Individual Details
Thomas PAINE
(18 Jan 1613 - 16 Aug 1706)
Payne's of Hamilton
Published 1912
Thomas Paine was born in England and first appears in Plymouth Colony records in 1653 as the Constable of Eastham. We don't know when he arrived in the colony, but was said to have come to New England at the age of 10, and to have lost the sight of an eye to an arrow. By 1654, he was married to Mary Snow, daughter of Constance Hopkins and Nicholas Snow.
Thomas held a number of important positions during the colony's early years. Town records show him to have been a educated man and an "unusually good penman." He was skilled in the art of mill building, and under his supervision a number were erected in various parts of Barnstable County.
In 1662, he and Giles Hopkins were appointed as surveyors of highways. That same year he was among a group of Eastham's leading men who surveyed the great meadow between Namskaket and Silver Spring. In 1664, he was made a deputy of the Colony Court and was one of a committee of twelve called to investigate the causes that led to the deaths of Robert Chappell, James Nichols, and James Pidell who had been put ashore at Cape Cod as one of Captain John Allen's Company. The same year he was granted leave by the Colony Court to select a tract of land for his own use.
In June of 1669, he and Experience Mitchell, Henry Sampson, and Thomas Little were given leave to buy land from the Indians at Namskaket. With ten pounds of sterling, the group purchased from Tuscaquin the tract of land which is now Middleborough, Massachusetts.
In 1670, he and Jonathan Sparrow became Ordinary Inspectors which meant insuring that excessive drinking was not occurring in Eastham's inns. That same year, he paid Governor Thomas Prence of Plymouth twenty pounds for land in what is now Truro. The tract was described as the "half share" lying between "Bound Brook" and "Eastern Harbor" or "Lovell's Creek." Twenty years later he sold this tract of land to his son Thomas for the same sum.
Thomas was elected a Selectman of Eastham in 1671 and served several terms thereafter. He was also Treasurer of Eastham for twenty years, from 1674 to 1694.
In June of 1673, he paid Jabez Howland fifteen pounds for his rights to lands purchased and unpurchased in the same vicinity as that he'd bought from Governor Prence. He also sold this tract of land to his son Thomas on March 30, 1690.
In 1676, Thomas was one of a committee appointed to collect a debt due to the Town of Eastham from the Town of Sandwich, and the same year, one of the committee chosen to undertake and superintend the building of the new church at Eastham. In 1677, in partnership with Constant Southworth and two other persons, he hired the fishing privileges at the head of Cape Cod for a period of seven years, for the yearly sum of thirty pounds.
In 1694, Thomas bought a home at the South End of Boston from Thomas Stableford of Philadelphia. He paid 130 pounds for the estate, but the family only lived there for three years. In 1697, he sold the house and land to Eleazer Darby, and they returned to Eastham where Thomas lived out the rest of his life.
There is little record of Mary Snow Paine, but she was said to have been a "faithful wife, a careful mother, a good and quiet neighbor, and a diligent reader of God's Holy Word." Her son, John Paine, recorded her passing in his diary, "On the 28th day of April, 1704, my honoured mother, Mary Paine, departed this life, being suddenly taken and struck with death, she having been in reasonable health all day, was taken ill about sunset so she never after spoke reasonable but decaying gradually gave up the Ghost about the dawning of the day.
