived in Dartmouth, Mass., to which place he removed from Rode Island, his birthplace. He died 1724, April 23. he married, probably before leaving Newport, Mary ? While there is not proof concerning the identity of this Mary, some of the descendants of Stephen have concluded, from a number of suppositions based upon family tradition, that she was a daughter of Captain Seth Pope of Plymouth colony. However this may be, the families of Peckham who were descended from this Stephen and Mary, the Hathaways and Popes, intermarried through several generations, as will be seen from the records, and they occupied a portion of what is now the town of Westport until they were no numerous that the locality was known as the Peckham and Hathaway neighborhood.

Stephen Peckham was one of the original Proprietors of East Greenwich, R.I., in 1677. In January, 1679, he also had a grant of land in the Narragansett, though he probably never went there. 1679, Dec. 9, he bought from Captain Seth Pope a one quarter share right in Dartmouth, mass. The original Proprietors of this territory lived in Plymouth, Mass. It comprised New Bedford, Fairhaven, Westport, and the present town of Dartmouth. Previous to the Revolution the district on the west side of the Acushnet River, between Clarke's Point and the "Head of the River," was occupied by a few substantial farmers in the following order: from the Point, north, Benjamin Allen; Joseph Russell, Senior; Joseph Russell, Junior; Manassah Kempton; Samuel Willis; Stephen Peckham. The farm of Stephen Peckham extended from the south side of what is now Linden Street, northward to within the limits of what is now New Bedford. His name is among those of a list of Proprietors to whom a confirmatory deed was given by Governor William Bradford, 1694, Nov. 12. The inventory of the property of Stephen Peckham, taken in 1724, amount to L1,807.5s.

Stephen married Mary ?. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]