#52 Ancestors - William Green

 Week # 12 - William Greene ( 22 Aug 1651 - 1732)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

Continuing my quest to study our ancestors who were children of migrants in the Great Migration (1620-1640) we find William Greene- born 22 Aug 1651 in Woburn, Middlesex county, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  While not exactly "Cape Cod Folks" I cannot ignore the contribution of this 8th great-grandfather to our heritage.  

He was the son of William Green and Hannah Carter who arrived in Charlestown about 1640 - From Wm Senior's wiktree profile [1] "In December of 1640, the elder William [Sr] was one of the original subscribers to "town orders" for the founding of Woburn (incorporated in 1642). These original founders were exempt from taxes for the first two years, so the first year we find William paying taxes is 1645. Little is known about William's life in Woburn; after his death, testimony was given concerning certain lands allotted to him."

William Greene [Jr] married about 1674 Mary Felch He married about 1677 Hannah Kendall. We are descended from his second wife.  "Because his parents died when he was young, he is said to have been raised by his Carter uncles (mother's brothers-possibly Uncle Samuel Carter). He received £38 from his father’s estate in 1670." [2]

William [Jr] and 2d wife, Hannah Kendall (1655-1719), daughter of Francis Kendall and Mary Tidd "had 12 children: Francis (1678-1759); Ebenezer; Mehitable; Hannah; Mary; Samuel; Jacob; Joseph; Thomas; Benjamin (1698-1753)(our 7th Great grandfather); John; and Abigail. Birth records of their children show they remained in Woburn for the majority of their life. In 1676 he was drafted to help in the efforts against the Narragansett in King Philips War [member of the Woburn Garrison]. William died after 1726 in Mendon, Massachusetts. Hannah may have moved to Mendon, Massachusetts, or stayed in Woburn and she is said to have died in 1719."

From Holman's work- "William Green became a cordwainer, or shoemaker."  He moved to Mendon where he "became a proprietor and his rights in land were divided off to him, year by year."  

His death should be at least 1726 and most likely in Mendon- the primary source, Holman, on page 106 says "William Green, of Mendon, deeds land there to his daughter Hannah and her husband, Thomas Beard in 1720; and in 1726 Green gave more land to his grandson, Thomas Beard (Worcester Deeds, 26:592)." There is even another deed on 25 May 1732 which is likely this William [Jr].

[1]https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Green-1445

[2]https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Greene-2280 This wikitree page has some great sources

[3]Mary Lovering Holman, Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his Wife Frances Helen Miller, 2 vols., (Concord, N.H.: privately printed at the Rumford Press, 1948–1953) Pages: 101-107 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067408831&view=2up&seq=127

#52 Ancestors - John Rider

 Week # 11 - John Rider ( < 4 Dec 1636 - ~5 Jan 17095)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

John Rider is the son of immigrants Samuel Rider and Anne Gamlett.  He was born in England and we find Samuel and family in Yarmouth, Plymouth Colony by 1639.  Samuel was called Lieutenant in the Plymouth Colony Records [1] in a discussion about the Counsell of Warr. On 10 October 1643, "It is ordered by the [Plymouth Colony] Court, that if the townesmen of Yarmouth cannot psently agree tp appoynt a place for defence of themselves, their wiues, and children, in case of a suddaine assault, that then the Court doth order and appount Leiftennant Willm Palmer, Anthony Thacher, Nicholas Symkins, and Samuell Rider, wth the constable, to appoynt a place, and forthwth to cause the same to be fortyfyed wth all speede."

There is a nice profile of John Rider, our 8th great-grandfather, at Wikitree.[2]  We don't know who his wife was although you will see trees that speculate that her name was Hester. She is thought to have died at Yarmouth on 23 October 1691.[3]  The American Genealogist say "John was baptized at All Saints, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England on 4 Dec 1636. Throughout his lifetime he was known as John Rider, Sr, since he was the eldest of that name in that town.  He appears with brothers Sachariah and Joseph who took the Oath of Allegiance in 1681."  Seems like I should make a visit to All Saints to see where grandpa was baptized?

His estate was inventoried and included a pair of looms, two oxen, two cows, land, meadow & housing at £ 140 and just a few debts.[4] Total value £ 200. The inventory was sworn to by Ebenezer Ryder on 19 Feb 1706.

My cousin Isaac was still running around Yarmouth with an ox cart in the 1880s and you could probably picture John Ryder in this same spot maybe with slightly different clothing in this photo from the Dennis Historical Society archives? [5]  Isaac's ox probably trod the same cartpaths that John Rider used.

