Individual Details

Two birth dates are found for Thomas, 1648 and 1655. His mother is either Abigail Mournings or Jane Spurwell. According to Savage, he was at Saco, York Co., ME as husbandman, and cordwainer in 1671. If this is true, then for a birth date of 1655 he would have only been old enough to be an apprentice of 16; so the birth date of 1648 fits better. At age 22, he would have been old enough to be a husband-man and cordwainer. His birth date effects who his mother would be. For Abigail to be his mother, he would have to be born 1655 or before. A birth date of 1648 does fit well with the spacing of Abigail’s children; there is a 4 year gap between Sarah and Hannah. If his birth date is 1655, the spacing becomes rather odd; there would be a 5 year gap between Abigail’s last child, Hannah, and Thomas. Jane was married to Thomas’ father by May 1656, when she signed a release of her dower property. So if Thomas was born 1655, it is possible for Jane to be his mother. I could find nothing that was definitive for Abigail’s death date, Jane’s marriage date, or Thomas’ mother. Another twist to the problem is that Thomas father John and his wife Julian signed a deed to their “sunn Thomas Cloyce and his wife Susanna Cloce" in 1670. This poses two questions. First is Julian the same person as Jane, or a third wife of John; and two does ‘sunn’ refer to her natural born son or to her step-son. Again I could find no definitive answer. Most GED's give Abigail as his mother.
Thomas was just a youth when his father moved to Falmouth, ME; it was here he spent most of his childhood. His family probably belonged to the fisherfolk, small farmer class. Local justice reflected class biases, especially among the more common types of personal misbehavior, such as swearing, drinking, quarreling, assault, slander, and disturbing the peace. Those accused usually were fisherfolk or middling farmers--those of the "lesser sort" in terms of real property ownership, political achievement, and connections6. In 1671, Thomas came before the York Co. court, confessing that he had on occasion played cards; for this offense he was fined five shillings.
Marriage patterns of small farmers and fisherfolk took place within their own occupational groupings, and, significantly, these marriages seldom augmented family wealth and status. Usually the young man acquired a small plot of land, at times a small section from his father's farm or perhaps a modest plot from the town. The woman usually brought little more than her basic dowry. Such was the case of Thomas Cloyce’s marriage to Susanna Lewis. Thus buying 70 acres for 5 pounds from George Munjoy between Round Marsh and Capisic11 with Richard Powsland (Powsly) in 1674, and immediately erecting a house demonstrated upward mobility. He also owned 6 acres and a house on the Neck (Portland), which he rented, and a 2-acre lot near the fort.12 June 30, 1675, his father and stepmother gave him 60 acres between Well Cove and Round Cove with horses for their love of him and in consideration of two oxen received from him. Thomas received the principal part of his father’s land on the river.
Life could not have been easy at Casco Bay even before King Phillip's War. But after Sept 1675 conditions worsened considerably. Families fought over possession of supplies of gunpowder; the town’s residents (including Thomas and his brother-in-laws Philip Lewis and Thomas Skilling) complained of the 'timorousnes and cowardize' of their militia leader George Ingersoll. In Dec 1675, the governor pronounced the entire province of Maine much wasted. Thomas enlisted to serve in King Phillip's War on 24 Jan. 1676. By April 1676 the settlements north of the Piscataqua were mostly destroyed, many people slain, and the rest retired to places of better security. One such place of security was Falmouth, until 11Aug 1676 when it too was largely abandoned and many of its residents fleeing to Essex Co. Slowly the area was re-secured. On 3 Jan 1680,Thomas was granted 60 acres in Capessack, within the township of Falmouth, by the selectmen.12 These grants were given for the resettlement of Falmouth along with a discount on lumber to encourage rebuilding. These land grant records were one of the few scraps of the town records which escaped the town’s destruction and found there way to the York registry. They were probably collected by land speculators who were purchasing titles to the lands.
In 1681, Thomas was at Wells, York Co., ME. He and Susannah sold to John and Isaac Jones 3 Nov. 1681 the tract of land ‘with the new dwelling house and barn, on the Presumpscot River that had been his father’s homestead before the war4, except for the 20 acres that belonged to his brother Nathaniel. On 14 Aug 1685, being of Falmouth in Casco Bay he and Susanna sold to Richard Seacomb for the consideration of 6£ to be paid in pork and beef, 50 acres of her father’s farm that he had left to his daughters. He sold 60 acres of his father’s land above the falls to John Gustin 14 Dec 1686.5 He petitioned Governor Andros in 1687 and was among the first to return to Falmouth from Salem after King Philip's War.
For defense of the region Fort Loyal had been built, stocked with supplies, cannon, and powder. 26 May 1690 the fort was attacked by combined forces of French soldiers and Indian warriors. Overwhelmingly outnumbered, the settlers valiantly defended the fort several days. However, becoming apparent they could not hold off the attacking forces, the settlers flew the flag of surrender. Terms were that the prisoners, about 70 men and over 130 women and children, would be escorted under guard by the French to one of the major English settlements in Massachusetts. After their surrender, the French reneged on the terms and turned the prisoners over to the Indians. Only a few were taken captive, most of the settlers were murdered on the beach below the fort. Whether Thomas was one of the 13 defenders of the fort killed in the fighting or one of those that surrendered and was killed is unknown. However, the bodies were left lying on the beach unburied for 2 years, when an English expedition stopped at the fort to salvage what they could. Seeing the bones scattered about, they collected them and buried them in a mass grave, location unknown.
The town’s destruction destroyed all records, and all other combustible or destructible property. The once prosperous community was an entire and melancholy ruin. On Dec.2, 1700 an inventory of his estate was recorded.12 List of his children were from depositions of Sarah White, Mary Wilkins (his daughter), Samuel and John Felton, 1734 - 1738.
The year 1692 brought much upheaval to Salem and its surrounds. Susanna must have been particularly upset, her niece Mercy Lewis, daughter of her brother Philip, was one of the accusers at the Salem Witch Trials. Her sister-in-law, Sarah Towne Cloyse, second wife of Thomas’ brother Peter was one of the accused, as was Sarah’s daughter, Abigail. (Compilation by DKMac)

Sources:
“Genealogy Dictionary of First Settlers of New England,” James Savage, 1860-1862.
Collections Maine Historical Society’. v.1, William Willis. Ed. 1831.
‘The History of Portland, from 1632 to 1864: With a Notice of Previous Settlements, Colonial Grants, and Changes of Government in Maine’, By William Willis, Edition: 2, Published by Bailey & Noyes, 1865.
‘English Beachheads in Seventeenth-Century Maine’, Edwin A. Churchill, www.mpbn.net/homestom/mptschap3.html‎
‘York Deeds’, Volume 15, By York County, ME, Register of Deeds, 1907
‘History of Framingham’; Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire; Maine Historical Society
‘In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692’, By Mary Beth Norton, 2007
‘Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire’
‘Common-place The Interactive Journal of Early American Life, Inc.’, Mary Beth Norton, 2002

Birth	1648	Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
Marriage	Abt 1670	Susannah Lewis
Death	May 1690	Falmouth, Cumberland County, Maine

Spouse	Susannah Lewis (1652 - 1739)
Child	Mary Cloyes (1677 - 1754)

Father

John Cloyes (1604 - 1676)