#52 Ancestors - Rebecca Noyes (1651- )

 Week # 5  - Rebecca Noyes (1651- )

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

Rebecca Noyes may be our 8th great-grandmother.  She was the daughter of Rev. James Noyes and Sarah Browne who migrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in "1634 aboard the 'Mary & John' of London, Robert Sayres master, as established by a record which shows that the list of men who took the Oath of Supremecy & Allegiance to pass to New England on that ship included Thomas Parker and James Noyce, who took the oath on March 26, 1634, and Nicholas Noyce, who took the oath on March 24, 1633/4." The link to Wikitree provides great detail about her family. [1]   It seems her father, James was a "teacher" at the Newbury Church. James was author of three religious books including "A Catechism For Children." 

Newbury was Rebecca's home territory as her father built a house at #7 Parker Street about 1646.  Rebecca was born 1 Apr 1651 [2], surely in that very home, the seventh of nine children. This house still stands. [3]  It's pretty amazing that you can click the links below to see the handwritten record of Rebecca's birth from the Newbury Town Clerk [middle of left page] and a picture of the house she grew up in?

Her marriage to John Knight in Newbury is recorded in the same Town Clerk's records- married on January 1, 1671/2 [4] [At this link the page is photographed upside down but you can see the marriage recorded in the middle of the left hand page if you flip the image over. Clerks often used the back of book pages to continue recording data as a space/cost saving measure?] This is one of the better documented families in Newbury. In this book by Noreen Pramburg, "Four Generations of the Descendants of John Knight and His Brother, Richard Knight, First Settlers of Newbury, Massachusetts." you can read all about the Knight family.  Again it is amazing that you can borrow this 1986 book for an hour from Archives.org  [also known as the Wabac Machine].[5]  Where would we be without all the folks who came before us photographing, interpreting and preserving these ancient records?

Information about the family continues to abound as we find the Will of Rebecca's husband in the Essex county probate records. [6] Who could ask for a more beautiful handwriting of a three-hundred year old document. Not only does the researcher need to trace cursive writing but also understand archaic characters like the "long s" ſ used where a double "s" would appear as in the county Eſsex.

"John Knights Will Prov: Approv: & Allow:  In the Name of God Amen, I John Knight of Newbury in the County of Eſsex, in the Province of the Maſsachusetts Bay in New England being sensible of my Frailty and Mortality yet of Perfect mind and memory  thanks be to God / Do make and ordaine this My Last Will and Testament. That is to say Principally and first of all, I give and recomend My Soul into the hands of God &c. and my body to ye Earth to be buried in Decent Christian Burial att the Discretion of My Exec! &c. And as touching such worldly goods and Estate as itt has Pleased God to Bleſs me with in this Life I give Devise & Dispose of the same in the following manner and form. (Imprimies) I give and bequeath to Rebacca My Dearly beloved wife the use and improvement of the one halfe of all my Real Estate During her Natural Life to use and improve as shee Pleases for her benefit, Excepting my Rate Right in ye undivided commons below ye wood Lott on the west side of ye Little River and also I give my said Wife, all my Personall Estate... This ye 7th day of January in the 10th year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France & Ireland King and Defender of the Faith &c."  

If you have trouble reading any of this document, get your pencil out and pretend you are writing the text on the screen.  Sometimes the act of writing will help you figure out a letter or word.  Also look for similar letters and words in the document.  In this case I couldn't figure out the word (Imprimies) but just below it is the word Improvement and looking up Imprimis, you find that it means "the beginning of a list." In this case, a list of items bequeathed to heirs.

In the case of Rebecca, when John dies about August 1725, they have seven children: James, Rebecca, John, Sara, Elizabeth, Joseph and Nathaniel born pretty much every two years between 1672 and 1688.  

