Ezekiel Richardson

     Ezekiel Richardson was born circa 1604 in England.¹ He was the son of Thomas Richardson and Katherine Duxford.¹ He married Susanna circa 1630, probably just before leaving England or very soon after arriving in Massachusetts Bay.² He died on 21 October 1647 in Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.^3,4 The inventory of the estate of Ezekiel Richardson was taken 18 November 1647 and totalled £190 6s. 6d., with no real estate included.^5,6,7
     
     He is the only known child of Thomas and Katherine Richardson whose baptism is not recorded in Westmill, Hertfordshire, and he is not mentioned in his father's will made 4 March 1630/1. His ancestry is established with proof he was a brother of Samuel and Thomas.

     Ezekiel Richardson was undoubtedly a passenger on one of the ships in the Winthrop fleet that left England in the spring of 1630. By 6 July of that year, eleven of the vessels had arrived and most of the passengers settled with their governor at Charlestown at the head of Boston harbor.⁸ "Ezech[ie]ll Richeson" was admitted as an inhabitant of Charlestown in 1630.⁹ At Charlestown Ezekiel and Susanna his wife became members of the First Church on 27 August 1630.⁸ However, Anderson, in his Great Migration sketch, says "Ezechiel Richardson and his wife" were admitted to Boston church as members #80 and #81 which would be in the winter of 1630/31. (As mentioned here, First Church and Boston church are synonymous).¹⁰ When Winthrop moved, and the church with him, to the neighboring peninsula that became Boston, The Richardsons remained in Charlestown and "Ezechiell Richardson and Susan his wife" were dismissed with others, 35 in all, to form a new Charlestown church on 14 October 1632.^8,11,12 On 2 November 1632 "Ezek:" and "Susan Richeson" were admitted to "the Church of God in Charltowne" as founding members.^13,11

     Meanwhile Ezekiel Richardson had taken the Freeman's Oath on 18 May 1631.¹⁴ A freeman was a full citizen who had the right to vote and hold public office. To become a freeman, certain requirements had to be met as set forth in the first charter of the Massachusetts colony. Only males 21 years of age or older, excluding indentured servants or bonded men, who took an oath of fidelity to the Crown, owned property, and belonged to Congregational churches, were eligible. Ezekiel Richardson was among those of the first generation of Great Migration immigrants to Charlestown who, as a freeman eligible to hold office, became part of the local oligarchy that exercised control for the elite by limiting landholding to citizens. As a consequence, by 1638, 18 percent of the population of Charlestown owned 70 percent of the land. Ezekiel Richardson ranked eighth among the landowners, having amassed 151.5 acres as of that year.¹⁵

     On 3 April 1633, Ezekiel Richardson was appointed constable of "Charlton" by the General Court "for the year next ensuing & till a new be chosen."^8,16 He became a member of the committee to lay out lots, 9 January 1633/34, and again on 23 November 1635.¹⁷ He appeared in the lists of inhabitants of 9 January 1633/34 and January 1635/36.¹⁸ He was put on the committee to lay out highways, 10 February 1634/35, 12 February 1637/38, and 20 December 1638.¹⁹ He was elected a member of the town's first board of selectmen on 10 February 1634/35, and re-elected on 12 Feb 1637/38.^8,20 On 2 September 1635, he became a deputy from Charlestown to the General Court which met in New Town (Cambridge).^21,8

     In 1635 Ezekiel Richardson surrendered back to the town five acres of land Mystic Side.²² In the same year he was granted five shares of hay ground, which was increased to six shares.²³

     Ezekiel's brothers Samuel and Thomas, the former with his wife Joanna and perhaps one or two children, the latter with his wife Mary, emigrated from England and joined Ezekiel and his family in Charlestown by 1635/36.²⁴

     On 24 October 1636 the town of Charlestown "agreed to allow Ezek[ie]ll Richeson 2 acres of ground besides the two due to him, to make & keep two sufficient gates for the highway between Mr. Mayhew's & New Towne, & the highway to have 6 pole in breadth."²⁵ On 28 November 1636, Ezekiel was put on a committee to regulate wages.²⁵ He had five acres of land "Misticke side" (Malden) in 1637, and also four and three-quarter cow commons.²⁶ (Brothers Samuel and Thomas also had grants on Mystic Side in 1637).⁴ On 17 February 1636/37, he became a member of a committee on stinting the common.²⁷ On 3 March 1636/37 "Goodman Ezek[ie]ll Richeson had ½ a cow's grass appointed by Tho[mas] Squire."²⁸ On 19 September 1637, he was on a "Jury of Life and Death" that found three person guilty of adultery, one guilty of murder, and acquitted one on the charge of murder.^8,29

