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1,041. Thomas Noble (Married Hannah Warriner (#1,042) on September 1, 1660 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts)

 

Born: about 1632, probably in England, of an Unknown Father (#2,081) and Unknown Mother (#2,082). (in Leicester, England; another source says Leicestershire; another sources says Somerset County, Bath, England)

Died: 20 January 1703/4 in Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts.

 

[His siblings, if any are unknown to Susan Snyder, the compiler of information for this website]

 

Miscellaneous Information:

As quoted from James Cox Brady and his ancestry, by Louis Effingham De Forest, New York: De Forest Publishing Co., 1933 p. 334 - 337: "Thomas Noble was born probably in England in or about 1632. He emigrated, and evidently settled first at Boston, Massachusetts, as on the town records appears the entry, under the date of January 26, 1651/2 (not 1653, as is sometimes misstated), 'Thomas Noble was Admitted as Inhabitant.' He probably did not stay long at Boston, as his name does not appear again on the town records. He was at Springfield, Massachusetts, it is said, in 1653, and there opened an account at the store of William Pynchon. He was granted an acre and a half of land there on January 30, 1655. He returned to England for a visit, as is evidenced by an entry in his account with Pynchon. The date of his journey is not known, but he owed Pynchon for the incidental expenses on September 1, 1657. 'To what I pd. for yor passage to and fro. Engld., and for yor charges (beside what I give you) as in my pocket booke, £16 00.00.' Including this, he owed altogether £32 3s 6d. On January 10 1658/9, 'Tho Noble & James Warriner have liverty to Possess & injoy ye two acrs of wet meddow on this side of ye round hill formerly granted David chapin & forfeited to ye Towne. This 2 acres by agemt betweene James wariner & Tho Noble is wholy to belong to Tho Noble & is absolutely his ye sd Tho Nobles to dispos off.' In the first extant list of the distribution of seats in the meeting house, on December 23, 1659, Noble was placed in the eighth seat, and in the distribution of February 23, 1662/3, in the sixth seat. The town leased to him, in March, 1659/60, thirty acres of land, of which he was required to clear and plow fifteen acres, and for which he was to pay no rent for the first two years, and thereafter an annual rental of £4. The town made several grants of land to him: in February, 1660/1, twenty acres, and in March 1660/1, 'those little Spangs or peeces of meadow yt lye adjoyning' to the previous grant. In January, 1662/3, another grant of six acres was made, and in May, 1663, five acres of meadow, and in May 1664, he was granted, in conjunction with Abel Wright, 'a certayne peece of low land on the North side of Chickuppe River.' In December, 1664, Noble was one of the four men to whom was granted liberty to set up a saw mill and who were given seventy acres of land, on condition that they 'cause a saw mill to be sett up in the place above mentioned & sett to work in Sawing by the first day of Aprill wch shalbe in ye yeere: 1666.' It was also provided that if the work was abandoned within three years, the grant made by the town was to revert to its ownership. On February 6, 1664/5, he was granted land 'towards Worronoco' (Westfield, Massachusetts, whither he later removed.) He was on a list of those fined for defective fences in June, 1665, when 'The veiwers also declare agt Tho Noble for having 2 Rod defective; But he denying to be his fence, till it be made appeare to belong to him ye select men cannot Judge him faulty.' He was chosen appraiser in June, 1665, 'for Prising the Living Stock of the Town.' In January, 1665/6, he was granted eight or ten acres at Skipmuck, and in February, 1665/6, four or five acres a little beyond Skipmuck. In 1667, he was in financial difficulties, and was obliged to make over to Pynchon his house and lands at Springfield. He had been granted in July, 1666, land at Worronoco (Westfield, Massachusetts), on condition that he settle there before the end of May, 1667. This grant was forfeited, but was renewed on January 9, 1667/8, and the time of settlement extended to November 10, 1668. He is recorded as having paid the annual £4 rent for thirty acres of land leased from Springfield in 1667, and in January, 1668/9. In February, 1668/9, he was a member of a committee to make and repair a highway, and is so recorded in the Springfield town records.