This is where a problem creeps in to our pedigree. Some sources say that Mary and John had a daughter Mary born 1686 and died 1728 who married Stephen Thurston.  But John does not list a daughter, Mary Thurston in his will. He does specifically list sons- James, Joseph, Nathaniel and John and "My Daughters (viz Rebacca, Sarah and Elizabeth)" 

"Pramberg states that John also had a daughter named Mary who married Stephen Thurston and a daughter named Bethsheba who was born about 1691 and died in 1776. However, no birth records have been found that establish that John had daughters by those names, and the fact that John's will does not mention any daughters by those names strongly suggests that he did not have any daughters by those names who were living when he made his will."  So it will probably be some future generation who proves the parentage of Mary Knight who married Stephen Thurston.

My retirement gig is Estate Administrator.  Even in this day and time I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for a person to have a will.  Without such a document you leave your heirs high and dry and at the mercy of the probate court system- the least of which is, your estate will be tied up for years waiting on judges!

Source:

[1] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Noyes-37

[2] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9979-9DZ5

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Noyes_House

[4] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L979-988D

[5] https://archive.org/details/fourgenerationso00pram/page/6/mode/2up

[6] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YY-X323-G

#52 Ancestors - #4 Hannah Mayo (1620-1694)

 Week # 4  - Hannah Mayo (1620-1694)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

Our family genealogists have discovered that Hannah Mayo is our 7th Great-grandmother, born about 1620 in the Netherlands. One source says she died abt 17 Jan 1694 - age 74 in Barnstable, Cape Cod, Massachusetts Bay Colony. [Hannah was still living when her son Nathaniel wrote his will in Aug 1691. She is Mayo-39 at Wikitree] She migrated to the colonies with her parents Rev. John Mayo and Tamisen Brike and her four siblings.  There is a great book- "Rev John Mayo and his Descendants" by Dr. Jean (May) Mayo-Rodwick [a]

In her book we see that New England Historic Genealogical Society granted permission to use the extensive portions of volume 95 [1941], pages 39-49 [b] and volume 103 [1949]-"John Mayo, First Minister of the Second Church of Boston", pages 100-108 of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Those searching for more details will find them there.  Dr. Jean Mayo's book is now in its sixth edition. She says "By at least 1618, John Mayo must have traveled to Leiden also and married there. Searching for the births of Rev. John Mayo and his wife Tamsen's children, it was found that the Register of Baptisms of Rev. Goodyear of the English Church in Leiden is lost."  

A little more background on Hannah's parents- "John Mayo was born on April 2, 1597 in Farthinghoe Parish, Northamptonshire, England. He married Tamisen Brike on March 21, 1618 in Leiden, Holland; marriage of Jan Meyer, a baize worker [works with coarse woolen used to make curtains, tablecloths, linings etc.] from England, and Timmosijn Breyck, also from England in the Reformed Church. The witnesses were Timmosijn's mother Susanna Breyck, and her sister, Marytgen Duijck. Jan was accompanied by Thomas Smith [Jan Meyer in Dutch is John Mayo in English; Timmosijn Breyck is Tamisen Brike.]. He died in May, 1676 in Yarmouth, Barnstable County, Plymouth Colony, at age 79."  We know that these folks moved to Leiden in the Netherlands to escape religious persecution in England.

"The Mayo's have migrated to Barnstable by 1639 where he is listed among the first settlers in 1640. Daughter, Hannah, is about 18 at this time. The NEHGS article from 1941 says that for Rev. Mayo to pay for the passage of a family of seven or eight would have cost £30. There are about 20 families in Barnstable when they arrive. A church was formed and Rev. Mayo was teaching elder. "They worshiped in fair weather on Shoot-flying Hill or beside the Great Rock. Some of the congregation were Indians." John Mayo was granted about 12 acres in lot No. 5 with the northern boundary of Barnstable Harbor, Lot No. 4 on the west, J. Casly's lot on the east and the highway to the south.

