John Hulett and Bernice (Berenice) Hale

---

---

Husband John Hulett

---

           Born: 29 Dec 1710 - Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts
     Christened: 
           Died: Abt 1776 - Belchertown, Massachusetts
         Buried: 

---

         Father: John III Howlett (1676-      )
         Mother: Patience (      -      )

---

       Marriage: 9 Mar 1737 - Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts

---

---

Wife Bernice (Berenice) Hale

---

           Born: 23 May 1719 - Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

---

Children

---

---

General Notes (Husband)

---

It isn't clear why John would have gone to Hampshire County after living in the environs of Rehoboth, Swansea (near Rehoboth), and Scituate RI (halfway between Rehoboth and Killingsly, Connecticut) all of his life. I don't have teh explanation for the odd hop scotching. Relatives were moving through Berkshire Co MA not very far away, but there were actual reasons to move there.

Allegedly he left a will in Belchertown, but no estate. ????? The will mentions as children Thomas, Joseph, John, Patience and Mary. This is consistent with the name of the mother of John, but Patience wasn't that uncommon a name. Source something about Kirkus Vol 1, p 395. And the source on his will is IGI. ????? This from Wayne Summers, [email protected], but he can't be found as a student or faculty member there. (A veritable descendant, I guess.) This is added to information from the web site of Darlene Donovan, [email protected]

Two other children are Avis and Mason.

JOHN HULET, GOV. WEST, AND HUNTING GRAND OLD FURNITURE

As the land was being cleared, with here and there, at irregular places,
a clearing made or commenced,
"Where not a habitation stood before,
Abodes of men irregularly massed."

One of these, whose chimney smokes were illuminated by the morning sun in the woods of Scituate, in its early settlement, was John Hulet and Berenice, his wife, who, about 140, resided in the north-western part of the town. His grave is pointed out in a pasture back of the house of John Harris, Esq., a short hillock, marked by two walnut trees, and lying on the westerly side of the most northern one. Two rough moss-covered stones, one at each end of the grave, and without inscription, designate the last resting place of one who owned large tracts of land in the vicinity, but now sleeps unnoticed and unknown by the living generations about him. His transactions in deeds were numerous, and run from 1743 to 1763. In 1744 he bought one hundred and fifty acres from Stepehen Hopkins for three hundred pounds, land commonly called "Oystershell Plain." We find him, among others, taking the oath against bribery, Aug. 15, 1747, an example which might be followed at the present day for the advantage of the country.

Benjamin Gorton, of Warwick, married John Hulet's daughter Avis, July 18, 1762. His son Mason married, the year following, Oct. 23, 1763, Elizabeth Mathewson, of Johnston. Elder Reuben Hopkins performed the marriage service on both these interesting occasions. Mason Hulet removed to Vermont and settled at Wallingford, on the Otter Creek, and has left numerous descenants in that State. John Hulet, March 1761, sold to Col. Wm. West the farm of two hundred acres which he bought of Stephen Hopkins. He sold it for forty thousand pounds, a price not to be accounted for, except, we admit, the great depreciation of the currency. Mr. Hulet was appointed, with Thomas Angell, pound keeper, in 1747. He is called "Captain" in his appointment of fence viewed in 1750. He was undoubtedly a man of considerable property for those days, and quite a dealer in lands. He sold to Boylston Brayton, of Smithfield, May 28, 1763, two tracts of land, -- one lying in Glocester, according to the deed, "the half of a farm whereon Ralph Wellman did formerly live, and bounded as in deed of William West to Eliphalet Eddy, Feb. 16, 1760, and also more particularly by the said Eddy to me, the said John Hulet, containing three hundred acres, more or less. The other tract is in Scituate, and is my homestead farm, and the same whereon I now dwell, and contains about two hundred and fifty acres, bounded northerly on land of James Wheeler, easterly on land of the same, and on land belonging to Capt. John Whipple, southerly on land of William West and westwardly on land of Charles Hopkins and Barnes Hall, and on land belonging to heirs of Joseph Wilkinson." This homestead farm would seem to have been very near to the place of his burial. We find him buying at the same time of Benj. Anthony, of Swanzea, for 1800 Spanish milled dollars, 229 1-2 acres of land, where Thomas Knowlton once dwelt in Scituate, in part bounded by territory of heirs of Joseph Wilkinson. Mr. Hulet must have died soon after these last transactions, as we find no further mention of him in the town records. He is said to have died of fever after a very short illness.

Notice that if John Hulet had no estaet, he had just purchased 229 acres of land, and sold several tracts of land, for tens of thousands of pounds each, and most of these tracts of land were bigger than 229 acres. It looks as if he may have been something of a land speculator. There is no mention of him moving to Hampshire County.

So there is no mention in a Scituate source that he went to Hampshire County, the man who died in Hampshire County had no estate and our JOhn Hulett should have had a huge estate, and the children named in teh Hampshire County will don't match the known children of John Hulett of Scituate.

But kin have to have turned up owning all that land - sold it, lived on it, paid taxes, or something. Even in Rhode Island, Land of Knaves.

Further, Darlene includes from that web site somewhere; "His grave is pointed out in a pasture back of the house o John Harris, Esq., a short hillock, marked by two walnut trees, and lying on the westerly side of the most northern one. Two rough moss-covered stones, one at each end of the grave, and without inscription, designate the last resting place of one who owned large tracts of land in teh vicinity, but now sleeps unnoticed and unknown by the living generations about him." So John Hulett is buried in Scituate, Rhode Island. Seems unlikely if he was living in Hampshire County when he died.

---