From "The Ancestry Of Dudley Wildes" by Walter Goodwin Davis
Jacob Towne was a boy of three or four when he came to New England with his parents.
In Topsfield he was a commoner in 1661, a selectman in 1679, 1680 and 1683, and was frequently on Committees to run lines of town grants and boundaries. He served as a trial juror in 1676 and 1681, and as a grand juror in 1692. He was a corporal in the town's train band in 1681 and ensign in 1687.
Towne was one of the committee appointed by the church to choose a minister in 1680, and, Mr. Joseph Capen having come to Topsfield for the preliminary interviews, Towne was directed to accompany Capen back to Dorchester "and bring him again with his friends' consent to continue with us in the ministry." He was also on the committee to provide for Mr. Capen's ordination in 1684, and the committee to seat the people in the meetinghouse, a task requiring great tact, in 1687. He was one of the tythingmen in 1701.
Jacob was seldom in the courts. Mr. Williamm Perkins sued him in 1657, but the case was withdrawn, but in 1660, when Mr. Henry Bartholomew sued him for withholding a mare and a foal, the verdict was for Bartholomew. He testified in 1681, aged about 50, that thirty-five or six years ago his father had bought twenty acres of land of Jeffrey Massey and paid for it in wheat, and when his father removed from Salem to Topsfield in 1651, he sold the lot, which was at Ryal Side, to Nathaniel Felton. In 1682 he acted as agent for his town in the bitter dispute between Salem and Topsfield over the boundary line, which is considered to have had vengeful repercussions in the witchcraft accusations of 1692.
The will of Jacob Towne, husbandman, was made November 24, 1704, and proved January 5, 1704 (5). He left to his son Jacob the land upon which he was already settled consisting of about 49 acres on the south side of Ipswich river and an acre and 60 poles on the north side. To his daughter Katherine, wife of Elisha Perkins, L5 "not in or as money but other Current pay," besides what he had already given her. To his daughter Deliverance, wife of John Stiles, L4 "besides what she hath had of me already." To his son John and his daughter Ruth, equal shares in the land that he (the testator) lived on, not otherwise disposed of, with the house, orchards and all of the moveable estate, they to provide comfortable maintenance for his wife Katherine and his son Edmund during their natural lives. They were to pay his debts and his funeral expenses. In addition, to his daughter Deliverance, after his wife's decease, the (bed?) which his son Edmund hath usually had improvement of. Witnesses: Joseph Capen, William Town, Samuel Town. (Ibid., 308: 319-321.) |