Jethro Starbuck’s only original record in New England was of his death on Nantucket on 27 May 1663.[1] The entry in the handwritten vital records of Nantucket read: “Jethro the son of Edward Starbuck died the 27th of May 1663.” This entry may have been written some time after the event because the earliest handwritten vital records of Nantucket were in the same handwriting from 1662 to 1726 and appear to be in a style more common to the early 1700s. It may be a town clerk transcribed the earliest scraps of original records into a book and then continued the record.
The 1928 official printed publication of the town death records for Nantucket was compiled from various sources including the handwritten book. It stated, “STARBUCK, Jethro, s. Edward, May 27, 1663 [s. Edward and Catherine Reynolds, PR 38. 27th 5 mo. PR 63.][2] The town vital records were created by bringing various town and private family history records together. PR 38 is the private records kept by William C. Folger (1806-1891) which are in the hands of the Nantucket Historical Society. PR 63 is the private record of Isaac Coffin (1764-1862), judge of probate, which is at the Nantucket Atheneum. The compiled death entry gave neither cause of death nor age at death.
Yet both cause and age at death appear for Jethro in several family histories such as James Carlton Starbuck’s Starbucks All.[3] The History of Rockingham and Stratford Counties (which included Dover, NH) stated Jethro was killed on Nantucket by a cart that ran over him.[4] An identical entry was in an 1854 issue of the NEHGR which also stated a cart ran over him.[5] Alexander Starbuck’s history of Nantucket stated Jethro was killed at the age of twelve years by being run over by a cart (on page 658) or by the overturning of a cart (on page 802).[6] His age may have come from Linda Hinchman’s 1896 book on the early settlers of Nantucket which stated Jethro died at the age of twelve.[7]
Jethro was not named in any other Dover or Nantucket record. That could be due to his youth if he died at age twelve. He would not have purchased his own land, paid taxes, or participated in town affairs. Some researchers have placed his birth before that of Dorcas simply to fill in the large gap between Dorcas and Abigail, however if he was born in 1651 and died in 1663 at age twelve, he was likely born after Dorcas. That would place his birth in Dover as his father Edward was there in the 1650s and his mother can be a proven resident by 1653. It would not be logical for him to be born elsewhere. Dover town vital records did not start until approximately 1686 and the Essex County (Massachusetts) records under which Dover fell in the mid-1600s did not keep vital records. With no original source to search to support or refute Jethro’s age it is reasonable to assume tradition could be correct, and he was born not long after Dorcas, possibly in 1651.
A birth in 1651 and death in 1663 explain why no marriage record or descendants have ever been found for Jethro. He did not live long enough to have either.
[1] “Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, (Sherborn) Nantucket,” database, Family Search (www.familysearch.org: accessed 6 Jan 2022), Jethro Starbuck.
[2] “Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records 1700-1850,” database with images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 4 August 2022), 544. In 1663 the fifth month was July but the compiled record was drawn from some sources which were written after 1752 when the 5th month meant May. The original, possibly transcribed, record stated May, so that was the preferred month.
[3] James Carlton Starbuck, Starbuck’s All 1635-1985 (Rowsell, Georgia, James Starbuck, 1984), 252.
[4] D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Rockingham & Strafford Counties (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, J. W. Lewis & Co., 1882), 823; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Mar 2022), 773.
[5] Alonzo Hall Quint, “Genealogical Items Relating to the Early Settlers of Dover, New Hampshire,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 8 (1854): 68; image copy, NEHGS (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 4 August 2022).
[6] Alexander Starbuck, History of Nantucket (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1896), 658.
[7] Lydia Swain Mitchell Hinchman, Early Settlers of Nantucket, their associates and descendants (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Ferris & Leach, 1901), 21.
