William ROBINSON "drawn though by the cog-wheel of his mill, and was torn in pieces and slain."

Acestry Chain: 12th great grandfather Willaim ROBINSON Immigrant b.1615, Prudence ROBINSON b.1643, Mary BRIDGE b.1661, Eunice LYONS b.1701, Mary ROTH b.1726, Mary SANGER b.1746, Lucretia JEFFORDS b.1766, Amariah RAWSON b.1787, Adaline RAWSON b.1811, Mary DUNN b.1833, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR.

William ROBINSON

(Immigration: Bet. 1633 - 1638, From England)

1. WILLIAM² ROBINSON (ROBINSON¹)^1,2 was born 09 Jan 1614/15 in Canterbury, England³, and died 06 Jul 1668 in Dorchester, Massachusetts^4,5. He married (1) PRUDENCE ??? WFT Est. 1634-1647. She was born WFT Est. 1611-1630 in England, and died WFT Est. 1631-1715 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He married (2) MARGARET BEACH 14 Oct 1637 in Canterbury, Kent, England, daughter of [Rev. John BEACH and] AGNES [STREETER] BEACH. She was born 1620 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and died Bef. 1666 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He married (3) URSULA ADAMS^5,6 21 Aug 1666 in Charlestown, Massachusetts⁷, daughter of HENRY ADAMS and EDITH SQUIRE. She was born 19 Jul 1619, and died 20 Feb 1678/79.

Notes for WILLIAM ROBINSON:
Records of Rev. John Eliot or of S. Danforth of the church in Roxbury, Massachusetts note that:

"6.5.1668, Robinson, a brother of the church at Dorchester, was drawn though by the cog-wheel of his mill, and was torn in pieces and slain."

Church books in Dorchester relate that "William Robinson came first to Dorchester between the years 1633 and 1638 from England, returned to England in 1644 and came back again in 1645 with others". This was according to records compiled by the Robinson Society and obtained via The Old Colony Historical Society in Taunton, MA.

Purchased real estate February 25, 1651 from John Phillips of Boston and estate for 150 Pounds near the Naponsett River. (A dispute about this was recorded in the Dorchester Town Records on March 11, 1663 but the Selectmen chose not to find against William, instead asking that additional information be obtained. No later entries were seen about this dispute.) He was a grantee of land in 1656 and also bought a corn tide mill in Dorchester from Edward Brecke near "Captain's Neck". He also sold his mill to Timothy Tileston on October 7, 1664 which thereafter was known as Tileston's Mill as was still standing as of 1857. It is not clear whether it was this mill or another, "The Dorchester Tide Mill", located on the creek between Roxbury and Dorchester near "Black Neck". It is known that a Thomas Robinson owned that mill but it is not clear whether he was related to William.

The "Dorchester Town Records" reference William Robinson a number of times. In 1651 he was paid 1 pound for killing a wolf. Starting 13 Dec 1653 he was regularly assigned the task of "viewing" or maintaining a section of the fencing around the Dorchester common corn field in his area of "The Great Lots". He was also a surveyor with a variety of assignments:
A 40 acre lot for Robert Vose - 9 Dec 1656
A "heigh way" from Glovers Farm to Squantoms Neck - 17 June 1657
A way to George Badcocke's house - 6 Dec 1658
A landing place by the Neponset Mill - 6 Dec 1658
The best place for 2 roads from teh Country "heigh way" to the Blue Hills - 6 Dec 1658
An ox pen for Robert Stanton - 5 Dec 1659
A road at the direction of John Gill and Robert Redman - 17 July 1660
The boundary between Dorchester and Roxbury and also that between Dorchester and Dedham - 11 January 1661
A road from the River to the Country highway and the roads at Squantoms Neck - 10 June 1661
A road from Neponset Mill to Dedham - 2 October 1661
The common fence from "the rest to the River" - 7 November 1661
A road from Boston to teh marsh cross over the pastures - 7 January 1664

He was listed as having 19 acres in an assessment done in 1667.

He was chosen as a Rater and a Constable for 1659, a Rater for 1661 and 1662, the (Highway) Supervisor for 1663 and 1664 and a Selectman in 1665.

He was listed on 10 October 1666 as having helped to bury an Indian found in a wigwam on James Minot's land dead of smallpox and abandoned by the rest of his tribe.

From "William and Anne Robinson of Dorchester, Mass: Their Ancestors and Their Descendants", Edward Doubleday Harris, 1890, p4-6:

In the files of the Suffolk Co. Probate is this paper: - "My will is that after the buriall of my Body & my debts honnestly payd, my Loving wife Ursula shall have & Enjoy my dwelling House together with the Orchard & meadow adjoyning to the same & Hemp yard & that part of the new barne & old barne I now Enjoy, stable Cow yard & one halfe of the Pasture, within fence & seaven Acres of Salt marsh by the River side & halfe the fresh meadow by Thomas Trotts & all my planting ground by my House within the great Lots, Eleaven Acres bee it more or less - my will is that my wife shall have Housing planting Land meadow Pasture & all that I now Enjoy, with all the priueledges belonging to the same during her life, if shee Continue my widdow - But at her marriage or death then to leaue all to my Sonn & while shee hath it to keepe Housing & fencing in good Tennentable repare & to make noe wast or stroy upon it, by falling wood or Timber or anything else - And I Giue to my sonn Increase Robbinson after my wiues decease or marriage ffoure Acres of my salt marsh lying next Thomas Trott's ditch being the west End of my meadow. And all my Land lying on the south side of the high [way] leading from my house to neponset mill, which I purchased of John Minot, Mr Withington, Enoch Wiswell & Goodman Pearse, bee it what it will more or less it lying out of fence, the south side lying next to the Land of Thomas Hilton, the East End to brother How & the north side with the high way aboue mentioned & halfe my Lott lying by the Sheepe pen & halfe of all my Comon rights I have in Dorchester & that with what I have already given him to bee his Portion - my will is that if my Sonn Increase doe sell the ffoure Acres of salt marsh & the 4 Lott Ends mentioned before, then my sonn Samuell shall haue it hee paying for the marsh twenty pounds in money & for the Upland Tenn pounds in money. And that hee shall not Sell it to any Else from his brother but if his Brother will not giue that price, then hee may sell it to whom he will. - my will is that after my wiues death or marriage my Eldest Sonn Samuel Robinson shall haue all my Houses Land & Meadows I haue in Dorchester to what I haue already given him. Excepting what I haue given to my Sonn Increase Robinson, & that to bee his Portion hee paying within Two yeares after my death to my daughter Prudence bridge of Roxbury the sume of Twenty pounds in corne & Cattle. - And to my daughter Waiting Penniman of Braintry Twenty pounds, in the same pay & kind. to all my Grandchildren that are then liuing Tenn shillings a peece, Excepting my sonn Increase Eldest sonn, that bears my name, And my daughter Prudence which beares my wiues name, to them two twenty shillings a peece to bee payd within two yeares after my death their ffathers giuing discharge for it these Legacies & portions being payd then my Sonn is freed from all, & hath to his proper use as is aboue mentioned, with what I gaue him before when hee was married is worth Three Hundred pounds - my will is & I Give to my wife one Cow & a mare which was Mr. Shrimptons, to bee aded to what I haue given - And I giue Mary Streeter, my wiues daughter foure pounds as a Token of my loue to her & for all my Household Goods bedding linnen & wollen brass pewter & Iron Potts Andirons all that is within my House that is mine whatsoeuer as all my Cattle of all sorts all my Husbandry tooles as plowes, Carts, wheeles, chaines, & all iron tooles & Carpenters tooles whatsoeuer within and without, my debts being taken out all the remainder to be Equally divided between Increase, Prudence & Waiting, to bee theires to what I have giuen aboue mentioned if any -
Endorst - This Will of our late Deare ffather William Robinson written on the other side with his owne hand which wee Acknowledge wee doe all agree & Consent to bee allowed & Recorded & made good as wittnes our hands:this:31:July:1668.
Ursula Robinson
Samuel Robinson
Increase Robinson
John Bridge
Joseph Penniman
An inventory of the estate, amounting to 435.12.6, was filed, and adminiistration granted, 16 July, 1668, to Increase Robinson, the son, and to John Bridge and Joseph Penniman, sons-in-law of the deceased.

History of Dorchester, MA from The Dorchester Reporter

Settled one month before its neighbor, Boston, in May of 1630, Dorchester has a history nearly as old as that of America. For its first two hundred years, Dorchester remained apart from Boston, existing primarily as a farming community with small commercial and industrial outposts along the Neponset River at Lower Mills and Mattapan Square, and along Dorchester Bay at Commercial Point.

The patterns of Dorchester's earliest settlement are preserved today in its road system. Pleasant Street linked the original settlement area of Allen's Plain (where the Old Blake House built in 1648 still stands) to the fortifications atop Rock (now Savin) Hill. Adams Street (then called the Lower road) connected the meeting house on Meeting House Hill to Israel Stoughton's grist mill on the Neponset River at Lower Mills. The Upper road, later named Washington Street because George Washington regularly used it during the fortification of Dorchester Heights, connected the "Rocksberry" settlement tot he South Shore.

Other early roads are Boston, Stoughton, Harvard, Bowdoin, Freeport (the road to the free port), Crescent (to the salt marshes on Columbia Point), Pond, East Cottage, and River Streets. The earliest of Dorchester's roads is Norfolk Street, which follows a pre-settlement Indian trail.

More About WILLIAM ROBINSON:
Elected: 18 May 1642, Freeman
Immigration: Bet. 1633 - 1638, From England
Military service: 1643, Member of the "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston"
Occupation: Corn Mill owner and operator

Children of WILLIAM ROBINSON and MARGARET BEACH are:

2.	i.		SAMUEL3 ROBINSON, b. 14 Jun 1640, Dorchester, Massachusetts; d. 16 Sep 1718, Dorchester, Massachusetts.
3.	ii.		INCREASE ROBINSON, b. Bef. 14 Jan 1641/42, Dorchester, Massachusetts; d. Nov 1699, Taunton, Massachusetts.
4.	iii.		PRUDENCE ROBINSON, b. 10 Jul 1643, Dorchester, Massachusetts; d. WFT Est. 1666-1737. [m.1660 Dorchester, Norfolk, Massachusetts - John BRIDGE (1641-1674).]
5.	iv.		WAITING ROBINSON, b. 1645, Dorchester, Massachusetts; d. 21 Aug 1690, Braintree, Massachusetts.