Isaac Thayer

1663 - 1754

Story

Timeline

Map

Childbirth
Childhood
Clothing
Commerce
Communication
Diet
Education
Entertainment
Household
Hygiene
Marriage
Medicine
Military
Politics
Religion
Transportation

added:

Scroll to

Isaac born, 1663

Isaac was born on 4 February 1663, in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts, son of Ferdinando Thayer and Huldah Hayward.

Scroll to

America, 1663

The 13 original American colonies were located on the eastern seaboard of the North American continent. During the 1600s, many immigrants from England and other countries came to American in search of religious freedom. This influx saw the region's non-Native population grow from virtually zero in 1600 to over 250,000 by 1700. The majority of these settlers worked as fishermen, farmers, and ranchers—living in small, widespread villages more so than large cities.

Scroll to

Childbirth

A midwife assisting in childbirth

Isaac's mother assumed significant risks when she gave birth to him. At a time when the mothers around Isaac gave birth to anywhere between six and eight children, as many as 20%-30% of their babies died before age two. Many children who survived this dangerous life stage still succumbed to diseases like smallpox, influenza, or measles. A general lack of doctors along with the popular belief that it was indecent for a man to be present during childbirth meant that midwives performed the majority of in-home births, with no painkillers to assist the mother aside from alcohol. Another belief in Isaac's community stated that hard work made for easier labor; therefore women spun thread, wove clothing, and performed heavy lifting while pregnant.

Scroll to

Childhood

Children playing

Isaac's society molded childhood around work and learning. Parents in Isaac's community often displayed modern ideas of harsh or abusive behavior, but, at the time, proved necessary to the family's survival. Generally, mothers breastfed their infants until about one year old, then graduating their child to adult beverages, such as beer. Girls as young as four worked alongside their mothers learning to cook, sew, and milk cows. At around eight years old, boys attended grammar schools for writing and arithmetic. Education for girls, however, placed second behind learning her household duties. Girls learned to spin, knit, and cook, while boys learned to use a gun, compass, and the axe.

Scroll to

Education

During the 1600s, a great majority of the colonial population were at least part-time farmers, which turned comprehensive education into a family or local responsibility. In the mid-1600s, Massachusetts passed a law that required towns with a population of 50 or more people to build schools. These one-room schoolhouses had a single instructor who taught boys of every grade topics like basic literacy, Bible instruction, math, Greek, Latin, and science. Girls at the time assumed the role of mistress of the farm and often didn't attend a formal school. While upper-class children learned reading, writing, simple math, poems, and prayers, lower-class children tended to take part in skill-based apprenticeships that lasted anywhere from three to ten years. These apprenticeships gave poor children techniques to survive in the colonial economy.

Scroll to

Hygiene

An antique toothbrush

In the 1600s, many of Isaac's friends and neighbors didn't bathe very often. Instead, they relied on the rubbing action of linen underclothing to rub the dirt from their bodies. To wash this underclothing, people around Isaac made soap from animal fat and wood ashes. They also used this soap when they bathed from time to time. Because bathing was uncommon, this was a time where lice, intestinal worms, and fleas were commonplace.

Starting during the 1600s, brushing one's teeth started to become more important in society. Isaac's poor neighbors would generally use their finger as a toothbrush, which his rich neighbors used brushes with bicarbonate soda as toothpaste.

Along with linen pads, cloth diapers weren't changed very frequently. When they were removed, the infants' bottom was dry wiped and generally powdered with wood dust. Urine soaked clothes were dried by the fire, and then put immediately back onto the baby.

Scroll to

Clothing

Colonial woman's cap

Throughout Isaac's life, clothing was constantly evolving, but the Puritan roots of many settlers in the American Colonies kept styles on the conservative side. Men generally wore loose, informal robes (called banyans) and breeches as lower body garments. Coats and low-heeled black, leather shoes were also fashionable with men at the time. Women tended to wear a three-quarter length jacket worn with a petticoat, cap, and leather shoes. Since wigs were popular during this period, it was hard to wear hats, but some men carried caps with them beneath the arm. Hunting and trading with Native American tribes also produced various animal hides—from deer to racoon to buffalo—that helped keep colonists warm and comfortable during harsh weather.

