RICHARD DEXTER, ONE OF BOSTON’S IRISH PIONEERS.
BY THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY.
Richard Dexter was admitted a “townsman” of Boston, Mass., in 1641. He was an Irishman and came to this country with his wife Bridget. Less worthy people have been adequately chronicled. Of Richard Dexter, however, but little has been said. He may be ranked as a forgotten pioneer.
In the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, January, 1891, is a brief paper on “The Dexter Family.” In that it is stated that “Richard Dexter, the pioneer, with his wife, Bridget, came from Ireland, where his fathers had lived for upwards of 400 years.”
The descendants of Richard and Bridget have been very numerous, many of them attaining prominence in civil, military and educational life. F. Gordon Dexter, a wealthy Boston man, is mentioned as one of these descendants, as is also the late George Dexter of Albany, N. Y. Mention of others will hereinafter be found.
In Vol. III, page 181, of a work published by Munsell on American Ancestry (Albany, N. Y., 1899), it is stated that John Dexter, the only son of Richard, the immigrant, was born in 1639 and probably in Ireland. He was doubtless brought to this country by his parents while still an infant.
The Irish Dexters derive their descent from Anglo-Norman sources and are first heard of in Ireland about A. D. 1169, or more than seven centuries ago. The name has variously appeared in Ireland as De Exeter, D’Exeter, Dexeter, Dexetra, Dexter, etc.
Some of the family, especially those settling in Mayo, in the kingdom of Connaught, assumed the surname Mac Jordan (descendant of Jordan), after an ancestor—Jordan Teutonicus, or Jordan De Courcy, a brother of John De Courcy, Earl of Ulster. These Dexters were commonly known as Dexter-Mac Jordans, and sometimes as Mac Jordan-Dexters. Much of the history of the Dexters must be sought under the names Jordan and Mac Jordan.
The pioneer Dexters in Ireland soon fell in with the people and though, at first, conflicts ensued between them and the old native clans, their descendants eventually became “as Irish as the Irish themselves.” The fact that they were of the same religious faith greatly assisted, of course, in bringing this about.
Richard Dexter, son of Stephen Dexter, wedded, in 1272, Lady Penelope O’Connor, a daughter of the ruler of the Irish kingdom of Connaught. The Dexter-Mac Jordans became lords of Athleathan, in Mayo, Connaught, and built one of their strongest castles there. Stephen Dexter, son of one of the lords of Athleathan, was a Dominican monk, and wrote the Annals of Multifernan.
The Dexter-Mac Jordans also had possessions in the Irish principality of Meath, where they built Castle Jordan. About 1274 they founded an abbey in Mayo. In De Burgo’s time the Dexter family had reached its thirteenth generation in Ireland.
In common with other great Irish families, the Dexters suffered much at the hands of the English enemy, a large part of their choicest property being seized and confiscated. While some of the Irish Dexters took the name Mac Jordan, others, it would appear, did not, for we find Dexters prominently mentioned in the Munster counties of Cork and Limerick.
It is a well-known fact that at one time the Irish living within the pale were obliged by law to drop their Irish surnames and assume others. Possibly, some of the Dexters bearing the name Mac Jordan came under the operation of this enactment and went back to their original name of Dexter. Be that as it may, it is certain that several of the Irish Dexters of Munster were unscrupulously victimized during the Cromwellian and Williamite regimes.
Thomas Dexter of Cloyne, Cork, was among the forfeiting proprietors under the Cromwellian settlement. He was of the Barony of Imokilly. Stephen Dexter of the Parish of Templemurry, County Limerick, also suffered at the same time and in like manner. William Dexter, likewise of Templemurry, was similarly treated by the rapacious foe.
What part of Ireland Richard Dexter, the Boston pioneer, came from we do not know. It is reasonable to conclude, however, that he was from either Munster or Connaught—the south or the west, since it is in these two provinces the Irish Dexters are mainly found. Neither do we know the maiden name of his wife, Bridget. Richard Dexter was admitted a townsman of Boston on “the 28th day of the twelfth month, 1641.” At the meeting where this action was taken there were present: Richard Bellingham, John Winthrop, William Tynge, Captain Gibbones, Valentine Hill, Jacob Eliot, James Penn and John Oliver.
