The Jewetts and the Pearls

Ever since Hampton was a fledgling community, forming out of the wilderness of northeastern Connecticut, the Pearl and Jewett families have figured prominently. For years families with those last names participated in the life of the community in many capacities, their talents and hard work contributing to the well being and quality of life in the town. No longer are the Pearl and Jewett names prominent here. Families have moved away, children have married and taken on new surnames, old people have died so that gradually the names have disappeared from the consciousness of many now living in Hampton. I suggest that those who are interested take a stroll through the North and South cemetaries. There you will find many stones marking the spot where many with these names slumber beneath the sod.

There are many descendants of these families still living in this area, though their names are no longer Pearl or Jewett. Pride of family is evidenced each year as the Pearl family continues to celebrate its history and its uniqueness by coming together for their annual reunion.

The Jewett and the Pearl families joined together with the marriage of John Porter Pearl to Maria Jennings Jewett in 1847 in Hampton. John Porter Pearl was the great great grandson of John Pearl the immigrant. One of John Porter and Maria Pearl’s 8 children was my great grandfather, Austin Eugene Pearl, born in 1851. Austin and his wife, Mary Weeks Pearl owned a farm across from and a little south of where the Hampton Elementary School is now situated on present day Rte. 97. Their house still sits beside the road.

The first “Hampton” Pearl was Timothy Pearl, born in 1695 in Boxford, MA. He was the son of John Pearl the immigrant. Timothy was a tanner by trade. Sometime around the year 1716, as a bachelor, he moved to Connecticut and bought 100 acres from Ebenezer Jennings on what was then known as Appaquage Hill. That piece of land was near what is now Lewis Rd. in Hampton. His first wife, Elizabeth Stevens from Massachusetts died after giving him 6 children. His second wife, Mary Leach, also from Mass. gave him 9 more. Amazing for the time, all 15 children lived to adulthood.

Austin Pearl was not only a farmer, but also a carpenter, a home builder and a postmaster in Hampton. The Hampton Post Office during Austin Pearl’s tenure as postmaster (1913 – 1921) was located on the east side of Main St., just north of the intersection of Hammond Hill Rd. After he retired, the Post Office moved to the center of town into an addition built onto the Hampton Hill Store. The Pearls found the U.S. Post Office a good source of employment it seems. Besides Austin, his daughter, Evelyn (Pearl) Estabrooks, was the Hampton Postmaster from 1936 to 1964. His sons, Reuben and William Pearl, were mail carriers on Hampton’s rural routes; William serving for 40 years and Reuben for 45. Other family members who worked at the Hampton Post Office, in various capacities and at various times were: Eleanor (Pearl) Moon, Mary (Pearl) Stone, Mary (Pearl) Emmons, Gertrude Pearl, Stella Pearl, Helen Pearl, Will Jewett and Vincent Scarpino. These names will be familiar to many long time Hampton residents.

Austin was a staunch Democrat who served as state representative from 1901 -1902, serving under then Governor, George P. McLean. He was chairman of the Hampton Democratic Party for years and was also a town selectman for 13 years. The fact that my great granddad was a Democrat fascinated me because most of his descendants in my parent’s generation of whom I was aware were avid Republicans. I enjoyed teasing my mother about her ‘Democratic’ roots. She took refuge in denial.

Austin and his son, Arthur E. Pearl, built many structures still standing in Hampton. One was the Grange Hall. One of the ones that Arthur built was the home that my parents, Earl and Dorothy (Pearl) Overbaugh bought on Parsonage Rd. when they retired and moved to town in 1963. That house is a low, one story structure. It was originally built for the Peabodys as a summer home. The land on which it stands was called Petticoat Pastures. I was told that it was modeled after the Little White House of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Warm Springs, GA. Don’t look for a similarity today, though. The house has much changed over the years. If anybody can tell me of other structures that Austin and Arthur built in Hampton and environs, I would be most grateful.

Chester Jewett, Mrs. Allen Jewett, M. Louise Jewett were among the first officers of Hampton’s Little River Grange #36 when it was organized in 1885. Mrs. Chester (Mary) Jewett was an original charter member and was a member for over 77 years. William W. Pearl was not only Past Master of the Little River Grange and of the Quinebaug Pomona Grange, but also Past Master of the Conn. State Grange. Many Pearls and Jewetts were long time members of the Hampton Grange, holding offices and actively participating in that organization until it closed it doors in 2002.

