Francis Wyman

  General Notes:

Gravestone:

'MEMENTO MORI'

'FUGIT HORA'

'Here lyes ye body of Francis Wyman aged about 82 years, died

November 28th, 1699 [an error of 1 or 2 years]

The memory of ye just is blessed'

Notes from the Wyman Genealogy of John Wyman of Dublin, Ohio found online:

The two Wyman brothers Francis and John were seventeen and fourteen in 1636 and so probably came over with their older uncles, Samuel and Thomas Richardson. The first definite record that we find of the Wyman brothers in New England is when the town order of Charlestown Village (Woburn) were signed in 1640; which the Richardsons and Wymans all signed. By that date the Wymans were 21 and 18. John Wyman the brother of Francis was made a freeman 26 May 1647 at age 25, and Francis a freeman 1657. Later in 1658 Francis Wyman Sr. in his will said '.. do give and bequeth unto my two sons Francis Wyman and John Wyman which are beyound sea ten pounds a piece of Lawful English money to be paid unto them by mine executor if they be in want and come over to demand the same.' The Wymans built on what became Wyman St. in Woburn, and by 1666 they had also built country farms in what is now Burlington, a few miles north, on what became the Billerica boundry.

He settled with each son at majority and in his will left his remaining estate to his youngest son Benjamin. (William had already inherited land and the homestead). Abigail is also mentioned in his will

Overlooked by many is the fact that a grant of land was made in Woburn on 25 Feb 1679 to a John Wyman, a wheelwright. This was not Lt. John Wyman the brother of Francis, but rather the son of Thomas and Ann (Godfrey) Wyman and hence the nephew of the Wyman brothers. This John was know and Sergant John Wyman. There is also found in Boston a tailor named Thomas Wyman or Wayman who was in the 1675 war against the Narragansett Indians. He is believed by some to be the son of the brother Richard Wyman, hence another nephew of Francis and John Wyman. He settled with each son at majority and in his will left his remaining estate to his youngest son Benjamin. (William had already inherited land and the homestead). Abigail is also mentioned in his will

One of the 32 inhabitants of Charlestown who on Dec 30 1644 established the town of Woburn. Extensive data from 'Genealogical Dictionary of First Settlers of New England who arrived before 1692' by Savage. Francis1 and John1 Wyman became tanners in Woburn, perhaps having learned the craft in England (Buntingford, two miles north of Westmill, was a tanning center in Hertfordshire) By 1641 they were granted lots for 6d per acre near the center of Woburn at the present Main and Wyman Streets near Central Square. Francis' house has not been recorded, but John's house was a two story frame house 34 by 26 feet with 13 windows having 40 rods of land adjoining. Nearby on Wymans' Lane were the tanning vats, a barn, tan house, currying shop and sheds. Their tanning business carried on until 1768 when it was sold to David Cummings. The water needed for tanning was diverted from a brook which was done away with when the nearby Middlesex Canal was built about 1800. Woburn became the tanning center of the country.

A grant of 500 acres in what became the town of Billerica was made in 1648 to the Rev. Henry Dunster the first president of Harvard College. This he sold in 1655 to Francis and John Wyman for £100 sterling. Because of Dunster's Baptist leanings, he was removed as the president of Harvard College and apparently needed some cash. After some political maneuvering the pending town of Billerica was persuaded to lay out the grant which was entirely within the new town. The grant was on the border of Woburn, adjacent to where the Wymans already had land.

In 1657 The Woburn selectmen agreed to exchange 94 acres of land the Wymans already possessed in the town for an equal amount "_adjoining to their land at Billerica_." Again, in 1661 Francis exchanged with the town of Woburn "_a parcel of land lying in the treasury_(for land at)_his farm next Billerica." The same year Billerica granted 70 acres in the same general area to the Wyman brothers which was laid out and the return made in 1663.

In 1665 the Wymans purchased for the sum of £50 the Coytmore grant of 500 acres which was to be laid out in Woburn. The Woburn selectmen attempted to have the grant laid out elsewhere, but the General Court in 1666 had it laid out at this time when the Woburn-Billerica boundary was being settled. It was stated that the grant was to be laid out "_in Woobourne bounds, next adjoining to the land and houses of the said Waymens, apprehending it to be most convenient and profitable for them so to lye." Interestingly, the deed of sale is witnessed by Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, a Martha's Vineyard Indian who was the solitary Indian to have graduated from Harvard College at this time.

In 1667 Francis, John and eleven other citizens of Woburn were hauled before the County Court for publicly manifesting contempt for the ordinance of baptism and for attending illegal assemblies of the Anabaptists. Nothing much happened and both were later active in the local church, although Francis in his will left small bequests to two elders of the Baptist Church in Boston.

The country house of Francis built sometime before 1666 still stands in Burlington and is now owned by the Francis Wyman Association. It is an eight room, two story, center chimney house with attic and half-cellar.

Nearby in Billerica is the Amos Wyman cellar hole, the site of John Wyman's original farm house, a house to which Samuel Adams and John Hancock retreated on 17 April 1775 when they fled Lexington. Elizabeth (Pierce) Wyman, the wife of Amos is said to have fed her visitors boiled potatoes, pork and bread instead of the salmon which her guests had planned to eat at the Lexington parsonage. Hancock is reported to have sent a cow to his hostess at a later date in appreciation of her hospitality.

  Research Notes:

Proof of the lineage of Francis and John Wyman of Woburn is from Water's 'Genealogical Gleanings in England' and from Threlfall's 'Fifty Great Migration Colonists to New England & Their Origins'. The English Wymans are well covered in 'The Wymans/Whymans of Hertfordshire' by Christine E. Jackson of Amberly, Herts, England.

  Events

• Occupation. Tanner

Francis married Judith Peirce 30 Jan 1643/44 in Woburn, Middlesex Co., MA.⁹⁵³ (Judith Peirce was born about 1630 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and died before 2 Oct 1650 in Watertown, Middlesex Co., MA.)

Francis next married Abigail Justus Reed 2 Oct 1650 in Woburn, Middlesex Co., MA ⁹⁵³.^,956 (Abigail Justus Reed was born in Feb 1633/34 in England, christened 30 Dec 1638 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA, and died 30 Nov 1699 in Woburn, Middlesex Co., MA.)