He was called "the foremost man of his day In Yarmouth". 552

He was also said to have been born 7 March 1639. 293

When he was born, Marblehead was then called Salem.258

“Res. Yarmouth, Mass. Dep. and Asst. G.C. Ply. Col. Asst. Com. Mass. Col. in Mil. Service. J.P.”555

"Colonel John . . . was a more distinguished man than his father, so far as eminent public position and service is concerned. He was assistant to the governor in 1691, and from 1692 to 1717, inclusive, a counsellor in the province of Massachusetts Bay." 296

“John Thacher had eight children by 1st wife Rebecca Winslow for a total of 20 children! His will, dated 25 Apr. 1713 (prob. 19 June 1713) mentions 2nd wife Lydia and 16 children, viz: (6 by 1st wife), Peter, John, Josiah (dec’d), Rebecca, Bethiah and Elizabeth (dec’d) and the 10 surviving children by his 2nd wife. John’s will is not transcribed in the files, only two interesting lines are extracted, ‘To ye Two Drummers of Yarmouth if they beat at my funeral, 5s apeice’ and ‘I had much rather be Decently Buryed withut any Military Cerimony’. (Barnstable Co. PR 3:295; MD 22:110).” 256

“Hon. John Thatcher, of Marshfield, was much esteemed and honored; a major in the militia; for more than twenty years one of the council of war, and for five years one of the governor’s aids; an assistant in the government of Plymouth Colony, and a councillor in that of Massachusetts. He d. 8 May, 1713, and, like his father, was ‘buried under arms,’ and the gravestones erected to his memory, - the first, with an inscription, ever used in Yarmouth, - were brought from England. He m. 1st, Rebecca Winslow, 6 Nov. 1664, by whom he had 8 ch.; m. 2d, Lyda, fifth dau of Col. John Gorham, of barnstable, 1 Jan. 1684, O.S.” 449

“’Tradition has preserved a singular anecdote of John Thacher, a son of one of the first settlers in Massachusetts. He was married in 1661 to Rebecca Winslow, and being on his way to Yarmouth with his bride, they stopped for the night at the house of one Col. Gorham, at Barnstable. In the merry conversation with the newly married couple an infant was introduced, about three weeks old, and the night of her birth was mentioned to Mr. Thacher; he observed that it was the very night on which he was married, and taking the child in his arms, presented it to his bride, saying ‘Here, my dear, is a little lady, born on the same night we were married; I wish you would kiss her, for I intend to have her for my second wife.’ ‘I will, my dear,’ she replied, ‘to please you, but I hope it will be long before your intention is fulfilled.’ Then, taking the babe, she kissed it heartily, and so gave it into the nurse’s hands. This jesting prediction was eventually verifed; Mr. Thacher’s wife died, and the child, arriving at mature age, actually became his second wife in 1684.’ - [Salem Mercury.] He was deputy from Yarmouth, 1669, ‘70, ‘71; was an Assistant of Plymouth Colony.” 551

“It was now the custom to appoint a committee to decide on seating the congregation according to rank and wealth. In 1694 the town voted to appoint Captain John Thacher, Lieutenant Silas Sears, Mr. John Miller and Sergeant Joseph Ryder as the committee to ‘seat Men, women and others in the meeting house.’ “ 329

“Will of Col. John THACHER: <MDP:319-20; MD 22:110-13; Barnstable Co. PR 3:295, 298-9> ...25 Apr. 1713, ment. wf Lydia; sons Peter THACHER, John THACHER, male heirs of dec’d son Josiah THACHER; minor sons Judah THACHER, Joseph THACHER, Benjamin THACHER & Thomas THACHER; daus Rebecca STURGIS, Bethiah PAINE; unnamed chil. of dec’d dau Elizabeth HATCH; daus Lydia FREEMAN, Mary GORHAM; unnamed 4 youngest daus by his present wife; ‘to ye two drummer of Yarmouth if they beat at my funeral 5s apeice ...thou I had much rather be decently buryed without any military cerimony’. Pr. 19 June 1713.” 271

“An amusing story is told respecting his courtship and marriage. The first wife of Col. Thacher was Rebecca, daughter of Josiah Winslow of Marshifeld, and niece of Gov. Edward. He was married Nov. 6, 1661, and some little time after his return to Yarmouth he and his bride called at Capt. Gorham’s Lydia was then an infant only a few months old. Col. Thacher taking the babe in his hands, presented it to his wife, and said in a sportive manner manner, ‘allow me to introduce you to my second wife.’ Mrs. Thacher took the babe and kissed it. July 15, 1683, Mrs. Rebecca Thacher, wife of Col. Thacher, died, and ‘many lamentable verses’ he wrote on the occasion. Before the ink was dry with which he penned the elegies, he thought of Miss Lydia who was then twenty-two and unmarried. Common decency require that he should wait three months before proposing to marry her, but passing the house of the widow Gorham one evening, he saw his son Peter’s horse hitched at the door. Mistrusting that Miss Lydia was the object of his visit, Col. Thacher on the morrow privately asked his son if he thought of marrying Miss Lydia. The young man blushed, and frankly admitted that to be the object of his visit. ‘Now,’ said the Colonel, ‘if you will agree to discontinue your visits, I will give you my black oxen.’ Peter accepted the oxen, and the Colonel married Miss Lydia 5 months and 16 days after the death of his first wife, whom he had so deeply lamented and in most dolorous rhymes.”247

