DESCENDANT LINE:
George HILLES (~1582 - ) & Mary SYMONDS (~1582 - )
Joseph HILLS (1602 - 1687) & Rose CLARKE ( - 1649)
Elizabeth HILLS (1627 - 1674) & George BLANCHARD (~1620 - 1700)
Elizabeth BLANCHARD (1659 - 1700) & George GRIMES (1649 - 1718)
Ruth GRIMES (1681 - 1721) & James TUFTS Jr. (1672 - 1733)
James TUFTS III (1702 - 1767) & Lydia HALL (1705 - 1753)
Elizabeth TUFTS (1732 - 1754) & Samuel TEEL (1725 - 1773)
Jonathan TEEL (1754 - 1828) & Lydia CUTTER (1757 - 1831)
Thomas TEEL (1799 - 1873) & Susan FROST (1801 - 1866)
Abner Gardner TEELE Sr. (1837 - <1870) & Ellen SMITH (~1847 - )
Gardner Abner TEELE Jr.* (1868 - ) & Emma A (1868 - <1920)
Louis Gardner TEELE Sr. (1889 - 1982) & Grace BOULTON (1890 - 1943)
Louis Gardner TEELE Jr. (1913 - 2004) & Margaret Catherine SLINE (1943 - )


SOURCE: “Annual report of the directors, Volumes 1-14” By Hills Family Genealogical and Historical Association. (This may be of particular interest in learning about the search for information.)

JOSEPH HILLS1. As stated in detail upon pages three and four of the third report of the directors of the Hills Family Association, it has been found that Joseph Hills was born in the parish of Great Burstead, Billericay, Essex, England. The record of his baptism reads, "1602, March, Joseph Hilles the sonne of George, was baptized the third day." Neither the birthplace nor parentage of George Hills has yet been discovered. The earliest known record in relation to him is that of his marriage, -- "George Hilles, linen draper, and Mary Symonds, of Billericay, County Essex, widow of William Symonds, late of same, tanner, general license of the Bishop of London, 13 Oct. 1596." An unfortunate break in the register of Great Burstead, all records between 1579 and 1596 being missing, will probably prevent the discovery of the maiden name and parentage of the wife of George Hills.

Joseph Hills, as shown by his signatures, used but four letters, in the form now commonly used, in his surname. In the baptismal record of his brothers and sisters born before 1607, like that which relates to himself, the name has two vowels. The change to Hills in the entry of the christening of his sister Rebecca in February, 1608, and of two younger children, doubtless followed the advent of a new Vicar into the living of Great Burstead. In that parish, on the twenty-second day of July, 1624, Joseph Hills was married to Rose Clarke whose birth record has not yet been found. There his elder children were born. Not later than March, 1632, the family removed to Maldon, also of Essex, which was the birthplace of sons John and "Steven" and of daughter Sarah.

Not later than March, 1632, the family removed to Maldon, Essex. In 1638 he was the "undertaker" of the voyage of the ship "Susan and Ellen," which arrived July 17 of that year, and landed her passengers and cargo at Boston, in New England. Resident of Charlestown. Family dwelling was "near the market place," but in a few years he was a resident of that part of town north of the Mystic River, establishing his home at "Mystic Side" on a farm of considerable size. He was a selectman in 1644, and in 1646 represented the town in the General Court. Re-elected in 1647, he was chosen speaker of the House of Deputies. When "Mystic Side" was set off as a separate town, it was doubltess named by him for the place where he last dwelt in Old England. That part of ancient Charlestown has long since outgrown the town form of government, and with more than thirty thousand inhabitants, is known as the city of Malden.

While a resident of Mystic Side and Malden he was captain of its train-band. At his death he willed his "buffe coate" to his son Samuel, and his "backsword" to Henry Lunt, his stepson. He was Malden's first deputy, and the town had no other representative until after 1664. In 1665 Malden was not represented, Mr. Hills having removed to Newbury, on the Merrimac River. In 1666 his son-in-law, John Waite, was his successor, and "for an unbroken series of nineteen years he filled this office," being Speaker of the House of Deputies in 1684 and nominated as a magistrate in 1683.

In 1645 Joseph Hills was the first named on a committee "to set out lots to the settlers of Nashaway plantacon." In 1648 he was first of a committee of four to change the location of the highway "between Winnesemet and Redding." In 1650 he was second of a committee, of which the governor was chairman, appointed to draw up instructions for the Massachusetts delegates to a gathering where "the commissioners of all the colonies shall meete." In 1653 he was one of a committee of six to consider the question, "if the Vnited Collonjes haue power by the articles of Agreement . . . to ingage the Collonjes" "in warre." In 1654 ,with Captains Hawthorne and Johnson, and the treasurer of the Colony, he was appointed to frame a reply to the home government, which had demanded an explanation of certain acts. Three times, in 1650, 1653, and 1661, he was of committees to audit the treasury accounts, but his greatest public service was that of the leading member of the committee that in 1648 reported to the General Court the first codification of the laws of the Colony. The story of his part of the work is well told by one of his descendants, Mr. D. P. Corey, in his history of Malden, published in that city, in 1899. That he was the actual compiler of the laws, that he prepared the copy for the press and supervised their printing, is clearly proved. The colony recognized the great value of his work, not only by a money payment but by a grant of five hundred acres of land on the Nashua River, now a part of Southern New Hampshire, and the remission of his taxes in his old age. But new laws were from time to time enacted and old ones changed, and "the Courte finding by experience the great benefitt that doth redound to the country by putting of the lawes into printe," in 1649-50, 1653, 1654 and 1661 appointed committees as stated in the vote of the last-named year "to peruse such lawes as are vnprinted & vnrepealed & comitt them to the presse."

For this work Joseph Hills had such prominence that his appointments to these committees were three times as numerous as those of any of his colleagues except Governor Bellingham who, notwithstanding his official position, was outranked by his less distinguished associate in the number of times he was designated for such service

ROSE CLARK, the first wife of Joseph Hills, died at Malden, March 24, 1650, and he married, June 24, 1651, Hannah (Smith), widow of Edward Mellows, of Charlestown, who died about 1655. In January, 1656, he married Helen, or Elline, or Eleanor, daughter of Hugh Atkinson, of Kendall, Westmoreland, England, who died at some date between January 8, 1661, and November 10, 1662. In connection with this marriage a noteworthy incident occurred. In the early days of the Colony all marriages were solemnized by magistrates, the clergy having no part in the ceremony. In 1641 Governor Bellingham, as magistrate, married himself to Penelope Pelham, and when called on to come down from the bench and plead to a complaint against him for the act, refused to do so. Joseph Hills was a magistrate "for the trial of small causes," and followed the Governor's example in his marriage of January, 1656, but, unlike the Governor, did not escape public censure. The records of the Court for Middlesex County show that, April 1, 1656, "Mr. Joseph Hills of Mauldon being presented by the Grand Jury for marrying of himself, contrary to the law of this Collony page 38 in ye old Booke. Hee freely acknowledged his offence therein, and his misvnderstanding the grounds whereon he went wch he now confesseth to be vnwarrantable, And was admonished by the Court." March 8, 1665, he married, at Newbury, Ann, the widow of Henry Lunt, of that town, and until his death made her dwelling his home.

His petition to the General Court, dated May 24, 1682, recites that "in the latter part of his pilgrimage" he was "totally" bereaved of "the sight of his eyes for more than 4 years now past." He died at Newbury, February 5, 1688.