Her family friend, and her son-in-law's father, Major Robert Pike, was in command of all the forces of Norfolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony and those located in present-day Maine. As early as 1650 he was what would now be called a trial justice and in 1672 an associate judge of the courts of Norfolk Co. In political life a member of the General Court when 32 and of the Governor's Council from 1682-96, when having reached the age of 50 years he retired to the private life of the farm.[citation needed]