Scroll to

Religion

During the 1600s, many colonists came from Europe to escape religious persecution, but unfortunately found that persecution followed them. Isaac lived during the mixing of Puritans, Separatists, and other religions in Colonial America, as well as the tensions and conflicts that went with it. The Puritans, for instance, wanted everyone to worship in the Puritan way, and nonconformists were fined, whipped, or even imprisoned. Eventually the pressure eased as more religions started to appear in the colonies, and religious diversity became an unavoidable fact of Isaac's life. Many of his closest friends and neighbors went to church regularly and practiced fervently. Increasing religious fervor led to closer communities as people became more accepting. Most states supported one church which received support from the colonial legislature. These churches supervised education, kept public records, and cared for the poor.

Scroll to

Marriage

A colonial wedding

Isaac lived during an interesting marital time. Ever since the colonists journeyed across the Atlantic on the Mayflower, eligible women were scarce. Adult women made up only 18 of the 100 Mayflower passengers, leaving marriage prospects for men relatively low. Between 1620 and 1622, 150 marriage-ready young women traveled to Virginia to be auctioned off for around 80 pounds of tobacco each. Isaac, coming from England where families arranged most marriages for the protection of wealth, now lived in the Americas, where neither beauty nor wealth played a part since men needed women as child-bearers, their offspring made to work as helping hands. By 1625, men still made up 3/4 of the population of the Americas. Once the percentage of men and women equaled out, Puritans made marriage a civil matter rather than a religious one since the Bible said relatively little about marriage. This allowed for mutually consented marriages rather than the financially negotiated ones seen in England. Women in Isaac's community generally married between the ages of 20-23 while men married in their late 20's. Sadly, newlyweds had only a one-in-three chance of living together for over 10 years because of high childbirth mortality rates.

Scroll to

Diet

Colonial gardens supplied vegetables

In colonial America, the average diet varied widely by region. In New England, colonists ate what we now consider "classic American" food, like apple pies and baked turkeys, while the middle colonists tended to fry or boil their food. People in the upper classes could afford a variety of meats and herbs, but people in the lower classes made do with porridge and, later, traditional southern fried chicken. Vegetables such as onions, cabbage, and carrots were staples in the diets of every social class. Alcoholic beverages were also commonplace and considered preferable to water because of unsanitary river and water source conditions.

Scroll to

Military

Early American militia

During Isaac's youth, British colonial law required all able-bodied men to receive training, enroll in a militia, and serve in the military during periods of war. Individual towns often had their own armed reserves. Despite having little experience as soldiers, militiamen did not receive extensive training—sometimes only four days per year. Full-time colonial soldiers known as "rangers" patrolled the frontier to ward off attacks by Native Americans. If Isaac's male relatives were called to fight, the women in his family took up the responsibility of defending their homes and farms.

Soldiers from Isaac's community were paid according to their rank; usually, salaries for an 8-month enlistment was enough for a man to purchase anywhere from 30 to 150 acres of land. However, soldiers were required to buy their own uniforms, weapons, and gear. Muskets and back-country rifles could do considerable damage, but also took about thirty seconds to reload between each shot. Smoothbore and hunting rifles with mixed shot and roundball were also used, and some fighters used scatter shot to ensure that they hit someone.

When called to serve, military men in Isaac's family generally wore their regular breeches and linen, wool, or cotton shirts. The wealthy often preferred ruffled blouses. All soldiers wore waistcoats along with coats and wool or cotton stockings. Head coverings included tricorn- and flat-brim hats or simple scarves. Most men donned buckled shoes or went barefoot, and carried their knives and other tools tucked in their belts.

