♂William Furber

William Furber (about 1614 – before 30 December 1699) was an early settler of Dover, in New Hampshire, who made his home at Welch Cove, a landing in what is now Newington. He died without a will, and three of his sons-in-law afterwards complained to the probate judge that his son was keeping the estate from his sisters. He was the eighth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Susannah Furber (1664–1732).

The crossing

He is said to have told the story of his arrival himself, in a sworn statement of 1676: he had come over in 1635 on the Angel Gabriel^W, which was wrecked on the coast of Maine. The ship, out of Bristol, was riding at anchor at Pemaquid when the great storm of 15 August 1635^W broke her to pieces; most of the cattle and goods were lost, with one seaman and three or four passengers. Among his fellow passengers, he said, was Mr. John Cogswell^W. By his account, he found Cogswell living at Ipswich that November and hired himself to him for a year, “sleeping on the same bed with Deacon Samuel Haines”.

Dover and Welch Cove

By 1639 he is said to have been at Dover Neck. He later settled in what is now Newington, where he and his descendants owned the ferry to Oyster River from the landing at Welch Cove. He took a full share in the town’s business: he reportedly held the rank of sergeant, represented Dover in 1648, and served often as a grand juror and selectman and as the administrator of several estates. In 1644 he, Edward Starbuck and Richard Waldron^W were reportedly appointed “weirsmen for life”; in 1654 he was the town’s rent agent and sat on the committee for the boundary with Kittery; and in 1675 he joined Anthony Nutter and John Woodman on the committee to act with other towns in relieving those who had suffered in King Philip’s War^W.

Family

He married Elizabeth Clark, probably before 1647. They are said to have had nine children: William, Elizabeth, Jethro, Hannah, Bethia, Abigail, Susannah, Bridget and Moses. Susannah, born on 5 May 1664, married John Bickford. Three of the children are said to have died before their father: Jethro, a mariner of Portsmouth, in 1686; Abigail, of smallpox, in 1691; and Moses, his third son, to whom he had deeded land on 1 December 1686.

Death and the estate

He died before 30 December 1699, most likely in 1694, and left no will. His eldest son, William, is said to have lived with him and taken over the homestead, and the estate stayed in his hands. On 30 December 1699 John Dam, John Bickford and Thomas Bickford, “ye husbands of sd furbur sisters”, petitioned the judge of probate on their wives’ behalf. Their father, they wrote, had left “A considerabl Estat”, and their brother-in-law “keeps the sam Contrary to Law from his sisters & will not Render there porshons”, though often asked. They asked that he be made to deliver each sister her portion.

Notes

His own account of the crossing

The crossing on the Angel Gabriel, the year with John Cogswell at Ipswich and the bed shared with Samuel Haines come from a deposition he gave in 1676, aged 62, as the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire by Noyes, Libby and Davis prints it; the dictionary does not say where the original is kept. His birth about 1614 is worked back from that age. The same dictionary is the source for his years at Dover Neck and Welch Cove, the ferry, his rank and town offices, his marriage, the nine children and the deaths of Jethro, Abigail and Moses. The wreck at Pemaquid and its losses are described by Robert Charles Anderson in his account of the passenger ships of 1635 in the Great Migration Newsletter, drawing on the journal of Richard Mather, who sailed in company with the Angel Gabriel on the James.

Date of death

The petition of 30 December 1699 to the judge of probate speaks of him as dead, so he had died by that date. The genealogical dictionary places his death between April and November 1694.