Nicholas Clap, 1612-1679
from The Clapp Memorial. Record of the Clapp Family in America … Ebenezer Clapp, compiler. (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1876)
Nicholas Clapp was the fourth son of Richard Clapp of England, and was born in England, in 1612. Of his brothers, Thomas came with him to this country, John emigrated some time afterwards, and Ambrose and Richard remained behind. It was doubtless by the advice and encouragement of his cousin Roger, who was three years his senior, that he came to New England. He probably arrived in Dorchester in 1633, as his name appears on the records of the town the next year. Many others also arrived from Old England in 1633 and the year previous, so that the inhabitants had become many more in numbers than the few score who came with Roger in 1630.
That year [1633] found them with a meeting-house built, and witnessed also the commencement of the practice of choosing a body of Selectmen to manage the affairs of the town. A fort was likewise ordered to be built in 1633 on “ye Rock upon rock-hill,” to be paid for by the town, and liberty was given Mr. Israel Stoughton to build a mill on Neponset River.
Mr. Clapp was a man highly respected by his contemporaries; he held a number of the responsible offices of the town, and was a Deacon of the church. His name is found on the list of jurors at a special court held in September, 1653, relative to disputed matters connected with the Lynn Iron Works. He married, first, Sarah Clapp, a sister to Roger Clapp; he married, second Abigail, widow of Robert Sharp, of Brookline. He lived in the north part of the town, on the westerly side of what is now Boston Street, a little south of the Five Corners, and near the house where my father Deacon Ebenezer Clapp lived and died, and it is supposed he set out the orchard which was on my father’s land contiguous to his house, as my grandfather, Noah Clapp, who died in 1799, told my mother that the man who set out those trees had been dead one hundred and thirty years. Some of these trees remained many years after this, and a few doubtless reached the age of two hundred years before their dead branches and decayed trunks were finally removed from the soil which had been cultivated by no less than six generations.
He owned land also in various other places, as will be seen by his inventory, many acres being located in parts long since occupied by streets and buildings. In 1667, a tax was laid by the town of half a penny on each acre of ploughed land on the Neck (now South Boston), and Nicholas’s tax that year was 11d. For the use of land on the Neck as pasture, no tax was assessed. The facsimile of his autograph here given is obtained from a list in the Town Records of the male inhabitants of the town, appended to an instrument conveying to Dorchester all rents and profits of Thompson’s Island, for the support of a Free School. He died suddenly in his barn, Nov. 24, 1679.
[Inscription and Inventory of the Estate of Dea. Nicholas Clapp are given]
Children of Nicholas and 1st wife Sarah (Clapp) Clapp:
Sarah, b. Dec. 31, 1637, probably died young.
Nathaniel, b. Sept. 15, 1640; d. May 16, 1707, aged 67 years.
Ebenezer, b. in 1643; d. in Milton, July 31, 1712
Hannah, b. in 1646, m. Oct. 14, 1668 Ebenezer Strong of Northampton.
Children of Nicholas and 2nd wife Abigail (Sharp) Clapp:
Noah, b. July 15, 1667; he removed to Sudbury; d. 1753
Sarah, b. Dec. 1670; m. Joseph Mather of Windsor, CT