Life in Barnstable in the middle 1600s must have been quite an adventure. "There were 3135 inhabitants in Plymouth Colony when the census was taken in 1643, of whom 230 were freemen. The Barnstable population comprised about 300 English and 500 Indians."  Barnstable was quite a remote outpost from Plymouth - the easiest method of travel from the Barnstable harbor to Plymouth was probably by boat.  The overland trail would surely have been a much slower and more dangerous route. It's only about 30 miles by land and Google says you could walk that today in about nine hours but still, it's a boat trip for me if I have any say in the matter.

The Elder Mayo moved to Nausett (Eastham), Plymouth Colony, staying there from 1646 to 1654. He was the first pastor of the church there. Evidently, the "deep, blackish, mouldy soil" at Nausett impressed those who were considering moving there. The Eastham people built a meetinghouse 20 feet square, thatched and loopholed next to Town Cove. 

We see that daughter Hannah marries Nathaniel Bacon (1621-1673), also a first settler, on 4 Dec 1642 in Barnstable town [c][d] before the rest of the family heads for Eastham.  "They went to housekeeping in the large two-storied house he had set up so staunchly that at the end of two hundred and fifty years when it was demolished the timbers were still sound, as is the stock it sheltered, which today is noted for its public spirit and service." [Dr. Jean Mayo]

Hannah and Nathaniel have eight children; Hannah (1642), Nathaniel (1645), Mary (1648), Samuel (1650), Elizabeth (1653), Jeremiah (1657) [our 6th great-grandfather], Mercy (1659), and John (1661).  You can see nearly twenty years separates the children.

It's simply amazing that so many records were kept and are now available online for us to appreciate.

[a]online at Link to Rev John Mayo and his Descendants   

[b] online at NEHGS Paywall link to marriage record

[c]marriage record- https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/massachusetts-vital-records-1620-1850/image?volumeId=13885&pageName=4&rId=32095843 Records of Barnstable, Mass. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002.]

[d] https://archive.org/details/thomashowesofy00hawe/page/59/mode/2up

#52 Ancestors - #3 Jonathan Sparrow (1629-1707)

Week # 3  - Jonathan Sparrow (1629-1707)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

I wrote about Rebecca Bangs last week and this week I selected a child of Richard Sparrow and his wife Pandora -  Jonathan Sparrow. You will find him in Wikitree.com as Sparrow-36.  Jonathan happens to have married Rebecca Bangs so you already know quite a bit about him since I used some of the details of his life last week. It appears Jonathan was born in England about 1629 and migrated with his parents to Plymouth before 1632. We know his first wife, Rebecca, but as she died fairly young he married again.  His second marriage to Hannah Prence (she b. 1628) was after 5 Jun 1667 when Hannah was nearly 40, she was widow of Nathaniel Mayo. Hannah died about 1698, aged 63. Jonathan's third marriage on 23 Nov 1698 was to Sarah Lewis (she b. 1643), widow of James Cobb.

Jonathan Sparrow grew up in the expanding town of Plymouth, headquarters of Plymouth Colony (and Plymouth County when it was formed in 1685) until it all merged into Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. He and his parents moved across Plymouth Bay to settle Nauset (aka Eastham), on Cape Cod, around 1650, when he would have been 21 years old.

The following is a sad part of our legacy but the colonists of this time period were trying to hang on to a tenuous existence in this new land. An interesting account of the order of battle for the Narragansett Expedition, part of King Phillips War is described in Ebenezer Weaver Peirce's "Indian History, Biography and Genealogy: Pertaining to the Good Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag Tribe" (Z.G. Mitchell, North Abington, Mass., 1878) Page 122.  The Second Plymouth company was commanded by John Gorham of Barnstable and our Jonathan Sparrow was a Lieutenant. In Dec 1675, the Colonial Militia of New England attacked the Narragansett people near Kingston, Rhode Island in what was called the Great Swamp Massacre. From Wikipedia- "the Pokanoket Indians had helped the original pilgrim settlers survive but when Philip succeeded his father as Sachem of the tribe about 1662, he began laying plans and gathering a federation of tribes to attack the colonists in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  Officials from the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies responded quickly to the Wampanoag attacks on Swansea in June of 1675 and that began King Phillip's War."

