My 6th-great-grandfather, Dea. Ammiel Weekes, son of George & Deborah (Wing) Weekes, was born 10 April 1720 in Harwich, Massachusetts, and died 12 February 1804. He married 2 March 1742 in Harwich, Phebe Small, who was born there 12 October 1717, and died there 21 April 1793, daughter of Jonathan & Damaris (Winslow) Small.
(image credit: New England Historical Society)
Apparently Ammiel ‘made salt from sea water’ in addition to supporting his family by farming.
Salt making was an important industry due to the close connection of salt with fishing. The first salt produced on Cape Cod was made by evaporating sea water placed in large boilers over fire. This was the process during the Revolutionary War, but the quantity obtained was not very large and used a great deal of wood for the constant fires. The salt works that were built after the war consisted of large wooden “vats” for solar evaporation of sea water. Each vat could be entirely covered by a movable hipped-roof as protection from dews and rains.
~ Bourne Historical Society website
The following is from Genealogy of the Family of George Weekes of Dorchester, Mass. 1635-1650, by Robert D. Weeks, published in 1885:
[Ammiel] was a farmer; also made salt from sea water. He was a deacon in the church, and an eminently conscientious man: at one time he resigned the office of constable, rather than collect taxes for the support of the gospel. He was strict in his regard for the Sabbath; and in order to commence its observance betimes on Saturday evening, (as is still nominally the custom in some parts of New England,) ‘every Saturday afternoon, while the sun was yet high, he would come in from his work, wash, shave, take his frugal supper of bread and milk, and sit down to the reading of his Bible.’
It is related of [his son Ebenezer],– as showing [Ebenezer’s] mechanical genius, and as illustrating the strictness of the views then prevalent in regard to the Sabbath,– that at a house where he, then a mere boy, stopped with his father to rest, on their seven miles walk to ‘meeting,’ on the ‘North side,’ [Ebenezer] so carefully examined a wooden spoon, that he was able, with his father’s tools, to produce a facsimile on Monday; and his father [Ammiel], while expressing admiration of his work, reproved him for breaking the Sabbath by his study of the model on the Lord’s day.
Ammiel & Phebe were the parents of six children:
1. Isaac Weekes (my 5th-great-grandfather), born 11 April 1747 in Harwich, died 12 July 1792 in New Hampshire. He married in Harwich, 25 December 1773, Thankful Nickerson, who was born there 17 November 1751, and died c. 1838, daughter of Joshua & Thankful (Eldridge) Nickerson.
2. Phebe Weekes, born 6 June 1749 in Harwich, died there 3 February 1819.
3. Deborah Weekes, born 18 December 1751 in Harwich, died there 23 October 1796. She married in Harwich, 16 March 1771, Seth Nickerson, who was born there 11 January 1751, and died there 3 April 1784, son of Edward & Thankful (Covell) Nickerson.
4. Ammiel Weekes, born 11 January 1754 in Harwich, died there 7 October 1787. He married in Harwich, 22 July 1775, Mehitable Nickerson, who was born there 20 September 1757, and died 19 November 1822, daughter of Joshua & Thankful (Eldridge) Nickerson (my 6th-great-grandparents).
5. Capt. Ebenezer Weekes, born 11 September 1755 in Harwich, died there 8 May 1815. He married (as his first wife) in Harwich, 8 November 1777, Dorothy Smith, who was born there 8 August 1759, and died 23 December 1778, daughter of John & Elizabeth (Eldridge) Smith.
Ebenezer married (as his second wife and as her second husband) in Harwich, 25 May 1781, Barbara (Godfrey) Small, who was born c. 1747 and died 11 May 1798, daughter of Jephthah & Bathsheba (Eldridge) Godfrey, and widow of Capt. Elijah Small. Barbara is buried with her first husband, Elijah, in the Weekes lot at Island Pond Cemetery in Harwich.
Ebenezer married (as his third wife) 1 August 1798 in Harwich, Hannah Fessenden, who was born c. 1762 and died in Harwich, 7 April 1803, daughter of William & Mehitable (Freeman) Fessenden. Ebenezer & Hannah lie buried in the First Congregational Church Cemetery in Harwich.
Ebenezer married (as his fourth wife and as her second husband) 25 December 1803, Mehitable (Robbins) Tripp, who was born 27 March 1767, and died 28 January 1844, daughter of Nathaniel & Lydia (—) Robbins, and widow of Reuben Tripp.
6. Mehitable Weekes, born 9 November 1758 in Harwich. She married in Harwich, 6 February 1779, David Clark, who was born c. 1757 and died in Harwich, 14 January 1838, son of David & Thankful (Cole) Clark.
Last Revised: 6 September 2024