Meanwhile, most Native American fighters in Isaac's region wore items made of leather (or in some cases wool purchased from Europeans). Breechcloths reached halfway down the thigh, while leggings were tied below the knee. Linen trade shirts were also worn, along with beaded moccasins. Some men wore earrings or nose rings made of trade silver. They fought with tomahawks and knives, and many men could move so quickly that settlers' rifles were rendered useless.

Scroll to

Medicine

A mahogany doctor's medicine chest

In the 1600s, medicine was hindered by misguided ideas about the human body and a lack of generalized medical practices, all of which did little to improve the quality of life for people close to Isaac. For instance, it wasn't until the mid-1600s that William Harvey discovered that blood circulates through the body instead of sitting still in veins and arteries. Lack of medical information led to as many as 50% of women dying in childbirth during the early colonial years, coupled with towering infant mortality rates. Anywhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of children died before the age of 16. Doctors during Isaac's life commonly prescribed Calomel, a form of poisonous mercury that acted as a laxative and provided relief for teething babies. Alongside bad medical techniques, diseases such as smallpox, malaria, tuberculosis, and pneumonia killed numerous colonists. These undesirable conditions and diseases set the average life expectancy for Isaac's generation at around 39 years old. However, the invention of the smallpox vaccine allowed the generation after his to live longer and healthier lives.

Scroll to

Entertainment

Men playing billiards

For Isaac and his community, entertainment provided a recess from hardships like job-stress and family complications. During the 1600s, entertainment varied widely based on location and social class. Fiddlers and dancers traveled the countryside, sometimes landing in Isaac's town to teach new dances to the community. Isaac's friends enjoyed commonplace activities throughout the colonies such as reading novels, billiards, playing cards (for the wealthy), hunting, or fishing. Court days and executions became exceedingly popular forms of entertainment, soon accompanied by community festivals featuring games, foot races, wrestling, and horse races.

Scroll to

Household

A home built in 1660

Throughout Isaac's life, housing changed and evolved as Americans tried to make names for themselves. Since settlers came from Germany, France, Spain, and England, wealth dictated housing and varied architecturally, but generally consisted of framed timber or rock. Isaac's friends and family stuffed their own individually made beds with either straw or feathers, leaving the mattresses without a standard size. A chimney placed in the middle of the structure doubled as both a stove and a heat source.

Typical houses consisted of two rooms, while some, influenced by wealth, could have upwards of four rooms. Generally, families sat at tables during meal time, but these were custom made and hard to come by. After a time, however, these families around Isaac afforded to buy or learned to make more furniture to fit out their homes.

Scroll to

Marries Mercy Rockwood, 1691

Isaac was 28 when he married Mercy Rockwood who was 23. They were married 12 April 1691 in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts.

Scroll to

Salem Witch Trials, 1692

During the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts, the panicked community hanged 19 women and one man falsely accused of witchcraft. Beginning in 1692, a pair of young girls started acting strangely, screaming frequently, and unexplainably burst in to violence. Several other young women showed the same symptoms, which led to finger-pointing and accusations of witchcraft across the community of Salem. Many of the suspected witches falsely accused others in order to save themselves from execution. Possibly, Constitutional rights, such as a fair trial and not incriminating oneself, stemmed from this incident. Since news traveled slowly and by word of mouth, Isaac and his friends may not have even heard about this event.

Scroll to

Daughters Mercy and Mary born, 1693

On 2 November 1693, Isaac's twin daughters, Mercy and Mary, were born in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts when Isaac was 30 years old.

Scroll to

Transportation

During Isaac's life, slow and expensive transportation plagued early America and hindered the movement of goods and people around the country. While some fortunate Americans rode buggies, the main modes of transportation were by horse or foot. During this time, walking from New York to Boston took three to five days. For the most part, only government officials and merchants endured the difficulties of travel, especially with the risks of poor weather and personal injury but, if necessary, men and women alike journeyed extraordinary distances for supplies or to visit family and friends.

Scroll to

Son Isaac born, 1695

On 24 September 1695, Isaac's son, Isaac (our Ancestor), was born in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts, when Isaac was 32 years old.

