H Healy

H Healy

 

Hezekiah and Harmon Healy were presented in GAWP5 as possible craftsmen behind the ca 1790 planes marked H Healy. Hezekiah Healy and Harmon Healy, first cousins, were two MA craftsmen who worked in the later 1700s through the early 1800s. Either could have made planes with the H Healy imprint.

 

Joseph (1729) the father of Hezekiah (1766) and Samuel (1738) the father of Harmon (1772) were sons of Joshua Sr. (1701) of Roxbury.

 

Hezekiah Healy

born 10-8-1766 and d 12-1817, Dudley, MA. mechanic and cabinet-maker.

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The Black Tavern in Dudley, Massachusetts is presently the only building in Dudley on the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Register of Historic Buildings.  Three structures make up The Black Tavern; the Tavern, the annex/shop, and the Barn.  The Black Tavern Historical Society (BTHS) was established in 1983 by an extremely dedicated group of preservation-minded local residents in order to save the Tavern, which was in imminent danger of being demolished.  

 

The original structure was built in 1804 by Hezekiah Healy and opened as Healy’s Inn.  Hezekiah had married Becca Corbin in 1798 and was a cabinetmaker and a captain in the local militia company.  The local residents began calling his inn The Black Tavern since Hezekiah, noting that black paint lasted the longest, had painted the building black. The Tavern was located in the middle of the Boston-to-Hartford stagecoach route and catered to travelers as well as the local inhabitants.  The inn had a sign out in front that was hung between two upright posts.  It was said that if you could drive your wagon and team of horses between the posts, you were still sober!

 

Hezekiah died suddenly in 1817.  Becca Healy next lost her only son, Hezekiah Jr., in a shooting accident in 1821.  He had stopped his wagon to give a  vagrant a ride and was killed when the vagrant’s gun supposedly caught on the boards of the wagon and went off.  Hezekiah Jr. was only 11 years old.  His mother laid him to rest next to his father in what is now Corbin Cemetery.  The vagrant was never legally convicted of the boy’s death but was banished from town.  The original mourning picture commemorating the father and son is in the collections of the Black Tavern, donated by a member of the family, and a facsimile hangs in the Meeting Room at the Tavern.

 

A tall case clock made by Hezekiah is also at the Tavern, as well as a grandson’s Civil War letters and the lost but then returned “traveling teapot.”  A Museum Room holds many other artifacts from the Tavern.

 

THE BLACK TAVERN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, BOX 143, DUDLEY, MA   01571

History  and Genealogy of the Decendants of Clement Corbin of Muddy River

Dudley in south Worcester County

 

Hezekiah Healy of Dudley. Married Rebecca Corbin 11-14-1798. He was born 10-8-1766. He was an ingenious mechanic, a cabinet-maker by trade, invented the “fly shuttle”, largely used before power looms became common; he traveled through the country selling looms and shuttles; set up the first power loom used by Slater at Webster.

Hezekiah b 10-1766, d 12-1817

Rebecca b 1-1772, d 6-1845

 

Rebecca b 4-1804, lived in Dudley

Hezekiah Jr. b 1809, d 1821 accident

Clarinda b 1812, lived in Dudley

Newsletter 2010

 

 

 

A History of the Black Tavern on Dudley Hill

Dudley, Massachusetts

 

The Black Tavern was built in 1804 by Capt. Hezekiah Healy, son of the first white male child born in Dudley,[1]  married Mrs. Becca Corbin 14 Nov. 1798 in Dudley.[2] Was she a widow?[3] Becca was born 24 January 1772, and died 4 June 1845, age 72 years, 11 months and 20 days.

The tavern was built opposite the four-acre lot deeded to Dudley by the Nipmuc Indians, the tribe that was known by the name Pegan, and was located halfway on the stagecoach road between Boston and Hartford and between Springfield and Providence. Note that there is a reserved space in the meetinghouse, (now the Congregational Church) marked with a brass plate, which was at one time in the front row. The four acres were given to the town for public use on condition that all their tribe should have the right to convenient seats in the meetinghouse.[4]

The tavern was originally called Healy’s Inn, but was later known as the Black Tavern because, for a short time it was painted black in the mistaken belief that the black paint would last longer. It was built before the Boston Turnpike and before Slater built his mills and the separation of Webster from Dudley.

There are three sections to the building; the main building (the Black Tavern) was built in 1804, the east ell was added in 1810 and was originally a [wood] workshop. The north ell was added in 1830 and was used as a country store and at different times housed the town post office. It is believed that the front porch was added in 1898. After Hezekiah’s death (28 Dec. 1817),[5]  his widow, Becca (Corbin) Healy and daughters, Becca and Clarinda, kept the tavern going for a while but since the main business of the area moved to the area around the Slater mills, the tavern became the family home. Their children were all born in the Black Tavern of Dudley Hill. 

I.Becca, b. 25 April 1804, married (December 10, 1820) Albigence Williams, who was the son of the Congregational Church minister across the street, Rev. Abiel ordained in 1799.  Becca’s family lived in the east ell for a time, but after the family became too big, they moved to the Williams’s farm, which is still on Healy Road.  Their children were all born in Dudley.

II.Hezekiah. Jr. born 8 November 1809, son of Capt. Hezekiah and Becca, died of an accidental gunshot wound on 29 May 1821 at the age of 11 years.

III. Clarinda, b. 20 July 1812[7] married 15 June 1836 to the Methodist Minister of the church that was adjacent to the barn, Warren Goodell. Their children were all born in the Black Tavern, then just the Goodell home and they lived in the main part of the building. Their children were all born in Dudley.

1. Hezekiah Heal(e)y born Oct. 8, 1766, son of Joseph and Mary. Dudley VR to 1850, p. 64. Joseph Healy is listed in the Dudley VR to 1850 as being born in 1729. There are other  children born before this listed in the Dudley VR. For example, Joseph’s brother Joshua is listed as being born in 1727.

2. The births, marriages and deaths on this page are from Vital Records of Dudley, Mass. to the end of the year 1849, Worcester Massachusetts; Pub., by Franklin P. Rice. Trustee of the Fund, 1908, Stanhope Press. P. H. Gibson Co., Boston, pp.64, 68,157,175,180,181,240,266.

3. Although she is listed as Mrs. Becca Corbin in the marriage record, she was the daughter of Lemuel Corbin and Rebecca Davis, born June 24, 1772. History and Genealogy of the Descendants of Clement Corbin of Muddy River Mass and Woodstock Conn, by Harvey Merrill Lawson, (Harford: Case, Lockwood and Brainerd Co, 1905) p. 80.

4. Historical Collections of Every Town in Massachusetts, A Heritage Classic, a Facsimile Reprint, Pub. in 1991 by Heritage Books, Inc, originally pub by Dorr, Howard & co., Worcester, 1841.

5. Inscriptions for Old Corbin Cemetery, NEHGS Cemetery Inscriptions Collection

6. Dudley VR to 1850, pp. 125-6.

7. Dudley VR to 1850 p. 60 (Clarinda’s birth is listed under Goodell)

8. Dudley VR to 1850, p. 60

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This is a rewrite of the work of Bob Ducharme, with additional notes by George Martin and new dates with footnotes by Sara Costa.

1012 Newsletter:   When Hezekiah Healy died in 1818, the Tavern contained 71 chairs, 5 candle stands, and 13 tables of different kinds. 

1017 Newsletter: “A Chair Comes Home”  This past fall, Mary & Bill Stewart from Chesterfield MO, generously offered to donate a chair and small table that were original pieces to the Black Tavern. 

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