John Stockbridge

John Stockbridge was born about 1608 in England.^1,2 He was the son of John Stockbridge and Elizabeth ____.²

John Stockbridge married first Anne Kendall, daughter of John Kendall and Susan ____, on 16 January 1631/32 in Rayleigh, Essex, England.²

John Stockbridge, his wife Anne, and their son Charles left the Port of London 17 June 1635 on the Blessing, John Lecester, master, and arrived in New England on 13 July.^1,3,4,5,6 He was in Scituate, Colony of New Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1636.¹ He was a wheelwright.^7,8,5

Roger Joslyn, in an article appearing in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1979, wrote John Stockbridge probably did not come to New England for religious freedom, but more likely for better economic conditions. There is no indication of his membership in the church, only the name of his wife Ann appearing in the records [in 1637]. . . . John Stockbridge spent many of his early years at Scituate letting be known his dissatisfaction with the system of government which had been adopted. On 5 June 1638 he was first presented and fined in the Plymouth Colony Court "for disgraceful speeches, tending to the contempt of the government, and for jeering speeches to them that did reprove him for it." The following 4 September he was fined ten shillings "for contemptuous words against the government."⁹

On 1 February 1638/39 he took the "oath of allegiance to the King, and fidelity to the colony."⁹ John was appointed constable on 7 March 1642/3; surveyor of highways on 4 June 1645, 2 June 1646, and 8 June 1655; and was sworn as a garnd juryman on 4 June 1645 and 7 June 1648.¹⁰ He began to be involved in various land dealings in the Scituate area.¹⁰

John Stockbridge married secondly Elizabeth Hatch on 9 October 1643 at Scituate, Colony of New Plymouth, Massachusetts.^11,12 He married third Mary ____ about 1654.¹¹

In 1640 Isaac Stedman dammed the First Herring Brook in Scituate, Massachusetts, and built a gristmill, the first in the Plymouth Colony He sold the property to George Russell in 1650, and in 1656 John Stockbridge purchased one-half of Russell's mill privilege.^10,8 Russell and Stockbridge together built a sawmill next to the gristmill.¹⁰ (According to other sources, Stedman built the sawmill and Russell and Stockbridge later built the gristmill.)^13,14,8 The gristmill is still in existence and has the original nether mill stone, gate wheel, and cast iron gears.¹⁴ The mill and pond are supposed to have been made famous by the poem "The Old Oaken Bucket" written by Samuel Woodworth in 1817. Near the gristmill, in about 1656, John Stockbridge built the "Stockbridge Mansion," a garrison house in King Philip's War (1675-1676)¹⁵ against the Indians for the protection of the mills.^8,13 In his book of 1851, Samuel Deane wrote that part of the house was still standing and was probably the second-oldest house surviving in New England.⁸ When the building was torn down in the middle of the nineteenth century, bullets fired at the inmates by the Indians were found in some of the timbers.¹³

John Stockbridge and Mary ____ resided in October 1656 in Boston, Massachusetts.¹⁶

John Stockbridge died on 13 October 1657 in Boston, Massachusetts.^13,16,5 He left a will dated on 4 September 1657, reading in part: I John Stockbrig of Boston In the massytusts Bay doe make this my last will and Testiment first I give to my Eldes sonne Charles Stockbrig my water mill at Sityate and six akers of medow and the hous and ground and Orched belonging to it.¹⁶