According to Skeate11, Samuel Woods was an original proprietor of Groton, Massachusetts, having an eleven-acre right. He had lived previously in Watertown (where he was a member of the training band in 1653), and in Cambridge where he married his wife Alice Rushton. He moved to Groton in 1662, and lived there until the town was destroyed in King Phillip’s War in 1676, at which time he returned with his family to Watertown. He resettled in Groton in 1678. Further details about Samuel Woods can be found in most of the standard references on Groton history.43 177

Curiously, Bond’s Watertown178 contains the following: “SAMUEL and ALA WOODS, had John, b. in Old England, Mar. 4, 1677.” Note that this birthdate is the same as that of the John Woods, supposed son of Samuel and Alice Woods, said to have been born in Watertown.