[Unknown] WHITE (c. 1635 – ) was Alex’s 10th Great Grandfather, one of  2,048 in this generation in the Shaw line.

Lighthouse at Cape Elizabeth, formerly Cape Purpooduck, Maine

Children of Nathaniel White:

What we know of Nathaniel White’s brother Josiah comes from the story of his son Rev. John White of Glouscester, Mass.

Children

1. Josiah White

There appears to be no occasion to doubt (though it has been questioned) that the Rev. John White, of Gloucester, was son to Josiah White, one of the grantees of Falmouth in its first settlement. Josiah and his brother Nathaniel went there early, had grants at Maiden Cove, and remained until they were obliged to flee from the Indians. Nathaniel was killed later by the Indians. Josiah White, before 1703, had returned to Purpooduck with Michael Webber, Joseph Morgan, Thomas Loveitt, Joel Madford, and Benjamin, Joseph, James, and Josiah Wallis, sons to John Wallis. They built houses, brought their families there, and “engaged heartily in establishing of the Settlement;” but they were again driven away by the savages. Josiah White had two sons, John and Samuel, his daughter Miriam was married to Richard Suntay or Sontag.* The Rev. John White, in the desire that his sons should profit by the land that had cost his father so dear, purchased, as he says, of the other heirs their interests at Maiden Cove.

On February 16, 1724-25, he bought of “Hannah White, Relict of Samuel White in the Town of Boston,” for £10, one half of the grant of fifty acres formerly “laid out to and possessed by Josiah White of Falmouth … in Casco Bay . . . Situate on Papooduck;” it is evident that the other half already belonged to Rev. John White, as an heir.

On April 18, 1727, “ye Reverd John White of ye Town of Gloucester in ye County of Essex Pastour,” bought of Nathaniel Danford, of Newbury, for £25, fifty acres “joining to little Brook near Maiden Cove … in Falmouth . . . Casco Bay.” This was the land formerly granted to Nathaniel White, as deposed by one John Lane, in August, 1727. The said John Lane, aged seventy-three years, testified that about forty-two years ago, ” while I lived there the Town of Falmouth did grant unto Josiah White & Nathanael White one hundred Acres of Land lying between Little Brook so called & a Brook called Maiden Cove Brook,” which they divided equally and lived, ” each on his Part,” several years. “Josiah died possessed of his Part of said Land, and Nathanael White possessed his . . . until he was driven away from the same by the Indian War & he was afterward slain by the Indians.” (York County Deeds Book 12 Part 1 Pgs 170, 177) Besides these hundred acres, Rev. John White bought, for £40, on January 26, 1724-25, of James Wallis, of Gloucester, his tract of land ” in papooduck, which he drew by lot near his brother Benjamin.”

Other Theories

Some genealogies say Rev. John White’s parents were Joseph White (d. 10 Sep 1725 in Brookline, Mass.) and Hannah [__?__]. and his grandparents were John White  (d. 15 Apr 1691 in Brookline, MA.) and Frances Jackson.

On 10 Apr 1640 John married Frances Jackson in Brookline, MA. Born on 7 Nov 1619 in Hamseterley, Durham, England. Frances died in Brookline, MA, on 26 Feb 1695/6; she was 76.

From Lothrop’s article “John White of Watertown and Brookline, and some of his descendants”:

“John White was living in Watertown whe the first inventory of estates was taken. This appeaars to have been as early as 1639. He then owned ‘An Homestall of seven acres more or less bounded the south and east with the highway, the north with the swamp and the west with William Paine, bought from Ephraim Child.’

“He remained in Watertown until 1650, when he moved to Muddy River (now Brookline), and bought from Thomas Oliver of Boston ‘50 acres upland 18 acres of marsh and six acres of fresh marsh in Muddy River … for & in consideration of … the full & just summe of one hundred & thirty pounds sterl. to be paid in good & merchantable corne & fatt cattle at prices current or as they shall be prized by two men indifferently chosen.’
“The deed conveying the property is dated ‘thirteenth day of the twelfth month one thousand six hundreth & ffifte.’

“He afterwards bought other tracts of land in Brookline, and became a large proprietor. His will, dated April 13, 1691, names wife Frances and three sons.”

‘

It is claimed by many, though no attempt is made here to prove it, that the Rev. John White, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, was a descendant of Rev. John White, of Dorchester, England, whose autograph appears in this volume on a bill of Isaac Allerton’s, in 1640.* This branch of the White family certainly was superior, and had more money than was common in that day.

Children of Josiah and xx:

i. Rev. John White b. 2 Jul 1674 in Gloucester, Mass; d. John died in Gloucester, MA, on 16 Jan 1760 in Gloucester; m1. 9 Jun 1703 when John was 28, Lucy Wise (ca 1681 -5 Mar 1727), daughter of John Wise & Abigail Gardner; m2. Abigail Mather

Education: Harvard 1698.

John settled as minister at Gloucester 21 Oct 1702.