     There arose in 1636 a great controversy that by the time it ended in 1638 had very nearly brought down the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Commonly called the "antinomian controversy," it involved a departure from Puritan mainstream thinking led by such notables as the Boston minister John Cotton, Anne Hutchinson, and Anne's brother-in-law Reverend John Wheelwright. Although Wheelwright is the lesser known of these individuals, it was his trial in March 1637 on heresy and sedition charges that sent shockwaves through the colony. By the time the crisis had subsided, leading colonists had voluntarily departed or had been banished. Ezekiel Richardson was one of eighty who signed a remonstrance in Wheelwright's favor which was presented to the General Court on 9 March 1636/37. The signers were hotly accused of sedition, but the great majority maintained their position and were ordered disarmed. Ezekiel was one of eight Charlestown men who on 15 November 1637 acknowledged their sin in signing the remonstrance and the General Court "yelded them that their hands should be crossed out." They were not disarmed. Though it can be debated, Ezekiel's action, considering what he had to lose, was probably one of failing to maintain conviction rather than of admitting error.^30,31

     On 23 April 1638 Ezekiel Richardson had Mystic Side allotments of 35, 85 and 5 acres.³² On 30 December 1638 he had 6½ cow commons in the stinted common.³³ In the 1638 Charlestown Book of Possessions "Ezechell Richardson" held thirteen parcels of land: three acre homestead in High Field; one acre meadow at north end of aforesaid three acres; one half acre meadow in High Field; one acre meadow on northeast side of Gibbon's Field (which "he bought of William Nash to whom at first it fell by lot"); one acre arable land in East Field; two acres meadow bounded to the south on Cambridge Field and to the north on Gibbon's River (later annotation: "sold to Thomas Brigden"); six acres meadow in Mystic Field; five acres woodland in Mystic Field; thirty-five acres woodland in Mystic Field; three acres meadow "lying to the northward of Mount Prospect") ninety acres of land in Water Field; six and a half milch cow commons (four and three quarters granted to him, one and a quarter bought of William Nash, and a half bought of George Whitehand); and four acres arable land in Line Field.³⁴

     On 13 May 1640, he was a Charlestown member of the colony committee on valuation of livestock.³⁵ That month, Charlestown petitioned the General Court for an enlargement of its territory and in reply the Court granted four square miles. On 15 May, Ezekiel Richardson was one of those sent by the town to explore the grant and determine its boundaries, and, this having been done, the church of Charlestown chose, on 5 November, seven men, including the three Richardson brothers, to act as a commission for the erection of a church and the organization of a new town on this land. Building began in 1641 and the territory was incorporated as Woburn in September 1642. The three brothers settled there on adjoining farms, known as Richardson Row, which is now in the town of Winchester.⁴ On 10 May 1643, Ezekiel Richardson became a commissioner for small causes at Woburn,³⁶ and was chosen to serve on a committee to lay out a highway between Cambridge and Woburn.³⁷ Ezekiel sat on the original board of selectmen of Woburn in 1644 and continued in that office in 1645, 1646 and 1647. He was a deacon of the church until his death.⁴

     In his will, dated 20 July 1647 and proved 1 June 1648, "Ezekiell Richardson "of Woebourne" appointed "my wife Susanna and my eldest son Theophilus joint executors"; and bequeathed to "Josias my son £30 to be paid in money, cattle or corn" at twenty-one years of age; to "James my son £30" at twenty-one years of age; to "Phebe my daughter £30" at "twenty years of age or within six months after the day of her marriage"; if any of these three should die before they come of age, the legacies be shared among the survivors; in case "my son Theophilus die before he shall accomplish one and twenty years of age, then his portion shall be equally divided to my other children"; "I doe frelie fforgive and discharge whatsoever accounts and demands have been between my brother Samuel Richardson and myself"; to "my brother Thomas, his son Thomas, 10s."; overseers Edward Converse and John Mousall of Woburn, if either of these die, then the survivor with the consent of Thomas Carter, pastor of the church in Woburn, to choose a replacement overseer; 30s. to each overseer; residue to my executors, "provided that my wife may peacably enjoy her habitation in the house so long as she shall live."^4,5,38

     On 6 March 1649/50, Edward Converse confirmed to the heirs of Ezekiel Richardson an earlier sale of twelve acres of meadow & upland in Woburn.³⁹ On 27 March 1651 Samuel Richeson of Woburn "having formerly sold unto Ezekill Richeson my brother (who is since deceased) forty acres of arable & meadow land" in Woburn, confirms the same to "my sister Susanna Brookes (who was the wife of my deceased brother Ezekill Richeson."⁴⁰ On 23 March 1654/55 "Susanna Richeson now Brookes formerly the wife of Ezek: Richeson" confirmed a sale made eight years earlier by "Ezekill Richardson & Sussanna Richardson my wife" to Thomas Moulton and John Greenland of thirty-five acres of land in Woburn.⁴¹ On 13 December 1659 "Henry Brookes & Susanna Brookes of Woburn," in accordance with an award of the court, deeded to Theophilus Richardson the right and title they had in "the moiety or half part of the housing & land of Ezekiell Richardson of Woburn aforesaid, by executorship or otherwise."⁴²