Cusk, James, Sr.
Cusk, also known as James Cusk, Sr., was a member of the Tunxis community of Farmington, Connecticut. His wife, at least at the end of his life was Catherine Weummukum, and he had two sons, James, Jr. and Aaron.
In May of 1748, Cusk successfully petitioned the Connecticut General Assembly requesting the ability to sell an acre of his Farmington land so that he could build an English-style house there. At the end of that year, Thomas Cowles purchased one acre from him at Indian Neck. By 1754, Cusk purchased two more parcels at Pequabuck Meadow where the Indian wigwams were. The next year he enlisted in Captain Peterson's Company but deserted and was arrested by the authorities.
Cusk appeared before the Hartford Superior Court in early 1756, accused of beating and causing the death of another Tunxis man, Jonathan Shoran, following an argument. Magistrates Joseph Hooker and Solomon Whitman remanded Cusk to jail. After a trial in March, Cusk was found not guilty of intentionally killing Shoran but was ordered to pay thirteen pounds to cover the cost of his prosecution. Unable to pay the fine, he petitioned the General Assembly to sell some of his land at Indian Neck.
Cusk in 1761 sold his Farmington property and house to his son, James, Jr, who lived there afterward. By 1766, Cusk had removed to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, receiving fifty acres of undivided Stockbridge land in 1766 on property "where he has done labor and cleared" and intended to settle. His name was among the Tunxis petitioners who requested the allotment of the community's common land in 1777 and received a little more than 4 acres in Lot 12 in the Second Tier.
Six years later, Cusk once again found himself entangled with the law. On July 27, 1772, he threatened to shoot and kill Daniel Watson in Stockbridge. For that offence, he was arrested and at the end of November, tried, found guilty, and heavily fined. In January 1776, Cusk with six other Stockbridge men on behalf of the tribe petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a law allowing them to have two years to pay their debts without being sued. He was dead by August 1780, when his widow, son, and daughter-in-law forfeited their right and title to fifty acres of land to Deacon Peter Pohquonopeet.
Love, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England, 341.Bates, Rolls of Connecticut Men, Vol. 2, p. 359. Bickford, Farmington, 153-55. Hartford Superior Court, Crown v. Cusk, 1756. Crimes and Misdemeanors, Series I, Vol. 1: 268-69, 10. PRCC: 513. Indian Proprietor Records, 62, 68, 95, 152. Stockbridge Land Records. Court of General Sessions of Peace Records. Additional sources for this biography come from the Related Digital Heritage Items listed below.
Died:
Before August 1780