Thomas Phillips was born in Easton, Massachusetts on January 25, 1712. He was the eighth of nine children, all boys except for his sister, Jane. His father, Captain John Phillips, was an early settler and a prominent citizen of Easton. John and his wife, Elizabeth Drake, moved there in 1694, shortly after they were married. Prior to that, the Phillips family had lived for several generations in the coastal community of Weymouth, Massachusetts.
His father’s position of prominence surely made an impression on Thomas while he grew up in Easton. Being one of the earliest settlers, John Phillips was chosen to be the first town clerk, and he served in that position for 12 years. He was also the first citizen of Easton promoted to Captain.
As a young man, in 1690, John, along with his father, Ensign Richard Phillips, had served under Capt. Ephraim Hunt during the expedition to capture Quebec, the capital of New France. Led by Sir William Phips, the expedition was a major event during King William’s War, and it was also a dismal failure. Among other things, no provisions had been made to pay the soldiers who participated.
Forty-six years later, in 1736, Massachusetts would finally grant land on the western frontier to soldiers from Weymouth as compensation for their service. Initially called Huntstown, in honor of Captain Ephraim Hunt, surveyors laid out lots in the unbroken forest. On July 24, 1739, those soldiers, or their heirs, met to draw lots for shares of that land. John Phillips drew 12th on behalf of his father Ensign Richard Phillips, and 14th in his own right. Within a few years, most of the soldiers sold their shares at a discount just to pay the taxes.
Surely there was much talk in the community about all the land sales in Huntstown. Perhaps that is when Thomas first began to think seriously about purchasing land there for himself, land where he could provide for his family and take advantage of the opportunities available to him as an early settler like his father had been in Easton.
The year before, Thomas had married Katherine Liscomb. She was a resident of Stoughton, about 15 miles away. They were married in Stoughton on January 22, 1735, but they took up residence in Thomas’ hometown, Easton. Their first child, Catherine, was born there in December 1736. In the handwritten birth records of the time, both her and her mother’s names were spelled “Ketura,” giving an indication of how they were likely pronounced.
Two more children, Phillip and Simeon, were born in Easton in 1738 and 1742 before Thomas acted on his plan to buy frontier land and move his family west. In a deed dated September 1, 1742, Thomas bought lot #48, in Huntstown. He paid 60 pounds for 60 acres to Daniel Owen, son of Josiah Owen, the original owner. Two weeks later he bought another 25 acres, half of lot #25, for six pounds. It would be there, on lot #25, that he would eventually settle his family and live for the rest of his life. Huntstown would later be incorporated and renamed Ashfield, but that would not be for many years. In 1742, it was still empty forest land with no residents living there.
Many of the owners who, like Thomas, were planning to set up a homestead in Huntstown, moved first to the adjacent town of Deerfield, Massachusetts to be nearer their property. Deerfield had gained fame four decades earlier, in 1704, as the site of an Indian massacre. As part of Queen Anne’s War, French forces from Canada organized a raiding party from their various Native American allies. Forty Deerfield settlers were killed and another 120 were abducted and forced to walk the 300 miles back to Canada during the frigid winter. Raids on frontier communities were commonplace in Colonial America, especially during the frequent wars between France and Britain, but the magnitude and brutality of this one sent shockwaves through the colonies.
Thomas and Katherine lived for about three years in Deerfield. Phillips family stories tell how Thomas used to come up from Deerfield in the spring to make maple sugar with a five-pail iron kettle, an axe and a week’s provisions on his back. Several of their children were born in Deerfield. Births for Charity, Thomas, and Elizabeth between 1742 and 1749 are all recorded in Deerfield. Town birth records for their last three children, Sarah, Mary, and Caleb, between 1752 and 1755, have not been found. It is likely they were born in the frontier community of Huntstown.
Thomas and his family moved to Huntstown in 1745. They were the second family to take up residence there. The first settlers were Thomas’ sister and her husband, Richard Ellis. Heber Honestman and his wife moved with the Phillips family. Heber was a former slave who had been freed by his owner. Family tradition was that Heber’s wife was a nurse to the Phillips children. Thomas and Heber formed a lifelong bond. Thomas was named executor in Heber’s will.
Ten years later, in 1755, the colonies were again at war and the threat of attacks on frontier communities was renewed. With the memories of what had happened decades earlier in nearby Deerfield, the residents of the little settlement of Huntstown abandoned their homes and moved to safety. It was a serious hardship for all the families and after three years they all moved back again. A fort was built around the home of Chileab Smith. Made of upright logs, set 3 feet in the ground and rising 12 feet above, it encompassed about half an acre. A log tower was constructed on the roof of the house so that six men with arms could defend the enclosure. Every evening the Phillips family, along with all the others, would gather inside the fort and wait out the night, listening for the terrifying war whoops that would signal an attack. Then, arms by their side, they would venture out during the day to tend to their chores. In 1759, General Wolfe succeeded in taking Quebec, ending the French and Indian War. The 19 families living in the little community were able to return to normal life.
