Odd Man Out in Malden, Massachusetts
John Bucknam: 1635-1705
John Bucknam was the eldest son of my
ninth-great-grandfather William Bucknam. However, John’s father gave him up at
an early age, and he was essentially cut off from his father, stepmother and
eight half-siblings although he lived near them in the same general
community. Even in death, William left his son without support. Late in life,
John was essentially homeless and had to be cared for by the community. In a
Puritan environment that emphasized family ties, John was the odd man out in
several respects.
William Bucknam arrived in Massachusetts in 1630 as part of
the Great Migration of Puritan colonists into New England. He married a young
woman who arrived in the same group of ships. Sarah Prudence Wilkinson,
daughter of John and Prudence Wilkinson, had been left fatherless when John
Wilkinson died on the voyage to the colony. William quickly married her and
they lived in the Rumney Marsh area. Around 1635 Sarah gave birth to a son they
named John after her father.
Sarah grew sick while little John was very young, and
eventually died. I have found no record of the date of death. William was still
trying to establish himself in the new colony at this point, and Sarah’s
illness and the costs of the funeral left him in debt and struggling to care
for a young child. Sarah’s widowed mother Prudence Wilkinson offered to take
young John and raise him. William gratefully accepted her offer.
By 1640 or 1641, William had remarried. His new bride, Sarah
Knower, gave birth to their first son Joser on July 3, 1641. They went on to
have at least seven more children. William worked as a carpenter and bought
land to farm in what is now Malden. The family seems to have become quite financially comfortable.
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| Mystic Side of Charlestown Mass. which became Malden |
Despite the improvement in their circumstances, young John
remained with his grandmother Wilkinson against William’s wishes. In June 1641,
William filed suit asking for his son to be returned. The court petition
states:
“...whereas his mother-in-law the widow Wilkinson keeps away
from him his son John Bucknum against the good will of the petitioner which is
like to be a breach of peace between us, your petitioner humbly prayeth the
widow Wilkinson may be ordered to redeliver to this petitioner his said child.”
William’s suit was apparently unsuccessful, for John
remained with his grandmother. It is unclear how much contact father and son
had after 1641. Probate records state that John had been apprenticed to his
grandmother at her request until his 21st birthday, so he was bound
to stay with her until he was an adult. The widow’s only source of income seems
to have been a farm, so John wasn’t taught any real trade as her apprentice.
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| Puritan meeting house in Malden |
When William wrote his will in 1667, he added a special
codicil to explain why he felt no obligation to leave an inheritance for John.
It’s a rather disturbing little paragraph (note that misspellings and odd
capitalization are reproduced as written in the original text of the will):
“Least I shold be supposed by Any, to be unnatural or
injurious unto my Son John as being my firstborne; I hereby declare the true
ground and just Reasons of the Several gifts and legacies, disposed unto my
wife and Children as hereafter stated, And why no more, is settled, or
otherwise Stated, on my Son John though my firstborne.
First because the Estate, whereby I purchased All my lands
(And for that Allso by the improvement thereof through the blessing of God on
my Labours, I have built my housing and brought up my children hereunto, And
have in my measure been helpful in Church, Town And Cuntry Affayres) Came unto
mee by my wife Sara, that now is, And from her Kindred, who in a Special
Manner, intended it, for the benefit of her Children.
2dly. By means of much weaknes of his mother my first wife,
and Expences for him in his infancie, I was much run in debt, to sundry
persons: the which were Allso payed out of this woomans portion.
3dly this my Sone John was After by his Grandmother taken
from mee before he came to Abilitie, to doe Any thing for mee, And on her
desire bound As Apprentice to her till he shold be 21 years old, So that I had
no Service or help of his; to the raysing of my Estate.
4thly he Allso with my Consent, Enjoyeth A portion, from his
Grandmother, in stead of the portion due to mee, in the right of his Mother, to
About twentie pounds value.”
So, to summarize, William said he ran into debt following
John’s mother’s death, and his new wife Sarah helped to pay off those debts. He
added that her family also helped him to purchase his farm land, with the
intent that their assistance would benefit Sarah and her children, not
William’s child of his first marriage. William rather bitterly said that John
was living with his grandmother for all the years that William was building up
his wealth, and that as a result John had provided him no assistance, and
therefore was due none of the proceeds of that work. William also argued that
as Prudence’s widower, he was due twenty pounds from his wife’s estate, but
that he had consented that John should have that portion, and he also noted that
John had inherited his grandmother’s Prudence Wilkinson’s estate, implying John
was financially secure and was therefore owed nothing by his father.
