Ancestors

William Fiske

William Fiske was born in England about 1613, the younger son of John Fiske of St James, South Elmham, Suffolk, and his wife Anne Lawter. His father died in 1633. In 1637 his widowed mother set out for New England with all four of her children: William, his older brother John, a minister already ordained in the English church, and their sisters Anne and Martha. Their mother died on the voyage.

William was at Salem in 1637 and had a grant of land there that year. In September 1638 John Endicott, William Hathorne and two other Salem men settled the rights between him and his brother, and the record shows William was then under twenty-four. He joined the Salem church on 2 July 1641 and was made a freeman on 18 May 1642. In 1643 he married Bridget Muskett of Pelham, England, at Salem.

He soon moved to Wenham, a new village on Salem's northern edge where his brother John was the minister. William was its first town clerk, called the clerk of the writs, chosen on 4 December 1644. He was on the committee to lay out a high drift way in 1644 and on the grand jury in 1645. He was chosen clerk of the market in 1649. He represented Wenham in the General Court every year from 1647 to 1652.

In 1643 the General Court gave him liberty to keep an ordinary, a public house, and in 1646 he was licensed "to sell wine and strong water." When his goods were appraised after his death, one of the items was "a sign with the sign post."

He went to law twice. On 31 December 1639 the court ordered William Pester to pay him twenty shillings. On 30 March 1641 a jury found for him against Mathew Water over a house Water had hired from him. Water was to pay twenty shillings and costs and "to finish the house within 14 days or elce be liable to all damages," and to answer for the time lost by Fiske's servant, Joseph Haungton.

He died suddenly in September 1654, without a will. He was about forty-one. On 26 September 1654 the court at Ipswich gave the administration to his widow Bridget. His estate came to 141 pounds 12 shillings. She was to pay ten pounds to the eldest son, five pounds to Samuel and three pounds apiece to the rest when they came of age, and to keep the whole estate. The children were William, Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin and Martha.

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Cite: Heirology, "William Fiske (1613-1654)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-fiske-1613-1654-f51bb4.