“He resided at Marblehead, and Yarmouth, Massachusetts: he was a statesman and soldier . . .He was buried with military honors in the old cemetery at Yarmouth where a gravestone marks his resting place.”258

“Hononable Col. John (3) Thacher was born in Marblehead (then Salem), Mass., and removed with his parents to Yarmouth early in the 1640’s. Of his history prior to marriage we have no definite knowledge, but assume that his boyhood and youth were spent in Yarmouth, receiving such school advantages as were obtainable there in those early days. We have no ready of his having attended college. In 1661 he was married to Rebecca Winslow, daughter of Josiah Winslow of Marshfield, Mass., by his wife Margaret (Bourne) Winslow. It is assumed that the marriage took place in Marshfield, although no record thereof is to be found there nor in Yarmouth; the poem dedicated to his first wife’s memory suggests that Marshfield was the place of marriage.” 262

It has also been said that he married Rebecca Winslow by 1665 because their eldest child was born in Yarmouth 20 May 1665. “(Savage gives the date of this marriage as 6 November 1661, at Marshfield, but this event does not appear in the Marshfield records)”362

“The date of marriage of Hon. Col. John (3) Thacher to Rebecca Winslow is variously given. Allen in his ‘Thacher Genealogy,’ pp. 33, and Savage in Vol. IV., p. 602, of his ‘Genealogical Dictionary,’ both say that the marriage took place November 6th, 1661. The N.E.H.G.Reg., Vol. XIV., p. 11; and Freeman’s ‘History of Cape Cod,’ Vol. 1, p. 622, and Davis’ ‘Landmarks of Plymouth,’ pp. 258-9, all say November 6th, 1664. The poem written by John (3) Thacher on the death of his first wife, however, specifically fixes the date as 1661; and when I note that the first of their known and named children was born on May 20th, 1665, I am inclined to think that that the 9th child recorded above was in reality their first born, who was born between 1661 and 1665 and probably died in infancy or at birth.” Many more details of his life (year by year) to be entered. 262

“When his [Antony Thacher’s] son John married in 1664, Mr. Thacher built a house for him near the corner of Thacher Street and Thacher Shore Road. In 1680, this house was moved to its present location [240 Old King’s Highway]. The original structure consisted of the eastern section only, the western wing being added lated as the family grew. Colonel John Thacher’s first wife died in 1683 and after a few weeks of grieving he noticed that his son was courting a young woman that John had known since she had been a child. Colonel Thacher fell in love, paid his son five pounds and a yoke of oxen to drop her. The 46-year-old Colonel then pursued and won her himself, marrying her in 1684. Between both of his wives, he fathered 21 children. This house has sheltered generation after generation of Thachers until Miss Mary Thacher gave the home to the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities where it is now preserved and lived in by Mr. and Mrs. Fred Crockett.”297

His house is directly across the street from the Yarmouthport Post Ofice on Routh 6A, next door to the Winslow Crocker House. The house was visited and photographed by Barbara Fleming, August, 2001. Photos on file.

“Colonel John . . . was a more distinguished man than his father, so far as eminent public position and service is concerned. He was assistant to the governor in 1691, and from 1692 to 1717, inclusive, a counsellor in the province of Massachusetts Bay.” 296

“He died at Yarmouth, Mass., May 8th, 1713, ‘on Friday about noon, and was buried Monday 3 PM.’; he was buried at Yarmouth, Mass., with military honors in the old cemetery there, where a gravestone marks his resting place.” 262

He was buried at Yarmouth Ancient Cemetery (Old Church Street near Route 6). 242

“The stone that marks their graves was the first inscribed stone erected in the Yarmouth burying ground and bears the following inscription: -
‘In memory of the Honorable John Thacher, Esq.,
Who departed this life 8. May, 1713 in the 75th year of
his age, and in memory of Lydia Thacher his
wife, who died 2 August 1744, in the 84th year of
her age.’
Hon. Col. John (3) Thacher made his will under date of April 25th, 1713, and it was proved July 27th, 1713; a copy of this will will be found at the end of this record in Note 3.” Text of will to be entered. 262

“Hon. Col. John (3) Thacher had but one brother and one sister. Judah (3) Thacher, his brother, left male issue, but they all died without issue; hence the male line of Antony (2) Thacher was perpetuated only through his son, Hon. Col. John (3) Thacher, who is therefore the ancestor of all the Cape Cod Thachers living at the present time.” 262

A map shows the location of Colonel John Thacher ‘s House. 304

“On October 17, 1691, a new charter was finally issued. It combined Maine, Acadia, Massachusetts Bay and the Old Colony of Plymouth into one province. . . The towns went about the business of electing representatives to serve at Boston. the choices of the Yarmouth voters were John Thacher (1638/9-1713) who was the only freeman of Yarmouth to serve as a Governor’s Assistant at Plymouth and Jeremiah Howes (1637-1708), stepson and son-in-law of former Plymouth Colony Governor Thomas Prence.”329