Scroll to

Son Ebenezer born, 1696

On 6 September 1696, Isaac's son, Ebenezer, was born in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts, when Isaac was 33 years old.

Scroll to

Communication

During Isaac's lifetime, printed information was hard to come by. Doctors and universities often owned small private collections of books, but these were not available to members of the general public. Since newspapers were not common in the 1600s, Isaac and his neighbors usually only received news by word of mouth, while his wealthiest friends had the most access to new information and current events. Long-distance communication was especially difficult for people that lived outside of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, since postal services were mostly available only in those cities. Many of Isaac's neighbors relied on friends or traveling merchants to send messages across the colonies.

Scroll to

Daughter Comfort born, 1699

On 19 February 1699, Isaac's daughter, Comfort, was born in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts when Isaac was 36 years old.

Scroll to

Wife Mercy dies, 1700

When Isaac was 37, his wife Mercy Rockwood passed away in Mendon, Suffolk, Massachusetts at the age of 32. They were married for 9 years. After the death of his wife, he married again and has several children: John, Nathaniel, Moses, Joseph, Ichabod, Jerusha and Patience.

Scroll to

Politics

Even though the British Crown still ruled the Colonies, the heads of various religions controlled local governments. Lawsuits occurred frequently and many religious colonists around Isaac participated in the courts. In England, aristocrats dominated politics whereas in the Colonies, white men of varied socioeconomic backgrounds governed. Most free, white landowners around Isaac voted, but women did not have the right.

Scroll to

Commerce

Early colonial money

The majority of people around Isaac practiced subsistence farming due to the geography of the colonies, though many were also involved in trades such as lumber-jacking, smithing, and shoemaking. It was also common for many of Isaac's friends and neighbors to trade or barter with food in exchange for goods and services. Pounds, shillings, and pence were the common currency that Isaac and his neighbors used since the colonies were still under control of the British empire. Colonists used some paper money as well, but it was illegal for people in America to print money, so many colonists like Isaac relied on the bartering system. Taxes were commonplace in the English colonies during Isaac's lifetime. The colonies were taxed without direct representation in Parliament, which greatly irritated those around Isaac and ultimately led to the American Revolution.

Scroll to

First Great Awakening, 1732

George Whitefield

One of Jonathan Edwards' famous sermons

Isaac was in his 60s during the First Great Awakening, which revitalized Christianity on a personal level by relying less on ceremony or ritual and instilling a powerful need for salvation. English settlers established the colonies around ideas of religious freedom, and strove to make everything in their communities, from school to government, dominated by religion. Followers around Isaac witnessed sermons by famous preachers such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, which often led to questions about individual beliefs and personal salvation.

Scroll to

Isaac dies, 1754

Isaac wrote his will in 1754 and mentioned his sons, Moses, Isaac, Ebenezer, Nathaniel, Samuel, Joseph, Ichabod and daughters, Comfort, Mary and Jerusha. He died within the next four months when he was about 91 years old.

Reduce Time Line

Top

Questions? Feedback?Olark live chat software

» Saving and Printing the Story

Subscribers can download and print the story, by clicking on the "Save and Print" link on the story page. This will generate the PDF and open it in a window, where you can save or print.

» Adding Immigration

On the story, click "Add to Story"
Click "Add Immigration/Relocation"
Enter the details, and click "Save"

» Adding a Residence

On the story, click "Add to Story"
Click "Add Residence"
Enter the details, and click "Save"

» Add a Child, Spouse, Sibling

To add a child, spouse, or sibling to a person on the family tree:

Center that person on the tree, by clicking on the (tree) icon.
Click on "Add Spouse", "Add Child", or "Add Sibling"

» Delete a Tree

To delete a family tree:

On the "Stories" page, click on the tree to open the tree
Click on the edit (pencil) icon, and then "Delete this Tree"

» Edit a Person on the Tree

To edit the information of a person on the tree, click on the person's box. This will open the edit form. Make any changes, then click "Save and Close".