Probably no divine of his day was more sincerely revered for his learning and piety than Rev. John White. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1698, and was ordained April 21, 1703.* The following notice of his death is in the Gloucester records : —

“The Revd . Mr. John White who had been settled a minister in this town from the 21 day of October 1702 as appears by Votes of the Town on Record deceased in his chair about eleven of the clock in the forenoon on the 16 day of January 1760 being the 59 year after his beginning his ministry here and the eighty third year of his age.”

Rev. John White assisted substantially the new settlement at Cape Elizabeth ; he also organized the town of New Gloucester, Maine, and was moderator at the first meeting of the Proprietors of the new town, held in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In March, 1736-37, when the first division of lots at New Gloucester was made, ” The Rev. John White ” had “lot N° 20” set off to him ; “lot N° 21 ” was given to him for his son Thomas, who removed there.

New Gloucester was established under a grant from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1736, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony granted a 6-square-mile tract of land in the Maine Territory to sixty inhabitants of the Gloucester fishing village on Cape Ann. The first settlers followed the road newly bushed out from North Yarmouth and built cabins on Harris Hill between 1739 and 1742. The settlement was abandoned from 1744-1751 due to the heightened Indian attacks during King George’s War.

Settlers returned and in 1753 commenced work on a two-story, fifty-foot square blockhouse with a palisade stockade 110 feet on a side. This was home to twelve families for six years. The men worked at clearing the surrounding 60 acres of common land under the protection of two swivel guns manned by a garrison of six soldiers. One attack was made upon the fort, resulting in one scalping and two men captured. As the Indians gradually withdrew to Canada, the settlers moved out into their own newly built homes. The blockhouse continued to serve for worship and town affairs until the first meetinghouse was built in 1773. In 1788, the blockhouse was sold at auction for seven bushels of corn and moved to a farm in the intervale, where it was rebuilt as a hog house.

New Gloucester became a half shire town with Portland, and the courts met here from 1791 until the organization of Oxford County in 1805, when they returned to Portland. With good soil for agriculture, the town developed as a prosperous farming community. In 1858, when the population was 1,848, other industries included six sawmills, two gristmills and two tanneries.

Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village was founded in 1783 by the United Society of True Believers at what was then called Thompson’s Pond Plantation. It was formally organized on April 19, 1794. Today, the village is the last of formerly nineteen religious societies, stretching from Maine to Florida, to be operated by the Shakers themselves. It comprises 18 buildings on 1,800 acres of land.

John’s sons John and William White went to Falmouth, where, on April 22, 1728, they were admitted inhabitants upon payment of £10, each; two years later, they were mentioned among those who had fulfilled the conditions of settlement That they were sons to the Rev. John White, of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is proved by the following deed, dated March 14, 1736-37: —

John White and his wife Abigail, of Gloucester, in the County of Essex, ” for love & parental affection,” conveyed ” to my Sons John & William White of Falmouth . . . Tanner & Carpenter . . . fifty acres in Falmouth . . . adjoining to Maiden Cove it being the Fifty acres bought of the Heirs of Josiah White formerly of Falmouth and which were granted to him by said Town under Governor Danforths Settlement as by the Town Grant may farther appear or by living evidences of said Grant viz of an Hundred Acres between Maiden Cove Brook & Little Brook so called which Fifty acres William White has given to him Twenty acres Adjoining to the Fifty formerly given to him & to John White Thirty acres adjoining to said Williams Land & between that & Maiden Cove Brook.”

Witnesses : (Signed)
” Samuel Stevens Junr ” John White [seal]
Abigail White Junr ” Abigail White “* [seal]

Besides the lands at Maiden Cove and other locations given by their father to John and William White, they received several grants of land from the Proprietors of Falmouth. They also bought and sold land on the south side of Fore River. John built a house of white oak logs, “squared,” which is still standing close by Fort Preble; it is the ell of a more modern house. William lived at Deep Brook, towards the present Casino, on the Purpooduck side of Mountain View Park, near the dividing line (1906) between South Portland and Cape Elizabeth.

Children of John and Lucy (Wise) White:
1. John White, b. 15 Jun 1704; d. 1738; He was a tanner, and lived at Cape Elizabeth on the present site of Fort Preble.
2. Lucy White, b. 27 Mar 1706;
3. Joseph White, b. 21 Feb 1707/8, d. 4 Nov 1708;
4. William White, b. 4 Nov 1709;
5. Thomas White, b. 27 Jan 1712;
6. Joseph White, b. 2 Feb 1716, d. 17 Feb 1718;
7. Benjamin White, b. 8 Jan 1718, grad. Harvard 1738;
8. Abigail White, b. 17 Apr 1720;
9. Hannah White, b. 16 Oct 1721, d. æ. 93;
10. Mary White, b. 20 Mar 1723;
11. Samuel White, b. 20 May 1725, d. 1758, grad. Harvard 1741

ii. Samuel White

iii. Miriam White m. Richard Suntay or Sontag (Smith and Dean’s journal, 1849 : p. 47)

2. Nathaniel WHITE (See his page)

Sources:

Descendants of Edward Small of New England, and the Allied …, Volume 2  By Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill

http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/gen/report/rr04/rr04_319.html#P51725