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JAMES HURST
The first meeting of the New Plymouth Colony General Court took place on 1 January 1632/3 (all court dates are old style). James was already a freeman by then. All governments need revenue and one of the courts first acts was to order the collection of taxes. The taxes, collexted in corn, ranged from nine shillings for most of the households to three pounds and 11 shillings for Isaac Allerton.James was one of those assessed nine shillings. [NBS1]
By an order of 2 January 1633/4, he paid a tax of nine shillings. [NBS1]
James was on a 1633 list of freemen in Plymouth and also on a 7 March 1636/7 list. [NBS1]
On 1 October 1634 James was appointed to a committee to lay out highways for Plymouth. [NBS1] He was on a jury on 7 June 1636. [NBS1] He was on a grand jury on 5 June 1638 and 2 June 1640. [NBS1]
In the 14 March 1635/6 allocation of mowing, James was to have the land he previously mowed and some from higher up. [NBS1]
James was granted a portion of land lying about his house on 1 January 1637/8. [NBS1]
On 5 January 1640/1 James Hurst was appointed an arbitrator to resolve the difference between George Bowers and George Bonum. [NSB2]
He was on a 2 March 1647, 6 June 1649 trial jury. [NSB2]
He was on the committee for the town of Plymouth on 1 June 1647. [NSB2]
On 22 July 1648 John was on an inquest into the death of the four-year-old daughter of Alice Bishop. Alice later confessed to murdering her child and was executed. [NBS2]
Children of James Hurst:
i. Patience Hurst married Henry Cobb.
ii. William Hurst (possible son) of Sandwich died in 1640. He married Katherine Thickston [Thurston] on 17 March 1639. [NSB1]
A grant was made to Edmund Freeman and nine associates who had been residents of Saugus (Lynn) to have land for a settlement at what is now called Sandwich on 3 April 1637. William was one of about 50 men who came with them as settlers. [HCC]
William Hurst was granted three acres of meadowland on 16 April 1640. [NSB1]
Catherine administered William's estate on 1 June 1640. [HCC]
References:
NBS1. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855).
NBS2. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 2, Court Orders, 1641–1651 (Boston: William White, 1855).
HCC. Frederick Freeman, The History of Cape Cod: The Annals of 13 Towns of Barnstable County, vol. 2 (Boston: George C. Rand & Avery, 1862), 15–16.
Last revised: 31-May-2021