| Notes |
- Information on the family of Capt. Moses Bradstreet and his wife, Elizabeth Harris was taken from the Essex Antiquarian, Vol 11, Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis, Vol. 2, and Vital Records of Rowley, MA to the end of 1849. From Massachusetts and Maine Families, we learn that Elizabeth (Harris) Bradstreet died about 1682. However, the Essex Antiquarian states the couple had a son, Johnathan, about 1690, the same year that Moses died.
We do know that Moses was remarried to his second wife, widow Sarah (Platts) Prime by the time their son Samuel was born 4 May 1687(Vital Records of Rowley, MA). (Sarah's first husband, Samuel Prime, died 18 Mar, 1684, so her marriage to Moses would have been sometime in 1684 to 1686.) Thus, Jonathan was actually the son of Moses and Sarah.
In the History of Rowley, Anciently including Bradford, Boxford, and Georgetown from the Year 1639 to the Present Time (1840), Thomas Gage gives provides a glimpse of Capt. Moses Bradstreet's military career. On page 221 he quotes a letter dated June 28, 1689, in which the company requested of the Governor Moses' appointment to Captain:
"The foot company being called together by
order, the militia in the said town being desired to bring
in their votes for a nomination of a meet person for a
Captain, to supply the place of Captain Johnson, de-
ceased, the said Company have unanimously chosen Cor-
poral Moses Bradstreet, to be their Captain, if the Hon-
ored Counsell please to establish him in said office, a
man whom we judge in good measure qualified and fitted
for such place; and the said company being so fully sat-
isfied with the said nomination, wee think wee need not
say further in way of commendation…"
The following month, Gage notes Moses' role in the Indian hostilities of 1689:
"July 22. Captain Moses Bradstreet, and Lieutenant
John Trumble, petitioned the Governor and Council for
leave to withdraw some of the Rowley men from the
guard at Haverhill, one in a week, or two in a fortnight,
supplying their places with other men. This they ask
for on account of the busy season of the year.
They also petitioned to have the Rowley men, who
went out with Major Appleton (of Ipswich), and who
are now stationed in the several garrisons at Cocheco,
(Dover,) and other places in that vicinity, sent home.
They represent Rowley as being more hardly dealt with
than Newbury or Ipswich, as their men have all been
permitted to return home before haying."
Moses died the following summer on 17 August, 1690. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground, his gravestone the oldest in the cemetery. It reads:
HEAR LYS WHAT WAS
MORTAL OF Ye WORTHY
CAP MOSES BRADSTREET
DESEASED AUGUST Ye
17th 1690 & IN Ye 47th
YEAR OF HIS AGE
FRIENDS & RELATIONS
YOU MIGHT BEHOLD A LAMB OF GOD
FLtt FOR Ye FOLD
An extract of Moses' will is found in the Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. 5, and reads:
"Will of Moses Bradstreet, dated 16th of August 1690, mentions his wife's children by her former husband; son, John Bradstreet, to him one half of the farm 'yt was my Father Broadstreets,' sons, Humphrey, Nathaniel, Moses and Jonathan. Daughters, Bridget and Hannah. Appoints John and Moses exrs. Witnesses, Edward Payson, Nicholas Wallis and Nehemiah Jewett, probate Sept. 30, 1690. Inventory of above estate, taken 26th of Sept., 1690, by Samuel Platts and Nehemiah Jewett, amounting to £1257 2s., debts against the estate £31 12 s. 5d. Returned Sept. 30, 1690."
It would appear that daughter Elizabeth and son Aaron had also predeceased him by the time of his death in 1690. One wonders why the last Samuel, born in 1687, was also missing from the will.
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The Stanwood Family
Abt 1644 - 1690 (46 years)
