This excerpt is taken from the American Historical Society Encyclopedia of Biographical--Genealogical Vol. 3 Electronic Library
(I) John Valentine, said by good
authority to be a son of Francis Valentine,
lived for a time in Boston. He is
said by one authority to have been a
second cousin of Thomas Valentine. He
married Mary Lynde, of Boston, daughter
of Samuel, and granddaughter of
Simon Lynde. The former was admitted
to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company of Boston in 1691, and the latter
in 1658. Simon Lynde was born in Lon-
don, in June, 1624, and came to Boston,
about 1650. He was the son of Enoch
and Elizabeth (Digby) Lynde. He mar-
ried, February 22, 1652-53, Hannah New-
gate (or Newdigate), daughter of John
Newgate, who was a hatter in Boston, in
1632. She was born June 28, 1635, and
died December 20, 1684, in the same
house in which she and the most of her
twelve children were born. He died No-
vember 22, 1687. He was an owner of
46
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
land in Freetown, owning three of the
original twenty-six lots in the Freeman's
Purchase, two and one-half of which fell
within the limits of Fall River when the
latter town was set off from Freetown in
1803, and equalled five-twenty-sevenths of
the town. These three lots he gave to
his son, Samuel, who was a merchant in
Boston. Elizabeth Digby was from a
distinguished family in England, as was
the Lynde family, Enoch Lynde being a
shipping merchant in England, where he
died.
John Valentine held the office of
Adjutant-General of the Admiralty Court
at the time of his death, in 1724. He was
a lawyer of distinguished learning and
integrity. He is also said to have been
an aggressive and agreeable speaker.
Samuel Lynde was a member of the first
church in Boston. He died October 2,
1721. His will was dated July 20, 1720.
Through the Lynde family, John Valen-
tine inherited valuable property, and he
was one of the wealthy citizens of Massa-
chusetts. The children of John and
Mary (Lynde) Valentine were: 1)Samuel,
mentioned below ; 2)Elizabeth, born Feb-
ruary 22, 1704, married James Gooch ;
3)John, born November 8, 1706, died Sep-
tember 24, 1711, in England; 4)Edmond,
born January 16, 1709, died January 30,
1710; 5)Thomas, born August 3, 1713, mar-
ried Elizabeth Gooch ; 6)Mary, born March
23, 1714, married a Durfee ;7) Edmond, 2d,
born October 22, 1717, died July 4, 1730.
Samuel Valentine, eldest child of
John and Mary (Lynde) Valentine, was
born December 28, 1702, probably in
Boston, and died in Freetown, March 14,
1781. End Excerpt
An excellent read is the book, John Valentine, Progenitor of the Valentine Family, written by William Valentine Alexander.
It is available online:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89076683572
The book not only contains facts of the Valentine family in England but of John Valentine and his distinguished career in Massachusetts, statements written about him and an overview of what was happening around him in the colonies.
Judge Emory Washburn's "Judicial History of Massachusetts", describes John Valentine: "He was a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity. His argument in the case Matson vs Thomas, in which he was opposed by Auchmutty, Read and Littles, is preserved manifesting great familiarity with legal principals, as well as ability as an advocate. He is also said to be an agreeable and expressive speaker."
John Valentine was also friend to Judge Sewall, who conducted the Salem Witchcraft Trials and is mentioned in the Sewall Diaries.
John started out as Notary Public June 3, 1698 and again in Oct. 24, 1712. He was appointed to Justice of the Peace Apr. 16, 1718. He also served as Adjutant General at the time of his death. He was a warden of King's Chapel Church 1715-1717 in Boston and donated a great deal of money for an addition.
John was among the wealthy of the Boston Society of the time, "Royalty in America", so to speak. The average people in the Province becoming more and more discontent with such persons prior to the Revolutionary War. He married into the esteemed Lynde family, which definitely put him in the elite class.
John became distraught with life, melancholy was the word used to describe it. He ended his life by hanging Feb. 1, 1724. There is an excellent account given of his life and death in the book, written by ancestor William Valentine Alexander. The documentation is thorough and unbiased.
