Thomas, the eldest, inherited a double share of his father’s lands.  He was of age when he came to America, and had received a good education.  He appears to have settled, in the first instance, in Lynn, where for several years he acted as a magistrate, holding local courts, by appointment of the General Court.  Upon removing to Salem, he was chosen, as the town-records show, to the office of constable.  This was considered at that time as quite a distinguished position, carrying with it a high authority, covering the whole executive local administration.  Thomas Putnam was the first clerk of Salem Village, and acted prominently in military, ecclesiastical, and municipal affairs.  He seems to have been a person of a quieter temperament than his younger brothers, and led a somewhat less stirring life.  Possessing a large property by inheritance, he was not quite so active in increasing it; but, enjoying the society and friendship of the leading men, lived a more retired life.  At the same time, he was always ready to serve the community if called for, as he often was, when occasion arose for the aid of his superior intelligence and personal influence.  He married first, while in Lynn, Ann, daughter of Edward Holyoke, great-grandfather of the President of Harvard College of that name whose son, the venerable centenarian, Dr. Edward Augustus Holyoke, is remembered as a true Christian philosopher by the generation still lingering on the stage.  Having lost his wife on the 1st of September, 1665, he married, on the 14th of November, 1666, Mary, widow of Nathaniel Veren; coming, through her, into possession of property in Jamaica and Barbadoes, in which places Veren had resided, more or less, in the prosecution of commercial business.  His homestead, as shown on the map, was occupied by his widow in 1692, and, after her death, by her son Joseph, the father of General Israel Putnam.  He had also a town residence on the north side of Essex Street, extending back to the North River.  Its front on Essex Street embraced the western part of the grounds now occupied by the North Church, and extended to a point beyond the head of Cambridge Street.  He left the eastern half of this property to his son Thomas, and the western half to his son Joseph.  To his son Edward he left another estate in the town, on the western side of St. Peter’s Street, to the north of Federal Street.

Thomas Putnam died on the 5th of May, 1686.  He left large estates in the village to each of his children, and a valuable piece of meadow land, of fifteen acres, to a faithful servant.

Nathaniel Putnam married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Hutchinson, and, besides what he received from his father, came, through his wife, into possession of seventy-five acres.  On that tract he built his house and passed his life.  The property has remained uninterruptedly in his family.  One of them, the late Judge Samuel Putnam, of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, enjoyed it as a country residence, and