Today’s family sketch covers the family of John Tower and wife Sarah Harding of Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts in the 1600s.

John Tower’s parents, John Sr. and Margaret Ibrook, were married in February 1639 in Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts.

Their first child, son John, was reportedly baptized in December 1639, but I have been unable to find a source for that date. The FamilySearch family tree has this information, but it comes from a “Legacy” collection, or from someone’s old family history information submitted to the LDS Church. No image is available and I haven’t been able to find it on American Ancestors.

While the baptismal date might well be correct, no primary record has been found to support it.

The same situation exists regarding Sarah Harding’s birth year. It is said to be c1645. However, Sarah’s father, John Hardin/g, is said to have been born in 1624 and married at 20 years of age.

In this time period in Old & New England, it was very common for young men to marry at 25 years of age and women at 21. Again, it’s not impossible that John Hardin/g married when he was 20. However, the name of Sarah’s mother is unknown (NO PROOF that it was Hannah or Hannah Hurst) and John’s marriage record has not been found.

Let’s say he married when he was about 23 years old, so c1647. Sarah might be the first child and born c1648. That would make her exactly 21 years old when she married John Tower.

In any event, John Tower and Sarah Hardin/g were married on 14 May 1669 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is possible that they perhaps lost their first child in childhood because the first known child, Benjamin, was born early in 1673.

The Tower family spent most of its years in Hingham, but John decided to move his family to Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts about 1685.

John Tower died in Braintree on 30 August 1693. Sarah reportedly survived him by many years, passing away c1729. However, I have found no documentation for that life event either.

Most online information seems to originate from The Tower Genealogy: An Account of the Descendants of John Tower, of Hingham, Massachusetts by Charlemagne Tower, published in 1891. Mr. Tower cited the death date, but left a space for the place and, unfortunately, gave no source for his information. No death, burial or probate record has been found for Sarah Tower.

Children (All events in Hingham, unless noted):

1. Benjamin, born 25 January 1673; died 2 May 1743, Cumberland, Providence, Rhode Island; marriage Deborah Whipple, c1698
2. Gideon, born 26 January 1676/7; died 26 October 1698, Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts; unmarried
3. Sarah, born 21 October 1679; no further information
4. John, born 18 June 1682; no further information
5. Joseph, born 27 February 1685/65, Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts; died c1761; married Ruth (MNU) (reportedly Ruth Thayer, but I’ve found no record), c1709
6. Mary, born 26 April 1690, Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts; married Ebenezer Spear, 17 January 1727, Quincy, Norfolk, Massachusetts as his second wife. Mary gave birth to one known child, Gideon, on 24 May 1730 in Braintree. However, Ebenezer died on 28 January 1732 and was buried at Copps Hill, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. Gideon next appears in Wells, York, Maine, filing an intention of marriage in 1748, when he was 18 years old. No further record has been found for Mary. It’s possible she remarried and moved to Maine since Gideon was so young when he apparently married.

Next, we will look at the large family of Benjamin Tower and Deborah Whipple.