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Note: [Br�derbund WFT Vol. 13, Ed. 1, Tree #2148, Date of Import: Aug 18, 2002] He did not go to Nantucket with his father but remained in Hampton, NH
where the family had settled. Many of his descendants were sailors,
either as sea captains or owners of vessels that were registered in the
records of Newburyport MA. He was shown as an oar maker.
He served on the jury in 1650 and 1653, was a Selectman in 1651 and 1654. He was a Sergeant in the Militia.His estate was appraised on Nov.
10, 1657, and attested by his widow on Apr. 12, 1658.
He lost his life when the ship he was on went down off the coast of
Hampton, NH en route to Boston, MA. Moses Coxe's wife and son were also
on the ship that went down; later Moses married Williams wife, Prudence,
who was left with eight children. The event is decribed in the History
of Hampton by Dow in the following manner:
"In the autumn of 1657 an event occurred, which brought mourning and
sorrow into several families in the town and cast a gloom over the whole
community. A vessel sailed from our river, October 20, bound to Boston,
having on board four men, two women and two children - eight persons in
all - belonging to Hampton. From some cause not now known, the vessel,
soon after leaving the harbor, either foundered, or was capsized, and all on board perished. The persons lost were these: Robert Reed, Serg.
William Swaine, Emanuel Hilliard, John Phillbrick and his wife Ann, and their daughter Sarah, Alice the wife of Moses Cox and John Cox, their
son, and is supposed their only child."
On the town records, the following entry was made:
"The sad hand of God upon eight psons goeing in a vessell by sea from Hampton to Boston, who were all swallowed up in the ocean soon after they
were out of the Harbour."
In 1864, John Greenleaf Whittier penned a poem entitled "The Wreck of
Rivermouth", in which he described the river as it entered the sea and
the wreck of the vessel which carried them to a watery grave. The following verse is quoted from that poem:
"Solemn it was that old day
In Hampton town and its log-built church,
Where side by side the coffins lay
And the mourners stood in aisle and porch.
In the singing-seats young eyes were dim,
The voices faltered that raised the hymn,
And Father Dalton, grave and stern,
Sobbed through his prayer and wept in turn."
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