“John Thacher. . . born after the above shipwreck in 1639, was a colonel and many years counsellor of Massachusetts.” 551

“An anecdote connected with the marriage of Lydia, teh youngest dau. of Capt. Gorham, has been preserved, as follows: ‘John Thacher, while on his return from Marshfield, to his home in Yarmouth, in 1661, with his bride Rebecca, dau. of Josias Winslow, sen., tarried for a night in Barnstable, at the house of Capt. Gorham. In the merry conversation witht he happy pair, an infant was introduced, and the night of her birth, named. Mr. Thatcher observed it was the night of their marriage; taking the child he presented it to his bride, saying, ‘Here, my dear, is a little lady, born ont he night we were married: I wish you would kiss her, for I intent to make her my second wife.’ ‘I will,’ she replied, y’to please you, hoping it may be long before your intention is fulfilled.’ Then taking the babe she affectionately kissed it and returned it to the nurse’s arms. This jesting prediction was eventually fulfilled.’ Mrs. Rebecca Thatcher deceased in the midst of her years, and Lydia Gorham became the second wife of John Thatcher in 1684.” 314

“John Thacher, the eldest son of Anthony, was born March 17, 1639. He was, at an early age, appointed an officer in the militia, and for more than twenty years served as one of the selectmen of the town of Plymouth. In the year 1668 he was chosen a representative for the town to the General Court, and was elected to that station annually to the year 1683, except the year 1672. He was in the year 1681 chosen one of the council of war, and continued to serve several years, and was, for about five eyars, one of the assistants of the governor. Immediately on the union of Plymouth colony with the province of Massachusetts Bay, under the charter of William and Mary, in 1692, Mr. Thacher was elected a member of the provincial council, and continued to serve in that capacity near twenty years. He died at Yarmouth, May 8, 1713, aged seventy-five eyars. Mr. Thacher married Rebecca Winslow, of Marshfield, in 1661, and family tradition burnishes a singular anecdote. On his return to Yarmouth with his bride and company, they stopped at the hosue of Colonel Gorham, at Barnstable. In the marry conversation with the newly married couple, an infant was introduced, about three weeks od, and it was observed to Mr. Thacher that she was born on such a night; he replied that it was the very night he was married; and, taking the child in his arms, presented it to his bride, saying ‘Here, my dear, is a little lady born on the same night we were married - I wish you woul dkiss it, as I intend to have her for my second wife.’ ‘I will, my dear,’ she replied, ‘to please you, but I hope it will be a long time before you will have that pleasure!’ So taking the babe, she pressed it to her lips, and gave it a kiss. This jesting prediciton was eventually verified. Mr. Thacher’s wife died, and the child, Lydia Gorham, arriving at mature age, actually became his second wife, January 1, 1684, O.S.” 450

“Thus far we find in a book entitled, New England’s Memorial, which was published by Mr. Nathanael Morton, the Secretary of Plymouth colony, in the year 1669. Since then there have been added at several times,
Constant Southeorth, 1670. . .
John Thatcher . . . “ 420

“The following epitaph is copied from the original paper: -
‘An Anagramstick Epitaph upon
The Honorable
JOHN THACHR ESQR.
Deceased May 8th, 1713.

John Thacher
Rich One hath.
Anagr.
Some Great Rich Men are never satisy’d
But ths Rich One, hath all his wants supply’d
Once Rich in Grace Greatly beloved, desir’d
Now Heav’nly Rich, in glorious Robe Attir’d
Once he enoyed Earths Comforts to Content
A Godly shar therof his Lord him lent.
This puff’t him not with pride. Humanity
Was that wherein He shone Illustriously.
Example Rare to All, He nobly gave
Wisely Himself did in Each Post behave.
In Court, in Church, Town Family and Field.
Few Men so brace, Some Larger Countries yield.
Justice in his Exalted Station He To All dispens’d with Impartiality.
His Lovely Family well Disciplin’d
To his Companion eer dearly kind
He like another Enock, with his God
Did walk uprightly. Purest Paths He trod.
Truth, Love, Peace, Purity were is Delight
By Faith He kept the Unseen World in Sight
Thither He takes his Flight on Eagle’s Wings
Where Stands the Paliace of the King of Kings.
His Corps with Great Solemnity Interr’d
(Due Honours of his Sacred Tomb Conferr’d)
Taking sweet Rest till Resurrection Day
Shall then Awake and Rise in Rich Array
And be Advanc’d unto a Splendid Throne
As King and Priest to Heav’ns Thrice Holy One.
Eternal Riches this Rich One hath found,
No Wonder, for Rich One His Name doth Sound.
Finis.’ ” 450


Tombstone visited and photographed by Barbara Fleming, August, 2001. Photos on file.
Tombstone was next to the tombstone of Lydia Thacher and read:
“Here Lyes Buried ye Body
of the Honourable
John Thacher Esqr
Died May ye 8th 1713
In ye 74th Year
of his age” 77