• Capt. Thomas Baxter is described as of Wethersfield, Conn., in 1654. In May, 1662, the General Court of Connecticut granted a divorce to Bridget Baxter from Thomas Baxter who was in England at that time. The parties in this case were described as of New London.
I have no positive knowledge of the fact, but I think that, disgusted with the turn of affairs in Connecticut, Capt. Thomas thought he would try Massachusetts, and consequently settled in Yarmouth, Mass., the adjoining town to Barnstable. To William Davis, recent Town Clerk of Yarmouth, I am indebted for much of the history of the descendants of Capt. Thomas Baxter.494

• In the Baxter Memorial, there is some speculation as to who Thomas Baxter was and where he came from. He is called in the records “a bricklayer.” He was a soldier in Capt. Gorham’s company in the first expedition, where he lost the use of one of his hands by a wound. He resided after his marriage at South Sea, now West Yarmouth. Unable to work at his trade, he devoted himself to study, and was much employed in public business. In partnership with his brother-in-law, Shubael, and his sons, he built the fulling mill on the western Swan Pond river, and the grist mill known as Baxter’s mill.
All of the name of Baxter in Barnstable County are their descendants.13