He married at Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 1, 1660, Hannah Warriner, who was born at Springfield, August 17, 1643. She united with the Westfield, Massachusetts, church, on November 11, 1680. After the death of Thomas Noble, at Westfield, Massachusetts, on January 20, 1703/4, she married as her second husband, on January 24, 1704/5, Medad Pomeroy. The Westfield church records show that 'Sister Noble, wife of brother Thomas Noble, being married again to Mr. Medad Pomeroy of Northampton, and settled with him there, was dismissed to Northampton, about the end of April, 1705.' Pomeroy died at Northampton, Massachusetts, December 30, 1716, at the age of seventy-eight, and in his will provided that his wife 'shall have liberty to choose what cow shee will out of ye cows wch I shall then have, to be her own, and alsoe to have returned to her all such things as she brought.' She died before May 12, 1721.

The exact date of Thomas Noble's removal to Westfield is not known. It was probably a short time after January, 1667/8, the date of his request for a renewal of his land grant there. He petitioned in March, 1667/8, for an additional grant of two rods next his houselot. On January 21, 1668/9, Noble appeared at Springfield as a member of a committee representing Westfield to request of the mother town that the town line between them be established, their boundaries laid out, and some government settled. Early in 1669, Springfield relinquished jurisdiction over Westfield, and it was made a separate township by the General Court. Noble lived outside the center of the town until the time of King Philip's War, when owing to his exposed position he was obliged to live in a more protected location. He was appointed constable at Westfield, and the records of the Hampshire County Court show that on April 7, 1674, he 'was sworne to discharge ye sd office.' On May 30, 1679, the town petitioned the General Court through John Maudsley and Thomas Noble that the town accounts and country charges might be accepted. He joined the Westfield church on February 20, 1681. He was made freeman October 12, 1681, and took the freeman's oath at the Hampshire County Court, September 26, 1682. 'At a County Corte held at Northampton, March 27th, 1683, Thomas Noble of Westfield being presented by the Grand Jury for Travelling on a day of Humiliation, publiquely appointed by the Genll Corte, which he owned, pleading his necessity for Comeing home, and yet this Corte Considering said offense, being a growing evil amongst us, many Persons too much disregarding such extraordinary Dutys, & Seasons, have adjudged sd Noble to pay as a fine to the County treasurer five shillings.' He served on a jury of inquest in August, 1684, and the verdict was brought in 'on the awful, amazing and untimely death of Eliezere Wellere, after due notice taken, we al unanimously agree, that through the strength of temptation he became his own Executionr, by hanging himself, al signes & circumstances fully concurring therein, & nothing appearing to the Contrary.' With several others Noble was granted liberty by the town in September, 1685, to build a saw mill, and on the same day was chosen to join the selectmen as a committee to appraise buildings. He served in September, 1691, to represent the town in presenting a petition to the Court that the bounds between Westfield and Suffield (then in Massachusetts, now in Connecticut) should be settled. He was granted on March 4, 1694/5, the use of the pines of a piece of land half a mile square 'for Roysume,' for three years, and in March 1696, was appointed county surveyor. Although he had occupied himself largely as a farmer, he had also pursued the trade of a tailor at times.

Thomas Noble made his will May 11, 1677. It was probated September 5, 1704. In it he left land to his sons, Thomas, Matthew, Mark (#521), Luke, James, and John, and £20 apiece to his daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Rebecca, and also a cow to be given each of them after marriage. He made bequests to his 'brother, James Warriner,' and his wife, Hannah. The inventory of his estate was taken February 18, 1703/4, and included a hundred and sixty-six and a half acres of land, his house, barn and homestead, the buildings on the farm, and cattle and personal estate. He died at Westfield, January 20, 1703/4."

His will is on page 23 of History and Genealogy of the Family of Thomas Noble of Westfield, Massachusetts with Genealogical Notes of Other Families By The Name Of Noble, compiled by Lucius M. Boltwood, Hartford, Conn. Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company. 1878. The will was recorded seven months after his death in the office of the Hampshire Probate court (Volume III. pp 119-20).

"The last will and testament of Thomas Noble of Westfield, in ye County of Hampshire, in ye Province of Massachusetts Bay in New England, being weak in body, but of pefect understanding.

