Ensign Nicholas Byram

d. 1688

Died 1688

Children include Deliverance

Nicholas Byram's early life comes down as a family story, and Mitchell's history of Bridgewater tells it as one. "Nicholas Byram, according to family tradition, was son of an English gentleman of the county of Kent, who removed to Ireland about the time this son was born. His father sent him at the age of 16 to visit his friends in Eng. in charge of a man who betrayed his trust, robbed him of his money, and sent him to the West Indies, where he was sold to service to pay his passage, and after his term expired he made his way to New England and settled at Weymouth." Being sold to service meant he was bound as a servant for a term of years to whoever paid the cost of his passage.

At Weymouth he married Susanna, a daughter of Abraham Shaw of Dedham. Farnham's Whitman genealogy calls her Martha. Their children were Nicholas; Abigail, who married Thomas Whitman in 1656; Deliverance, who married John Porter in 1660; Experience, who married John Willis; Susanna, who married Samuel Edson; and Mary, who married Samuel Leach. He held the militia rank of ensign. Farnham thought he probably came over with John Whitman, since the two were made free at the same time.

In 1660 he bought three proprietary rights in Bridgewater, the shares of Moses Simmons, Philip Delano and George Soule. A proprietary right was a share in the original purchase of the town's lands, and each carried land in every division. In 1662 he and his son-in-law Thomas Whitman sold their Weymouth farms and moved there. His house stood in the east of the town, remote from the village, on the spot where Capt. Isaac Whitman lived in Farnham's day.

In King Philip's War, by Bridgewater tradition, every house that was not garrisoned and stood away from the village was burned, except his. Farnham thought his house was probably the refuge of the Whitmans and the other neighbours. He died in 1688. His wife died about 1698.

Children

Deliverance Byram d. 1720

Sources

Bernard L. Farnham, The Descendants of John Whitman of Weymouth (1889), p. 13, archive.org historyofdescend00farn, leaf 39

Bernard L. Farnham, The Descendants of John Whitman of Weymouth (1889), p. 14, archive.org historyofdescend00farn, leaf 40

Nahum Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater (1840; reprint 1897), p. 127, archive.org historyofearlyset00mitcch, leaf 145

Vital Records of Weymouth, vol. II (1910), archive.org vitalrecordsofwe02weym, leaf 37

Joseph W. Porter, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Richard Porter, who Settled at Weymouth, Mass., 1635 (Bangor, 1878), archive.org genealogyofdesce1878port, p. 10, https://archive.org/details/genealogyofdesce1878port/page/n13

Mitchell, History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater (1840/1897), archive.org historyofearlyset00mitcch, pp. 127-128; Bernard L. Farnham, The Descendants of John Whitman of Weymouth (1889), archive.org historyofdescend00farn, pp. 13-14; Find a Grave 65404719; Mitchell p. 127; Farnham p. 13; Farnham p. 14; Mitchell p. 128

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Cite: Heirology, "Ensign Nicholas Byram (d. 1688)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ensign-nicholas-byram-1688-4f228a.