Thomas TOBEY

                   MARRIAGE:
    R.B. Tobey & C. H. Pope Tobey Genealogy (Charles H. Pope, Boston, Massachusetts) pg. 17

SOURCES:
    1. Ancestral File
    2. 1997 Ordinance Index

    BIOGRAPHY: Tobey Genealogy by Pope  In the town annals Thomas Tobey appears as
    a man of good sense and energy, called by his neighbors to act in various
    public capacities which required more than usual ability and judgment. 7 Nov.
    1652, he was one of a committee appointed to take care of all the fish that
    were taken by the Indians within the borders of the town, and have them sold
    for the benefit of the town treasury; he was also one of those designated to
    oversee the cutting up of the whales which not infrequently drifted or were
    driven ashore on the flats, and sometimes became the occasion of serious
    strife between the inhabitants. He brought suit against a neighbor in 1653
    "for retaining a yearling calf," but lost his case. His tax for the year
    1654 was 2 shillings, 6 pence. He subscribed 5 shillings toward the building of
    "a place for public meetings" in 1655, and a pound a year toward the support
    of a minister in 1657. In the latter year we find his name among those who
    took the oath of fidelity to the colony. In 1658 he was chosen constable, an
    office requiring accuracy in accounts and energy in collecting taxes as well
    as handling prisoners, etc.; was sworn at the court in Plymouth, 1 Jun. 1658.
    In the same year he was chosen one of the "Ratars," i.e. assessors of rates or
    taxes. The town paid him 4 shillings on a certain occasion for "having the
    strangers to Plymouth," which perhaps refers to his being sent, as constable,
    with wayfarers, believed to be Quakers, to place them in the jail at the seat
    of government. He was one of the highway surveyors and "pundor" or
    pound-keeper in 1660; on a committee to lay out a new pound in 1662; on the
    committee of reference in 1664-5; appointed to meet with Barnstable men about
    boundary in 1659; a juryman in 1663 and 1668; excise officer from 1662 to 1668;
    member of a grand inquest in 1670; in charge of the letting out of town lands
    in 1668. 23 Feb. 1675 his name appears in the first list of townsmen extant. A
    council of men was selected in 1676 to "hire men to go out upon the scout for
    the town," and to assign soldiers to duty, furnish ammunition, etc., in the
    time of King Philip's war; and he was one of the three citizens to whom this
    important duty was assigned. Lands for Rev. John Smith, the minister of the
    township, were laid out in 1673 by a committee of which Thomas Tobey was a
    member. He contributed to the repairs of the meeting house in 1676; acted as
    an auditor on the accounts of the constable with Mr. Bourne in 1678. Liberty
    was granted him to have additional land in Jul. 1681, and he was authorized to
    look for it, having the assistance of Mr. Bourne and Mr. Edmond Freeman in the
    search; "if any can be found he is to have fifty or threescore acres thereof
    upon report to the court," runs the record. {Plymouth Colony Record] A tract
    of ten acres "formerly granted to Samuel Knott," was also laid out to him in
    1699. His name is one of twenty who were members of the Sandwich church "when
    Mr. Cotton was ordained 28 Nov. 1694."[Oldest page of the church record
    extant.] The first marriage of Thomas Tobey of which we know is thus recorded
    in the town book of Sandwich: "Thomas Tobie and Martha Knott were married the
    18 Nov. 1650." Martha was a daughter of George Knott, one of the ten founders
    of Sandwich, and his wife Martha. Mr. Knott had died about a year before the
    marriage, leaving a will in which he anticipated that Martha would marry
    Thomas Dunham, who had "pretended" to be contracted" to the girl; but the
    family disapproved of the match, and Dunham married another maiden while
    Martha yielded to the wooing of "Thomas Tobie," and became the mother of seven
    sons who lived to maturity and whose descendants have done credit to her. Mrs.
    Knott, Martha's mother, lived in Sandwich some years, as the records show;
    her life was not free from trails, for she was one of those persons who,
    having attended religious services away from the regular place of worship
    (Quakers or Baptists), were brought before the court for "non-attendance," a
    fiction which persecutors in Europe had long practiced and from which Puritans
    did not at first cut loose. Samuel Knott, a bother of Mrs. Tobey, survived his
    brother-in-law, and was remembered in his will. Mrs. Martha Tobey died at some
    time not on record, and her husband married, second, after 1689, certainly,
    Hannah, widow of Ambrose Fish. As "Mrs. Tobey" she took care of William Cleare
    and Elkanah Smith in their sickness, and the town voted 20 Mar 1705, to pay
    her 24 shillings. She survived Mr. Tobey and died Mar 1720-1, leaving a will
    which conveys much interesting information about family connections; we give
    below. (Not included here)