From the The Handwritten copy of the Samuel Lynde Bible handed down in the Valentine family...1873 owned by Joseph Valentine Fitch and of the Estate of John H. Edmonds Jan. 16, 1930:
John Valentine died Feb. 1, 1723/24 Buried King's Chapel, Boston, MA.
Mary Lynde Valentine, his wife Born Nov. 16, 1680 Boston, MA. died Mar. 26, 1732 buried in Lynde Tomb, Charter ST. Cemetery, Salem, MA.
As stated in an account of his funeral, The Rector of King's Chapel, Mr. Myles, would not perform the services of John's interment when Judge Davenport and Colonel Fitch showed up as bearers. Events of the time, showed unrest within the colony between preachers and a breaking away of congregations from the reformed Church of England, King's Chapel in Boston. There was also a growing unrest of the colonists with the elite classes, who came to America and became those in powerful positions acting for the King of England. The beginnings of a Revolution were forming!
"Apr. 30, 1724, in the Annals of King's Chapel it was voted that Mr Valentine's pew be disposed of." This seems to be an extremely harsh measure, as pews were usually reassigned and monies collected. Was it the fact that John took his own life that was such an abomination or was there more?
What brought him to that point, that everything he stood for suddenly didn't matter?
from "Valentines in America, 1874":
JOHN VALENTINE, the first American progenitor of that name in Boston, Mass., was descended from an ancient family in the parish of Eccles, county of Lancaster, England, where they owned an estate called "Bencliffe Hall." In 1550, the then owner of the estate, Thomas Valentine, wills it to his son, Richard, and, through many generations, it comes to another, Richard Valentine, who was high sheriff of Lancaster, by whom it was willed to his kinsman, Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, Sligo county, Ireland, who was the Vicar of the English church there. By the Rev. Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, it was bequeathed, in 1763, to his second counsin, "Samuel Valentine, eldest son of the late John Valentine of Boston in New England." Samuel Valentine's heirs sold the estate, about 1792, to a Mr. Partington, whose wife or mother was probably the Mary Partington mentioned in the Rev. Thomas Valentine's will as being related to him, and to whom he gives a large sum of money.
John Valentine is mentioned in the Boston Records as having been made freeman May 12, 1675. The next entry in the Records is his marriage, April 16, 1702, to Mary Lynde. According to the "Lynde Bible," which is now in the possession of Joseph Valentine Fitch.
John Valentine is mentioned as 'a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity,' and, also, as 'an agreeable and expressive speaker. He was Warden of King's Chapel in 1715- 1717. He died February 1, 1723.In the "Annals Of the King's Chapel", his death is listed as Feb. 1, 1724 with the funeral being held on Tuesday the 4th. In the notice of his death it was said he was a 'gentleman for his Knowledge and integrity, most eminent in his profession, clear in his Conceptions, and distinguishable happy in his expressions. It pleased God, some short time before his death, to deprive him of these excellent endowments by afflicting him with deep melancholy, which brought on him the loss of his Reason and was the cause of his much lamented death.' His funeral took place from King's Chapel, and the burial was in the grounds of that church. His widow died March 26, 1732, after an illness of four months, and was buried in her grandfather's tomb, where, probably, her father Lynde was laid, on Boston Common.
(I) John Valentine, said by good
authority to be a son of Francis Valentine,
lived for a time in Boston. He is
said by one authority to have been a
second cousin of Thomas Valentine. He
married Mary Lynde, of Boston, daughter
of Samuel, and granddaughter of
Simon Lynde. The former was admitted
to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company of Boston in 1691, and the latter
in 1658. Simon Lynde was born in Lon-
don, in June, 1624, and came to Boston,
about 1650. He was the son of Enoch
and Elizabeth (Digby) Lynde. He mar-
ried, February 22, 1652-53, Hannah New-
gate (or Newdigate), daughter of John
Newgate, who was a hatter in Boston, in
1632. She was born June 28, 1635, and
died December 20, 1684, in the same
house in which she and the most of her
twelve children were born. He died No-
vember 22, 1687. He was an owner of
46
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
land in Freetown, owning three of the
original twenty-six lots in the Freeman's
Purchase, two and one-half of which fell
within the limits of Fall River when the
latter town was set off from Freetown in
1803, and equalled five-twenty-sevenths of
the town. These three lots he gave to
his son, Samuel, who was a merchant in
Boston. Elizabeth Digby was from a
distinguished family in England, as was
the Lynde family, Enoch Lynde being a
shipping merchant in England, where he
died.
