#52Ancestors Start (Week 1)

Richard Sears (1610-1676) is my "start" for the #52ancestors challenge.  He is my 7th Great-Grandfather and was probably born in England and shows up in Marblehead, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633 - maybe he was a fisherman who came over on one of those early boats and decided this was the place for him.  From Samuel P May's book we read: "The name of Richard Seer is first found upon the records of Plymouth Colony, in the tax-list of March 25, 1633, when he was one of fourty-four, in a list of eighty-six persons, who were assessed nine shillings in corn, at six shillings per bushel, upon one poll.  His name is not in tax list of 1634 or in list of freemen 1633."

He soon after crossed over to Marblehead, in Massachusetts Colony, where Richard Seers was taxed as a resident in the Salem rate-list for January 1, 1637-8, and on October 14, 1638, was granted four acres of land "where he had formerly planted." [This would seem to indicate that he had then some family.]

What his reasons were for removing can now only be conjectured.  It has been suggested that he sympathized with Roger Williams and followed him in his removal, but this is improbable.  It may be that he wished to be near friends, former townsmen, or perhaps relatives.

Antony Thacher, and his wife who was sister to Richard Sares wife, was then living in Marblehead, and this fact probably influenced his removal to that place

The early settlers of Marblehead were many of them from the channel islands, Guernsey and Jersey, and in these places the family of Sarres has been established for several centuries, and is still represented in Guernsey under the names of Sarres and Serres.

He took up residence on Quivet Neck between Quivet and Sesuit creeks [in what became East precinct of Yarmouth now Dennis], where in September of the same year their daughter Deborah was born, perhaps the second white child, and the first girl born in Yarmouth; Zachary Rider being supposed to have been the first boy.

In 1643, the name of Richard Seeres is in the list of those between the age of 16 and 60 able to bear arms. (In Williamsburg we learned that the requirements were, male, able bodied and with at least two teeth, one top and one bottom to pull the cap off the powder horn)

Oct 26, 1647, the commissioners on Indian affairs were appointed to meet at the house of Richard Sares at Yarmouth, when he entered a complaint against Nepoytam Sachumus, and Felix, Indians.

I have recorded over 22,000 of Richard's grand-kids in my Ancestry tree and have been researching the Sears Family since 1976.  One of those grand-kids was Honorable David Sears, of Boston, who commissioned a Sears genealogy ( https://archive.org/details/descendantsofric00mays) and that's where I picked up the ball.  The first comprehensive Sears genealogy came out  in 1890 and I published the updated Sears Genealogical Catalogue in 1992.  You  can see the Catalogue here-    https://archive.org/stream/searsgenealogica00sear#page/n3/mode/2up

I hope you will also participate in #52ancestors!   Ray Sears     LRSears@gmail.com