Lawrence Waters

  General Notes:

Sources:
New England Marriages Prior to 1700 by Clarence Torrey 1985, page 784.
Early Records of Lancaster Massachusetts by Henry Nourse 1884, page 325.

Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, by Mellcene Thurman Smith, has Lawrence Waters of England, Watertown and Lancaster, Mass., b. Eng. 1602, d. Mass. Dec. 9, 1687, m. Sept. 1635, pg. 85

General Register of the Society of Colonial Wars 1899-1902, by the Society of Colonial Wars, New York, 1902, pg. 801

McCall-Tidwell and Allied families, by Ettie Tidwell McCall, Published by Walter W. Brown Publishing, Atlanta, George, 1931, pg. 383

Genealogies of the families and Descendants of Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston, pg. 498

The Pioneers of massachusetts by Charles Henry Pope, Published by Genealogical Publishing, pg. 481, Genealogy.com

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation.
Lawrence Waters was a carpenter who lived in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
~ Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston, pg. 498

• Dates & Events.
The first inventory of Watertown taken about 1639, shows the Waters family had large land holdings. They included the original homestall, four acres of plowland in the further plain, four acres of meadow in the remote meadows, twenty five acres of upland, twelve acres of upland beyond the further plain, and a farm of 105 acres of upland.

The second inventory of land in Watertown was taken in 1644. It shows the Waters family had same possessions except the 105 acres, which was replaced by a one acre meadow in Patch Meddow, bounded with common land. The four acres of plow land was described as bounded on the east by Thomas Bartlett, on the west by Garret Church, on the north by the highway, and on the south by the river. In spite of these large land holdings, they disposed of it all except the original homestall and relocated to Lancaster along with Anna's parents the Lintons.

In Lancaster they were assigned seventeen acres on which they built a house which was about twenty rods above `Sprague Bridge.' It was the first house and lot number 18. (Kin of Mellcene Thurman Smith, p. 85)

In 1650 they had sold his original house in Lancaster to John and Elizabeth Hall and moved a few rods to a 6 acre lot where they built another house. They owned nine acres of intervale land bounded on the north by Richard Linton's lot, 13 1/2 acres of upland on the east side of Swan's Swamp, and 11 acres of intervale lying on the east side of Penacook River.

In 1654 their estate was rated at 277 pounds and they drew lot number four of eleven acres in the second division of meadows.

On September 8, 1657 a committee of three ordered the Selectmen to lay out additional land to Lawrence Waters and they received additional land grants on February 5, 1659.

There was a garrison on the Waters property during King Philip's War.

On August 11, 1666 Lawrence and Anna gave their son Stephen one half of the second division land on Four Mile Brook between Wataquadock Hill and Long Hill, together with 4 acres of second division meadow and also fifty pounds of town rights.

After the massacre of August 22, 1675 Lawrence and Ann, and Samuel with his wife and two children, found shelter in Charlestown, where their son Stephen became responsible to the authorities for them because Lawrence was blind. (Ancestry of John Barber White and of his Descendants, p. 58) Sarah and John Skeath were killed in the Massacre of 1697.

During King Phillip' War the Indians attacked the town of Lancaster in February, 1676 and stormed the garrison where settlers had taken refuge. Mary Rowlandson described what happened in her famous narrative. "At length they came and beset our own house (which served as the garrison) and quickly it was the dolefullest day that ever mine eyes saw. The house stood upon the edge of a hill. Some of the Indians got behind the hill, others into the barn, and others behind anything that would shelter them, from all which places they shot against the house, so that the bullets seemed to fly like hail. Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody heathen ready to knock us on the head if we stirred out. Now might we hear mothers and children crying out for themselves and one another, 'Lord what shall we do?'" Rowlandson was taken captive.

• Information.
Lawrence Waters was one of the first settlers of Watertown.
~NEHGS, Register, Oct, 1878, pg 446

Lawrence married Ann Linton, daughter of Richard Linton and Elisabeth, about Sep 1635 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. (Ann Linton was born about 1613 in England and died in 1679-1680 in Charlestown, Massachusetts. British American Colonies.)