John Valentine held the office of
Adjutant-General of the Admiralty Court
at the time of his death, in 1724. He was
a lawyer of distinguished learning and
integrity. He is also said to have been
an aggressive and agreeable speaker.
Samuel Lynde was a member of the first
church in Boston. He died October 2,
1721. His will was dated July 20, 1720.
Through the Lynde family, John Valen-
tine inherited valuable property, and he
was one of the wealthy citizens of Massa-
chusetts. The children of John and
Mary (Lynde) Valentine were: 1)Samuel,
mentioned below ; 2)Elizabeth, born Feb-
ruary 22, 1704, married James Gooch ;
3)John, born November 8, 1706, died Sep-
tember 24, 1711, in England; 4)Edmond,
born January 16, 1709, died January 30,
1710; 5)Thomas, born August 3, 1713, mar-
ried Elizabeth Gooch ; 6)Mary, born March
23, 1714, married a Durfee ;7) Edmond, 2d,
born October 22, 1717, died July 4, 1730.
Samuel Valentine, eldest child of
John and Mary (Lynde) Valentine, was
born December 28, 1702, probably in
Boston, and died in Freetown, March 14,
1781. End Excerpt
An excellent read is the book, John Valentine, Progenitor of the Valentine Family, written by William Valentine Alexander.
It is available online:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89076683572
The book not only contains facts of the Valentine family in England but of John Valentine and his distinguished career in Massachusetts, statements written about him and an overview of what was happening around him in the colonies.
Judge Emory Washburn's "Judicial History of Massachusetts", describes John Valentine: "He was a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity. His argument in the case Matson vs Thomas, in which he was opposed by Auchmutty, Read and Littles, is preserved manifesting great familiarity with legal principals, as well as ability as an advocate. He is also said to be an agreeable and expressive speaker."
John Valentine was also friend to Judge Sewall, who conducted the Salem Witchcraft Trials and is mentioned in the Sewall Diaries.
John started out as Notary Public June 3, 1698 and again in Oct. 24, 1712. He was appointed to Justice of the Peace Apr. 16, 1718. He also served as Adjutant General at the time of his death. He was a warden of King's Chapel Church 1715-1717 in Boston and donated a great deal of money for an addition.
John was among the wealthy of the Boston Society of the time, "Royalty in America", so to speak. The average people in the Province becoming more and more discontent with such persons prior to the Revolutionary War. He married into the esteemed Lynde family, which definitely put him in the elite class.
John became distraught with life, melancholy was the word used to describe it. He ended his life by hanging Feb. 1, 1724. There is an excellent account given of his life and death in the book, written by ancestor William Valentine Alexander. The documentation is thorough and unbiased.
From the The Handwritten copy of the Samuel Lynde Bible handed down in the Valentine family...1873 owned by Joseph Valentine Fitch and of the Estate of John H. Edmonds Jan. 16, 1930:
John Valentine died Feb. 1, 1723/24 Buried King's Chapel, Boston, MA.
Mary Lynde Valentine, his wife Born Nov. 16, 1680 Boston, MA. died Mar. 26, 1732 buried in Lynde Tomb, Charter ST. Cemetery, Salem, MA.
As stated in an account of his funeral, The Rector of King's Chapel, Mr. Myles, would not perform the services of John's interment when Judge Davenport and Colonel Fitch showed up as bearers. Events of the time, showed unrest within the colony between preachers and a breaking away of congregations from the reformed Church of England, King's Chapel in Boston. There was also a growing unrest of the colonists with the elite classes, who came to America and became those in powerful positions acting for the King of England. The beginnings of a Revolution were forming!
"Apr. 30, 1724, in the Annals of King's Chapel it was voted that Mr Valentine's pew be disposed of." This seems to be an extremely harsh measure, as pews were usually reassigned and monies collected. Was it the fact that John took his own life that was such an abomination or was there more?
