Henrie Waye at Dorchester

Thompson Island

There is disagreement among authors of Way family history regarding the relationship of Henry Way "the Puritan", and George Way. Some accounts are of a father and son, some accounts are of brothers, and others assign no relationship between them. 

Henry Way was born on 10 Dec 1576 in Allington, Bridport, Dorsetshire, England. He married Joanna Smith. She was born 1587. They had no children. Henry married Elizabeth Bacheler daughter of Henry Bacheler. She was born 1587 in Devonshire, England. She died on 23 Jun 1665 in Dorchester, Norfolk, Massachusetts. Henry Way and Elizabeth Bacheler had 10 children.

In 1630, Henry and Elizabeth and children arrived at Plymouth Colony aboard the Mary and John. Henry Way is named with the first recorded grantees of land in Dorchester. His three sons lived in Dorchester. His son Aaron was instrumental in the removal of clergy involved in the witch hunts at Salem.

In September 1630, Governor John Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers traveled to the peninsula, known as Shawmut by the Algonquins, and founded Dorchester, the first part of the city of Boston.

"The first meeting-house erected in Dorchester, and the first in the Bay, was built on Allen's Plain, near the corner of Pleasant and Cottage streets, in 1631, and the first settlers of Roxbury united themselves with the Dorchester church and worshipped here with them."

-The Pioneers of Massachusetts, Charles Henry Pope

"In 1631 a small bark of Salem, of about twelve tons, coming towards the Bay, John Elston and two of Mr. Cradock's fishermen being in her, and two tons of stone, and three hogsheads of train oil, was overset in a gust, and being buoyed up by the oil, she floated up and down forty-eight hours, and the three men sitting upon her, till Henry Way his boat, coming by, espied them and saved them".

"In 1632 a shallop of one Henry Way of Dorchester, having been missing all the winter, it was found that the men in her, being five, were all killed treacherously by the eastern Indians.

Another shallop of his being sent out to seek out the other, was cast away at Aquamenticus, and two of the men drowned".

"On 4 August 1635 "John Holland, being at the eastward affirmeth, that Mr. Thomas Wannerton threatened to sink his boat, if he would not pay him a debt, that Henry Way owed him, and called him rogue and knave, and said they were all so in the Bay.."

"On August 11,1646 Henry Way & James Cary were appointed to cull the fish and see it weighed aboard the Mary of London".

-The American Genealogist, vol. 9

Henry Way was admitted to the second church at Dorchester 5 May 1643.

-Records of the First Church at Dorchester.., 1636-1734

He could sign his name. He pledged to support the Dorchester schoolmaster 7 Feb 1641. He held office as Dorchester fieldviewer, 24 December 1645.

"Henry Way was granted an allotment at Mannings Moone, but the property in some way did not suit, so in lieu of it he was granted five acres evidently at Thomson's Island. His grant at the Neck was 2 acres and two quarters and twelve rods, and of cow pasture, the same. He had two rods of fencing at the great lots above Mr. Glover's. He had an indeterminate amount of land in the Dorchester meadowlands."

-Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Dorchester Town Records

By the church record it appears Henry lived where "Capt. Breck's cyder mills" afterwards stood. He died in 1667, aged 84 years. His wife Elizabeth died in 1665, aged 84.

"1667: This year there died three quite prominent men in the town; viz., Thomas Bird, sen,; Henry Way, aged 84 years; and Thomas Jones, aged 75 years."

-History of Dorchester

WAY, Mr. Henry, Dorchester, one of the first company; carried on fishing business. His boat saved three shipwrecked men off the coast, 26 July, 1631. Two other boats of his were lost, 5 men killed by the Indians and 2 drowned, in 1632. His wife Elizabeth d. 23 (4) 1665, ae. 84. He d. 24 (3) 1667, ae. 84 -The Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles Henry Pope

Henry Way was born at Bridport on the English Channel:

"Many of the early inhabitants of Dorchester being natives of the channel ports, were accustomed to the sea, and employed themselves in fishing in the bay and coasting on the shores of Maine in pursuit of furs. Hutchison mentions a shallop belonging to Mr. Glover, cast away at Nahant, in February, 1631 and again, that five men, belonging to a Dorchester shallop, were murdered by Indians on the coast of Maine, in 1632.

-The History of Dorchester, Massachusetts

Henry Way appears in Town Records on a list of Grantees of Dorchester lands previous to January, 1636, and comprises all the first settlers.

- History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society

"with Henry Way and Richard Leeds had land granted in 1639 at Thompson's Island, provided they set forward fishing, etc..."

... a deed transfer from Henry Way to Henry Shrimpton, for property located in Dorchester, dated 14 August 1665, and recorded 12 December 1669.

-Suffolk Deeds, by Suffolk County, Massachusetts

In 1837, when novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne strolled bucolic

Thompson Island, he mused: "It seems like a little world by itself."