Robert Fuller

Robert Fuller was reportedly born about 1615–1616 in Southampton, England, and died on 10 May 1706 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Family-tree notes describe his 1638 migration aboard the Bevis, early residence in Salem, and later property interests and civic obligations in Rehoboth.

Robert Fuller was reportedly born about 1615–1616 in Southampton, England. The supplied notes name him as a son of Thomas Fuller and Anne, although the original text is imperfectly transcribed.

According to the family-tree notes, Robert came from Southampton to Massachusetts in 1638 aboard the Bevis and settled in Salem. He worked as a bricklayer for several years. The notes caution that he was not the only bricklayer mentioned in accounts concerning the Fuller family.

Robert reportedly married Sarah Bowen about 1640, possibly at Salem. She was identified in the notes as a daughter of Richard Bowen and Ann, whose surname was not given. The notes also record a second marriage to Margaret Felton Waller in 1678.

Land-deed information in the supplied notes indicates that Robert bought or held land rights in Rehoboth by 1645, while continuing to reside in Salem at that time. On 28 June 1653, he signed a treaty intended to settle differences involving the town of Rehoboth, Capt. Myles Standish, Thomas Willett, and Josias Winslow. As a Rehoboth property owner, he received shares in general land divisions in 1658 and 1668. He took the freeman oath in 1658.

In 1673, Robert paid a tax of 4 pounds, 10 shillings, and 3 pence for expenses associated with King Philip's War. This record documents a tax payment, not military service. He died in Rehoboth on 10 May 1706.

Historical context

Robert's recorded land shares, freeman oath, treaty signature, and tax payment place him among the property-owning residents of Rehoboth during the seventeenth century. The supplied notes connect his 1673 tax assessment to expenses of King Philip's War, a regional conflict; they do not state that he served in the war.

Sources & research

Family Tree Maker website entry for Robert Fuller, supplied as: http://famllytreemaker.geoealogy.com/use,stv/o/r/B<Ne<ly-J ,Vorpahl/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0043.html
“Known Ancestors and the Descendants (July 1964) of Charles Augustus and Lucy Vardiman Hamson Fuller.”
Clarence Fuller, “Records of Robert Fuller of Salem and Rehoboth and Some of his Descendants,” cited in the supplied notes as published at “Oxboro, Mass.”
James Fuller SpoerrL [name imperfectly transcribed], “A Record of Some of the Descendants of Rubert [Robert] Fuller of Salem and Rehoboth.”
Plymouth County Deeds, vol. 2, part 1, p. 79.
G. H. Til[?], “Story of Rehoboth Mass.” [author and title imperfectly transcribed in supplied notes].
James Arnold, Vital Records of Rehoboth, 1897.