What brought him to that point, that everything he stood for suddenly didn't matter?
from "Valentines in America, 1874":
JOHN VALENTINE, the first American progenitor of that name in Boston, Mass., was descended from an ancient family in the parish of Eccles, county of Lancaster, England, where they owned an estate called "Bencliffe Hall." In 1550, the then owner of the estate, Thomas Valentine, wills it to his son, Richard, and, through many generations, it comes to another, Richard Valentine, who was high sheriff of Lancaster, by whom it was willed to his kinsman, Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, Sligo county, Ireland, who was the Vicar of the English church there. By the Rev. Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, it was bequeathed, in 1763, to his second counsin, "Samuel Valentine, eldest son of the late John Valentine of Boston in New England." Samuel Valentine's heirs sold the estate, about 1792, to a Mr. Partington, whose wife or mother was probably the Mary Partington mentioned in the Rev. Thomas Valentine's will as being related to him, and to whom he gives a large sum of money.
John Valentine is mentioned in the Boston Records as having been made freeman May 12, 1675. The next entry in the Records is his marriage, April 16, 1702, to Mary Lynde. According to the "Lynde Bible," which is now in the possession of Joseph Valentine Fitch.
John Valentine is mentioned as 'a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity,' and, also, as 'an agreeable and expressive speaker. He was Warden of King's Chapel in 1715- 1717. He died February 1, 1723.In the "Annals Of the King's Chapel", his death is listed as Feb. 1, 1724 with the funeral being held on Tuesday the 4th. In the notice of his death it was said he was a 'gentleman for his Knowledge and integrity, most eminent in his profession, clear in his Conceptions, and distinguishable happy in his expressions. It pleased God, some short time before his death, to deprive him of these excellent endowments by afflicting him with deep melancholy, which brought on him the loss of his Reason and was the cause of his much lamented death.' His funeral took place from King's Chapel, and the burial was in the grounds of that church. His widow died March 26, 1732, after an illness of four months, and was buried in her grandfather's tomb, where, probably, her father Lynde was laid, on Boston Common.
This excerpt is taken from the American Historical Society Encyclopedia of Biographical--Genealogical Vol. 3 Electronic Library
(I) John Valentine, said by good
authority to be a son of Francis Valentine,
lived for a time in Boston. He is
said by one authority to have been a
second cousin of Thomas Valentine. He
married Mary Lynde, of Boston, daughter
of Samuel, and granddaughter of
Simon Lynde. The former was admitted
to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company of Boston in 1691, and the latter
in 1658. Simon Lynde was born in Lon-
don, in June, 1624, and came to Boston,
about 1650. He was the son of Enoch
and Elizabeth (Digby) Lynde. He mar-
ried, February 22, 1652-53, Hannah New-
gate (or Newdigate), daughter of John
Newgate, who was a hatter in Boston, in
1632. She was born June 28, 1635, and
died December 20, 1684, in the same
house in which she and the most of her
twelve children were born. He died No-
vember 22, 1687. He was an owner of
46
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
land in Freetown, owning three of the
original twenty-six lots in the Freeman's
Purchase, two and one-half of which fell
within the limits of Fall River when the
latter town was set off from Freetown in
1803, and equalled five-twenty-sevenths of
the town. These three lots he gave to
his son, Samuel, who was a merchant in
Boston. Elizabeth Digby was from a
distinguished family in England, as was
the Lynde family, Enoch Lynde being a
shipping merchant in England, where he
died.
John Valentine held the office of
Adjutant-General of the Admiralty Court
at the time of his death, in 1724. He was
a lawyer of distinguished learning and
integrity. He is also said to have been
an aggressive and agreeable speaker.
Samuel Lynde was a member of the first
church in Boston. He died October 2,
1721. His will was dated July 20, 1720.
Through the Lynde family, John Valen-
tine inherited valuable property, and he
was one of the wealthy citizens of Massa-
chusetts. The children of John and
Mary (Lynde) Valentine were: 1)Samuel,
mentioned below ; 2)Elizabeth, born Feb-
ruary 22, 1704, married James Gooch ;
3)John, born November 8, 1706, died Sep-
tember 24, 1711, in England; 4)Edmond,
born January 16, 1709, died January 30,
1710; 5)Thomas, born August 3, 1713, mar-
ried Elizabeth Gooch ; 6)Mary, born March
23, 1714, married a Durfee ;7) Edmond, 2d,
born October 22, 1717, died July 4, 1730.