» Remove a Story Section

On the story, click "Edit" on the section you wish to remove
Click "Hide this from the story"

» Dots on Children and Spouses

The dots on spouses and children help to indicate the link between the parent and the child. A person may have multiple spouses, and multiple children from each spouse. The color of the dots links the child to the parent.

» Add a Nickname

If your ancestor had a nickname or a given name that is preferred to be used in the story, you can add a nickname to the person:

Click on the person on the family tree
Click on the "Add Nickname" link
Add the nickname, then click "Save and Close"

Viewing the story will now show the preferred nickname in the narrative.

» How Do I Subscribe?

Visit the Subscribe page to learn about pricing, options, and to subscribe.

» Sharing on Facebook

Stories are easy to share on Facebook. On the story page, click on the "Share" button, then the Facebook icon. This will share the story page, and create an picture of the story to be shared. The Facebook link will link to the story page on HistoryLines.

» Sharing on Blogs

There are two ways to share on a blog:

PREVIEW. Post a preview image of the story, linking to the full story on HistoryLines. This is a snapshot view of the story, which will not change.
EMBED. Embed the story in an iframe on your blog. This will be a live version of the story, which will automatically update as you edit it on HistoryLines.

Instructions for both of these options are found on the "Share" link on the story page.

» Finding People on a Tree

Whether you imported a large GEDCOM file, or built a large tree, you can easily search the tree to find ancestors you are interested in. The search field is right below the name of the tree on the "Trees" page.

Matching ancestors will automatically appear as you type. Clicking on a matching name will load the tree with them at the center. To make an individual the permanent starting point for the tree, click on the person, then "Set as Tree Starting Point".

» Importing a tree from Ancestry

First, export your tree from Ancestry as a GEDCOM file. On Ancestry.com, go to your Tree Settings (in the drop-down menu under your tree name) and in the Tree info tab, look over to the right where it says Manage your tree. Click on Export tree. Once you have downloaded the GEDCOM file from Ancestry, you can import it into HistoryLines. On the "Stories" page, click on "Import a GEDCOM File", then select the file, name it, and click "Upload GEDCOM". HistoryLines will then create your family tree from that GEDCOM file.

» Importing a tree from MyHeritage

First, export your tree from MyHeritage as a GEDCOM file. Click here: Instructions

Once you have downloaded the GEDCOM file from MyHeritage, you can import it into HistoryLines. On the "Stories" page, click on "Import a GEDCOM File", then select the file, name it, and click "Upload GEDCOM". HistoryLines will then create your family tree from that GEDCOM file.

» Importing a tree from FamilySearch

HistoryLines can import your tree directly from FamilySearch. On the "Stories" page, click on "Import from FamilySearch". You will be directed to the FamilySearch login page, to sign in, then back to HistoryLines, which will automatically download your family tree into HistoryLines.
Any time you make changes to your tree on FamilySearch, come back to HistoryLines, go to your family tree, click on the person you wish to update, then click on "Update from FamilySearch". The person will be updated with the latest information from FamilySearch.

» Arranging Photos in Story Sections

Each story section can contain up to 10 photos. You can re-arrange, rotate, delete, and add photos on the "Edit" or "Personalize" on any story section. The first photo in the list will display as the large photo in the story. You can also add captions that will appear in the large view, and in the exported PDF.

» Importing a tree from RootsMagic, Family Tree Builder, and other software

First, export your tree from your software problem as a GEDCOM file. (See your software guide for instructions)

Once you have downloaded the GEDCOM file from your software program, you can import it into HistoryLines. On the "Stories" page, click on "Import a GEDCOM File", then select the file, name it, and click "Upload GEDCOM". HistoryLines will then create your family tree from that GEDCOM file.

» How do I stop a subscription?

Email us if you would like to make changes to your subscription

» How do I update my payment information?

Go to your "Account" page, click on "Payment Information", then make any needed changes.

Intro

Tree Basics

Importing from FamilySearch Importing GEDCOM Creating PDF

Ancestors

Siblings

Spouses

Children

You can leave this page while GEDCOM file is imported.