Thomas Nickerson 1696 Lydia Covell 1701-1750

Thomas Nickerson
Parents Lieutenant Thomas Nickerson and Mary Bangs

Born 24 Dec 1696 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America
Married 1) Lydia Covell 16 May 1716 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Note: there is a marriage record with the name Thomas Nickerson and Lydia, but the year is wrong - 1705, which would make her 4 years old and him about 9, so though I think it is them, because of the date, I believe it was a clerical mistake...and the clerk that made the mistake was none other than a Thomas Nickerson.
2) (Widow) Sarah Crowell 5 Jul 1751 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Note: marriage intention published 5 July 1750

Note: on family search, for place of marriage it claims London Grove Township, Pennsylvania, but the extracted work claims it was Chatham, Massachusetts. An extraction error?
3) Bethia Harding 26 Dec 1763 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Thomas and Bethia's marriage record. The 6 on the 26th is very hard to see unless you really enlarge it. Note: marriage intention (engagement): 3 Dec 1763 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Died after 1763 (when he married Bethia)

Buried
Sources
Birth: AGBI and IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733
Marriage to Lydia: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records

Marriage to Sarah: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records

Marriage to Bethia: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records

Family Search

ancestry.com

Lydia Covell
Parents Joseph Covell and Lydia Stuart

Born 12 Jul 1701 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Died 18 Oct 1750 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Note:  Big fat question mark: Thomas was engaged to marry his second wife by July of 1750, so...he was engaged before Lydia died?  Were he and Lydia divorced? or are there two Thomas Nickerson's with wife's named Lydia?
Sources
Parents and birth date: Book: History and Genealogy of the Mayflower Planters and first comers to ye olde colonie Vol 2 (the Sandys and Brewsters of Scrooby Manor) by Leon Clark Hills, 1936, page 94 

Family Search

ancestry.com

CHILDREN

Desire Nickerson
Born 5 Feb 1718 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Desire Nickerson birth record. 
Note:  the year has been wrongfully thought to be 1715

Married Elisha (Eliaphas) Nickerson 1735
Children: Elisha, John
Died 28 August 1786 Argyle, Queens, Nova Scotia, Canada

Buried Canada
Sources

Birth: IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733
Family Search

ancestry.com

*Thomas Nickerson
Born 28 Feb 1720 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Thomas birth record

Married Dorcas Sparrow 6 May 1741 Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Children: Sparrow, Thomas, Phebe, Hugh, Dorcas, Rachel, Sarah, Sabra

Died

Buried
Sources
Birth: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, AND IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733
Family Search

ancestry.com

Lydia Nickerson
Born 30 Mar 1722 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Note: Given name spelled Ledea in record

Lydia's birth and death record

Died 15 Aug 1722 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Sources

Birth: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records AND IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733

Death: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records

Family Search

ancestry.com

Lydia Nickerson
Born 16 Feb 1724 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Note: name is spelled Ledea in record

Lydia's birth record

Married Thomas Snow 5 Sep 1773 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Children: none

Died after 1790

Buried
Sources

Birth: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records AND IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733

Family Search

ancestry.com

Ansel Nickerson
Born 2 May 1727 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Ansel's birth record

Married: Bathsheba Small 21 May 1748 Harwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Children: Levi (later renamed Ansel after his father died)

Died 1 Nov 1750 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Ansel's death record

Life Note: Ansel Jr. was acquitted of murder. See the story below

AT THE ATWOOD HOUSE A Chatham Murder Mystery by Spencer Grey

On Nov. 15, 1772, when Captain Joseph Doane of Chatham was on board his schooner in Cape Cod Bay, he saw a vessel flying a distress signal. Coming alongside, he discovered it was the Schooner Abigail, Thomas Nickerson of Chatham, master, en route from Boston

to Chatham. When he boarded the Abigail, he confronted a horrifyingly gruesome scene. Her deck was covered with blood, and the captain, his cousin, Sparrow Nickerson, and his brother-in-law, Elisha Newcomb, all lay there, clearly having been murdered. Chests had been smashed open and rifled; a rum barrel with its head stove in was almost empty, and only one member of the crew, Ansel Nickerson of Chatham, also a cousin of the captain, remained alive. Although highly agitated and distressed, Nickerson was able to present his version of what had occurred.

The previous evening, he asserted, they had been hailed and stopped by a topsail schooner, and as four boatloads of men rowed toward the Abigail, Nickerson lowered himself with a rope over the stern of the ship to escape what he believed either were pirates or English sailors planning to impress them into the British Navy. While he remained out of sight, the intruders killed everyone on deck, except a 13-year-old boy named William Kent, whom they took with them after they had raided the contents of the chests and drunk most of the rum in the barrel. Nickerson heard them discussing whether or not to burn the Abigail, but fortunately for him they decided against it and returned to their schooner.