Samuel Valentine, eldest child of
John and Mary (Lynde) Valentine, was
born December 28, 1702, probably in
Boston, and died in Freetown, March 14,
1781. End Excerpt
An excellent read is the book, John Valentine, Progenitor of the Valentine Family, written by William Valentine Alexander.
It is available online:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89076683572
The book not only contains facts of the Valentine family in England but of John Valentine and his distinguished career in Massachusetts, statements written about him and an overview of what was happening around him in the colonies.
Judge Emory Washburn's "Judicial History of Massachusetts", describes John Valentine: "He was a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity. His argument in the case Matson vs Thomas, in which he was opposed by Auchmutty, Read and Littles, is preserved manifesting great familiarity with legal principals, as well as ability as an advocate. He is also said to be an agreeable and expressive speaker."
John Valentine was also friend to Judge Sewall, who conducted the Salem Witchcraft Trials and is mentioned in the Sewall Diaries.
John started out as Notary Public June 3, 1698 and again in Oct. 24, 1712. He was appointed to Justice of the Peace Apr. 16, 1718. He also served as Adjutant General at the time of his death. He was a warden of King's Chapel Church 1715-1717 in Boston and donated a great deal of money for an addition.
John was among the wealthy of the Boston Society of the time, "Royalty in America", so to speak. The average people in the Province becoming more and more discontent with such persons prior to the Revolutionary War. He married into the esteemed Lynde family, which definitely put him in the elite class.
John became distraught with life, melancholy was the word used to describe it. He ended his life by hanging Feb. 1, 1724. There is an excellent account given of his life and death in the book, written by ancestor William Valentine Alexander. The documentation is thorough and unbiased.
From the The Handwritten copy of the Samuel Lynde Bible handed down in the Valentine family...1873 owned by Joseph Valentine Fitch and of the Estate of John H. Edmonds Jan. 16, 1930:
John Valentine died Feb. 1, 1723/24 Buried King's Chapel, Boston, MA.
Mary Lynde Valentine, his wife Born Nov. 16, 1680 Boston, MA. died Mar. 26, 1732 buried in Lynde Tomb, Charter ST. Cemetery, Salem, MA.
As stated in an account of his funeral, The Rector of King's Chapel, Mr. Myles, would not perform the services of John's interment when Judge Davenport and Colonel Fitch showed up as bearers. Events of the time, showed unrest within the colony between preachers and a breaking away of congregations from the reformed Church of England, King's Chapel in Boston. There was also a growing unrest of the colonists with the elite classes, who came to America and became those in powerful positions acting for the King of England. The beginnings of a Revolution were forming!
"Apr. 30, 1724, in the Annals of King's Chapel it was voted that Mr Valentine's pew be disposed of." This seems to be an extremely harsh measure, as pews were usually reassigned and monies collected. Was it the fact that John took his own life that was such an abomination or was there more?
What brought him to that point, that everything he stood for suddenly didn't matter?
from "Valentines in America, 1874":
JOHN VALENTINE, the first American progenitor of that name in Boston, Mass., was descended from an ancient family in the parish of Eccles, county of Lancaster, England, where they owned an estate called "Bencliffe Hall." In 1550, the then owner of the estate, Thomas Valentine, wills it to his son, Richard, and, through many generations, it comes to another, Richard Valentine, who was high sheriff of Lancaster, by whom it was willed to his kinsman, Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, Sligo county, Ireland, who was the Vicar of the English church there. By the Rev. Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, it was bequeathed, in 1763, to his second counsin, "Samuel Valentine, eldest son of the late John Valentine of Boston in New England." Samuel Valentine's heirs sold the estate, about 1792, to a Mr. Partington, whose wife or mother was probably the Mary Partington mentioned in the Rev. Thomas Valentine's will as being related to him, and to whom he gives a large sum of money.
