#52 Ancestors - Elizabeth Chipman (1647 - ~1712 )

 Week # 7  - Elizabeth Chipman (1647 - ~1712 )

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

This is probably the most consistent blog I have done, ever!  I am on week #7 of #52ancestors as I study our ancestors who were children of migrants from England during the period 1620-1640; also known as the Puritan Great Migration (PGM).  During this period, 20,000 people migrated to English colonies in America.  Another 20,000 migrated to West Indies, a third 20,000 to the Netherlands and wrapping up the 80,000 PGM migrants are the 20,000 who went to Ireland. Elizabeth Chipman's parents were John Chipman (1621-1708) and Hope Howland.[1]  Hope's father, John Howland, was a Mayflower passenger. John's wife was born in Plymouth Colony. John is evidently from Dorset on the south-central coast of England, not far from Southampton.

Elizabeth was born 24 Jun 1648 [2] in Plymouth, the oldest of 12 children. Elizabeth was christened in the old Barnstable church on 18 Aug 1650, probably the West Parish of Barnstable on Meetinghouse Way.  That church still exists and was erected in 1717, now one of the oldest church buildings in the US.  We lived not far from this church for a number of years.  Odd to think that my 6th Great-grandma was baptized at that site nearly 400 years ago.[3]  

Elizabeth was married in Yarmouth on Cape Cod about 1671 at age 23 to Hosea Joyce. She was his second wife. There is a nice profile based on her mother, Hope Howland, at Wikitree and Hope is buried at Lothrop Hill Cemetery about 4 miles east of the church.

Elizabeth died after 24 Jan 1712 when she was named in her husband's will.[4]  Elizabeth is also mentioned in her father's will- 15 Feb 1712 [5]  A beautifully transcribed will "Laſt Will and Teſtament of Elder John Chipman of Sandwich in ye County of Barnſtable in ye Province of the Maſsachuſetts Bay in New England.  I John Chipman being senſible of the uncertainty of this present life and being Desirous to ſett things in order...

..

It. I Will and bequeath to my Daughters Elizabeth Hope Lydia Hanah Ruth Merry Bethiah and Deſire; the hole of my movable estate in Sandwich and Barnstable ... to be equally divided [Btween] my sd eight daughters...

We are very fortunate that when the Barnstable county courthouse burned in 1827 that the probate records were saved. Most of the deeds were lost but many deeds were re-registered in the following years so that land sales could proceed.  Probate would probably never have been re-created.  There are still old wills in our families' personal records but nothing to compare with this wealth of nearly 400 years of the life of Cape Codders. We get a very good look at our ancestors through these wills.

In her husband, Hosea Joyce's will, 26 Feb 1712, he gives Elizabeth part of his dwelling house (to live in with her son Samuel) as well as furniture and livestock. His sons were directed to pay his wife £10 yearly.  Hmm, at 20 shillings per £ ~= 200 shillings a year, that's 4 shillings a week?  In London at the time, a 4-lb loaf of bread was 5 pence or about half a shilling. Beef cost 1 s. 6d. a pound.  Cheese was 3 s. 6d. per pound. A dozen mackerel cost 12 shillings.  So the loaf of bread, pound of beef and quarter pound of cheese would exhaust her allowance for a week.  A laborer made about 15 s. per day in that era.  Son Thomas (our 5th great-grandfather) is bequeathed his mother's portion of the house when she dies.  She didn't have to pay rent and I guess she could pool her 4 shillings a week with the family and garden to subsist.  There was no concept of "retirement" in 1712 so you can imagine Grandma Elizabeth was busy in her garden and raising 9 children throughout her 65 years.  She was the mother of John (1668), Dorcas (1674), Samuel (1676), Thomas (1678)[our 5th great-grandfather], Mehitable (1679), Mary (1680, Hosea (1682), Lydia (1684), and Dorothy (1690) who all lived to adulthood, and have a legacy of 35 grandchildren.

[1] Link to Elizabeth Chipman https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Chipman-56

[2] John Howland Mayflower book https://archive.org/details/johnhowlandofmay03whit/page/37/mode/1up

[3] Scituate and Barnstable Church Records, reprinted in Mayflower Source Records. Baltimore: New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1986), rv. 2007, p. 600.

[4] Barnstable Co Prob 3:346-50 Hosea Joyce.

[5] MD 3:181-84 and Barnstable Co Prob 3:228-31 https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9YB-53DC