Robbing The Cradle

 I always heard the term "Robbing the Cradle", perhaps this is where it started.

     Thomas Tomson was born Oct 19, 1664 in Middleboro, MA. He was good friends with John Morton who also lived in Middleboro and they frequently visited each other. 

On one occasion when Thomas had turned 25, Morton advised that he should soon marry as he was of the proper age. Thomas is alleged to have replied, "I will marry that daughter of yours when she is old enough," pointing to John Morton's infant daughter Mary in her cradle. 

 John is not known to have objected, and when Thomas was 50, he made good his word, marrying Mary, aged 25. They married on December 13, 1715 in Middleboro, Massachusetts. They had seven children.

Thomas was a farmer and a glazier, and set diamond glass in lead, a feature of windows common in those days.

Thomas had an estate of 700 acers.  He was well off financially and was always charitable.  Rev. Cotton, the first minister of Halifax said, “Thomas Tomson was the wealthiest man in town but more to his honor was rich toward God.

 

 

Lieut John Tomson

John Tomson, of  Dutch origin, came to Plymouth in 1622 at the age of six.  He was a prominent first settler of Halifax, Ma.  He grew to be 6’3” tall, a very unusual stature for this period in time.

Sight of  log home
 burned down by the Indians in 1675

He married Mary, daughter of Francis Cooke, who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. Being a carpenter, he built a log home, the first to be built in Halifax, Massachusetts. It was here that they suffered greatly. The Indians that surrounded them would continuously threaten them and steal their cattle and crops. 

One frightening episode happened while Mary was cooking fish in her kettle.  The Indians forcibly entered the home brandishing a knife over her in an attempt to steal the fish. Mary fought back the attack with a splinter broom and drove them away. This was only but one incident of many for the family was in constant peril.

History tells us that they were heading to church one Sunday morning when John spied a large gathering of very angry looking Indians.  He made the decision to return home and quickly gathered their valuables and left.  They warned a neighbor, but he refused to leave.

Once down the road about two miles, John looked back and saw flames and smoke.  The Indians burned their house to the ground in 1675. This was at the beginning of the King Phillip’s War.  Their neighbor’s house was also burned to the ground and he had been killed.  John received the commission of lieutenant and commanded a company of 16 men.  

John died on June 16, 1696.  He and his wife Mary, my 7th great grandparents, are buried in Nemasket Hill Cemetery in Middleboro, MA up high on a hill.  His gravestone reads:

In Memory of

Lieut. John Tomson who Died June 16^th ye 1696

In ye 80 year of his age

This is a debt to nature due,

Which I have paid and so must you

Robbing the Cradle

Buried together
in the Tomson Cemetery
Halifax, MA 

I just completed the Tomson branch of my family tree.  It takes me back to Francis Cooke of the Mayflower.  The Tomson family I find extremely interesting as well and will share more information in upcoming posts.  This story I found amazing.  I always heard the term "Robbing the Cradle", perhaps this is where it started.

The Tomson Cemetery is located about three miles from where I live.  I have been there but didn't have my camera with me.  I broke my first rule, "Always carry camera in car".  So now I need to visit once again to get the picture of their gravestones. Thomas Tompson and Mary Morton are my sixth great grandparents.

Thomas Tomson (also spelled Thomson and later Thompson) was a close acquaintance of John Morton who advised his friend, when the latter turned 25, that he should soon marry as he was of the proper age. Thomas is alleged to have replied, "I will marry that daughter of yours when she is old enough," pointing to John Morton's infant daughter Mary in her cradle.  John is not known to have objected, and when Thomas was 50, he made good his word, marrying Mary, aged 25. They married on December 13, 1715 in Middleboro, Massachusetts.

Thomas was a farmer and a glazier, and set diamond glass in lead, a feature of windows common in those days.

Thomas inherited 700 acres from his father, and he and Mary lived in the original house built by John Tomson following King Philip's War and the burning of the first Thomson home in Middleboro, Mass. They had seven children.

Sources: Ignatius Thompson, Genealogy of John Thompson (1841) and Charles Hutchinson Thompson, Genealogy and Descendants of John Thompson (Lansing, Michigan: 1890).