John Valentine is mentioned in the Boston Records as having been made freeman May 12, 1675. The next entry in the Records is his marriage, April 16, 1702, to Mary Lynde. According to the "Lynde Bible," which is now in the possession of Joseph Valentine Fitch.
John Valentine is mentioned as 'a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity,' and, also, as 'an agreeable and expressive speaker. He was Warden of King's Chapel in 1715- 1717. He died February 1, 1723.In the "Annals Of the King's Chapel", his death is listed as Feb. 1, 1724 with the funeral being held on Tuesday the 4th. In the notice of his death it was said he was a 'gentleman for his Knowledge and integrity, most eminent in his profession, clear in his Conceptions, and distinguishable happy in his expressions. It pleased God, some short time before his death, to deprive him of these excellent endowments by afflicting him with deep melancholy, which brought on him the loss of his Reason and was the cause of his much lamented death.' His funeral took place from King's Chapel, and the burial was in the grounds of that church. His widow died March 26, 1732, after an illness of four months, and was buried in her grandfather's tomb, where, probably, her father Lynde was laid, on Boston Common.
(I) John Valentine, said by good
authority to be a son of Francis Valentine,
lived for a time in Boston. He is
said by one authority to have been a
second cousin of Thomas Valentine. He
married Mary Lynde, of Boston, daughter
of Samuel, and granddaughter of
Simon Lynde. The former was admitted
to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company of Boston in 1691, and the latter
in 1658. Simon Lynde was born in Lon-
don, in June, 1624, and came to Boston,
about 1650. He was the son of Enoch
and Elizabeth (Digby) Lynde. He mar-
ried, February 22, 1652-53, Hannah New-
gate (or Newdigate), daughter of John
Newgate, who was a hatter in Boston, in
1632. She was born June 28, 1635, and
died December 20, 1684, in the same
house in which she and the most of her
twelve children were born. He died No-
vember 22, 1687. He was an owner of
46
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
land in Freetown, owning three of the
original twenty-six lots in the Freeman's
Purchase, two and one-half of which fell
within the limits of Fall River when the
latter town was set off from Freetown in
1803, and equalled five-twenty-sevenths of
the town. These three lots he gave to
his son, Samuel, who was a merchant in
Boston. Elizabeth Digby was from a
distinguished family in England, as was
the Lynde family, Enoch Lynde being a
shipping merchant in England, where he
died.
John Valentine held the office of
Adjutant-General of the Admiralty Court
at the time of his death, in 1724. He was
a lawyer of distinguished learning and
integrity. He is also said to have been
an aggressive and agreeable speaker.
Samuel Lynde was a member of the first
church in Boston. He died October 2,
1721. His will was dated July 20, 1720.
Through the Lynde family, John Valen-
tine inherited valuable property, and he
was one of the wealthy citizens of Massa-
chusetts. The children of John and
Mary (Lynde) Valentine were: 1)Samuel,
mentioned below ; 2)Elizabeth, born Feb-
ruary 22, 1704, married James Gooch ;
3)John, born November 8, 1706, died Sep-
tember 24, 1711, in England; 4)Edmond,
born January 16, 1709, died January 30,
1710; 5)Thomas, born August 3, 1713, mar-
ried Elizabeth Gooch ; 6)Mary, born March
23, 1714, married a Durfee ;7) Edmond, 2d,
born October 22, 1717, died July 4, 1730.
Samuel Valentine, eldest child of
John and Mary (Lynde) Valentine, was
born December 28, 1702, probably in
Boston, and died in Freetown, March 14,
1781. End Excerpt
An excellent read is the book, John Valentine, Progenitor of the Valentine Family, written by William Valentine Alexander.
It is available online:
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89076683572
The book not only contains facts of the Valentine family in England but of John Valentine and his distinguished career in Massachusetts, statements written about him and an overview of what was happening around him in the colonies.
Judge Emory Washburn's "Judicial History of Massachusetts", describes John Valentine: "He was a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity. His argument in the case Matson vs Thomas, in which he was opposed by Auchmutty, Read and Littles, is preserved manifesting great familiarity with legal principals, as well as ability as an advocate. He is also said to be an agreeable and expressive speaker."
