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married, October 16, 1735, for his fourth
wife, Eunice Dickenson, who was born
July 22, 1708, and died May 21, 1770, and
was the daughter of Eliphalet Dickenson.
He was born in 1676; married November
24, 1697, Rebecca, daughter of Jacob
Brunson, of Farmington. He died September
9, 1733, and his widow on May
2, 1755, aged seventy-six. His estate was
appraised at six hundred and thirty-three
pounds, one shilling, and one penny. His
father, Sergeant Obadiah Dickenson, was
born in 1641 ; went to Hadley, Massachu-
setts, with his father in 1650; served in
King Philip's War. His hotel was burned
by the Indians ; he was wounded, and
with his children, held captive by the
Indians. Eventually, however, he escaped,
in Canada, and in 1679 returned to Wethersfield,
where, with his second wife, he
joined the church in 1694. In 1687-88,
he received a grant of land ;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
he was con-
stable at that time. His second wife
was Mehitable Hinsdale, of Hadley, or
Hatfield, Massachusetts. She died prior
to 1702, his decease occurring on June
io, 1698. His estate was valued at six
hundred and seventy-eight pounds, eight
shillings, and eight pence.
His father, Nathaniel Dickenson, who
settled in Wethersfield at an early date,
was the son of William and Sarah
(Stacey) Dickenson, of Ely, Cambridge-
shire, England, where he was born in
1600. He married Anna Gull, and in
1634 came to Watertown with his wife
and three children. Subsequently, two
or three years later, he removed to Wethersfield,
where he became a prominent
member of the community. He was
juryman, October 14, 1642 ; was ap-
pointed town clerk, December 1, 1645.
The first town vote, in the first Wethersfield
records, is in his handwriting. He
was deputy to the General Court, in
1646-56; townsman, 1647-48. His home-
131
stead was recorded to him in 1649. I*1
October, 1654, he was one of three ap-
pointed to constitute a committee to con-
sider and advise with the constables of
the three river towns regarding "press-
ing men for the expedition into the Ninegret
Country," in the Narragansett War.
He was one of the founders of Hadley,
and a leader of the movement which
consumated in the establishment of that
place, and in the ultimate settlement held
many administrative offices of importance.
He was the first town clerk, was
town assessor and magistrate. He joined
the Hampshire troop, in 1663, when it
was organized under Captain Pyncheon.
He was one of the projectors of the Hopkins
Academy, and was on the first board
of trustees. As one of the two repre-
sentatives of the planters, he signed, on
October 29, 1663, the final settlement
with Major Pyncheon, for the Hadley
tract. Stiles says of him : "In both communities,
Wethersfield and Hadley, he
was justly esteemed as an upright, intel-
ligent, active and capable citizen, bearing
well his share in the labors, privations
and dangers incident to a frontier life.
Worn out at last by these, especially
those incurred in the defence of Hadley,
and the Indian War of 1675-76, and de-
pressed by the tragic loss of his three
sons in that strife, he died June 16, 1676,
a noble example of Puritan godliness and
manly loyalty to duty." The genealogy
of Nathaniel Dickenson is clear for four-
teen generations to Walter de Caen, a
kinsman and companion of William the
Conqueror. Walter de Caen married the
daughter of the last Saxon lord of Kenson,
and was afterwards known as Wal-
ter de Kenson. The family bore a coat-
of-arms, with the motto, Esse quam vidcri,
i. e., "to be, rather than to seem to be."
John Francis, who married Eunice
Dickenson, was the owner and landlord