- Matthias Farnsworth (senior) was probably born in or near Farnsworth, Lancastershire, England in 1612. He was christened there is 1615. The first record of Matthias in this country was at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1657. He had a farm near what later became Federal Street in Lynn until 1660 or 1661. He was listed as a weaver in one record, but spent most of his life as a farmer. He probably moved to Groton in 1660 with the first settlers, and he was one of the original proprietors granted land there. The country was a wilderness of unbroken forest and the settlers cleared land to build their log houses. They were far from markets and all their food and clothing was the product of their efforts on land they had cleared. Among the crops grown by Matthias were flax, Indian corn, tobacco, rye, barley, and oats. Also he had pigs, sheep, cattle and horses.
In 1676, Indians assaulted Groton, as part of "King Phillip's War". All but four of the town's buildings were burned. A small party of dragoons and 40 foot soldiers came to the town's relief and escorted the survivors of Groton in a convoy of 60 carts, two miles in length, to Concord. Indians ambushed the procession along the way, with some loss of life. Their homes and possessions, the product of 15 years of hard work in the wilderness, were burned and abandoned. Two of Matthais' children, Mary and Joseph, had earlier been sent to relatives in Lynn due to Indian trouble, and Joseph died there. Groton settlers remained in Concord for two years until the worst danger from Indians died down. In 1678, Matthias and his family and some of the other original settlers, returned to Groton to start anew. There was still constant danger from Indian attack. Sixteen years later in 1694, the settlement was again attacked and many settlers were murdered and their homes burned.
Matthias filled many offices in the town and church from the beginning. His last term of office was in 1684 when he was 72 years old, even though he lived far from the center of town.
Matthias' wife was Mary Farr, the daughter of George Farr of Lynn, Massachusetts. Most probably, she was his second wife. The great probability was that the first three children were by his first wife, whose name we do not know. Mary Farr, in her will, makes her first bequest to "my well beloved son, Benjamin", which was probably her first born living son at that time. Mary Farr was considerably younger than Matthias. Matthias' oldest daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1647, and his last child, Joseph, was born in 1670, a span of 31 years, making it unlikely that Mary was the mother of all his children. The probability is that he married and lost one wife before he married Mary Farr, so Mary Farr is not likely the mother of Matthias, Jr.
Printed by the Utah Printing Company, October 1972
Source: Dee Ann Harman Bishopp
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Our Family History
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