American AcornsHow Nathanial Oakes got to America
Story · Supplied date: 1660 · source: Copied into the family tree from another contributor.
Nathaniel was one of two sons born to John Oakes I & Elizabeth (Harrison).
Nathaniel spelled his last name "OAK" and sometimes "OAKE". His son Jonathan added the final "S" and spelled it "OAKS". Descendents of the 4th & 5th generations are about equally divided between the spellings "OAKS" & "OAKES".
The following record of Nathaniel's immigration to America was handed down to his grandchildren & is written on the fly-leaf of the family Bible, owned by his great-grandson, John Conant.
"The grandfather of my mother was a cabin boy on an English vessel bound for Boston, Massachusetts. Nine miles from land the vessel foundered. All the ship's crew, except the boy whose name was 'Oaks', was lost. He, being a good swimmer, swam ashore & arrived in America in about 1660."
"Nathaniel was a farmer in Marlboro, MA. His home farm was near Stirrup Brook. The old house was burned & the present one built in 1780. In 1900 it had been occupied about 40 years by Samuel McClure, being about 60 rods north of the Old Northborough Church. In 1717 that part of Marlboro, containing the Oakes farm, was set off as Westborough & later became Northborough, MA. Nearby, about a mile from the village & near the junction of the Marlboro & Westborough roads, is an old abandoned burial ground, where doubtless rests the remains of our ancestor, Nathaniel Oaks, & where the monument of his father-in-law, Adam Holloway, is still to be seen."
Nathaniel married his 1st wife, Mehitable Rediat, on 12/14/1686 in Sudbury, MA. She was the daughter of John & Ann (Dolt) Rediat. Nathaniel & Mehitable had no children.
Nathaniel married his 2nd wife, Mary Holloway, 05/20/1703. She was the daughter of Adam Holloway & Hannah (Hayward) Farrar.
Nathaniel & Mary had 8 children:
Nathaniel Sr., William, Hannah, Mary, Anne, John B., Jonathan, Sr., George Oakes
Nathaniel served as a soldier in the early Colonial Wars. After King Phillip's War he was one of the garrison in 1692 & in 1707 he took part in a fight with the Indians as one of the Goodnow garrison.