HX-19-2014 mccmc (Guest Column - Part 4) (4)Looking east along the beach at Sidmouth, England (where Hezekiah Hoar was born). (Photo courtesy Wikipedia.com.)

Record of baptism of Hezekiah Hoar (“Ezechyeas Horre”).HX-19-2014 mccmc (Guest Column - Part 4) (2)

Guest Column

Editor’s note: Recently, author Doug Rozendal wrote Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz asking if he knew of any local publications that would be interested in publishing a series of articles that he had written about his family history and how they ended up in Central New York. This is the fourth in a series of six that will appear in the Courier.

Prudence Hoard married George Lester Winslow in 1800 in Taunton, Mass., and came with him shortly thereafter to upstate New York. She and her husband lived in Oneida and Madison counties the rest of their lives. Prudence’s second great grandfather, Hezekiah Hoar, was part of the group that founded the town of Taunton.

But the Hoar family (spelled variously as “Hore,” “Hoard” and “Hoar” to name just a few) did not just make a name for itself in the new world. It had a long, rich tradition stretching back centuries to England, Ireland and France. An early genealogist of the American Hoard family traces its roots back to a follower of William the Conqueror named “k hore.”

The town of Taunton, Mass., was settled by emigrants from the town of Taunton in the county of Somerset. It is a large market town about half way between Gloucester and Chagford, just south of which is the port of Plymouth from which the early Puritans sailed for the colonies. Taunton was almost the center of puritanism at the time.

Hezekiah Hoar was born in Sidmouth, Dorset, England, before July 8, 1608, the day he was christened. His name appears on the passenger list of the ship Recovery as “Ezechia Hore.” This ship left Weymouth in Dorset March 31, 1633, and arrived in Massachusetts Bay June 24 of the same year. He was in Scituate, Mass., as early as 1637. He is one of 46 purchasers of an eight-mile-square area known as Cohansett, which subsequently became known as the North Purchase of Taunton, Mass. He paid 100 pounds for his share.

He was a prominent citizen of Taunton. He helped start the first iron works in America there. He was a surveyor of highways, a constable and was enlisted as an ensign in an expedition against the Dutch of New Amsterdam under the command of Captain Miles Standish. On Feb. 27, 1692, he deeded all his property to his sons, Edward and Hezekiah, Jr.

Hezekiah, Jr., was born in 1678; he was 14 when his father died. He was a carpenter and farmer by trade. He was one of those who helped form the town of Dighton in 1712. He and his wife Sarah had six children, the oldest of whom was Henry, who was born about 1702.

Henry lived in Dighton and is described as a “yeoman” in 1756. He and his wife Mary had five daughters and two sons. The older of these sons was James Hoar, who was born in September 1729. He was a “husbandman,” lived in Dighton, Raynham and Taunton, Mass.

James married Prudence Simmons in October 1753. He started using the name “Hoard” in about 1789. He and Prudence had seven children. Four of them, David, James Jr., Prudence and Enos, moved to Madison County and figure in other parts of our story. James Sr. died in 1791 in Taunton, a decade before his wife and most of his children moved to New York state.

By martha

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