Although Captain Doane found Nickerson’s account plausible, he nevertheless reported the incident to the county judge, Edward Bacon, Esq., of Barnstable, who was less convinced of the young man’s veracity. After other vessels had scoured the area for evidence of any pirate foreign vessels and found none, Bacon sent a copy of the report to the governor and had Ansel Nickerson locked up in the Barnstable jail for further questioning. In the meantime, news of the bizarre and bloody incident reached as far as Boston, where a young attorney

named John Adams read it and recorded in his journal that he considered it a “mysterious,

inexplicable affair.”

Even though Captain Doane could not corroborate all of the evidence provided by Nickerson, it seemed unlikely that he could have overpowered and murdered three

members of the crew, and moreover there was no clear motive for his doing so. 

Nevertheless, Bacon was sufficiently suspicious to have him sent to Boston to be tried for murder on the high seas by a special Court of the Vice-Admiralty. The trial was scheduled for July of 1773, and John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr. were appointed counsel for the defense. The defense maintained that Nickerson was a lucky survivor of a pirate attack and was in no way responsible for the murder of the three men and the pillage of the cargo.

At the end of a five-day trial the jury returned a tie vote, resulting in Ansel Nickerson’s acquittal. Yet John Adams was not totally convinced of Nickerson’s innocence, as he wrote in his diary after the trial, “I know not to this day what judgment to form of his guilt or innocence.”

Because the facts of the case remained murky and Nickerson remained under a cloud of suspicion, he apparently left Chatham and settled on the island of Eleuthra in the Bahamas. Even though there were uncorroborated reports that he confessed to the crime on his deathbed, the whole episode remains a mystery to this day

Sources

Birth: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records AND IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733

Family Search

Story about his son: ancestry.com

Prince Nickerson
Birth 10 Aug 1729 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Prince's birth record

Occupation: Mariner

Married: 1) Lydia Cahoon 7 Oct 1750 Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Note: Her surname in the record is spelled Chohoon and his given name is spelled Prins
Children: Tabitha, Lydia
2) (Widow) Ruth Covell Atkins 22 Aug 1759 Barnstable, Massachusetts

Note: their engagement was published 2 July 1759. She had 3 boys and a girl before she married Prince. 

Children: twins, which survived her

3) Mary Crowell 12 Mar 1761 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts

Children: Ansel, Esther, Susanna, Eldad, Sparrow, Anna, Elizabeth, Thomas 
Died 1 Jan 1812 Westport Clyde, Nova Scotia, Canada

Buried

Life Sketch: "An early settler Prince Nickerson who settled shortly after Elkanah Smith,  was living in Barrington in 1763. His property was bound on the South by Clam Creek. He had 3 sons; Eldad, Sparrow, and Thomas. 

Eldad was famous for ship building, setting the pace for Coffin's and Sutherlands, who milled their ship timber on the river and rafted it to the harbour"..."The oldest son Ansel went to Maria Joseph, the other sons settled at Port Clyde." The Barrington 1769 Census shows a wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, cattle, sheep, swine, fish boat and dried fish. Prince was on the Committee for laying out Proprietors Land 1768-9. He sold his lot at Barrington Head to William Donaldson and his interest on Cape Island to Stephen Nickerson. He was living at Cape Negro in 1783.

His will gave Mary his real and personal estate until her death, and then, to be divided between sons Eldad, Thomas, and Sparrow. It included the house and barn on three acres, fish house, stock, other land and meadows. Son Ansel received 10 Shillings and the daughters "all my household furniture to be divided equally" Eldad as executor of the estate after Mary died in 1830, wrote to Probate Court 21 June 1832, "...there is some land so dispersed belonging to the estate that it will be extremely difficult for the appraiser to view it will you please advise me whether it cannot be sold without a valuation" "Aug. 1, 1832 Probate judge gives land (agreeable to all) to son Eldad as it cannot be divided without great difficulty and expense".
Sources

Birth: Massachusetts Town and Vital Records AND IGI Film 0001251 V4 Batch C510401 dated 1696-1733

Marriage to Lydia: IGI Film 0905406 Batch M502466 dated 1654-1761
Family Search

Story: The Nickerson Family, Descendants of William Nickerson, Part II, 1980, pg 160.

I can't find the following 2 people in any official record's

Seth Nickerson
Born abt 1731 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America
Married Mary 1756
Children: Ebenezer

Died

Buried
Sources
Family Search

Edward Nickerson
Born abt 1733 Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, British Colonial America

Married

Children

Died

Buried
Sources
Family Search