John Valentine was also friend to Judge Sewall, who conducted the Salem Witchcraft Trials and is mentioned in the Sewall Diaries.
John started out as Notary Public June 3, 1698 and again in Oct. 24, 1712. He was appointed to Justice of the Peace Apr. 16, 1718. He also served as Adjutant General at the time of his death. He was a warden of King's Chapel Church 1715-1717 in Boston and donated a great deal of money for an addition.
John was among the wealthy of the Boston Society of the time, "Royalty in America", so to speak. The average people in the Province becoming more and more discontent with such persons prior to the Revolutionary War. He married into the esteemed Lynde family, which definitely put him in the elite class.
John became distraught with life, melancholy was the word used to describe it. He ended his life by hanging Feb. 1, 1724. There is an excellent account given of his life and death in the book, written by ancestor William Valentine Alexander. The documentation is thorough and unbiased.
From the The Handwritten copy of the Samuel Lynde Bible handed down in the Valentine family...1873 owned by Joseph Valentine Fitch and of the Estate of John H. Edmonds Jan. 16, 1930:
John Valentine died Feb. 1, 1723/24 Buried King's Chapel, Boston, MA.
Mary Lynde Valentine, his wife Born Nov. 16, 1680 Boston, MA. died Mar. 26, 1732 buried in Lynde Tomb, Charter ST. Cemetery, Salem, MA.
As stated in an account of his funeral, The Rector of King's Chapel, Mr. Myles, would not perform the services of John's interment when Judge Davenport and Colonel Fitch showed up as bearers. Events of the time, showed unrest within the colony between preachers and a breaking away of congregations from the reformed Church of England, King's Chapel in Boston. There was also a growing unrest of the colonists with the elite classes, who came to America and became those in powerful positions acting for the King of England. The beginnings of a Revolution were forming!
"Apr. 30, 1724, in the Annals of King's Chapel it was voted that Mr Valentine's pew be disposed of." This seems to be an extremely harsh measure, as pews were usually reassigned and monies collected. Was it the fact that John took his own life that was such an abomination or was there more?
What brought him to that point, that everything he stood for suddenly didn't matter?
from "Valentines in America, 1874":
JOHN VALENTINE, the first American progenitor of that name in Boston, Mass., was descended from an ancient family in the parish of Eccles, county of Lancaster, England, where they owned an estate called "Bencliffe Hall." In 1550, the then owner of the estate, Thomas Valentine, wills it to his son, Richard, and, through many generations, it comes to another, Richard Valentine, who was high sheriff of Lancaster, by whom it was willed to his kinsman, Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, Sligo county, Ireland, who was the Vicar of the English church there. By the Rev. Thomas Valentine, of Frankfort, it was bequeathed, in 1763, to his second counsin, "Samuel Valentine, eldest son of the late John Valentine of Boston in New England." Samuel Valentine's heirs sold the estate, about 1792, to a Mr. Partington, whose wife or mother was probably the Mary Partington mentioned in the Rev. Thomas Valentine's will as being related to him, and to whom he gives a large sum of money.
John Valentine is mentioned in the Boston Records as having been made freeman May 12, 1675. The next entry in the Records is his marriage, April 16, 1702, to Mary Lynde. According to the "Lynde Bible," which is now in the possession of Joseph Valentine Fitch.
John Valentine is mentioned as 'a lawyer of distinguished learning and integrity,' and, also, as 'an agreeable and expressive speaker. He was Warden of King's Chapel in 1715- 1717. He died February 1, 1723.In the "Annals Of the King's Chapel", his death is listed as Feb. 1, 1724 with the funeral being held on Tuesday the 4th. In the notice of his death it was said he was a 'gentleman for his Knowledge and integrity, most eminent in his profession, clear in his Conceptions, and distinguishable happy in his expressions. It pleased God, some short time before his death, to deprive him of these excellent endowments by afflicting him with deep melancholy, which brought on him the loss of his Reason and was the cause of his much lamented death.' His funeral took place from King's Chapel, and the burial was in the grounds of that church. His widow died March 26, 1732, after an illness of four months, and was buried in her grandfather's tomb, where, probably, her father Lynde was laid, on Boston Common.
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