According to Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary, Richard Dexter, the pioneer, was of Charlestown, Mass., in 1644. Munsell’s American Ancestry states that he was born in 1606, which would make him about thirty-five years of age on his arrival in Boston from Ireland. He bought a large amount of land on “Mystic side,” and must, at the outset, have been a man of considerable means. In 1648 his name appears signed to a petition relative to the laying out of a highway in Charlestown, Mass. The petition thus quaintly concludes: “So shall wee be bound to pray as we desire dayly to doe for yr prsptie & peace temporall & Eternall.”
On “the 14th of the third month, 1650,” Richard Dexter purchased of Robert Long of Charlestown five lots on “Mystic side.” In 1654 John Palmer mentions the sale to Dexter of five acres of “arable land” in Charlestown, which land had at one time belonged to Maj. Robert Sedgwick. Richard Dexter also purchased other pieces of land, chiefly upland, in Charlestown at various times. In 1663 he became owner of forty acres in Malden, Mass., buying the same of Edward Lane of Boston. This latter property was increased from time to time, and much of it remained in possession of descendants of Richard down to as late a period as 1854.
In 1651, Richard’s wife, Bridget Dexter, signed a petition of Malden and Charlestown women. This was called “The petition of Many Inhabitants of Malden and Charlestown on Mestickside.” A record is extant showing that “Thomas Molton of Malden, Planter,” sold to Richard Dexter five acres of upland. “It is scituate on mistik syde nere the south springe.” Richard Dexter, the pioneer, died at Charlestown in 1680.
John Dexter, the only son of Richard, was born in 1639. He is spoken of as “of Charlestown and Malden.” He was killed in the latter place in 1677. His wife’s name was Sarah. They had several children, including a son, who was named Richard. This Richard is mentioned as “of Lynn and Malden.” He was born in the latter place in 1676, and died there in 1747. John Dexter of the family was a selectman of Malden for many years, and in 1717 was commissioned captain of a company of Foot by Governor Shute. This John Dexter died in 1722. He had eight children.
Another John Dexter of Malden, of the same family, was born in 1705 and died in 1790. He had thirteen children, was clerk of the town for several years, a patriot of the Revolution and delegate to the Provincial Congress.
The Rev. Samuel Dexter was born in 1700, dying in 1755. He was a brother of Selectman John of Malden. This Samuel graduated at Harvard College, 1720, and subsequently taught school at Taunton, Lynn, Malden, and elsewhere in Massachusetts. He eventually located in Dedham, Mass. He had a son, also named Samuel, who became an eminent merchant of Boston, and died in 1810.
This second Samuel left a bequest to Harvard University, on which bequest was subsequently founded the Dexter lectureship. He became a member of the Council of Massachusetts. He was “an active and sagacious leader on the popular side, and a man of marked ability.”
Another member of this distinguished family was Richard Dexter, a physician at Topsfield, Mass. He was born in 1713 and died in 1783. This Richard was a brother of the Rev. Samuel Dexter, and wedded Mehitable Putnam, a sister of Gen. Israel Putnam.
Two members of the Dexter family, William and Richard, descendants of Richard, the Irishman, were members of a Malden company of Minutemen that marched to Watertown, Mass., April 19, 1775, in response to the Lexington alarm. John Dexter, probably the one just mentioned, was with Captain Blaney in the Point Shirley expedition, 1776, and later was lieutenant aboard the brigantine Hawke. William Dexter of Malden, who responded to the Lexington alarm was with Colonel Brooks’ regiment of guards at Cambridge from February to April, 1778. Thus we see these descendants of the immigrant Richard were as ready to oppose British tyranny as their Irish ancestors had been.
Another member of the family, Aaron Dexter, was born in 1750 and graduated at Harvard in 1776. He witnessed the battle of Bunker Hill from the Malden side of the river; studied medicine and made several voyages as surgeon. He was captured by the British and taken into Halifax, but was subsequently exchanged. Thomas Dexter is heard from at Lynn, as early as 1630. He at one time owned 800 acres in that vicinity. Whether he was related to Thomas Dexter of Cloyne, Cork, to Stephen or William Dexter of Limerick, or to Richard Dexter, the Boston pioneer, is not known.