Henry Brooks @ Woburn

Henry Brooks the 7th great-grandfather of Lewis Way

(Henry Brooks, Hannah Brooks, Hannah Fox, Ann Lester, Thomas Way, David Way, Samuel Way, Solomon Way, Edward Lewis Way, Hiram Lewis Way, Lewis Betheal Way).

Henry Brooks was probably born ca.1592 in Manchester, Lancashire, England. He married Susannah. They had 8 children.

Henry Brooks was admitted freemand in Concord, Massachusetts 14 Mar 1639. He is on the tax list for Woburn, Massachusetts from 1649-1657.

Henry Brooks bought land: 20 Dec 1650, William Brackenbury, late of Charlestowne, sold to Henry Brookes of Woburn, yeoman, for £50, six parcels of upland and meadow (178 acres in all) at Horn Pond, together with a house frame. Henry's homestead, described in Woburn records in 1678, was located on South Street (later, lower Main Street), and as late as 1789 was owned by a direct descendant, Capt. Nathaniel Brooks. 7 Jun 1651, Edward Converse of Woburn, yeoman, sold to Henry Brooks of Woburn seven acres. In 1654 Henry Brooks bought 37 acres in Woburn of Alice and Thomas Rand.

He was, Dec 1658, "about 66," a witness in Capt. Edward Johnson's suit for slander against Ensign John Carter. 13 Dec 1659, Henry Brookes and Susanna Brookes of Woburn, in accordance with an award of the court, resigned one-half of Ezekiel Richardson's house and lands, deeding the property to Theophilus Richardson. In 1668 Henry Brooks and his sons John and Isaac Broockes each signed a petition in support of Thomas Dutton, who had sued Michael Bacon Jr. for calling him a thief.

Henry Brooks seems to have materially increased his estate and wealth during his lifetime. While in 1650 he called himself a simple yeoman, in his old age he called himself a clothier. In Pope's words, "A 'clothier' was a man who combined the various departments of cloth-making and handled the products. The carder prepared the wool for the spinster; the weaver passed his pieces over to the webster and fuller; the tucker got things in shape for the shearman; and the clothier criticized, accepted, or rejected, and adjusted the prices of the cloths, and put them on the market. … Clothiers were generally men who comprehended the entire process of manufacturing cloth, and who were cloth merchants; so the trade or business implied a person of large brain and strong grasp of details and good sagacity. It was also usually very profitable, so that clothiers were very often more wealthy than the gentry"

Henry Brooks was selectman of Woburn in 1669, 1671 and 1672.²³ There his wife Susanna died 15 Sep 1681. There he married (3), 12 Jul 1682, Annis Jordan, widow of Abraham Jaquith, and there he made his will six days later.
Henry Brooks, "cloathyer … stricken in years and may expect every day my change," dated his will 18 Jul 1682, signing by mark with an "H." To loving wife Annes he left an annuity of three pounds a year, "covenanted under my hand on day of marriag upon her renowncing any other Dowry," and the use of a cow during her lifetime. To son John, the £10 owed for a yoke of oxen and one third of the wearing apparel, "but he hath had his portion already." To son Timothy, one third of the wearing apparel and confirmation of all that land I gave him; "he hath [Received] his portion already." For son-in-law John Mousall, he forgave a bond (note) of £50 for land and housing held jointly with his son John Brooks, and his wife my daughter Sarah may have the disposing of £20 of the said fifty. To son Isaac, all my land on the east side of the highway except 8 acres reserved for Isaac's sons Isack and Henery, half my herbage and woodlots, and all my plowland lots except my great lot which I give to his daughter Miriam. To daughter Lestor, five shillings and no more because she hath received her portion already as will appear by a receipt in her hand. To his grandchildren Isaac and Henry, all his lands west of the highway leading to Charlestown, a piece of land on the west side of James Convers, the previously mentioned 8 acres in the meadow on the east side, half my woodlots and half my herbage, "the little playne," and passage for their catoll [cattle] to and from the Common. To granddaughter Miriam, daughter of Isaac, my great lot. To reverend pastors Thomas Carter and Jabez Fox, twenty shillings apiece. He appointed his son Isaac sole executor and residuary legatee, and his trusted friend Lieut. William Johnson overseer to see the will performed, for which in token of my love I give him twenty shillings in silver: the which I have payd alredy. Finally he desired that his two grandchildren not alienate (sell) any of the land he gave them during their father's lifetime. Witnesses were Jabez Fox, Daniel Green and Peter ffowle.

