Our First Ancestor in America

Edward Hawes arrived in Massachusetts in 1635. A number of authoritative works agree on this, among them the Bassett-Preston Ancestry; also the Compendium of American Genealogy (First Families of America), page 254: "Edward Hawes died 1687, from England, settled at Dedham, Mass., 1635, married Eliony Lumber 1648." There are other works and all agree 1635 is the year. One gives the day and date as June 3, 1635.

I believe that Edward came to Massachusetts in 1635, but I also believe he came to North America twenty years earlier. I base this belief on a legend, the particulars of which I will give you further on in these pages.(1)

Those who make a career of early dates will not greet this claim with excessive enthusiasm.

Edward Hawes was an Englishman, not a Cockney, not from London. He was born in some smaller town to the north of London.(2)

He was a stone mason by trade, and a husbandman as well. He was a Puritan. He was of a family who for long years had kept a tavern in the place where he was born.

Let me explain. In England then and now a tavern or inn was a hotel with bar attached, and often a stage station. As a rule, they were respectable places, and often the only place for travelers to go. If this seems an odd occupation for a Puritan family, let me further explain, all members of the family were not so engaged, and not all sections of the Puritans were straight-laced, nor did they all burn witches. For a considerable part, they were accustomed to reasonable use of ale, beer, light wine and even tobacco.

You may verify this by reading of Oliver Cromwell in history. Even as strict and devout a leader as he saw no harm in such habits, if reasonable, and had the same habits himself, and did not conceal them. From my study and from family tales, I know all of our ancients were very strict in their religious habits, but not habits of a personal nature.

I am speaking now of our first few generations in America. Later on I am sure none of our ancestors would have found keeping a tavern with bar attached either a suitable or congenial occupation. I well remember my father laughing about our old-timers in England keeping a tavern. To him it seemed a ridiculous occupation.

Edward Hawes was a freeman. His contracts in early days show that, as do family tales. Except as an item of history this makes no particular difference. America was settled by persons of quality, emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, serving men and women sold for a term of years, apprentices, children stolen, men shanghaied, maidens pressed, and others. Before the law in this country, except at the first, one person has been as good as another (and then some) for many years.

But Edward was a freeman, so I say so. He was likely of the small landed gentry, for my father's recollection from family tales was that in England our forefathers owned and jealously defended small properties, and some had titles such as "Sir," and sometimes other titles, of what consequence I do not know. I get this information from family traditions, which I shall use here and there in this story.

I shall also use legends, and sometimes even rumors and my own opinion and imagination. But in each such case I will make it apparent to you, so you will have no trouble in keeping the actual facts I give you entirely separate from other sources of information.

Most genealogists, and some other records, give the date of Edward's death as June 28, 1686. This is an error, for his will was written June 4, 1687, nearly a year later. His death was June 28, 1687.

In the official town records of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, is this simple entry:

      "Edward Haws   )
                     ) Married February 15, 1648"
      "Eliony Lumber )

In other genealogies I have seen this entry is quoted as April 15, 1648, and December 15, 1648. The date I have given I have under the official signature of the Town Clerk; besides, I have seen it myself. Not much difference, but as it happens to be our family foundation in America, it should be quoted correctly.

This brief official statement records the beginning of an American family which now has more descendants that the three other Hawes lines combined. My authority for this astonishing statement is a genealogist well reputed, and at the same time a member of one of the other Hawes families.(3)

I believe he knows more about all the Hawes lines than anyone else. He seems to think we have spread all over like Yiddish trousers in the first rain.

Take time out and relax. My next words will knock out the strongest of you. In the Vital Records of Wrentham, Massachusetts, from 1635 to 1850, these are the Hawes figures, not by estimate, or guess, but by actual count:

   83 marriages     208 births     71 deaths

Let's all sing together:

"47 Haweses in the shady lane,
The moon shines down above,
The girls are shy and can't resist,
The sweet old tales of love."

Yo ho and the questions do pop ....

This is the town (Wrentham) where most of Edward's descendants settled. With such an auspicious start, it is peculiar we have been unable to keep ahead of the Joneses, Browns and Smiths.

Wrentham is just a small town. You could throw a rock and it would bounce off and hit another Hawes. Our distant kinsman George Hawes tells me that of all this multitude just he and one brother remain. Verily, the Haweses move on.

Right here I want to call the reader's attention to something. Only an optimist can expect official records to be exact in all cases; but they will be approximately correct. There was no law requiring things to be recorded at once. I have found many instances where the record of a number of children, marriages, etc., were all filed at once.

If you have lived in a wilderness, you will understand the reason. You ride, or perhaps trudge, many miles to an official's home. He is absent on business of his own. You wait until some other time. Eventually the work gets done. You may be a trifle surprised to find your son or daughter is born, or married, or died a little earlier or later than you supposed. But what of it? It's the wilderness... and a great life.

Of this union between Edward and Eliony there were nine children born in Dedham, Massachusetts, as follows:
Liddia
Mary
Daniel
Hannah
John
Nathaniel
Abigail
Joseph
Deborah

In the vital records of Dedham all the dates of birth are given. Mary must have died in infancy[,] for she is not mentioned in Edward's will. I neglected to look up the date of her death. In Edward's will, in the quaint language of early days, are bequests of land and personal property to his wife, Eliony, and all the children mentioned above, except Mary. In the will the married names of the four daughters are given thus: Lydia Gay, Hannah Mason, Abigail Vales, Deborah Pond. This will was probated at Boston, Massachusetts, Case No. 1700.

The inventory of his estate totals £98 8s, or say $500.00, which was a comfortable sum in those days. The estate was mentioned as that of Edward Hawse. His son, Joseph Hawes, was the executor. Spelling of their name made no difference to those chaps. Forty-nine other words disagreed with Noah Webster, who wasn't even born until over one hundred years later.

Edward and his wife lived in Dedham, and for brief intervals in Wrentham, which at that time was part of the Dedham district. Their house was of hewn logs, not large but strongly built. They had land to farm, pasture their animals, and support their family. Dedham was a small settlement, but they did have some neighbors, and they were mostly white.

Eliony was said to have been a very handsome woman.

There is a rumor that Edward could shoot arrows as accurately and as rapidly as most of the Indians in the vicinity. If so, I know where he acquired his skill.(5)

In many genealogies Eliony, widow of Edward, is said to have died two years after him. She did not. The town records of Wrentham, Massachusetts, say as follows: "Eliony Hawes of Dedham married to James Heaton of Wrentham, July 21, 1713." Foxy grandma! She had married Edward sixty-five years earlier and most folks thought she was dead.(6)

A tremendous number of good Americans have arrived since then. I am more interested in the kind of citizens we have been since we got here, than what the stopwatch said when we leaped ashore.

There is no boast of heraldry for a man like Ed,
Nor no fanfare on the path he tread.
Hard work, danger, patience, was his only lot,
And on the page of history his story is forgot.

But to the thoughtful reader, it surely seems to me,
The purpose of such lives as his must apparent be.
They lifted up the curtain from a hemisphere,
And showed to a saddened world, a better life was near.

They lifted up the curtain, and set the living stage
For the greatest drama ever played in this or any age.
The Building of America, where all the plot and strife
Has just one purpose.... a better, kinder life.

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