The Francis Hamant House Legacy

Nov 25, 2015 

This is the tale of a brave and adventurous family immigrating to America to establish roots in a new land. The Hamant family story grows as they unite with other families through marriage. We cannot converse with these people to acquire the intricacies of their family dynamics, but we can place the family within the context of time through original documents and historic writings.

* Francis Hamant (1625−1692) came to America from England and was one of the thirteen Dedham men who settled Medfield in 1651. He was granted six acres on South Street, next to Joseph Clark’s dwelling. It is believed that he never owned land in Dedham proper but came to the part of Dedham that became Medfield. His house was not built on the South Street land but on property he acquired across the way, on Philip Street near South Pain Brook, now called Nantasket Brook. His family was Medfield’s seventh settler family. There is no mention of this house being attacked during the King Philip War 1675-6. When the History of the Town of Medfield Massachusetts 1650-1886 by William S. Tilden was published in 1887, the property had remained in the Hamant family for over two hundred and thirty years. This was the longest occupancy of an original settler-family-owned home in Medfield.

Sarah and Francis Hamant had eight children: John, Sarah, Marie, Hannah, Samuel, Elizabeth, Timothy and Abigail, all of whom lived to maturity. Their first child, John, was born April 6, 1651. He received land from his father and was granted additional land by the town. A later grant, on High Street, was where he located his house. The land received from his father was given to his brother Timothy when John died in 1708.

Daughter, Sarah, was born on June 28, 1655. She married John Weeks and her sister, Marie, married Michael Wilson of Wrentham. They were both wed in Medfield on November 4, 1674, which implies they had a double wedding and quite possibly at the Hamant family homestead. Marie and Michael had two children, Marie and Sarah, while living in Medfield.

Hannah was born in 1660 and Samuel in 1663. Not much is known about them. Neither is listed in the Medfield Vital Records as being married or dying in Medfield.

Elizabeth married Jeremiah Morse whose father had planned to be among the early settlers of Medfield, but they first settled in Watertown, then Dedham and lastly Dorchester. Jeremiah’s grandfather, Samuel Morse, immigrated to America in 1635 with his wife and seven children. Jeremiah’s father, Joseph, was twenty at the time of their voyage. Joseph’s brother, Daniel, was an original settler of Medfield. Joseph married Hannah Phillips and lived in Dorchester while their home was being fashioned in Medfield. Unfortunately, Joseph died in 1654 before he could establish his family in Medfield. Jeremiah was only three years old when the family honored his father’s wishes and relocated to Medfield in 1654.

Elizabeth’s husband, Jeremiah, was a wheelwright by trade and had a shop on their property which was in the southern part of town. Elizabeth and Jeremiah had ten children.

*Timothy (1667−1718), Francis and Sarah’s last son, was born on November 1, 1667. He took possession of the family homestead with conditions regarding his siblings. He married Milletiah Clark in 1696. Her grandfather, Joseph Clark, was also an original settler of Medfield and her father’s brother was Benjamin Clark of “Peak House” fame.

Timothy began his service to the town of Medfield in 1703 when he became Town Treasurer. He continued in this position for many years. He and his wife had five children. One daughter died in 1718 at the age of twenty. Two sons, Timothy Jr. and Samuel, and one daughter, Abiel, remained in Medfield. Timothy, died at Arrowsic, Maine in 1718.

It should be noted that Timothy’s grandson, Asa, acquired the Kingsbury Mill property in 1774 through his wife Peninnah Clark. At that time, there was a farm house, grist mill, malt house, barn and other buildings. This property did not come under the name of Kingsbury until after 1859.

The last child of Sarah and Francis was Abigail who married Jonathan Lawrence in 1708. Jonathan was a descendent of the Morse family in Medfield through his mother, Elizabeth Morse. When she was married, Abigail inherited a portion of her father’s property from her brother. They located their house near the old South School on South Street, which was probably the land acquired from her father.

*Timothy Jr. (1699−1774) received the ancestral home on Philip Street. His father must have had an influence on him as he followed in his footsteps in serving as town Treasurer for five years and Selectman for five years. He married Hepsibah Clark, another descendent of Joseph Clark, mentioned previously, and nine children were produced from their union.

It is interesting to follow a family such as this with all its interweaving of external families that created the intricate fabric of this family.

Timothy’s and Hepsibah’s youngest son, Francis, gained ownership of the family homestead. It should be mentioned that two of his siblings, Seth and Basmath, settled in Sturbridge, MA. At that time, Sturbridge was a newly acquired territory originally named “New Medfield” because its first land holders were Medfield men. It was later renamed Sturbridge.

*Francis Hamant (1741−1808) married Mary Daniels of Medway and they were blessed with four children, three boys and one girl. The second-to-last son, Daniels, was the next generation to take ownership of the property. He was the first of many generations of Hamant’s to receive his mother’s maiden name as a first name. Quite likely that tradition still continues today.

