Arrived 10 May 1637 on the "Mary Anne" of Yarmouth, England. He became a freeman on May 10, 1643 and attended a meeting in Dedham in Nov.1644 to provide some means of education for the youth. He received a grant of land in Dedham on Feb 16 1643. The estate was partly joined in Medfield,set off from Dedham in 1651. Family settled in adjoining towns of Trentham and Medfield, except Joseph who is supposed to have gone to Jamaica, Long Island. She died May 9 1662, He died Nov. 7,1685.
184John Thurston, aged 36, and wife Margaret, aged 32, from Wrentham, England, sailed for New England in the ship "Mary Anne," in 1637. Two children came from England with them. The family settled at Dedham, but came to Medfield among the first, and had a house here in 1652. The homestead was near that now owned by James Hewins, with a field opposite. He very early owned land in what is now Norfolk or Wrentham, as in 1655, he had leave to make a bridge over Stop River "from his meadow in Dedham bounds." This was no doubt the old bridge on the road from Medfield to Wrentham: it bore the name of Thurston's Bridge for years afterward. He frequently served in town offices: in 1652, he was on the committee for laying out the necessary highways; in 1658, he was to make the seats about the table in the meeting-house; in 1661, he was to assist in the delicate and important work of seating persons in the meeting-house; in 1675, he was engaged to keep a school for 10 shillings a week, or 7 shillings, if paid in money. He also served on the board of selectmen eight years. He died in 1685, his wife having died in 1662. |