"Impr, I commend my soul into the hands of Christ my blessed Lord and Saviour, and my body to a christian burial, in full faith of a blessed resurrection, through the rich grace of God in Christ my Saviour.

"Item, I give unto my son Thomas, that parcel of land lying in the farm purchased from Mr. Jno Pynchon, from the gate beyond the house entring into the field bounded by the plowing land, the way to Springfield, John Noble's land and the drain all along to the swamp.

"Item, to my son Matthew, a tract of land in the same farm, lying by a ditch eastrly, and bounded at both ends by the river.

"Item, I give unto my sons Mark (#521) and Luke, my little meadow, lying against the orchard of Noah Cooke, and that homelot that I have bought, and they have rais d frames upon.

"Item, I give the lot that the town gave me on the top of the hill agt my house on the same farm, to all my six sons for a pasture.

"Item, to my son James, a parcel of land and house upon it, on that farm that is fenced in, being six or seven acres more or less.

"Item, I bequeath the rest of this my farm lying bounded upon James northdly, Thomas on the east, Matthew on the southdly, ye river on the westrly sides, to all my sons,. i. e., to my sons John, Thomas, Matthew, Mark (#521), Luke, and James, equally to be divided amongst them by my brother James Warriner, and John Hitchcock of Springfield, and by Capt. Isaac Phelps of Westfield.

"Item, I give to my son James, all my land in the plain, on this side the hundred acres, and the lot by the way to Pochastuck.

"Item, I give to my son John, the rest of my lot in ye fort meadow.

"Item, I give unto my beloved wife, Hannah Noble, an acre of land reserved out of my son John's homelot; also half my dwelling house, that is to say, that end next the street, and halfe the land and orchard and barn we dwell on, and the other halfe of the house lot and barn to my son James, as also the thirds of all that I here will to my sons, and after her decease, I give my son James the whole of the house, houselot, and barn, and the acre reserved out of my son John's homelot.

"Item, I give unto my four daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, Mary, and Rebecca, £20 apiece, to be paid them by my sons (viz.), Thomas, Matthew, Mark (#521), Luke, and James, to Mary and to Rebeccah about half a year after their marriage, and a cow apiece at their marriage. And in case any of my children should dye, not leaving any issue behind them, then my will is that the legacies that I here give them, be equally divided among the surviving, and also, I order these my sons to find my wife fewel wood, and two load of hay every year, so long as she shall remain widdow.

"Item, I give unto my wife also a cow and an heifer, also all my household goods, which household goods I would have her at her pleasure dispose of to my two youngest daughters.

"Item, my team (one yoak of oxen excepted), I give unto my three youngest sons, Mark (#521), Luke, and James. And for the well and faithful execution of this my last will, I ordain and make my beloved wife Hannah Noble and my son Thomas Noble joynt executors, to defray all my lawfull debts, and for that end leave one yoak of working cattle, a yoak of fatt oxen, and the money in the Bay due to me, and all other dues, the which, when my debts are defrayd, the remainder I would have to go to pay my daughter's portions. But in case the same should be too little to clear my due debts, that then they are to raise what is sufficient out of the legacies I have here given to my children, to do the same. In witness whereof I set my hand and seal this eleventh day of May, Ano Dom., 1697.

THOMAS NOBLE and a [SEAL]."

"Signed & sealed in the presence off

EDWARD TAYLOR,

VICTORY SIKES,

JAMES WARRINER."

_________________________

In Springfield, Sept: 5th, 1704.

Mr. Edward Taylor and Victory Sikes, two of the witnesses to this instrument, appeared before the Judge of Probates in Hampshire, viz., Samuel Partridge, Esq., and made oath that they saw Thomas Noble, deceasd, sign and seal the sd instrument, as his last will and testament, and that he was of a sound mind and memory, when he did it, according to there judgment, and that they with James Warriner signed as witnesses to the same, in the testaturs' presence. Which sd will (the executors therein named having accepted sd trust), was by the sd judge approved and allowed of.

Attest, JOHN PYNCHON, Regt.

 

Contact person for this website is Susan Snyder: susanleachsnyder@gmail.com