SMITH (Post, Dort, Winsor, Secord, Harris, Harris, McCall, Otis, Thacher, Gorham, Howland, Tilley, Hurst)
OUR MAYFLOWER FOREMOTHERS: Story Index
OUR MAYFLOWER FOREMOTHERS: Story Index
Ancestry of 6th GGM: FAITH McCALL
(1737-1785)
From her mother Hannah’s paternal
ancestry: OTIS/Jacob/Thomas families
Hannah OTIS (Nathaniel, Joseph, Immigrants
John Jr. & John Sr.)
JOHN OTIS, Jr. (c.1621-1684)
1635 Immigrants from England’s West Country to Plymouth
County, Massachusetts
This generational line leads to Faith McCall:
(1)
IMMIGRANT
JOHN OTIS, SR. (Faith McCall’s 3rd GGF)
(2)
IMMIGRANT
JOHN OTIS, JR. (her great-great grandfather)
(3)
JOSEPH OTIS (her
great-grandfather)
(4)
NATHANIEL
OTIS (her grandfather)
(5)
HANNAH OTIS (Faith
McCall’s mother)
Generation 1: OTIS Ancestor 11th
Great Grandfather JOHN OTIS, Sr.
NAME:
John Otis, Sr. “of Otis Hill”
BIRTH:
c. 1581 at Glastonbury, Somerset,
ENGLAND; son of Richard and Margaret Oates/Ottes; father was an independent weaver;
John learned to read and write at the same local school his father had
attended.
MARRIAGE: (1) c. 1602 to
Margaret [---] at Glastonbury. She died in 1653 in Hingham, Massachusetts. (2) following the death of Margaret, John remarried
Elizabeth, widow Streame of Weymouth. She outlived him by about twenty years.
RELOCATION:
shortly after the birth of son John
in 1621, the family moved to Barnstaple in West Devon. When John Sr. was about
55, he made the decision to uproot his family and emigrate to the American
colonies.
IMMIGRATION:
1635/6; (some think earlier) He went first
to Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts where he was granted Freeman status on 3
Mar 1635/6. His home was at “Otis Hill,” southwest of the harbor.
MIGRATION:
After living in Hingham for about
twenty years, he relocated a few miles southwest of Hingham, to Weymouth, after
the death of his first wife. He remained there until his death a few years
later.
LIFE:
John initially received a house lot
of five acres in Hingham and later gained ten acres as a planting lot on
“Weriall Hill in Broad Cove Field” along with numerous other allotments.
(Weriall, or “Weary All” Hill was supposedly named by Otis after a landmark in
his native Glastonbury.) It later was known simply as Otis Hill. In the "History of Hingham, (Vol.
1, pg. 177) the writer explained, 'we skirt the
foot of Otis Hill, very steep upon its western slope, and from this cause known
to early settlers in their quaintly expressive nomenclature as
"Weary-All-Hill" the view from this hill is exquisite, lie at one's
feet, and to the northeast and east is the deep blue expanse of the Ocean. Daniel
Webster greatly admired Otis Hill, with its view, and often
visited it on his way to Marshfield. It is said that he had a great desire to
buy it, and make his home there, but feared that it was so near the city, he
could not hope for the seclusion which a more distant spot would afford.’
After
losing his house to a “Sabbath Day” fire in 1645/6, John purchased another home
lot and more land, later deeding some to our 10th great grandfather
John when he married Mary Jacob, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Jacob.
This transaction was done with the understanding that John Junior would repay
his father at ten pounds per year. In return, John Junior received “all his right, title & interest in one house and
lot” … “to have and to hold the said house and several parcels of land to him
the said John Ottis Junior his heirs and assigns from the tenth of May 1649
forever.” [SLR 2:161-62]
DEATH:
May
31, 1657 at Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts.
FAMILY
INCLUDES: (son) John
Otis, Jr. (1621-1684) 10th GGF
John Otis,
Jr.’s Story: Born in
Glastonbury and raised in Barnstaple, England, John was about fourteen when his
family emigrated to New England and arrived at the brand-new settlement of
Hingham in Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1635 by followers of the
Puritan minister, Rev. Peter Hobart. (In 1635, Hingham was only the twelfth
town established in MBC, named after Hobart’s English birthplace.)
According to the Otis memoir, John
Jr. possessed “a rather pugnacious disposition and not easily amenable to
the strict laws of the Puritans” as shown in various court records of the
time. Ironically, his descendants included a distinguished line of lawyers and
judges.
By
1653, John Jr. married Mary Jacob, daughter of Nicholas Jacob. (In 1633,
her family was among the 95 Norfolk passengers of the Elizabeth Bonaventure
who were bound for Massachusetts as one of the founding families of Hingham,
Massachusetts.) Two of their ten children, Joseph and John, would go on to
provide esteemed service in the early colonial judicial system. (These brothers and their progeny will be the subject of our
next study.)
SONS OF JOHN OTIS, Jr.:
Hon. Joseph Otis (1665-1754)
Our 9th GGF married his cousin, Dorothy Jacob Thomas. Dorothy’s
mother was the American-born sister of 1633 Immigrant, Mary Jacob, Joseph’s
mother. (Joseph was the father of Nathaniel who was, in turn, the father of the
last Otis in our family line: HANNAH OTIS, mother of Faith McCall.) Joseph settled
in Scituate, Massachusetts and held "various offices of trust and
honor" including Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Plymouth county in
1703-14. He was remembered as being “of large stature.” In 1714 he bought a 230-acre
farm in the east part of Colchester for the impressive sum of 770 pounds which
he later gave to his son (our 8th GGF) Nathaniel. He moved to New London, CT
(now Montville) in 1721 where his children had preceded him. He married Dorothy
THOMAS, d/o Nathaniel and Deborah Thomas of Marshfield in 1688. Deborah was the
younger, American-born sister of Mary Jacob OTIS. (The Thomas family owned the
estate that Daniel Webster lived in later.)
Hon. John Otis, III (1657-1727)
Our 10th GrUncle settled in Barnstable, Massachusetts where a number
of his children made their own marks on early American history. He served for 20
years as Representative to the General Court and 13 years as Chief Justice in
the Court of Common Pleas. In addition
to having the distinction of being the first Judge of Probate, he also served
for 21 years as one of his Majesty’s Council, holding a unique combination of early
colonial legislative and judicial powers. One author noted “The successful discharge
of such varied employments is an evidence of his capacity and integrity, which,
joined to his wit and affability, secured him great influence.”
 |
| Otis Immigrant Ancestry |
.Anderson, Robert Charles. The
Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3; The
Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-6. Boston:
NEGHS.1996.
.Cutter, William Richard. New
England Genealogical and Memorial: Volume IV. 1913.
.Mackenzie, George Norbury, and
Nelson Osgood Rhoades, editors. Colonial Families of the United States of
America: in Which is Given the History, Genealogy and Armorial Bearings of
Colonial Families Who Settled in the American Colonies from the Time of the Settlement
of Jamestown, 13th May, 1607, to the Battle of Lexington, 19th April, 1775.
7 volumes. 1912. Reprinted, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1966,
1995
.Otis,
William. A genealogical and historical memoir of the Otis family in America,
Third generation. Chicago. 1924.
.Waters,
John J. Jr. The Otis Family in Provincial and Revolutionary MA. Chapters
1, 2. UNC Press, Chapel Hill for IEAH&C. 1968.
.
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