Henry Beck (c1617-c1694)

Henry Beck belongs to the earliest generation of English settlers along the Piscataqua River, men whose lives bridged the uncertainty of transatlantic migration and the gradual stabilization of New England communities. Born about 1617, Henry Beck stated in later life that he was eighteen years of age when he embarked for New England in 1635, placing his birth squarely in the second decade of the seventeenth century. ^[1]Hotten, John Camden, The Original lists of persons of quality, emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, serving men sold for a term of years, apprentices, children stolen, maidens pressed, and … Continue reading A later family tradition, preserved by a grandson of the same name, asserted that he was born in a parish described phonetically as “geywareck” in Warwickshire, England. No such parish has been conclusively identified, though the baptism of a Henry Beck, son of Thomas Beck, at Alcester in Warwickshire in October 1615 offers a plausible, though unproven, point of origin. Earlier claims that he came from Hertfordshire or that he arrived on a different vessel have been disproved by the survival of contemporary passenger records.

On 13 July 1635, Henry Beck appeared in London among the enrolled passengers bound for New England aboard the ship Blessing. ^[2]Hotten, John Camden, The Original lists of persons of quality, emigrants, religious exiles, political rebels, serving men sold for a term of years, apprentices, children stolen, maidens pressed, and … Continue reading Like many young men of his age, he crossed the Atlantic with little recorded capital but with the expectation of land, labor, and eventual independence. By 1640 he was established at Dover, where he was sufficiently integrated into the settlement to sign the Dover Combination on 22 October of that year, a foundational agreement binding the inhabitants into a body politic. ^[3]Wadleigh, George, Notable events in the history of Dover, New Hampshire, from the first settlement in 1623 to 1865, pages 18-19, Dover, N.H. : The Tufts College Press, 1913. In March 1640/1 he also joined fellow settlers in petitioning against the immediate extension of Massachusetts jurisdiction over Dover, demonstrating an early concern for local autonomy and the rights of original patentees.^[4]Wadleigh, George, Notable events in the history of Dover, New Hampshire, from the first settlement in 1623 to 1865, pages 19-20, Dover, N.H. : The Tufts College Press, 1913.

Beck’s early years at Dover were marked by steady accumulation rather than prominence. In 1642 the town laid out to him a twenty-acre lot on the west side of Back River, described as forty by eighty rods,^[5]Libby, Charles Thornton, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Portland, Maine : The Southworth Press, 1928-1939. and by December 1648 his estate was assessed at just over forty pounds,^[6]New Hampshire Genealogical Society, New Hampshire Genealogical Record 1:179, citing Dover Town Records, Dover, N. H. : George W. Tibbetts, 1904. a respectable but modest valuation that placed him among the solid middling inhabitants of the town. His occupation was consistently recorded as planter, a term encompassing both farming and the general labor required to clear and maintain land in a frontier environment. The documentary record shows that he sometimes signed his name and sometimes made his mark, suggesting limited formal education; his wife Ann, whom he married by about 1640, consistently made her mark.

By the early 1650s Henry Beck had removed southward to Portsmouth, settling in the Sagamore Creek area along the Piscataqua River. In January 1652/3 he was assigned ten acres in the Portsmouth outlots,^[7]New Hampshire Genealogical Society, New Hampshire Genealogical Record 1:9, citing Portsmouth TR 1:11, Dover, N. H. : George W. Tibbetts, 1904. and thereafter his name appears regularly in land distributions and tax lists, reflecting both persistence and stability. He sold portions of his earlier Dover holdings, including a twenty-acre tract on Back River conveyed in 1657, and later disposed of small parcels of marshland at Sagamore Creek, transactions that illustrate the gradual refinement of his estate as his family and circumstances evolved.

Beck’s standing in Portsmouth was that of a dependable, if unassuming, townsman. He served repeatedly on both grand and petit juries between 1652 and 1667, an indication of trustworthiness and civic participation rather than high social rank. He subscribed for the support of the Portsmouth minister in 1658/9 and again in 1670/1, and in March 1693/4 he was allotted a seat in the meetinghouse, a tangible symbol of his recognized place within the congregation. Although his name appears on a 1679/80 provincial voting list, annotated “not appeared,” there is no evidence that he was politically ambitious; his life unfolded largely within the bounds of family, land, and church.

Landholding remained central to Beck’s identity. In addition to his home farm at Sagamore Creek, he received grants of common lands in the late 1650s and early 1660s and, in January 1664/5, was awarded sixty acres of dividend land at Sagamore Creek by the town of Portsmouth. He was taxed variously at Great Island, Sandy Beach, and Greenland over the following decades, reflecting the fluid boundaries and overlapping jurisdictions of early New Hampshire settlements rather than frequent physical relocation.

By the final decades of the seventeenth century, Henry Beck was clearly regarded as an aging patriarch. On 6 January 1679/80 he and his wife Ann executed a deed conveying their farm and household goods to “Thomas Beck the supposed son of Henry Beck aforesaid,” in return for maintenance during their remaining lives. The language of the deed, while cautious in its phrasing, confirms both the familial relationship and the customary practice of intergenerational support. Notably, Henry signed his name on this instrument, suggesting either improved literacy or particular care for a document of lasting consequence. ^[8]New Hampshire Provincial Deeds, New Hampshire Division of Records Management and Archives, Concord, New Hampshire

Henry Beck was last recorded alive in March 1693/4, when he received his meetinghouse seat. ^[9]New Hampshire Genealogical Society, New Hampshire Genealogical Record 3:172, Dover, N. H. : George W. Tibbetts, 1906. He almost certainly died not long thereafter, though no probate record has been identified. Later claims that he lived to extreme old age or that he appeared in records as late as 1699 rest on misinterpretation and confusion with other men of the same surname, including individuals of higher social rank. His wife Ann predeceased him or survived him by an unknown interval; she appears with him in deeds as late as 1668 and 1679/80, always signing by mark.

The children of Henry and Ann Beck carried the family firmly into the next generation of Piscataqua settlers. Their eldest known son, Caleb, born by about 1640, was of age or married by 1661 and married Hannah Bolles, daughter of Joseph Bolles of Wells, Maine, thereby extending the family’s kinship network beyond New Hampshire. A second son, Henry, born about 1654, married Elizabeth by 1686 but died young, leaving an estate administered by his widow. Thomas, the youngest known son, born about 1658, became the principal heir to the Sagamore Creek homestead; he married Mary, whose surname remains unproven despite repeated assertions in later genealogies, and lived to advanced age, anchoring the Beck family in Portsmouth for generations.

Henry Beck’s life was neither dramatic nor obscure. It was shaped by the rhythms of land clearing, church attendance, jury duty, and family obligation, the very activities that transformed the Piscataqua settlements from precarious outposts into enduring communities. His story illustrates the experience of countless early New England planters whose names survive not because they sought distinction, but because they endured, adapted, and quietly laid the foundations upon which later generations built.

Source

Partridge, Dennis N., Colonial Narratives, Fernandina Beach, Florida : AccessGenealogy, 2026.