Even though the Narragansett's were officially neutral, they were seen as harboring King Phillip's men and were attacked by nearly 1,000 colonial militia along with allied Pequot and Mohegan Indians. Sadly, many hundreds of Narragansett non-combatants were killed in this battle.

Sparrow survived this battle and in June, 1680 was commissioned captain of the company of militia in Eastham, with Joseph Snow as his lieutenant and Jonathan Bangs, ensign.  All able-bodied male colonists were obligated to participate in the colonial militia. 

Our family is descended from Jonathan and Rebecca's daughter, Rebecca Sparrow (1655-1740) who married Thomas Freeman. Mrs. Rebecca Freeman, executrix of her late husband Thomas, petitioned for the revival of proceedings of proprietors of land, against Robert Nickerson and others. 

Rebekah Freeman is buried in Old Burying Ground in Brewster, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. [6]

Inscription:

Here lyes y Body
of Mrs. Rebeckah
Freeman, Wife of Decon
Thomas Freeman
Who Departed this
life Febry 1740 in ye
86th Year of her Age

#52 Ancestors - #2 Rebecca Bangs (1636-1677)

Week # 2 - Rebecca Bangs (1636-1677)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

I believe Rebecca Bangs is my 7th-great grandmother.  She was daughter of Edward and Rebecca Bangs, two of the English migrants in the Puritan Great Migration (PGM) during the period 1620-1640. Information about Rebecca is a little sparse.  She is the first member of the Bangs family added to our grand project, Wikitree.com, Bangs-1, which seeks to make a single tree that connects all of us together.

One piece of evidence is a memorial in the Cove Burying Ground, Eastham, Barnstable County (Cape Cod) Massachusetts set by her descendants in 1876 - Centennial Year of Independence. This memorial does help cement some of the lore about this family living far out on the Lower Cape - (the lower arm of the Cape Cod peninsula) what some might call the boondocks. (See FindAGrave memorial #15871823)

Here rests the dust

of

Richard Sparrow 

and his wife

Pandora

who came from Kent County England

about 1633 and settled in Plymouth.

about 1650 they came to Eastham

and settled near this place

where he died January 8, 1660

Here also rests

Jonathan Sparrow

only child of Richard

together with his first two wives

Rebecca Bangs & Hannah Prince

He settled in the part of Eastham

now East Orleans where

After filling many offices of honor

and trust in both church and state

he died March 21, 1706 aged 73 years

IN MEMORY OF

These early settlers of our country

we their descendants have erected

this tablet in this centennial year

of our American Independence AD 1876

So maybe you can picture, 1654, when Rebecca is only 18, she marries Jonathan Sparrow, about 7 years older, age 25. Their families had moved across Cape Cod Bay to what is Eastham.  The "eastern hamlet," makes perfect sense to name a town. Plymouth Colony government required these settlements to have a preacher and form a church. In 1640- “The Court doth grant unto the church of New Plymouth, or those that go to dwell at Nauset [Eastham], all that tract of land lying between sea and sea, from the purchasers’ bounds at Namskaket to the herring brook at Billingsgate, with the said herring brook, and all the meadows on both sides of said brook, with great bass pond there and all the meadows and islands within the said tract. Nathaniel Morton, Secretary of the Court.” 