Dorothy Vander Meulen, Family Historian

Grave Marker for Elisabeth Holmes Pearl (1662-1744) in Boxford, MA

Elizabeth Pearl Grave Marker

I recently located the grave marker for our ancestor, Elisabeth Pearl, at Mt Vernon Cemetery in Boxford, MA. Elisabeth was the wife of John Pearl, the founding member of the Pearl family in America. Her seventh child was Timothy Pearl (1694/5 – 1773), who established the Hampton, CT branch of the family in about 1720.

Elisabeth’s original stone was set into a granite marker at some point. The original inscription reads “Here lies buried the body of Mrs Elisabeth Pearl. Died March 26, 1744, in ye 82nd year of her age.” On the granite below, a note has been added about her husband: “1650 John Pearl 1710”. (The information we have states that John Pearl was born in 1645 or 1646 in Beverley, England and died in 1720 in Boxford, MA.)

Numerous other Pearl stones are in the Mt. Vernon Cemetery, including quite a few from the recent past.

………….Allen Vander Meulen III

American Origins of the Pearl Family

Our Hampton Pearl family is descended from John Pearle who came to the New World from England with his brother Nicholas in the late 17th century. He was the son of Nicholas and Alice (Proudfellow) Pearle, and was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, England.* It is not known exacty when he arrived on these shores, nor do we know which ship carried him here. His date of arrival was between 1670 – 1675. He settled first in Marblehead or Ipswich, MA and later in Boxford or Bradford. He was officially listed as an inhabitant of Ipswich in 1678.We do not know why John and his brother, Nicholas, emigrated from England to come to the New England colonies. Their mother, Alice, had died in England in 1669 and John Pearle’s period of indenture in Beverley had ended in Nov. 1668. These things would have freed him to go where he wished. We do know that the area in which John and Nicholas lived was suffering from a great deal of political and religious unrest, with the inhabitants of the Yorkshire area being heavily taxed, to support both the royalist and Puritan armies at different times.

We know little of the religious sympathies of the Pearle family in England. We do know that John Pearle and most of his siblings were baptized in St. John’s (Anglican) Church in Beverley. John was baptized at St. John’s Feb. 8, 1645/6. Pearle family records are found in the St. John and St. Mary Anglican churches in the area. The Puritans and Quakers were very active in the area at the time. The main parish churches of England were obligated to follow the religious affiliation of the Monarchy. Massachusetts, where John and Nicholas settled was strongly Puritan and John’s children were members of the Puritan (later Congregational) church.John Pearle was a miller, having completed his apprenticeship in England not long before he immigrated to Massachusetts. An early record of John Pearl appears in New England when he was granted mill privileges in 1671 in Marblehead, MA. At this time his brother, Nicholas, was apprenticed to John for a total period of 7 years. John married Elizabeth Holmes in 1682 in Rowley, MA. She was born in 1662 in Rowley. She was the daughter of Richard R. and Alice (Northend) Holmes. Elizabeth’s father, Richard Holmes, was a miller in Bradford and a landowner in Rowley. When John and Elizabeth married, Richard Holmes paid John Pearl’s debts to get him out of prison where he had been incarcerated for a short while for those debts. In 1684, the town of Bradford granted John and his father-in law, Richard, the rights to erect a mill on a local brook. John and Elizabeth’s home was nearby where they and John’s in-laws apparently lived together.

John and Elizabeth began their family in 1683 and produced 8 children. John died in 1720 in Bradford, his burial location unknown. Elizabeth died at age 82 in 1744 and is buried in West Boxford. They probably spent the last years of their lives in the Pearl homestead in Boxford, possibly beginning as early as 1705. Cornelius Brown had built the original house about 1704 and the Browns lived in it for many years. For some time the Pearls lived in one side of the house and the Browns in the other. It was known at this time as the Brown-Pearl house. In 1925 the house was acquired by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The living room and what the family knew as the fore room are on display at the museum and the exhibit is known as the Brown/Pearl Hall and the Brown/Pearl Harbor.**

** The above information on John Pearl was taken from the Family Tree of John Pearl(e) compiled by Norton Lee Bretz, Sept. 2003.

* Other, perhaps less reliable, sources have given Skidby, England as his birthplace. In any event, Skidby is very close to Beverley.