vital records sources

Samuel was in Salem, Massachusetts, by 1638. On the 23rd of April of that year he was granted an acre of land next to Mr. Hawthorne and 5 acres near the water mill, the latter exchanged for his 5 acres "on the Forest River side."1 He and his wife had moved to the Bass River part of Salem (later the town of Beverly) by 5 April 1639/1640, when they were later admitted to the First Parish Unitarian Church there.2 Samuel is on the Beverly freemen list of 2 June 1641.3 He was granted an acre of land in 1641 for growing hemp.4 He was given 5 acres of land at "Darbey's Fort" side, and on 11 December 1643, the town seems to have confirmed the grant. 122 This is or is about where Fort PIckering was on Winter Island. By 1 May 1652 he had 10 acres by the river on Cape Ann side, which very likely refers to what was also called the Bass River area bordered on the west by that river and later became the town of Beverly. 171
     20 June 1656, on the Jury of Trials for Essex Co. 192,
called Samuel "Cornish" 24 February 1657, the town forgot to record a grant to Samuel of 20 acres of upland near John Hardy. 196
He was involved in a dispute over a "drift way" from the head of Bass River onto Royal's (Ryall's) Neck, and the concerned parties were to meet on 16 June 1657. 201
Selected for the Grand Jury for the next year on 22 August 1657. 203
The town selected him, among others, to lay out some lots on Cape Ann side on 8 March 1657/58 213,
for which he was probably paid by bill on 14 December of that year 222
8 March 1658/59, Samuel was one of the three Salem constables fined 2 shillings and 6 pence for not showing up at a town meeting and not making "a return of their warrants." 223
It may be this warrant that's referred to at the 4 April 1659 town meeting, which was the "country" (county) and town taxes they collected on 30 August 1658. 225
At the same meeting he seems to have been paid 9 shillings and 4 pence for something he did in 1657. 657
Another financial entry is an account from 14 December 1657 giving Samuel 9 shillings due to a mistake. 227
7 Nov 1659, Jury of Trials. 229
After Rev. Hale was selected for the new town, Samuel was one of two men charged with collecting a rate from the townspeople in 1668 to pay his £70 salary.5
He was chosen a selectman on 18 December 1669, but was replaced the following February.6
In April of that year he agreed to be on a committee to formalize the bounds between Beverly and Wenham.7
In June he was chosen to "keep an ordinary."8
At a meeting on 21 August he was chosen an "assistant" with other selectmen.9
He's listed among the selectmen as "Ensigne Corning" when it was decreed that all men legally notified should be at the laying of the sill for the new meeting house, called "graunseled" (groundsel, ground sell, ground sill).10
On 17 March 1671, Samuel and Richard Brackenbury were given the right to build pews in the new meeting house "at the north end of the pulpitt."11
He agreed to exchange a piece of land near the meeting house and a highway "lyinge on the backside of the 20 acres of land which he bought of Osmund Trask which was Jonathan Porter's."12
He was give land between Capt. Thomas Lothrop's meadow and Samuel's farm.
Following a dispute over the border line between Beverly and Wenham, Samuel and his neighbors signed an agreement with their neighbors on the Wenham side about where to draw it.13 MDCB, 251-2.
Samuel died without a will. His estate papers, probated on 3 December 1694, call him an ensign and yoeman.13

children of Samuel and Elizabeth Corning:13

i. Remember bap. 3 May 1639/40
ii. Samuel, bap. 14 March 1640/41
iii. Elizabeth bap. 4 June 1643

vital records sources:

1. Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. 9, "Town Records of Salem, Massachusetts" (Salem, MA: 1868), 69.
2.
3.
4.
5. Municipal Documents of the City of Beverly, Massachusetts (Beverly: 1896), 401.
6. Ibid, 395, 399 (Beverly town meeting records of 18 December 1669 and 22 February 1670).
7. Ibid, 29 Apr, 396.
8. Ibid, 2 June.
9. Ibid, 397.
10. Ibid, 19 Sep, 397.
11. Ibid, 402.
12. Ibid, 403.
13. Essex Co., MA, probate file 6381.
14.