THE COOMBS OF MAINE


Michael COOMBS – of New Meadows, ME – 1689

Apparently the child of one of the early Coombs who settled along the Kennebec River, Michael Coombs was captured in an Indian raid on New Meadows. On 19 Jun 1689, at age about five years, Michael was ransomed from the Indians.544 Often, when a child was ransomed by himself, it suggests that the parents had been killed in the initial raid.

Nothing more is known about Michael. However, the name, Michael, frequently occurs among the descendants of Henry Coombs of Salem and Marblehead, MA.

Henry COOMBS – from Bristol, England – 1669

In Bristol, England, on 26 Jan 1669, a “Henry Comes bound to Christopher Smith for three years in New England the same conditions.” “The same conditions”545 refers to the usual clauses attached to any apprenticeship agreement concerning the behavior of the apprentice, etc.546

The person to whom Henry Coombs was bound, Christopher Smith, is probably the one who was a land owner in Dedham, MA, in 1640; married Mary Fairbanks (daughter of Jonathan Fairbanks and widow of Michael Metcalf); and died 7 Sep 1676.547

There are no known records concerning what happened to this Henry Coombs after he left Bristol.


  1. The Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles Henry Pope, page 116.
  2. Servants to Foreign Plantations, a record of apprentices sent overseas between 1663 and 1679, Vol. II, page 159.
  3. Letter from Bristol Archives Office, dated 5 Dec 1966 in possession of Whitney J. Coombs.
  4. The Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles Henry Pope, page 116.

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