John Heard, called "shipmaster," "shipwright," and "master carpenter" in the records, was in Cocheco (now Dover), NH, in 1636. With 41 others in 1640, he signed the "Combination for Government" to establish a formal government for Dover, NH, and was then granted six acres of land.
Sometime between 1640 and 1654, John and his family lived in York and in Kittery, ME. He evidently lived in York first as he sold his house there to John Parker in June of 1648. About this time, he began living in Kittery, ME. In 1647, John was fined there for calling "Godfrey an old knave" and criticizing Capt. Champernowne. He had built a house on Champernowne's Island and, on not getting paid, set fire to it. The judgement of the Court in October of 1650 was that he had to replace it with a house as good and as large. At this time, again he began buying land in York, ME, and evidently moved there and was on the Grand Jury there in 1651/2.
Finally, around 1654, he settled again, permanently this time, in Dover, NH, and on 26 February 1656 received a grant of forty acres of land. At the town meeting, he was chosen a surveyor in 1661, a contable in 1662, and a grand juror in 1665.
Tradition has John Heard as the builder of a block house at Dover, NH, which was successfully defended from the Indians on 28 June 1689. During that same attack, his widow was allowed to live because of the consideration of an Indian to whom she had shown favor thirteen years before. I also have a note that she was commended by Rev. Cotton Mather and Rev. John Pike, whether for treating the Indians well or for something else, I don't know.
John and his wife Elizabeth (Hull) Heard had fifteen children: