William Richard Cutter Genealogical and Family History of Central New York

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The lineage of a very large putnam part of Putnams of New Eng land is traced to John Putnam, the immigrant. The ancestor of several promi nent citizens of the early days of Massachu setts. The name comes from Puttenham, a place in England. And this perhaps from the Flemish word putte. A well. Plural putten. And ham, signifying a home,' and the whole indicating a settlement by a well. Some four or five years after the settlement of Salem. Massachusetts, it became necessary to extend the area of the town in order to accommodate a large number of immigrants who were de sirons of locating within its jurisdiction. And. As a consequence. Farming communities were established at various points. Some of them being a considerable distance from the center of population. Several families newly arrived from England founded a settlement which they called Salem Village, and the place was known as such for more than a hundred years. It is now called Danvers. Among the original settlers of Salem Village was John Putnam. He was the American progenitor of the Put nams in New England. And among his de scendants were the distinguished revolution ary generals. Israel and Rufus Putnam. Much valuable information relative to the early his tory of the family is to be found in the Es sex Institute Collection. In common with most of the inhabitants. They suffered from the witchcraft delusion. But were not seriously affected.