ohn⁴ Landers (Amos³, Richard², Thomas¹), born 6 May 1739, died 3 Aug 1821 (Sandwich Friends Monthly Meeting Records).

He married 10 Apr 1765 Elizabeth⁶ Davis (he called "of Falmouth, son of Amos & Experience"; she called "of Rochester, dau. Nathan & Hannah, deceased" - Vital Records of Rochester, p.198; also recorded in Sandwich Friends’ Monthly Meeting Records), born about 1741, daughter of Nathan⁵ Davis (Nicholas⁴, Timothy³, John², Dollar¹). Her mother was Hannah⁵ Swift, daughter of Benjamin⁴ Swift and sister of Elizabeth⁵ Swift who married Reuben⁴ Landers.

The will of Amos³ Landers gave this son John three-eighths of the real estate and named him co-executor with his brother Freeman⁴ Landers. He ordered also that the house in which John and his brother Reuben lived belonged to them, and not to be considered part of the estate (see above). It is interesting to note that at the date of the will, young John Landers was living in the household of his eldest brother Reuben and the latter’s wife Elizabeth⁵ (Swift). Therefore it seems natural that the following year John married a niece of his sister-in-law.

John Landers witnessed the marriage, 2 Jun 1780, of Presbury Wing to Hannah⁶ Swift, a daughter of Benjamin⁵ and Wait (Bowerman) Swift of Falmouth. No doubt because of the Quaker ban against marrying "out of meeting" these families of Friends intermarried at a bewildering rate. The Allens, Bowermans, Giffords of Falmouth; the Davises, Cliftons and Hillers of Rochester, and the Quaker branches of the Swifts, Landers and others were by this time all closely related. It is therefore a pity, from the genealogical point of view, that the records of the local Friends Meetings are so difficult of access, since many problems could be solved if they were more readily available.

John Landers, as executor of his father’s estate, petitioned the court in December 1781 for permission to sell certain real estate. He paid himself £14.14s.9d. due him from the estate and listed various charges as executor in the final accounting in 1783, as we have seen. The Sandwich Monthly Meeting records shoe that he witnessed other marriages in 1790 and 1791.

A deed dated 1 Nov 1787 shows that John Landers "of Falmouth", his wife Elizabeth renouncing her dower rights, sold land to Richard Lake, also of Falmouth (Falmouth Town Deeds, Barnstable County Registry, 2:107). A deed dated 9 May 1794 shows that John Landers of Falmouth, yeoman, sold land at "Little Island, lower part of Sopaquit Neck", his wife Elizabeth renouncing her dower, to Richard Landers of Falmouth (called yeoman) (ibid., 1:327). A third deed dated 3 Aug 1797 shows that the same John Landers sold land bounded by the "lower end of Reuben Landers’ land"; again the wife Elizabeth relinquishes her dower rights (ibid., 1:327-8).

Only two children of John and Elizabeth (Davis) Landers are of record. We believe these two and the parents were living in the Reuben⁴ Landers household at the time of the 1790 Census. It seems likely that they had at least a third child, namely Mary, who married Richard Lake, because of the deeds. There may have been also a son named John, and it is possible that the Lot Landers whom we assigned as a son of Prince Landers should have been placed here. We hope that further research in Quaker records will clear these conjectures. [Lydia B. (Phinney) Brownson and Maclean W. McLean, "Thomas¹ Landers of Sandwich, Mass.," NEHGR 124:271-272]

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