Samuel Gaskill

  General Notes:

Notes for Samuel GASKILL: Samuel was baptised at First Church, Salem, 6m 7d (07 Aug) 1639. Source: Perley, Sidney, A History of Salem, MA, Volume 1, p 391

Samuel had shared with Provided, and at least four other members of the Southwick family, the sadistic brutality of the Puritan lash. It apparently solidified their determination to dissent from First Church bigotry, and follow Quaker beliefs.

Samuel was a yeoman farmer. In 1666 they were given the house and a one and a half acre plot by Edward which he aquired from Ralph Tompkins about 1658. This property was occupied by Samuel and Provided for most of their lives. It was then home to their son, Samuel Jr., and family. Samuel Jr. willed the place to his sons, Samuel and Jonathan. The brothers sold it when they moved to Mendon, MA in the 1730's ending nearly 100 years of Gaskill presence in the Town of Salem.

With the abeyance of Quaker persecution, Samuel became active in civic affairs. An indication of the offical change in attitude towards Quakers in Salem was a vote in 1667 by a town meeting to exempt them from an assessment to raise 200 pounds for the minister of First Church of Salem, from which they had withdrawn. Samuel and other Quakers began receiving appointments as highway and fence surveyors in the Northfield and Glasshouse field areas. He bought and sold land and joined other owners to protect their right to ownership of common land.

Samuel was a pillar in the Quaker organization. In 1690 Samuel with Daniel and Josiah Southwick were trustees for the Salem Monthly Meeting in conveyance of the first Quaker Meeting House on the six acre tract in Salem on Essex Street. In 1718, at age 79, he was one of the surviving grantees who deeded the property back to the builder, Thomas Maule, when they moved into a new Meeting House. Those joining in this transaction were: Daniel Southwick, Samuel Gascoyne, Caleb Buffum and Samuel Collins. Samuel served as constable in Salem. There is no record of the date of Samuel's death. Samuel Jr. drafted a will on 01 Sep 1725 assuring care to his " aged mother, Provided Gaskill". No mention was made of Samuel Sr. which suggests he passed away between 1718 and 1725 at the age of about 80. Provided would have been about 87 when she died in 1727. Source: "The Ancestors of Charles Clement Heacock", by Roger Lee Heacock, 1950, p 109

Samuel married Provided Southwick, daughter of Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell, on 30 Dec 1662 in Salem, Essex Co. MA. (Provided Southwick was born on 6 Dec 1641 in England, died on 4 Feb 1727 in Salem, Essex Co. MA and was buried in Maish Burial Ground, West Peabody, MA..)