Henry Brooks died at Woburn 12 Apr 1683.²⁷ His inventory, returned 17 Apr 1683 by James Convers Jun^r and another whose signature eludes decipherment, was as follows:
Imprim^s, about twenty acres of upland on the est side of the highwaye att 20-00-00
and seven acres of Meddow adjoyning to the said land 26-00-00
Item, for eaight acres of Meddow In forty pound meddow given to the children of Isack Brooks att 32-00-00
Item, for about eaighty acres of upland on the west side of the highway on both sides the river Given to the 2: sonns of Isack Brookes att 90-00-00
Item for the greatt Lott In Woburne Coman Given to Meriam the daughter of Isack Brookes, forty too acres 10-10-00
Item for three small Lotts in Wooburne Coman amounting to, about fiveteen acres att 07-00-00
Item for a division of Woodland In Wooburne comman land the one half Given to the 2: Sonns of Isack Brooks att 12-00-00
Item for six acres of Meddowland In Shredvine Meddow att 20-00-00
Item for the Towne priviledge in herbidg [herbage] the one half given to the too sonns of Isack Brooks att02-00-00
Item for five acres ¼ of swamp Botum att 02-12-00
Item for three Cows att 09-00-00
Item for nine Sheep att 03-00-00
Item for one Barne att 12-00-00
Item In Silver 07-12-00
Item for fivety pounds In the hands of John Brooks due by bill: 50-00-00
Item for a bill In the hands of John Brooks for a pair of oxen 10-00-00
Item for a fetherbedd and furniture att 08-00-00
Item for a flock bed bedsted and beding att 02-10-00
Item for other beding att 04-10-00
Item for his wareing Cloaths att 09-00-00
Item for 17 yards of linen Cloth att 02-00-00
Item for one cubard [cupboard] and table Linen att 02-05-00
Item for brass and pewter att 04-00-00
Item for axes crow [colter?] and other old oyron [iron] att 00-15-00
Item for and oyrons [andirons] and Spitt att 00-10-00
Item for a bed pann 00-08-00
Item for 4 old bags and tenn bushels of Indian corn 02-05-00
Item for seals & waights 00-01-00
Item for an old lumb [Loom] and old geers for a weaver and combs 01-02-00
Item for three chests barils and tubbs and lumber 01-12-00
Item for too barils of Silver 01-00-00
(TOTAL:) £355-15-00.

One further appearance of Henry Brooks may be related. Rev. Increase Mather, in his history of King Philip's War, explained the conflict as a manifestation of divine displeasure with New England. In Mather's view, many paranormal events which preceded the war represented divine warnings which had fallen on deaf ears. In one such account he mentions Henry Brooks, as follows.
And now that I am upon this Digression, let me add, that the monstrous births which have at sundry times hapned, are speaking, solemn providences. Especially that which was at Woburn, Febru. 23, 1670. When the wife of Joseph Wright was delivered of a Creature the form whereof was as followeth. "The head, neck and arms in true Form and shape of a child; but it had no breast bone nor any back bone; the belly was of an extraordinary bigness, both the sides and back being like a belly, the thighs were very small without any thigh bones; It had no buttocks, the Membrum virile was a meer bone; it had no passage for nature in any part below; the feet turned directly outward, the heels turned up, and like a bone; It being opened, there were found two great lumps of flesh on the sides of the seeming belly; the bowels did ly on the upper part of the breast by the Vitalls. This was testified before the Deputy Gouernour Mr. Willoughby on the 2d of March following, by Mrs. Johnson Midwife, Mary Kendal, Ruth Bloghead, Lydia Kendall. Seen also by Capt. Edward Johnson, Lieut. John Carter, Henry Brook, James Thomson, Isaac Cole.
There are judicious persons, who upon the consideration of some relative circumstances, in that monstrous birth, have concluded that God did thereby bear witness against the Disorders of some in that place. As in the dayes of our Fathers, it was apprehended that God did testifie from heaven against the monstrous Familistical Opinions that were then stirring, by that direfull Monster which was brought forth by the wife of William Dyer, Octo. 17, 1637, a description whereof may be seen in Mr. Welds his History of the Rise and Ruine of Antinomianisme, p. 43, 44, and in Mr. Clarks Examples, vol. I, p. 249.

-Tributaries, Genealogies of the Brooks Families of New England, pp.262