Nicholas Ide

Nicholas Ide, born about 1620 in England according to the cited genealogy, was an early Rehoboth, Massachusetts, landowner and a freeman of New Plymouth Colony. He married Martha Bliss and had ten children. He held local highway-surveyor duties, appeared before the colony’s General Court in a 1652 gun-sale matter, and was buried at Rehoboth on 18 October 1690.

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.

Historical context

Nicholas Ide lived in the early settlement period of Rehoboth and New Plymouth Colony. His recorded admission as a freeman, service as surveyor of highways, landholding, and appearance before the General Court show participation in the civil life of his colonial community. The supplied material also places his family in the period of King Philip’s War: his son John served in the war and was in the Narragansett Expedition before his death in 1676.

Sources & research

American Ancestry, v. XII, p. 66.
Vital Records of Rehoboth, Mass., by James N. Arnold, pp. 202, 203.
Records of New Plymouth Colony of New England, 1633-1689, by Nathaniel Shurtleff, pp. 52, 63, 76, 88.
Memorial of the Walkers, by J. B. R. Walker, p. 122.
Carpenter Memorial, by Amos B. Carpenter, p. 80.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. xviii, p. 199.
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. ix, p. 315.
Genealogies of Attleborough, Mass., compiled by David Jillson, pp. 137, 402 (MSS. given to New England Historic Genealogical Society).
Devonshire and Exeter Gazette, 19 July 1907, article by J. Scanes of Maiden Bradley, N. School.
Devonshire and Exeter Gazette, 30 January 1930, article by J. Scanes.