The community’s first church was founded in 1763. Thomas and Katherine Phillips were among its initial 15 members. It was a Congregational Church, and Thomas was one of the six men who signed the Articles of Faith and Covenant that established it.
In 1765, Huntstown was incorporated and renamed Ashfield, a name it retains today. Town officers were elected, and Thomas Phillips was chosen to be a Selectman. Early town records were kept in various ways and many have not survived. Then in 1776, the town acquired a proper record book and began keeping regular minutes of town meetings. On the first page of that book dated March 4, 1776, are the notes for meeting at the Congregational Meeting House that named officers for the current year. There, written in cursive with a quill pen, was item number 10, where Thomas Phillips was named one of the Surveyors of Highways for the year. He was too old to serve in the militia during the Revolutionary War, but holding an office in a town that was in rebellion against the King of England was an act of patriotic service. It later qualified his descendants for membership in the DAR and SAR.
While Thomas did not serve in the military himself, several of his children did. His son, Thomas Jr., enlisted on May 5, 1775, just days after the Lexington Alarm. He served as a corporal in Capt. Ebenezer Webber’s Company in Col. John Fellows’ 8th Regiment His youngest son, Caleb, enlisted in several units, serving under four different sets of officers between Sept. 1, 1776, and Nov. 22, 1779. He spent some of that time at Fort Ticonderoga. Thomas’ daughter, Catherine, was married to Samuel Batchelor and he served in the Hampshire Militia under Capt. Benjamin Phillips, a distant Phillips cousin who also lived in Ashfield.
History tends to oversimplify complicated events and sometimes the difficult decisions that individuals, families, and communities must make can be lost in the process. Early in the war, nine men from Ashfield were identified as not being sympathetic to the American cause. At a Town meeting it was voted to have these men confined. Among them was Thomas’s son, Lieut. Phillip Phillips. As an officer in the King’s army, he had sworn an oath to support the crown. In August 1777, the town voted to end the confinement and levy fines instead. Adding to the family complexity, at the same time, Phillip’s son, Elijah, was serving as a private in the local militia. In September 1776, he marched with them to Roxbury for the defense of Boston.
It is believed that Thomas’ wife Katherine died at the age of 56 in February 1775, but no records have been found to confirm this and there is no headstone in the Beldingville Cemetery in Ashfield where she is thought to be buried. Town records do indicate that two years later, in January 1777, Thomas married a young widow named Rachel Wood.
Thomas Phillips died sometime shortly before October 25, 1791. We know that because on that date, probate proceedings had begun on the “Estate of Thomas Phillips, late of Ashfield.” That was the date that the appraisers appointed by the court gave their report. They had been duly sworn to their task by Thomas’s son, Phillip Phillips, esq., by then, a prominent local attorney. Their finding was that the estate of Thomas Phillips was insolvent. Their one-page inventory listed simple basic items worth a total of 7 Pounds, 10 Shillings, and 6 Pence, not enough to cover his debts and expenses.
As with his wife Katherine, no death record has been found to show the exact date of his death. Both he and Katherine are believed to be buried in the Beldingville Cemetery in Ashfield. There is a large family marker there for his brother-in-law, Richard Ellis. A history of Ashfield, written just four decades later, states that the descendants of Thomas and Katherine believe that he is buried in the row behind them. Today, a large rock there is assumed to mark his grave, and two brass markers have been placed to honor him and recognize his service as a Revolutionary War Patriot.
–Submitted by descendant Robert Eager NSSAR# 179422.
Sources and References
Holland, Josiah Gilbert, History of Western Massachusetts, Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles and Co., 1855, Vol II-Part III pages 309-11.
Chaffin, William L., History of the town of Easton, Massachusetts, Cambridge, MA: J. Wilson and Son, 1886, page 41.
Ellis, E.R., MD, Biographical Sketches of Richard Ellis, The First Settler of Ashfield, Mass, Detroit, MI: W.M. Graham Printing Co., 1888, pp. 282, 333, 377-383.
Howes, Frederick G. History of the Town of Ashfield, Ashfield, MA: Town of Ashfield, 1908, pages 18, 22-3, 60-1, 228.
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers, and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume I, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1896, page 173.
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers, and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume XII, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1904, pages 314, 331.
Ibid. page 311-12
1742 Deed “Franklin, Massachusetts, US records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9ZW-X9QT-2?view=fullText: Feb 18, 2025); Massachusetts. County Court (Franklin County) image 1407 of 1474.
1742 Deed “Franklin, Massachusetts, US records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99ZW-X9WX-2?view=fullText: Feb 18, 2025); Massachusetts. County Court (Franklin County) image 1092 of 1474.
1792 Probate Estate Files – Thomas Phillips, “Hampshire, Massachusetts, US records,” images, FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/ ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4S-29VB-N?view=fullText: Feb 18, 2025), Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives & Records Preservation; image 665 of 722.