Individual Details

Samuel Ruggles, son of Thomas and Mary (Curtis) Ruggles, kept a tavern in Roxbury, and was an active participant in the early public affairs of that town, serving as a selectman and as an assessor for a period of fourteen years, and was representative to the general court during the four critical years succeeding the civic disturbance of 1689. For several years he was a captain in the militia, and while General Andros and his associates were held as prisoners he was chosen the custodian of Joseph Dudley (afterward governor), who was allowed his liberty under certain restraints. He married for his first wife Hannah, daughter of George Fowle, of Charlestown, who died October 24, 1669. The children of this union were: Hannah, Mary, Samuel, Joseph, Hannah 2d., Sarah, Mary 2d., Sarah 2d., and another child who died in infancy. On May 26, 1670, he married for his second wife Anna, daughter of Henry Bright, of Watertown. She became the mother of six children, namely: Thomas, Anna, Nathaniel, Elizabeth, Henry and Huldah. The mother of these children died September 5, 1711, aged sixty-seven years. Samuel Ruggles, son of Samuel and Hannah (Fowle) Ruggles, was born in Roxbury, June 1, 1658. He served as selectman and assessor in Roxbury, as representative to the general court, and was captain in the militia. He was one of eight associates who purchased, for twenty pounds, of John Magnus and Lawrence Nassawonno, Sachems of the Nipmuck Indians, the territory which in 1737 became incorporated as the town of Hardwick. Although the original deed was signed December 27, 1686, it was not recorded until March 7, 1723. He was also interested with Captain James Fitch and others, of Norwich, Connecticut, in the purchase of a large tract of land in that state, which is now the town of Pomfret. He died in February, 1715-16. On July 8, 1680, he married Martha, daughter of Rev. John Woodbridge, of Newbury, and granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley. She died in 1738. Their children were: Samuel, Lucy, Rev. Timothy, Hannah, Patience, Martha, Sarah, Joseph, Mary and Benjamin. Rev. Timothy Ruggles, who was graduated from Harvard College in 1702, and ordained pastor of the church at Rochester, November 22, 1710, was the father of General Timothy Ruggles (known as the brigadier), a noted military officer in the services of the crown. He was a loyalist and his property in Hardwick having been confiscated during the revolutionary war he went to Wilmot, Nova Scotia. (A more extended account of General Timothy Ruggles will be found in a sketch of J. R. Robinson, which appears elsewhere in this work.)

Birth	14 Mar 1629	Nazeing, Essex, England
Christen	19 Apr 1629	Nazeing, Essex, England
Marriage	10 Jan 1654	Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts - Hannah Fowle
Marriage	26 May 1670	Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts - Anna Bright
Death	15 Aug 1692	Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Burial		Eliot Burying Ground, Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

Spouse	Hannah Fowle (1635 - 1669)
Child	Hannah Ruggles (1655 - 1656)
Child	Capt. Samuel Ruggles Jr. (1658 - 1716)
Child	Joseph Ruggles (1659 - 1664)
Child	Mary Ruggles (1666 - 1741)
Child	Sarah Ruggles (1668 - )

Spouse	Anna Bright (1643 - 1711)
Child	Rev. Thomas Ruggles Sr. (1671 - 1728)
Child	Anna Ruggles (1672 - )
Child	Nathaniel Ruggles (1674 - 1676)
Child	Elizabeth Ruggles (1677 - )
Child	Henry Ruggles (1681 - 1702)
Child	Huldah Ruggles (1684 - 1762)

Father	Thomas Ruggles ( - 1644)
Mother	Mary Curtis (1586 - 1674)
Sibling	Thomas Ruggles ( - )
Sibling	Mary Ruggles ( - )
Sibling	John Ruggles ( - 1658)
Sibling	Sarah Ruggles (1627 - 1689)

Notes