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George Oak of Westborough and Rutland, and his son Sylvanus

George was the immigrant Nathaniel Oak's youngest son, born about 1720 (the 1906 register gives February 15, 1720), the year before his father died. On July 7, 1728, Westborough's minister baptized "George Oake... the Son of Mary Rice (by her former Husband Oake)"; his mother had remarried. He grew up to be a clothier and farmer, a soldier in the French wars and the Revolution, and the father of a son, Sylvanus, who carried the same trade to Princeton and lost everything in the Continental money.

Westborough

George Oake married Lydia Eager at Westborough on October 23, 1744, and their children were born there between 1744 and 1758. The 1906 family register calls Lydia the "daughter of Captain James and Tabitha (Howe)," born May 15, 1723, and says she died on September 10, 1758. Westborough's records enter one of the daughters as "Lydia, d. George and Lydia, Aug. 19, 1746." He married again on June 13, 1765, Mercy Bartlett, "daughter of Ensign Daniel and Martha (Howe)"; Marlborough's records enter "George and Mercy Bartlet, June 13, 1765," and the register gives two children of that marriage. The register places his farm on the land "now known as the 'Wesson Place,' owned by one of the firearm's firm, and one of the finest places in that region," (register, page 13). Joseph Allen's 1826 history of Northborough says George "built a saw mill on the river Assabeth"; Charles Hudson's 1862 history of Marlborough says only that he "resided in Northboro'" (p. 426).

Soldier

The register gives George a long record of service: "mustered into service September 25, 1755, for the Crown Point expedition; enlisting again April 2, 1759; and serving as ensign 1762 in Captain Jonathan Fay's company." The rank does turn up later in Rutland. On May 8, 1786, the town appointed a committee, "of which General Putnam was chairman," to lay out school plots; it listed "the head of every family" in each, and its report, "although not accepted was recorded." The third plot includes "Ens. George Oaks" (Reed, History of Rutland, p. 53). The list gives no parents, so the ensign is a candidate for this George, not proved.

He had moved to Rutland by 1769, the register says; it notes a town record of "Warnings" placing him there in 1763, "though that would seem an error." In the Revolution, Reed lists a George Oak among Rutland's alarm men of 1775, and the register says he was named "in a company of Rutland minute men at the Lexington alarm." On August 20, 1777, "Oaks, George" marched from Rutland to Bennington on an alarm as a private in Capt. David Bent's company of Col. Nathan Sparhawk's regiment, credited with eleven days for the 226-mile round trip (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 603). His service is on Oak-line military service.

"After 1777 absolutely nothing is known of the old veteran," the register says. If the ensign of 1786 is the same man, he was still heading a Rutland household nine years later. The register gives no date of death.

Sylvanus

George's son Sylvanus was born at Westborough on March 30, 1748/9 (the town's records print "1748-9"), and followed his father's trade. "Silvanus [Oak] and Abigail Ball" married at Northborough on November 25, 1771 (Vital Records of Northborough), and that year, the register says, he "bought of Nathaniel Waite for £160 a fulling-mill and clothier's shop in Princeton, Mass." He lived also at Holden, where some of his children were born.

When the Lexington alarm came, Sylvanus marched. "Oak, Sylvanus, Princeton (probably)" was a sergeant in Capt. Joseph Sargent's company of Col. Sparhawk's regiment, which marched on April 20, 1775 to Cambridge and returned May 1, after twelve days (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, vol. 11, p. 598).

The sale of the mill came to nothing. "After the war he sold out his Princeton property, took his pay in Continental money, and lost it all." He moved to Coleraine, in western Massachusetts, "dying, it is said, across the line in Vermont; but there is nothing definite as to place or date." Abigail died on May 21, 1808. Of George's children, the register traced descendants of Sylvanus alone, "about 700 in number" (p. 14); its entry for Sylvanus himself says "over 600" (register, page 25).

George's other children

The register names Lucy, born January 9, 1745, who married Jonas Eddy at Charlton in 1770; Lydia, born August 19, 1746, who married Jonathan Cummings of Andover in 1766 and in 1771 "was reported as 'out of the province in parts unknown'"; Asa, who was born and died on January 15, 1751 (Westborough's records instead enter "Aseph, s. George and Lydia, June 15, 1751"); Vashti, born April 19, 1754 (April 14 in the town's records), who married Moses Ball at Holden in 1777; and Thankful, born May 19, 1758, "living, 1771." "Of the descendants of Lucy and her sisters nothing has been learned."

What is missing

The register cites no muster roll for George's French-war service. The register knows nothing of his death or his Rutland land. Of the two children of his second marriage, Martha, baptized at Rutland on November 3, 1769, and Jesse, baptized June 23, 1771, the register knows nothing "beyond the Rutland church record of their baptism" (pp. 13-14; the baptisms are on p. 26). Sylvanus's Princeton mill purchase and sale, and his death, rest on the register.

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