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- Thomas Flint, the emigrant ancestor, came to America, as tradition reports, from Wales, in Great Britain. The first mention made of him in the town records of Salem is in 1650; but there is reason to believe that he came to this country much earlier; and there is also some evidence to show that he had a mother here as early as 1642. He was among the first settlers of Salem Village, now South Danvers. The spot in the wilderness which h~ selected for his home is situated on the Salem and North Reading road, about six miles from the present Court House in Salem, and five miles from the town of North Reading, and near Phelps’s mill and brook. He acquired his land by purchase. The first deed to him on record, “ containing one hundred and fifty acres of meadow and pasture land, and lying within the bounds of Salem,” he bought Sept. 18, 1664, of John Pickering. The price paid for this land is not mentioned; but quite a good opinion can be formed of its value, from the fact that John Pickering, three years before, gave Mr. John Higginson thirteen pounds for the same land. The second lot recorded, containing fifty acres, he purchased 1st January, 1662, of Robert Goodall, for which he paid twenty pounds sterling. It is described· as situated in Salem, and as being “near upon a square,” and bounded southerly by land of Henry Phelps, westerly by Phelps’s Brook, and northerly and easterly by land of said Goodall.1 This farm of the old patriarch has always remained in the possession of his descendants. It is now occupied by the heirs of Elijah Flint, and may truly be called the old homestead, it having been in the family more than two hundred years. He died April 15, 1663. His wife’s name was Ann. They had Six children. - A Genealogical Register of the Decendants of Thomas Flint of Salem
"Thomas Flint, the immigrant ancestor, was born about 1602-14, probably in En-gland, and died 15 April 1663 in Salem Village, now South Danvers, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first mention made of Thomas Flint is in the town records of Salem. Under the date March __, 1637-8, the colonial records of Salem give a list of the names of persons who had signified their desire to become freemen, and the name of Thomas Flint is on this list.
Thomas had a mother here as early as 1642. She lived with his brother, William, and it would seem she was a very strong force in William's life, either through her strong religious faith and moral force, or through control of the family purse-strings. She cared for William's motherless children after their arrival in America, at least until his second marriage to Alice Williams. In February 1642-3, Goodman William Flint was presented to court for not living with his wife. He answered that his mother was not willing to let his wife come to America with him, The court then acquitted him of this charge. Thomas Flint was among the first settlers of Salem Village. The area was then a wildreness and the spot which he selected for his home was situated on the Salem and North Reading road about six miles from the site of the Salem courthouse (where it was located in 1860).... This farm remained in the family until about 1860 when it was sold to Mr. Carten by the heirs of Elijah Flint, one of the descendants of Thomas.... "The 1860 genealogy stated that the old cemetery on the Flint farm lies on a pine-shaded knoll about a mile east of the present house,and that it was poorly enclosed by a stone wall. The original house burned after 1860. The graves were badly over-grown with brush and new growth. William L. Flint in his By the Name of Flint tells the story of an old Irishman who used to care for the graves for free when there were no Flints in the neighborhood to mourn the dead. When asked why he did this, he said, 'They are men's graves and someone should care for them.' Somewhere in that forgotten spot lie the bones of Thomas and his wife Ann.
"Thoman Flint was a Puritan and kept their stern code. He testified against Hannah Phelps, a Quaker, and his evidence helped convicther in a charge of heresy. His brother William paid her fine to keep her fron being publicly flogged (a fate which William's wife had suffered for the crime of fornication before marriage with said William Flint). "Thomas married a lady named Ann, but to date no one has found a record of her last name or of her parents. He married Ann sometime before 1645 and she died in the summer of 1668. After the death of Thomas in 1663 she married John Southwick in Salem Village. She had no children by John Southwick." - The Family Histories of Charles Edwin Flint, Jr. and Bessie Hazel Lee, Rosalie V. M. Flint & Kathleen A. B. Hedrick, Flint, 1981
Estate of Thomas Flint of Salem - Essex Probate Docket # None Dated April 1, 1663. This present writing doth declare that I, Thomas Flint being on my sick bed, do leave this as my Last will and Testament. To my wife I give fifty acres of emproved land and my meadow and housing. To my son Thomas I give thirty acres of upland on my farm next to Mr. Gardner's as he sees fit, not entrenching on his mother's meadow or broken land and also ten pounds of corn or cattle all which he is to enjoy at age: And also after my wive's decease to enjoy two thirds of my farms I bought of which was Mr. Higginson's & Goodman Goodall and in case his mother doth marry then that he shall enjoy the one half of the improved lands and meadow and housing. To my sons George and John, I give all my land I bought beyond the river, to enjoy equally divided to them when they are at age or at their mother's decease if she die before, it is my will that if George dies without seed, then my son John to enjoy his part and if John die without seed then my son George to enjoy his part. To my son Joseph I give the other third part of my land which was Mr. Higginson's and Goodman Goodalls. It is provided that my son Joseph enjoy it at his mother's decease and if my son Thomas died without seed unmarried dthen his part to fall to my son Joseph and contrarywise if my son Joseph dies without seed then his part to fall to Thomas and so to pass from one to another if he that enjoys it die without issue. To my daughter Elizabeth I give thirty pounds at marriage in corn and cattle and I do appoint my son Thomas when he enjoys his two thirds as abovesaid then to pay to my daughter Elizabaeth and in case the farm falls into Joseph's hand before he is of age or he is to pay her the said ten pounds. I do appoint my wife whole executor, I entreate my two friends Mr. William Browne Sr. and Goodman Moulton to be my overseers, to see this my will and testament performed, and this I leave at my last will and testament. In witness whereof I set my hand: T.F. Witness: Robert Moulton Joseph Pores, marke Job Swinerton, Jr.
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Abt 1603 - 1663 (~ 60 years)
