Nicholas Ide

Nicholas Ide was born about 1620 in England. The cited genealogy presumes that he was from Ide, England, while the supplied life-date heading reports April 1620. A family account states that he came to America in 1636 with his mother, described as the Widow Ide, and that his father, also named Nicholas Ide, had died in England early in the seventeenth century. These details are not demonstrated by the supplied material.

Nicholas was in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, by 9 April 1645 and was among the community’s early landowners. He was admitted a freeman of New Plymouth Colony in 1648. The family notes further describe him as the only person of the Ide name in the colony’s 1658 lists of freemen.

He married Martha Bliss, who is described as presumably a daughter of Thomas Bliss and Dorothy Wheatlie of Beistone, England. Martha was buried at Rehoboth on 3 November 1676. They were said to have had ten children, all born at Rehoboth: Nathaniel, Mary, John, Nicholas, Martha, Elizabeth, Timothy, Dorothy, Patience, and Experience.

In 1652, the General Court of New Plymouth Colony fined Nicholas £25 for selling a gun to an Indian. He pleaded inability to pay. In 1657, the court ordered that the balance be remitted after payment of five pounds in good wampum. He served as surveyor of Rehoboth’s highways in 1662, 1669, and 1674. Family notes also state that he was appointed to a committee to settle disputes with King Philip, identified there as an Indian chief.

Nicholas was described as owning considerable land in Rehoboth in 1689. He was buried there on 18 October 1690.

The supplied family history associates the surname with Ide, England. Nicholas reportedly signed his name “Iyde,” and early Rehoboth records used forms including Iyde, Iyd, Ide, and Jyde. Articles published in the Devonshire and Exeter Gazette discussed the history and pronunciation of the place name Ide, but the conclusion that Nicholas came from that town remains an inference rather than a demonstrated identification.