SOURCE: "Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts, With some Related Families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich, and Hampton", by David W. Hoyt; Providence, RI

Transcriber notes in brackets [ ]

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1 THOMAS¹ MACY [or MACIE], b. ab. 1608, "planter," "clothier," or "merchant," came from Chilmark, Eng., to Newbury, Mass., but rem. to Salisbury, where he recd. land in 1639, '40, and '42; commoner and taxed 1650; rep. 1654; etc. He was one of the original commoners and clerk of Amesbury, 1654-9; recd. land there 1652, '4 and '8; but rem. to Nantucket in 1659, the subject of Whittier's poem, "The Exiles."* He m. Sarah Hopcott, who d. in 1706, aged 94. He d. April 19, 1682. [See note below (See pp. 103, 118.)]
     He was prosecuted and fined for allowing four Friends on a journey to take shelter in his house about three quarters of an hour one rainy day, in 1659, as his own letter to the court informs us. It is worthy of note that his grandson and many others of his descendants became Friends. Like Roger Williams, he fled from persecution in Massachusetts. His family were the first white settlers in Nantucket, then under the jurisdiction of New York. Edward Starbuck and Isaac Coleman, a lad 12 years old, accompanied them.† Children:

* For full particulars respecting the Macy family, see "Genealogy of the Macy Family," 1868, pp. 457. The author states that Thomas Macy "was of the Baptist persuasion, and would frequently on the Sabbath exhort the people," in Amesbury. Pike's "New Puritan" also states that "both he and Peasley were at that time members of a Baptist sect in Salis." We have failed to find on the Ames. records any proof that they were Baptists. Joseph Peasley and Thomas Macy were leaders in the determination of the Ames. people not to attend meeting in Salis., but to hold one of their own in the new town.

† Thomas Mayhew, of Martha's Vineyard, deeded nineteen-twentieths of the island of Nantucket, in July, 1650, to Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf. John Swayne, and William Pile, Mayhew reserving a share for himself, thus making the ten proprietors. At a meeting of the proprietors held at Salisbury, Sep. 2, 1659, the ten owners were authorized to admit ten partners. Thomas Mayhew took John Smith, Tristram Coffin took Nathaniel Starbuck, Thomas Macy took Edward Starbuck, Christopher Hussey took Robert Pike, Thomas Barnard took Robert Barnard, Peter Coffin took James Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf took Tristrain Coffn, Jr., Richard Swain took Thomas Look, John Swain took Thomas Coleman, and William Pile sold his whole tenth to Richard Swain in 1663. The Indian deed of 1671 was to "Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Richard Swayne, Thomas Bernard, John Swayne, Mr. Thomas Mayhew,