Sever, Juba

Juba Sever married Lydia, a Mashpee woman prior to 1785.  The couple raised a family in their household in the Great Neck region of Mashpee, having at least two children, Lydia and, possibly, James.  Juba and his family were enumerated in Mashpee censuses in 1793 and 1800.  By 1808, while Juba and his wife Lydia still lived in Great Neck, there were no children enumerated in the household. 

Over a forty-year period, Juba was involved in efforts to address outside interference in Mashpee governmental and religious affairs, as well as, trespass and encroachment on Mashpee lands.  Accordingly, he signed his name to or made his mark on a number of petitions and remonstrances in the late 1780s.  In May of 1795 Juba signed his name along with nearly seventy others from the Mashpee community in opposition to the 1788 and 1789 Acts of the Massachusetts General Court that limited the autonomy of the Mashpee and, in particular, complained of the role of Reverend Gideon Hawley as missionary and overseer, a perennial concern of many in the Mashpee community.  Over a decade later, these issues continued and Juba, contradicting his earlier position, made his mark on a December 1807 remonstrance in support of the status quo and against a petition asking for change in Mashpee governance.  However, depositions accompanying the petition suggest that there was some confusion or misinformation regarding the petition and the resulting remonstrance.  In January of 1811 Juba Sever, returning to his consistent position, signed yet another petition complaining of the regulations imposed on the Mashpee and the inadequacies of their overseers.

More than two decades later, Juba made his mark on a December 30, 1833 petition, as the head of a family, in support of missionary Phineas Fish.  Juba, in subsequent petitions, would reverse his stance.  This is evidenced the by the fact that he was a signatory on the January 1834 Mashpee petition written by William Apes.  His name was added to that of 288 other Mashpee residents and community members complaining of a number of longstanding grievances against the overseers and the Congregational missionary to the tribe. 

While neither he nor his family were enumerated in the 1834 census of Mashpee, Juba Sever remained in the community after the 1834 Act restructuring the government of the District of Mashpee.  He was among a contingent of 18 Mashpee who held rights to land, but felt they were disadvantaged by the new regulations especially as it pertained to the care of the poor, fencing of meadows, renting of land, individual rights to land, restrictions on the Herring River and the sale of wood, and general fiscal mismanagement. Juba and, presumably his son, James Severs, signed a memorial to the General Court to this effect in January of 1837.   Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Vol. 1; 1793 Mashpee, Autograph File, Houghton Library, Harvard University; 1800 Mashpee Census, Ms. 48: SPG, Account of Indians, Box 2, Folder 16, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Misc. Bound Docs. 1808, MHS, Boston, MA; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Massachusetts General Court, 1788.07.30.00; Remonstrance of Mashpee Proprietors and Others to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1788.10.31.00; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Massachusetts General Court, 1788.12.29.00; Petition of Gideon Nautumpum and Other Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1807.00.00.00; Petition of Moses Pocknet and Other Mashpee Indians to the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1811.01.28.00; Petition of the Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1834.01.29.00; Petition of Nathan Pocknet and Other Mashpee Indians to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1837.01.28.00