Will of Thomas Paine
In the name of God, Amen. The twelfth day of May,1705, I, Thomas Paine of Eastham, in ye County of Barnstable, in ye Province of Massachusetts Bay, being aged and weak in body, but of sufficient mind and memory thanks be given God--therefore calling to mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to say, principally and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into ye hands of God that gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in decent Christian burial at ye disposition of my Executors, nothing doubting but at ye general resurrection I shall receive ye same again by the mighty power of God. And as touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, demise and dispose of the same in ye following manner and form. Imp. I give and bequeath my son Nicholas Paine, his heirs & assigns forever all my lands, mills, house and housing at Keaskokagansett in the town of Eastham, with all my right title to all town's privileges, and my two shares in ye land purchased of Mr. Samuel Smith, called the ten pound purchase; also all my meadow lying on or by Sampson's Island, and between Sampson's Island and Hog Island in Eastham as also my upland at both ends of Sampson's Island and my share of meadow which lies to the southward of Porchy Island, which was granted me by ye town in ye year of our Lord, 1703. Imp. I give to my daughter, Mary, the wife of Israel Cole, ten shillings in money all the rest and residue of my estate, both real and personal, goods & chattels what so ever, I give and bequeath to be equally divided to and among my children, viz: Samuel Paine, Thomas Paine, Elisha Paine, John Paine, Nicholas Paine, James Paine, Joseph Paine, Dorcas Vickery, the wife of Benj., and three eldest children of Mary, my daughter, the wife of Israel Cole, viz: James Rogers, Mary Cole and Abigail Yates (that is to say) the sd. children of my sd. daughter shall have (with the ten shillings which she is to have) one share or equal portion with ye rest of my children, which shall be equally divided among them. And I do also hereby constitute, make and ordain my two sons Samuel Paine & Thomas Paine, to be ye Executors of this my last Will and Testament, & I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke and disannul all and every other former Testament & Will, land bequest & executors, by me in any way before named willed & bequeathed.
Ratifying & confirming this, and no other, to be my last Will & Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, ye day and year above written.
THOMAS PAINE (L. S.)
Published 1912
Thomas Paine was born in England and first appears in Plymouth Colony records in 1653 as the Constable of Eastham. We don't know when he arrived in the colony, but was said to have come to New England at the age of 10, and to have lost the sight of an eye to an arrow. By 1654, he was married to Mary Snow, daughter of Constance Hopkins and Nicholas Snow.
Thomas held a number of important positions during the colony's early years. Town records show him to have been a educated man and an "unusually good penman." He was skilled in the art of mill building, and under his supervision a number were erected in various parts of Barnstable County.
In 1662, he and Giles Hopkins were appointed as surveyors of highways. That same year he was among a group of Eastham's leading men who surveyed the great meadow between Namskaket and Silver Spring. In 1664, he was made a deputy of the Colony Court and was one of a committee of twelve called to investigate the causes that led to the deaths of Robert Chappell, James Nichols, and James Pidell who had been put ashore at Cape Cod as one of Captain John Allen's Company. The same year he was granted leave by the Colony Court to select a tract of land for his own use.
In June of 1669, he and Experience Mitchell, Henry Sampson, and Thomas Little were given leave to buy land from the Indians at Namskaket. With ten pounds of sterling, the group purchased from Tuscaquin the tract of land which is now Middleborough, Massachusetts.
In 1670, he and Jonathan Sparrow became Ordinary Inspectors which meant insuring that excessive drinking was not occurring in Eastham's inns. That same year, he paid Governor Thomas Prence of Plymouth twenty pounds for land in what is now Truro. The tract was described as the "half share" lying between "Bound Brook" and "Eastern Harbor" or "Lovell's Creek." Twenty years later he sold this tract of land to his son Thomas for the same sum.
Thomas was elected a Selectman of Eastham in 1671 and served several terms thereafter. He was also Treasurer of Eastham for twenty years, from 1674 to 1694.
In June of 1673, he paid Jabez Howland fifteen pounds for his rights to lands purchased and unpurchased in the same vicinity as that he'd bought from Governor Prence. He also sold this tract of land to his son Thomas on March 30, 1690.
In 1676, Thomas was one of a committee appointed to collect a debt due to the Town of Eastham from the Town of Sandwich, and the same year, one of the committee chosen to undertake and superintend the building of the new church at Eastham. In 1677, in partnership with Constant Southworth and two other persons, he hired the fishing privileges at the head of Cape Cod for a period of seven years, for the yearly sum of thirty pounds.
In 1694, Thomas bought a home at the South End of Boston from Thomas Stableford of Philadelphia. He paid 130 pounds for the estate, but the family only lived there for three years. In 1697, he sold the house and land to Eleazer Darby, and they returned to Eastham where Thomas lived out the rest of his life.
