General Information about Benjamin Hanks

Taken from The Ebenezer Hanks Story by Kerry William Tate
1982 M.C. Printing, Provo, UT


     Benjamin Hanks was born circa 1665, if his age at death can be believed ("in the ninetieth year of his age as he saith" in 1755). He was born in England and came over later then many New Englanders. His first wife, Abigail, whose surname is unknown but who has been incorrectly identified as a Heiford, was the mother of his children. She d. at Pembroke, Mass., 6 Sept 1726, age not given.
     He m. (2) 23 Mar. 1727, Pemboke, Mary (---) Ripley, widow of William Ripley of Bridgewater, Mass. She d. at Easton, Mass., 21 Oct. 1760, age 83 (VR Pembroke, Bridgewater, Easton).
     Richard White, another late comer to New England, left a notebook which said that Benjamin and his wife Abigail "came from London Oct. 17th 1699" and landed at Plymouth.
     In a deed of 25 Feb. 1713/14 John Partridge of "Duxborough," for nine pounds, sold to Benjamin Hanks thirty acres of land in Pembroke (Pembroke was set off from Duxbury in 1712), deed acknowledged 16 Sept. and recorded 7 Mar. 1715/16. In 1725 Benjamin sold this land to Isaac Little of Marshfield (Plumouth Deeds 11:205; 32:33).      The sale to Isaac Little appears to have actually beena trade, for 21 Apr. 1725, three days before, he bought lot 68 in Pembroke from Isaac Little (Plymouth Deeds 30:38).      When in March, 1733/34, Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke, husbandman, sold lot 68 to Johnathan Peterson for one hundred sixty pounds, his wife Mary signed her name to release her dower rights, and Benjamin signed by mark (Plymouth Deeds 30:38).      "About 1746 Benjamin Hanks's son Benjamin moved from Saquish Island, in Plymouth Harbor, where he had lived since his marriage in 1724, to Mansfiled, Conn., where he had owned land since 1737; and soon after the departure of his son for Conncticut Benjamin, Sr., moved to Easton, in Bristol County, Mass., nineteen miles northwest from Plymouth"(Susan Cotton Tufts, "Benjamin Hanks of Pembroke and Easton, Mass., and Some of his Descendants," NEHGR 86[1932] p. 6ff. ...). Benjamin died at Easton, 9 Jan. 1755, aged 90.


© 2008, Daniel C. Hanks