Research to date indicates that a David Yeaw materialized around the year 1725. David Yeaw was twice married, He married Jean. Jean died Jan 20, 1774. He married an unknown person. The name David Yaugh is found in the records of Saint Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church of Marblehead, Massachusetts in connection with the baptism of his oldest son, Joseph, on September 8, 1728.
Where he came from, whether an immigrant or American-born, and when he arrived in Marblehead has been subject of investigation. There have not been any satisfying results so for.
The name was spelled "Yaugh" in all records of the church, but nowwhere else is it found in this form. Other records use the form "Yeaw", up to the present day. Some, however, have changed it or have allowed it to change to "Yaw", so that it appears in both forms among the decendants of David Yeaw.
There is the following reference concerning pirates that includes a reference to David Yaw a little earlier (1724), and it is thought that this is the same person.
"The very last of March (1724) the schooner GOODWILL of Marblehead was taken, Benjamin Chadwell, Master, and April 1st a fishing schooner, William Lancy, fell into their hands off Cape Sable. Lancy was detained on board the Revenge and, while there, saw nine different vessels taken, including a Cape Ann sloop commanded by Captain John Salter. On board Captain Lancy's schooner was a seaman named David Yaw, who afterward disposed that when the pirates came on board, one of them, John Baptis, a Frenchman, damned him and kicked him in the legs and pointed to his boots, which was a sign, as the deponent understood it, that he wanted his boots and he accordingly pulled them off and Baptis took them."
The Marblehead church also recorded the burial of a daughter, Mary, on May 12, 1729, and the baptism of three more sons on April 25, 1731; November 11, 1733; and November 17, 1734. On December 22, 1735, David Yeaw presented a certificate, dated December 19 of the same year, to the town council of Scituate, Rhode Island, stating that he had removed from Marblehead on April 1, 1735 and that his family had a legal settlement there. The council approved the certificate the day it was presented and admitted him to dwell in the town, without molestation, until further ordered by the council. He and his wife Jane and four sons thus became residents of that part of the colony of Rhode Island.
David purchased eighty acres of land in Scituate in 1745 and became a freeman in April of that year. The purchase was made from Thomas Angell, who acquired it from Israel Young in the same year. The original homestead was located north of the property belonging to Fred Potter near Rockland. It was in the woods back of the so-called Shady Oak Farm. The house stood in what was called the 'Patten', a small clearing near the Ponaganset River.
The business David pursued was sheep raising. The inventory of his estate shows that, besides being a sheep raiser, he must have devoted time to weaving as he had a loom, woolen and linen wheels, stocks of flax and yarn, and other assessories of that trade. Two more sons were born to David and Jane Yeaw in Scituate.
On July 17, 1760, David's son, Joseph was appointed as his guardian, because of David's blindness. His will, dated May 19, 1752 mentions his wife Jean and six sons, and leaves all his estate to Jean during her lifetime with instructions about division among his six sons later.
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