| Notes |
- Listed on the Boston Tax List, 1687.
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Isaac owned a shop and liked to trade goods for horses. He was involved in a couple of disputes with his neighbors when they did not fulfill their end of the bargain. According to the Essex Antiquarian, Isaack Coussens v. Stephen Kent. Steven apparently promised 2 colts to Isaac, as was testified by witnesses. In Isaac Coussen v. Richard Shatswell, witnesses testifies that Isaac traded £3 of corn and £2 in tools for one-half of horse colt. (Essex Antiquarian, 10:172-3)
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Isaac Cousins emigrated before 1643 from Marlborough, Wiltshire Co., England. An expert gunsmith and locksmith, and rolling stone, living in Rowley in 1647, Boston and Dorchester, besides negotiating for settlement with New London, Connecticut in 1651, Haverhill in 1652, Ipswich in 1656, Portsmouth, where he was received as a tradesman in 1659, and a connection with North Yarmouth, Maine in 1678.
He was warned out of Dorchester (a method of getting rid of undesirables and dissenters) in 1691 "having a long time bin an inhabitant of Boston and now being aged", and died in the Boston poorhouse, 23 July 1702. He filed a suit against Richard Priest of Boston in 1696 for withholding household goods where in the house where Isaac and Martha his late wife had lived.
Sources: Genealogical Dictionary of New England, of Lydia Harmon by Goodwin Davis, Encyclopedia of Biography Vol 47, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire page 658, History of Haverhill by George Wingate Chase.
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saac Cousins was an expert gunsmith and locksmith. The earliest record of him is living in Rowley, MA, in 1647 when it was recorded that Samuel Fogg was apprenticed to him. New London, CT, offered him inducements to settle there in 1651 [a skilled craftsman was a valuable asset to a community], but he stayed in Rowley until 1652 when he moved to Haverhill, MA. Court records in this time period give evidence of his consistent ill-luck in horse trading. He participated in the division of land in Haverhill in 1652 and 1653, then transferred his business to Ipswich. He sold his house in Ipswich and moved to Boston, leaving several lawsuits behind him - in one the town sued him for bringing in an old woman and leaving her there without providing for her. Elizabeth died in Boston and he married Ann Hunt.
On 16 December 1659 he was received as a tradesman at Portsmouth, NH. He was back in Boston in 1668. He had some dealings with North Yarmouth, ME, and witnessed several deeds for them in Boston. The town committee of North Yarmouth offered him a tract of land in 1681 "hee or his sonn ingaging to come & dwell ye, & to accommodate the inhabitants by ye work of his Trade" but continued Indian hostilities prevented him from accepting the offer.
Isaac Cousins experienced real poverty in his later years. He was warned out [a method of getting rid of undesirables and dissenters] of Dorchester in 1691 "having a long time bin an inhabitant of Boston and now being aged." He tried to bring a lawsuit without fees, stating he was "an ancient inhabitant of this country...fallen much into decay and waxen so poore..." in 1696 against Richard Priest for withholding household goods which "were in the house where the plaintiff and Martha his late wife lived next to the mill bridge on the north side thereof." Finally, on his death record we find the old man, 89 years old, a town charge.
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Old Dead Relatives
1613 - 1702 (89 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