Private Francis Hamant served under Captain Ephraim Chenery’s Company and John Smith’s regiment during the Revolutionary War. Fifty-four men from Ephraim Chenery’s militia and twenty-eight men from Captain Sabin Mann’s minutemen responded to the Lexington Alarm, on April 19, 1775, and marched to Lexington. When they arrived, the battle was over and all attention was on the Siege of Boston. The Medfield men returned home.

*Daniels (1777─1854) married Nancy Partridge of Walpole in 1804. Their marriage was shortened by Nancy’s death in 1815. All three of their children were young at the time of her death being ages 10, 8 and 4. Only two years later the middle child, Francis, died. The year his wife died Daniels was serving the town as Selectman and continued to serve in that capacity another year. He met a woman from Walpole, Patty Turner, whom he married. No children were produced from their union. The youngest child from his first marriage, Daniels, inherited the ancestral home.

*In 1836, Hannah Ellis became the wife of Daniels’s son, also named Daniels (1811−1874). He served as a selectman for nine years and held several other town offices. The couple had three children. Both daughters married, in turn, William R. Smith. Three years after the death of Williams’s first wife, Julia, he married her sister, Mary. Daniels underwent a surgical operation in 1874 and died as a result of the procedure. He was sixty-three at the time of his death.

The third and last child, of Hannah and Daniels, Francis, became the successor of the Hamant Family estate.

In 1865 *Francis Daniels Hamant (1839−1909) married Eliza M. Smith, a descendent of the second-year settlers of Medfield. Between 1866 and 1881 they had five children. Francis held the office of assessor for several years. In 1870 he was a farmer and cattle broker and it is known that he was still in that business in 1886. Who knew Medfield was a place for such dealings?

Francis was also a good musician and taught his children to be proficient musical performers. They were a family devoted to music. It was probably an exhilarating experience to pass by their house on any given day.

In 1870 two domestic servants, Margaret Drea and Ellen Dagan, were living in their household. There were also two farm hands, Thomas Drea and John Creanhoe. At this time, Francis D.’s family was living with his parents and sister, Mary J., a seamstress. Four years later his father died and his mother died in 1888. In 1876 Francis D. owned and resided at his family’s homestead.

In 1890 Francis Hamant designed and constructed a home of his own on South Street (118). At that time, locals considered this style of architecture a fad but to Mr. Hamant it was the dearest place on earth. As you can see it has stood the test of time and we are fortunate to have it grace our town.

By 1895 Francis’s wife had died. In 1900 all his children were living with him along with a housekeeping servant, Florence Davenport, and a farm laborer, Frederick W. Clark, in the South Street home. It is believed that Francis returned to the original Hamant homestead on Philip Street in 1909 and lived there until his death that same year. He died of pneumonia at the age of 70 while he was serving the town as assessor. His term was to have ended in 1912.

He was well respected by the citizens of Medfield and held many offices. He was known to be an excellent judge of real estate and had acquired much property in this town.

Son, *Daniels (1873−1932), received the Philip Street property upon his father’s death. Bessie Laverty became his wife. In 1910 Daniels, his wife, who was the organist at the congregational church, one child, Carolyn, and a boarder, Helen Sieonisches, who worked as a Ruler at the Hat Factory, were living at the Phillip Street home. Daniels was working as a monument salesman.

By 1920 they had two more children, Eleanor and Daniels. The family was living on South Street with three of Daniels’s sisters, Gertrude, Nettie and Mary. Mary was a school music teacher and Nettie was a supervisor of music. Daniels was a retailer of granite memorials. In 1930 they were still on South Street and Daniel’s wife and oldest daughter were also music teachers. Daniels was a monument salesman for his own business.

Son, Daniels, attended Medfield Schools, Thayer Academy, Harvard College, Boston University, Northeastern University and Upper Iowa University. While at Thayer Academy he was on the baseball team and at Harvard he was in the marching band as a drummer.

Daniels served in the military during World War II. He was in the 30th Infantry Division and was at Normandy six days after D-Day . He was also involved in the liberation of Holland, the Battles of the Bulge and Elbe.

After the war, he had a forty-year career with Raytheon Corporation. He was in charge of the microwave and power tube section of the company. Daniels had a wife, two daughters and one son also names Daniels. Throughout life, Daniels was an outstanding player and fan of baseball.

In 1982, Daniels was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis which became debilitating. He was an advocate for the Arthritis Foundation, helped raise funds for research and was a counselor for their hotline. He continued in this capacity until a few weeks before his death.

In 1923 twenty-five acres of land was owned by Mrs. Daniels Hamant and in 1970 a ninth generation Hamant owned a section of land close to the brook.

As we come to a close on this fascinating family history, we become deeply aware of the close association of this family with this house, the property, the town and the nation. The property has passed through the hands of at least eight generations of Hamants and seven other owners: *Tibbets,* Fisher, *Winslow, *Hann, *Selmer, *Cone and presently the *Bickleys. It stands as a testament to time and to the people who have lived there.

*Owners of 7 Philip Street