Over the objections of those who advocated for a unified church, seven families led by Thomas Prence, a leader in the church and community, removed to the Nauset territory in 1645. Prence was joined by the families of John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josias Cooke, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs, who were lured by the promise of larger tracts of land and better farming opportunity.[https://easthamthefirstencounter.org/from-nauset-to-eastham/]

The children of Jonathan Sparrow and Rebecca Bangs included:

Rebecca, born 30 Oct 1655 [my 6th GGM], who married Deacon Thomas Freeman [my 6th GGF]

John, born 2 Nov. 1656, who married Apphia Tracey

Priscilla, born 13 Feb 1658, who married Edward Gray son of John[6]

Lydia, born circa 1662, who married William Freeman and Johnathan Higgins

Elizabeth, born 1663, who married Samuel Freeman Jr[6]

Jonathan Jr, born 9 July 1665, who married Rebecca Merrick and Sarah Young

Just a bit more about husband Jonathan, because that gives us a picture of his wife- 

According to these sources, Jonathan was

listed among the legal voters at Eastham on May 22, 1655;

a Constable in 1656;

admitted and sworn a Freeman in June, 1663

engaged as Eastham's School Master in 1665

an attorney for some townsmen in a lawsuit;

a Deacon of the local Congregational (Puritan) Church

Jonathan was also an officer in the Eastham militia in "King Philip's War" (1675). On December 19, 1675, he was first lieutenant of Captain John Gorham's company under Major William Bradford at Naragansett. He held the rank of Captain in 1691, when he was designated as a Representative to the Massachusetts General Court at Boston.

So sad to see that Rebecca died 19 Oct 1677, age 41 in Eastham when her youngest is only twelve.  :(

--------------

Some great sources exist:

The Mayflower Descendant (MD), Volume 14 [Jan 1912] The Heirs of Captain Jonathan Sparrow-

https://books.google.com/books?id=BrpBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false

MD says "It is extremely unfortunate that the Brewster Genealogy [New York, 1908] has made so many serious errors, on page 22, in giving the children of Hannah Prence by her two husbands, Nathaniel [2] Mayo and Capt Jonathan[2] Sparrow. Three of the five Sparrow children there assigned to Hannah were not her her children. They were the children of Rebecca (Bangs) Sparrow, and were not descendants of Elder William Brewster." [proven by a deed from the Sparrow heirs]

Other sources:

Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015, which states:

SPARO, Jonathan (?1633-1707) & 1/wf Rebecca BANGS (living 1665); 28 Oct 1654, 26 Oct 1654; Eastham {Barnstable Co. Prob. 4:90, 99; Reg. 7:280, 8:Chart, 9:314, 21:212; Pope's Pioneers 31; TAG 17:95; Bangs 20; Bassett-Preston 20, 112, 115, 265; Tracy (1936) 26; MD 5:123, 14:2, 193, 197, 5:123, 17:70; Munsey-Hopkins 58; Dawes-Gates 2:67; Sv. 1:111; Winthrop-Babcock 453; Brewster 23; Crocker (1923) 60; Young (1923) 11; Foster 554; Warner-Harrington 35, 38; Linnell-Snow 50, 52, 53 https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/rd/21175/1418/426904798

Richard Sparrow's Will by George Ernest Bowman, published in Volume 12, page 57-58 of 'The Mayflower descendant : a quarterly magazine of Pilgrim genealogy and history; Published: Boston : Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1899- https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076382694&view=plaintext&seq=73

V.5, p.23/264884879 Eastham-Orleans Vital Records found in Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016), published in Volume 23, page 204 of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, which states Jonathan Sparo and Rebeca bangs maryed October 28 : 1654- https://www.americanancestors.org/DB190/rd/14498/MD

Births, marriages, deaths, land grants 1649-1722  Eastham, Orleans
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L979-9XN8?i=23

Genealogical notes of Cape Cod families SOU-SWE
https://archive.org/details/genealogicalnote45brow/page/n33/mode/2up

Smith Jr., Leonard H. & Norma H. Smith. Vital Records of the Towns of Eastham and Orleans: An authorized facsimile reproduction of records published serially 1901-1935 in The Mayflower Descendant, With an added index of persons, published online by Ancestry.com, The Generations Network, Inc., Provo, UT, 2007. Original publisher: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1993