Thomas Lindsey Sr. ^807,808

   Cause of his death was due to drowning.

According to J.C. Stinchfield's The History of the Town of Leeds, Androscoggin County, Maine, a Scotch widow, whose name is not mentioned, living in the North of Ireland, traveled to America with her two young sons, James and Thomas, aged two and four respectively, about the year 1725 and settled in Bridgewater, Massachusetts where the mother had relatives, which gives Thomas an approximate birth year of 1723.

Thomas Lindsey, Sr.'s first documented appearance is in October of 1745 in Bridgewater, Mass. when he marries into the Turner family at the age of 22.

On 26 December 1745, he officially establishes his own household with the purchase of 30 acres of land in Bridgewater for 100 pounds from Hannah Turner and Jacob Keith. Hannah Turner was the wife of his brother, James Gillmore Lindsey. The land was located near the Easton town line and bordered that of William Turner, his father-in-law, and John Willis. John Willis is probably the father of Sarah Willis. Sarah Willis is the mother of Nathaniel Ames who married Mary Lindsey in 1734 in Bridgewater. This Mary Lindsey has not yet been identified, but she is most likely a relative.

Thomas Sr. added nine acres to the Lindsey homestead based on deeds dated 15 August 1749 and 3 June 1776 with purchases made from his brother-in-law George Turner for a total sum of 84 pounds, 6 shillings and 8 pence. The first purchase was of five acres located on the west side of the Cowesit River (or swamp) and which adjoined the land of William Turner. The four acres purchased in 1776 began and ended at a comer of Daniel Algers land.

An additional five acres was purchased 12 June 1770 from Benjamin Peirce Jr. of Scituate, Mass., a grandson of Jonathan Howard (late of Bridgewater) and possibly a relative. The land was located at Cutting Cove or Cowesit Swamp.

In sum, the Lindsey homestead consisted of 44 acres of land purchased for approximately 200 pounds, with the bulk of the homestead (30 acres) being purchased just months after his marriage to Elizabeth Turner.

On 7 April 1784 Thomas Sr. transferred the whole of his estate to his youngest son, Thomas Jr.

According to a private record copied from a record of deaths kept by Rev. Issac Backus and his grandson, Joseph A. Backus, Thomas Sr. drowned in October 1787. The record of Rev. Backus is of deaths in Titicut, a parish incorporated 4 February 1743 that included parts of Bridgewater and Middleborough.

Evidence of his death in 1787 also appears in a Bridgewater deed dated 16 April 1788 between Elizabeth Lindsey [et al.] and George Robinson as follows:

"Know all men by these present, that we Elizabeth Lindsay, widow, Hannah Lindsay, single woman, and Thomas Lindsay, yeoman, all of Bridgewater in the County of Plymouth, and William Lindsay of Easton in the County of Bristol, yeoman, in consideration of five pounds to us in hand paid by George Robinson of Bridgewater in said County of Plymouth, clerk..."

His gravestone has not been located.

Thomas married Elizabeth D. Turner, daughter of William Turner and Eleanor Whitman, 3 October 1745 in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts.³⁸² (Elizabeth D. Turner was born 12 June 1722 in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts ⁸¹¹ and died in August 1802 in Leeds, Androscoggin County, Maine ⁸¹².)