There is little record of Mary Snow Paine, but she was said to have been a "faithful wife, a careful mother, a good and quiet neighbor, and a diligent reader of God's Holy Word." Her son, John Paine, recorded her passing in his diary, "On the 28th day of April, 1704, my honoured mother, Mary Paine, departed this life, being suddenly taken and struck with death, she having been in reasonable health all day, was taken ill about sunset so she never after spoke reasonable but decaying gradually gave up the Ghost about the dawning of the day.
Will of Thomas Paine
In the name of God, Amen. The twelfth day of May,1705, I, Thomas Paine of Eastham, in ye County of Barnstable, in ye Province of Massachusetts Bay, being aged and weak in body, but of sufficient mind and memory thanks be given God--therefore calling to mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to say, principally and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into ye hands of God that gave it, and my body I recommend to the earth to be buried in decent Christian burial at ye disposition of my Executors, nothing doubting but at ye general resurrection I shall receive ye same again by the mighty power of God. And as touching such worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, demise and dispose of the same in ye following manner and form. Imp. I give and bequeath my son Nicholas Paine, his heirs & assigns forever all my lands, mills, house and housing at Keaskokagansett in the town of Eastham, with all my right title to all town's privileges, and my two shares in ye land purchased of Mr. Samuel Smith, called the ten pound purchase; also all my meadow lying on or by Sampson's Island, and between Sampson's Island and Hog Island in Eastham as also my upland at both ends of Sampson's Island and my share of meadow which lies to the southward of Porchy Island, which was granted me by ye town in ye year of our Lord, 1703. Imp. I give to my daughter, Mary, the wife of Israel Cole, ten shillings in money all the rest and residue of my estate, both real and personal, goods & chattels what so ever, I give and bequeath to be equally divided to and among my children, viz: Samuel Paine, Thomas Paine, Elisha Paine, John Paine, Nicholas Paine, James Paine, Joseph Paine, Dorcas Vickery, the wife of Benj., and three eldest children of Mary, my daughter, the wife of Israel Cole, viz: James Rogers, Mary Cole and Abigail Yates (that is to say) the sd. children of my sd. daughter shall have (with the ten shillings which she is to have) one share or equal portion with ye rest of my children, which shall be equally divided among them. And I do also hereby constitute, make and ordain my two sons Samuel Paine & Thomas Paine, to be ye Executors of this my last Will and Testament, & I do hereby utterly disallow, revoke and disannul all and every other former Testament & Will, land bequest & executors, by me in any way before named willed & bequeathed.
Ratifying & confirming this, and no other, to be my last Will & Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, ye day and year above written.
THOMAS PAINE (L. S.)
Events
| Birth | 18 Jan 1613 | Kent, England |  | ||
| Marriage | Bef Apr 1651 | Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts - Mary SNOW | | ||
| Will | 12 May 1705 | Barnstable County, Massachusetts | | ||
| Death | 16 Aug 1706 | Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts | |
Families
| Spouse | Mary SNOW (1630 - 1704) |
| Child | Samuel Paine (1652 - 1712) |
| Child | Mary PAINE (1655 - 1723) |
| Child | Thomas Paine (1656 - 1721) |
| Child | Elisha Paine (1658 - 1735) |
| Child | Eleazer Paine (1658 - ) |
| Child | John Paine (1661 - 1731) |
| Child | James Paine (1665 - 1728) |
| Child | Nicholas Paine ( - 1732) |
| Child | Joseph Paine ( - 1712) |
| Child | Dorcas Paine ( - 1707) |
| Father | Thomas PAINE ( - ) |
| Sibling | Robert Payne |
| Sibling | William Payne |
Endnotes
1. , Austin, John D., Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Hopkins (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Volume 6., 1995) (N.p.: n.p., n.d.).
2. Austin, John D., Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Hopkins (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Volume 6., 1995).
3. Austin, John D., Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Hopkins (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Volume 6., 1995).
4. Austin, John D., Mayflower Families for Five Generations: Hopkins (Plymouth: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, Volume 6., 1995).