William was being disingenuous at best. At her death in
1655, most of the Widow Wilkinson’s estate went to her surviving son and
daughter. John’s inheritance from his grandmother was two steers and a five
acre field that was valued at a minimal twenty pounds, hardly a fortune and
probably not enough land to support him, much less support a family. Perhaps
this is why John never married.
John served in the early French and Indian Wars, the part
known as King Philip’s War, a bloody rebellion by native tribes against the
colonists, with atrocities committed on both sides. The records of Malden area
men who served show that John was a soldier in 1675 when he was about 40 years old,
serving first under Captain Henchman and then under Captain Mosely. His half-brother
Joses served the following year under Captains Wheeler and Henchman. Captain
Mosely’s men were involved in the Battle of Bloody Brook, the worst disaster
for the colonists in the war. Mosely’s men had to bury some 75 soldiers from
another unit who had been killed by the natives. It must have been an
emotionally damaging experience.
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| Etching of King Philip's War |
Following his war service, John had some sort of breakdown.
According to Corey’s History of Malden Massachusetts, “Soon after [the war], he
lost the use of speech and apparently became of unsound mind. About this time
he probably became dependent upon the town or the bounty of his brothers and
sisters.”
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| Battle in King Philip's War |
It is possible John suffered PTSD from his war experiences,
or he may have had some sort of mental illness that became worse as he grew
older. His illness may have been another reason that his father disinherited
him; William died in 1679, just four years after John returned from war. John’s
problem persisted for many years. When his half-brother William died in 1694,
John was unable to participate in the settlement of probate “by reason of
present distraction.”
Miraculously, John regained his senses in 1696, as reported
by the local minister, a Mr. Wigglesworth, to his superior Samuel Sewall, that “John
Bucknam of Malden, above 50 years old, has been perfectly dumb near 18 years,
and now within about 3 weeks has his understanding and speech restored. He is
much affected with the Goodness of God to him herein.”
Alas, whatever sanity and speech he regained did not enable
him to provide for himself. His half-brothers Joses, William and Edward had already died by 1696, leaving only his youngest
half brother, Samuel Bucknam. The town of Malden sent two representatives “to
agree with Samuell Bucknam or any other consarning John Bucknam.” The
representatives were also directed to attempt to “recover aney Estate: in
behalf of ye town” that would have been John’s share.
Shortly thereafter, a suit was brought, not against Samuell,
but against Joses Bucknam’s widow Jude and her new husband John Linde or Lynde “to
make a final agreement in all contrenarcies in refranc to John Bucknam for time
past.” I believe this means they sought the share that should have gone to John
as firstborn, but was given to second-born Joses instead. This is a rather
Biblical, Jacob-and-Esau type of conflict. I can imagine Jude’s new husband was
reluctant to become responsible for someone he was completely unrelated to.
The case doesn’t seem to have settled the issue, for in 1700,
the town brought suit against a different Samuel Bucknam, the son of Joses Bucknam.
They reached an agreement for “said Samuel Bucknam to keep entertain and maintain
his unckle John Bucknam from ye first of March last past to ye last of March
next aftar this date: and for his so doing the select men of this town shall alow
him out of ye town-Treasury: 2-15-0 in money."
Something must have gone wrong with this arrangement.
Perhaps John was more trouble than the two pounds payment was worth to Samuel.
By 1703, the town appointed men to “agree with Captain William Green
consarning ye trouble he was at consarning John Bucknam beeing sick at his hous
last winter.”
Nephew Samuel was indirectly forced to provide for his uncle
later that year. Samuel was taken to court on account of some sort of trouble
caused by his slave named Peeter. He ended up paying the town two pounds and
twelve shillings in compensation. The town used part of the money to buy clothes for his uncle
John.
John died June 14, 1705 at the approximate age of 70 years
old. I am guessing that few in the town
of Malden mourned his passing. While most of his siblings have elaborately
carved headstones at Bell Rock Cemetery, he does not, so even in death his
family cut him out and left him to be forgotten. I have to pity the poor man,
basically abandoned by his father, treated as a charity case by his
half-siblings and neighbors, and left to struggle with mental illness in a
society that neither understood nor could treat such afflictions. John Bucknam
truly was a man alone.
Sources:
The History of Malden
Massachusetts, 1633-1785, Deloraine P Corey, 1836-1910
King Philip's War:
Colonial Expansion, Native Resistance, and the End of Indian Sovereignty By Daniel R. Mandell, JHU Press, Sep 1, 2010.
Soldiers in King
Philip's War, by George Madison Bodge, Connecticutt 1896
An Early History of
Malden, Frank Russell, Arcadia Publishing, 2018
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