John Gibbs and John Watson

At a busy tax collectors sale on 27 March 1780, John Gibbs bought 188 acres of farm lot 4 (£93 s17) , 217 acres of farm lot 14 (£96 s18), and with John Durlam he bought 456 acres (nearly the whole thing) of farm lot 34 (£107 s3 d6). The total expenditure was £297 s1. All three lots had belonged to proprietory owner Francis Brinley, who had not been able to sell them.

By 1754 John Gibbs owned town lot 34. His father, Israel Gibbs owned and lived on lot 35. In 1768 John Watson (1747-1823) bought town lot 9 and established a tannery there, near a little brook feed by a spring, on Tannery Hill. Watson, originally from Leicester, married Gibbs' sister Sarah in 1774. And original inhabitant, Robert Huston probably had a tannery on town lot 44, just on the other side of the old Church.

Curiously, John Gibbs' son (1763-1840) is described in a 1785 deed as "Samuel Crooks Gibbs, Cordwainer" and John Dirlam is described the same way in a 1789 deed. A cordwainer was a skilled craftsman who made soft leather goods. Did Samuel Crooks Gibbs learn his trade from John Dirlam? Traditionally a boy would be apprenticed for three years, usually ending at age 17.

Another person of interest is John Watson, brother-in-law to John Gibbs. He bought town lot 9 in 1768. He had a large farm and tannery in Blandford and was accustomed to traveling to Boston and Albany. And Watson's father and brother operated a large tannery in Leicester. As cordwainers, Dirlam and Gibbs' son would have had skills of use to the Watsons, or perhaps been customers. Watson's uncle served on the Committee of Correspondence for nearby Spencer, and represented it at the Provincial Congress called in response to the killings at Lexington and Concord. These were people who traveled, who might have seen the opportunity in a paroled John Dirlam. Now all I need is some proof.

In TABLE 12: Committees of Inspection, Correspondence and Safety, Appointed March 3, 1777
William Bois, John Bois, Nathaniel Taggart, Solomon Brown, Israel Gibbs, John Gibbs, Samuel Ferguson, John Watson, David MeConethy, Jr., Robert Blair, John Wilson (11 men).

John Watson is also listed as appointed March 11, 1775, June 14, 1779 and March 6, 1780.

Brothers Isaac (1744-1823) and John Gibbs (1730-1816) marched with Capt. William Knox's company in Col. John Mosley's regt. to Ticonderoga 21 October 1776.

Lt. John Watson is listed in the town record book as a Minute-man.

Although not individually listed, Capt. Watson, Col. Wesson's Regiment, is mentioned in the Record of Continental Pay Accounts for Michael McManners, for service May 25, 1777 to May 6, 1779.

And Sergt. John Watson marched to Northampton June 12th 1782 in support of the government, in Capt. Samuel Sloper's Twelfth Company in Col. David Mosley's Third Hampshire County Regiment. This was a precursor to Shay's Rebellion. In April 1782, Rev. Samuel Ely was found guilty of “seditious and disorderly behaviour” in Springfield, Mass., for speaking out against the new state constitution and encouraging a mob to prevent the debtors court from sitting. When a later mob broke Ely out of jail, government troops were brought in.

- from Blandford Soldiers and Sailors