The Ancestors of My Grandchildren

In 1634 Thomas Eames was an inhabitor and proprietor in Dedham, Massachusetts. From 1652 to 1659 he lived in Medford, where he occupied the watermill on the Mystic side, Charlestown (then Woburn). He then moved to Cambridge, where he owned a house and eight acres of land east of the Common. On 10 Feb 1664 he sold this land to Nicholas Wyeth and removed to Sudbury, where he lived until 1669, and where he leased Mr. Pelham's farm. Finally he settled in Framingham, where he build a house and barn. He attended church in Sherburne, where he was recorded as an inhabitant on 4 Jan 1674.² He build his house at the southern slope of Mount Wayte, between the Sudbury River and Farm Pond, about 7 miles SW of Sudbury, and about 3 mile East of the Indian town of Magunkook^2,4

In a Court, held at Nonantum on 24 Jan 1676 Thomas Eames was granted a piece of land of 200 acres by the Natick Indians. This now belongs to Natick. The grant was confirmed by the General Court in 1679, and by an Indian deed in 1695. In 1677 he applied for relief, because his property had been destroyed by Indians, he received another 200 acres, "to be laid out in any free place, not prejudicing the laying out of a plantation (Framingham)." In 1679 the inhabitants of Sherburne voted to give him a piece of land, near where he lived, to build the Meeting House⁵

In a court, held on 23 Dec 1673 in Charlestown, John Stone Sr. of Sudbury, Sgt John Woods of Marlborough, Thomas Eames of Framingham, together with John Livermore of Watertown were appointed to lay out a highway for the use of the country, from John Livermore's house to a horsebridge near the house of Daniel Stone Jr. and thence the nearest and best way to Marlborough, and thence to Quabuog (now Brookfield.)⁶

The raid was in revenge for the theft of corn from the granary in the nearby Natick Indian town of Magunkook. It was however, more a symptom of the serious troubles between the Indians, who saw all their land domesticated, and the whites, who became more and more repressive. A party of about twelve Indians came to the farm, while Thomas was absent in Boston. They took two children, who were at the well. Mary, who was making soap at the time, threw the hot lye at them. The Indians set fire to the house, and took Mary and the children. Samuel apparently made his way back to an English town in April, after the attack on the garrison of Sudbury. Margaret was redeemed from Canada, and her future husband was among the soldiers who accompanied her home. It does not say how Nathaniel found his way home.⁴ (For a short article on the King Philip's War, see the website of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, MA)
Thomas Eames filed a claim for restitution in 1677, and submitted the following inventory