FROM KENNETH GENE CARPENTER
Whether or not BENJAMIN HANKS was married to Abigail when he sailed from England is debatable. The late Edgar Hanks of Indianapolis, IN, who had conducted some very careful research, gives evidence that John Heiford, a resident of Braintree, MA, on or before 06 April 1667, married Abigail Albins in 1678/79. It was their daughter, Abigail Heiford, who married Benjamin Hanks, Sr. in 1700, at Braintree. From that date on, the early American records are well researched and proved, thanks to Susan C. Tufts.
It is believed that Benjamin and his wife Abigail sailed with their friends, Richard and Catherine White, who, as their old records show, came from London in Oct. 17, 1699, and landed in Plymouth, Mass. This Benjamin Hanks was the brother of William Hanks, who is the Great Grandfather of the mother of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the U.S... (Nancy Hanks) According to the deeds in Plymouth we find that Benjamin first settled in Pembroke county, and among the parish records of Rev. Daniel Lewis, found the records of the birth of his children. These children were all born in Benjamin's first home on the land consisting of 30 acres, being in the township of Pembroke, which township is part of the 35th lot in ye land commonly known as, "Major's Purchase". Here they all lived until Abigail, the wife and mother, died in the year 1725. Two years later, Benjamin married Mary Ripley of Bridgewater, and moved to Boston, where another son, Jacob, was born. In 1736, he moved to Plymouth, where he bought of Robert Bartlett, for the sum of 700 pounds, 7/8ths parts of the uplands and the beach of the island of Saguish, lying and being in the harbor of Plymouth, together with all the dwelling houses, barns and fences on said island standing, and being also 2 pieces of salt marsh and meadow to said island adjoining". He later, June 6, 1745, bought the rest of the Saguish for 80 lbs., "paid by Benjamin Hanks of Plymouth, yeoman, for my one eighth part of the upland on the place commonly known as called Saguish in Plymouth aforesaid, with my rights in the beach". It was here in Saguish, once owned by Benjamin Hanks that Fort Standish was built during the Civil War, and that the French Cable was laid July 27, 1869. From the records we find the history of New England, where they are known as a "remarkably inventive family" and "a family of founders". the first Bell sever made in U.S. were cast on Hanks Hill on their old New England farm. It was on the descendants of Benjamin Hanks, that The Tower Clocks of America, one of which stood where the post office is now in New York City, a unique affair of windmill attachments of bells and chimes made by this family are now ringing all over the world, on the land and on sea, on of them being the bell in Philadelphia which replaced the old Liberty Bell, which hung in front of the Administration Building at the Worlds Fair in 1893 in Chicago. This bell weighed 13,000 lbs. to represent the 13 original states, and was made from relics of gold, silver, old coins and metal sent from all parts of the world. On the Columbia Liberty Bell were inscribed the words, by the 3rd great grandson of Benjamin Hanks of Plymouth, "glory to god in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will toward men; Proclaim liberty throughout the land andunto all the inhabitants there of. " A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another!"
BENJAMIN HANKS OF PEMBROKE AND EASTON, MA., AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS By SUSAN COTTON TUFTS of BOSTON, Mass.
BENJAMIN HANKS, of Pembroke and Easton, Mass., husbandman, was born in England about 1665, and died at Easton 9 Jan.1755, "in the ninetieth year of his age as he saith" (Easton records). He married first, in England, ABIGAIL HEIFORD , who died at Pembroke6 Sept. 1726 (Vital Records of Pembroke) ; and secondly, at Pembroke, 23Mar.1727 (Vital Records of Pembroke and of Bridgewater), MARY RIPLEY, widow of William Ripley of Bridgewater, Mass. She died at Easton 21 Oct. 1760, in her 83d year (Easton records).Benjamin Hanks and his wife Abigail, according to a statement in a notebook of his friend, Richard White, "came from London Oct. 17th 1699" and landed at Plymouth, Mass. Benjamin Hanks settled in the western part of Duxbury Mass., in the part of that town which was established in 1712 as the town of Pembroke. The earliest reference thus far found to the land of Benjamin Hanks is in a deed dated 25 Feb. 1713/14, by which John Partridge of "Duxborough" in Plymouth County, for £9 in current money, conveyed to Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke "30 acres of land in Pembroke part of the 35th lot in the land commonly known as 'ye Majrs Purchase, '" bounded "on ye Northerly corner to a Hemlock Tree standing in a Swamp from thence running Easterly 62 Rods to a Stake marked 36.35, from thence Running by ye 35th Lot to a Stake with Stones about it Standing by ye most Southerly Way that Leads to ye Swamp commonly Called & known by ye Cedar Bridge and from said Stake by ye sd Path over Sd Swamp to a white oak tree marked which is the Westerly Corner Bounds & from thence Running Northerly to ye aforesd Hemlock Tree," etc. This deed was acknowledged 16 Sept. 1715 and was recorded 7 Mar. 1715/16.(Plymouth Deeds. 11: 205.) On 24 Apr. 1725 Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke, for £ 120 in cur-rent money, sold to Isaac Little of Marshfield, Mass., the 30 acres of land, with all buildings, part of Lot 35, where he then dwelt. This deed was recorded 2 May 1738. (Plymouth Deeds, 32: 33.) On 21 Apr. 1725 Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke, for £60, bought of Isaac Little of Marshfield Lot 68 in Pembroke, in the Major's Purchase, bounded west by lot 67, north "from a Stake at N. E. corner of 67th lot on the south side of a cart way ranging e. S.E. 69 Pole to a great horn bound tree marked xxxxxxvli xxxxxxlx standing in the Cedar Swamp; South from S. E. Corner of Sd 67th lot, being a white oak tree marked 67,68 standing on the East side of a hill, E. S.E. to a small white oak marked 66-68 standing about 3 pole from cedar Swamp line, and so on ye same Range home to the Cedar Swamp Line; & from thence the Easterly side bounded by Cedar Swamp Range to the great horn bound tree marked before mentioned," etc. This deed was acknowledged the same day and was recorded 21 Apr. 1726. (Plymouth Deeds, 20:109.) On30 Mar. 1733/4 Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke, husbandman, for £ 160, sold to Jonathan Peterson Lot 68, with buildings, fences, orchards, gardens, etc., and his wife Mary released her rights of dower. Benjamin made his mark and Mary signed her name. (Plymouth Deeds, 30: 38.) About 1746 Benjamin Hanks's son Benjamin moved from Saquish Island, in Plymouth Harbor where he had lived since his marriage 1724, to Mansfield, Conn., where he had owned land since 1737; and soon after the departure of his son for Connecticut, Benjamin, Sr., moved to Easton, in Bristol County, Mass., nineteen miles northwest from Plymouth, where his youngest son Jacob, then unmarried, had become a resident as early as 1744. There Benjamin, Sr., built a house for himself, and there he died. Children by first wife, born in that part of the ancient Duxbury which was established in 1712 as the town of Pembroke, their births (except that of Jacob) being recorded at Pembroke.
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Joseph Hanks
Elizabeth (Unknown)
Birth