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Thomas Hammond was born in 1603, in Melford, England. His father was William Hammond (Hamonde), a supervisor of the Manor of Melford. In November of 1623, he married Elizabeth Cason, daughter of Robert and Prudence Hammond Cason of Great Welnetham, Suffolk, in the Church of St. Peter and Paul, Lavenham, England.
This story is told of Elizabeth: When young, she took a walk with other youths to the Bank of England Mint to see how money was made. The Master of the Mint was pleased with her appearance and chat, and gave her an invitation to try her hand in money making. She had made some impression upon him, and he was desirous of knowing if she could make an impression on the coin. He placed a piece of silver upon the die, about the size of a half crown. She came forward and grasped the lever, and stamped a fair impression on the coin. He presented her with the piece. It is now possessed by Stephen Hammond, of Roxbury, whose son William, of the eighth generation from her, is expected to inherit the treasure.
In the early 1630s, Thomas and Elizabeth followed a first cousin of his, William Hammond, to the New Land. He became one of the first settlers in Hingham, Mass., where land was granted to him in 1636. He took the Freeman's oath, March 9th, 1637. In Hingham, they had four children:
In 1650, Thomas Sr. moved his family north with several neighbors to the south part of the newly renamed town of Cambridge, near where his cousin William lived. This part of Massachusetts had been purchased from the Indians in 1639, and was granted by the State to one Robert Broadish. Thomas Sr. bought 67 acres from him, in what would become the village of Chesnut Hill. In 1656, he enlarged his farm by buying an adjacent 330 acres from another land grant recipient.
There was still an Indian village (Nonantum) in Cambridge at this time, and the Hammonds were on friendly terms with them. The Indians traded with the settlers, and worked for them.
At Chestnut Hill (originally called Cambridge Hill), Thomas and Elizabeth built a farm that was lived on by five generations of Hammonds. In the New England custom, he built a great barn across the road from his house, whose foundation of huge stones still stood in 1936.
Thomas and his neighbors in the south portion of ``Cambridge'' (formerly Newtowne) chafed at both the fancy new name and the concentration of authority in the north, around Harvard College. Thomas signed the Petition for separation in 1672 which resulted eventually in the creation of the town of Newton from the nine villages of Cambridge south of the Charles River. By 1700, Newton's villages were home to seventy families.
Thomas Sr. died on Sept. 30th, 1675. His estate was appraised at 1,139 £16 s. and 2 d. His wife, Elizabeth, was Executrix. In his will, she received everything with stipulations that after her decease the northern part of the farm (including the great barn) should go to Thomas, Jr., and a southern part -- ``the house he dwells in and all the uplands adjoining with Cranberry Meadow unto Troublesome Swamp'' -- to Nathaniel. Nathaniel was also to have one-third part of the fruit from the orchards willed to his brother, year-by-year, until he had established orchards of his own, and use of the great barn until Thomas helped him build his own.
Thomas Hammond was born in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1636. He married Elizabeth Stedman (probably a sister of Nathaniel Stedman, who married Thomas' sister Sarah) on Dec. 17, 1662. He built a house for his family on his father's farm at that time, near the great barn. It must have been a fine house, for it is recorded that ``tiles from Holland'' were installed around the fireplace in its parlor. Their children were:
Thomas Hammond died on Oct. 20, 1678, of smallpox, three years after his father. Issac and his brother Thomas chose their uncle Nathaniel Hammond to be their guardian. Elizabeth, their mother, died in 1715.
Isaac Hammond lived his life as a farmer in Newton. In December of 1692, he married Ann Kendrick (b. July 3, 1672, d. 1719), daughter of Elijah and Hannah Jackson Kendrick. Isaac died on January 1, 1715. He and Ann had the following children:
Elijah Hammond was born on Oct. 7, 1711. His older brother, Josiah, moved to Woodstock, Conn., in 1723, and Elijah followed him there to Windsor Co. He married Mary Kingsbury, daughter of Nathaniel Kingsbury of Coventry, Conn., on Oct. 13th, 1732, in a ceremony performed by Rev. Thomas White, of Bolton, Conn. Their children were:
Of this family, Hannah married Joseph Tucker, of Bolton, Sept. 30th, 1762. Priscilla married Capt. Jonathan Birge, who fell in battle in the war of the Revolution. Afterwards, she married Amasa Loomis, of Windsor, Conn.