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Sergeant Peter Wolfe (d. 1675)
Peter Wolfe was born about 1600/1. [1] He died on 6: 10 [December] 1675, probably in Beverly. [2, 6: 108] He had a wife Martha. It is unknown if she was the mother of his children.
Peter Wolfe, a freeman, was granted 50 acres in Salem in the 1636 freeman's land division. [3, 19, 25]
On 7: 12: 1636 [February 1636/7] Sarg. Woolf was granted a fishing lot at Winter Harbor. [3, 35–36]
On 21: 12: 1636 [February 1636/7] a warrant was issued for laying out land in Salem, including 50 acres for Sarg. Woolf. [3, 37]
On 14 6 [August] 1637 Sergeant Woolf was allowed a half acre at Winter Harbor. [3, 55]
In about 1640 [?] meadowland and marsh in Salem was allocated by a family's size. Peter Wolfe, with four people in his family, was given three-fourths of an acre. [3, 101–4]
On 23 (4) [June] 1667, Peter Wolfe, Martha Wolfe, and Hannah Sallows were among those who petitioned for a church at Bass River [Beverly]. On 20 September 1667 they signed the church's covenant. [4]
Anderson [5] says, "Peter's wife Martha was a contentious person ... accused of assault on Elizabeth Woodberry ... and in a dispute with the wife of Richard Stackhouse over seating at church ... . Peter, on the other hand, was retiring to the point of invisibility, and aside from collecting his land grants, his activities were carried out in obscurity."
Peter Woolfe, seaman of Beverly, made his will on 20 November 1675. He left his grandchildren Mary and Sarah Solace a yearling heifer to be divided between them; his wife Martha 12 pounds, which was due from Nicholas Grove; the rest to his son John Balch [Black], whom he appointed his sole executor. The will was proved on 21: 10 [December] 1675. John Black, the executor, agreed to maintain the widow for life, but she was to use the money left her for her maintenance and not otherwise dispose of it. Inventory on Peter's estate amounted to £74-11-06. [2, 6: 108]
Children of Peter Wolfe:
i. Freeborn Wolfe was born about 1634. She died on 30 January 1681. She married first Robert Sallows. She married second John Black.
ii. Hannah Wolfe married John Sallows on 9 December 1655 in Salem. [5]
On 24 5 [July] 1668 the church in Beverly took account of the underage children of parents dismissed from the First Church in Salem. On their list were the children of Hannah Sallows: John and Peter, Hannah and Thomas. [4]
References:
1. John Bradley Arthaud, "Peter Wolfe's Black and Bisson Descendants in Essex County, Massachusetts," Essex Genealogist 14 (1994): 109.
2. George Francis Dow, ed., and Harriet S. Tapley, trans., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, 9 vols., digitized books, Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and Transcription Project (http://salem.lib.virginia.edu).
3. Martha O. Howes and Sydney Perley, Town Records of Salem, Massachusetts (Salem, Essex Institute, 1868).
4. William P. Upham, Records of the First Church in Beverly, Massachusetts, 1667–1772 (Salem, Essex Institute, 1905).
5. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 2067–9.
11-May-2023