[1] https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo0102newp/page/64/mode/2up

[2] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Rider-220

[3] Martin E Hollick, "The John Riders of Yarmouth, Massachusetts" in The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005) Vol 80, p 130 http://www.americanancestors.org/databases/american-genealogist-the/image/?pageName=130&volumeId=13263&filterQuery=BROWSE

[4] Barnstable County Probate 2:236-40; also abstracted in Bowman, "Rider-Ryder Notes" MD 11(1909):54 https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/mayflower-descendant-the/image?volumeId=12336&pageName=54

[5] https://dennishistoricalsociety.catalogaccess.com/photos/7204

#52 Ancestors - Deborah Willard (1638-1721)

 Week # 10 - Deborah Willard ( < 14 Sep 1645 - 13 May 1721)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

Deborah Willard, our 6th great grandmother, is the child of a migrant to the Colonies.  I have been writing about children of migrants for 10 weeks now.  One interesting fact about Deborah is that we don't know her mother's name.  There have been speculations that mother was Dorothy Dunster but no records are showing up to prove either her given name, Dorothy, or that her father was a Dunster.  Harvard College President Henry Dunster made a reference in his 1658 will to his sister Willard of Concord. For years genealogists have puzzled over who that sister might be.

So failing our effort to know her mother's name we are pretty sure that her father was George Willard (1614-1656) who came to the colonies about 1638.  There are two sources for George's information in the Puritan Great Migration- Plymouth Colony Records [1] and Willard Genealogy by Joseph Willard and Charles Wilkes Walker [2]. Scituate plantation was composed chiefly of men from Kent with their minister John Lothrop.  We later find that same minister in Barnstable.

On page 11 of the Willard genealogy we see Baptisms in the Second Church of Scituate by the minister William Wetherell, Anno 1645 Deborah ye daughter of George Willard on Sept. 14 so we know Deborah was born before that.  Children were often baptised within a few years of their birth and often together as a family like Deborah and her brother Daniel.  "The two Willard children baptised that day were probably all that the Willard family then had."  George is later found in Maryland, "the home of real Christian liberty."

We know that Deborah moves to Barnstable county because it is there that she meets and marries our 6th Great grandfather Paul Sears (1637-1708) probably about 1658, the year before their first child is born.  If Deborah was 20 years old when she had her first child then she was probably born 1639 soon after her father arrived in Scituate. She would have been just a year younger than her husband Paul.  Deborah and Paul live in the east precinct of Yarmouth at what is now East Dennis.  In the map, circa 1700 below you can see a cross in the middle of the map denoting the Ancient Sears Cemetery and just a little north and east of that, the homestead of Paul Sears and Deborah Willard as imagined by Prof Jim Gould.  The land lies between Quivett Creek and what is now Route 6A, the Old King's Highway.

It is on this piece of land that Deborah [3] raised her ten children. We are descended from two of them. 

Mercy (1659), Bethiah (5th great grandmother)(1662)(wife of John Crowell who we just wrote about), Samuel (1664), Lydia (1666), Paul II (5th great grandfather)(1669), Mary (1672), Ann (1675), John (1678), Richard (1680) and Daniel (1682).  In the map we can find the homesteads of John, Daniel, Paul II, Samuel nearby so the kids were never far from home. They could stop by for a piece of Mom's clam pie just about anytime they wished?

[1] Plymouth Colony Records - 1 Feb 1638- Inhabitant of Scituate took the oath of allegience to the King. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo1.ark:/13960/t3mw31739&view=2up&seq=132

[2] Willard Genealogy - https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4446481&view=2up&seq=32

[3] Wikitree profile for Deborah Willard https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Willard-17

#52 Ancestors - Hosea Joyce (1642 - bef. 1712)

 Week # 8  - Hosea Joyce (1642 - bef. 1712)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

Hosea Joyce, our 6th great-grandfather, is my ancestor of choice for week 8 of this great challenge.  I am studying the children of those involved in the Puritan Great Migration. Hosea is the son of migrants John Joyce and Dorothy Cotchet. John Joyce is one of the first men to settle Sandwich on Cape Cod in 1637. He took the oath of fidelity and was on the list of those 16 to 60 able to bear arms in Sandwich.[1] This same year, 1643, he removed to Yarmouth, Massachusetts where he also appears on the list of men able to bear arms.  When John arrived in Yarmouth I am sure he had the good fortune of attending church with our 7th great-grandfather, Richard Sears and his family.

All able bodied free men between the ages of 16 and 60 comprised the colonial militia. Service in the militia was an obligation as a citizen and militiamen were not paid. The town militia companies would muster for training on a regular schedule. “The frequency of training varied. In the early seventeenth century it could be as frequent as once a week in Massachusetts … but decreased as time went on, to a few days throughout the year.”  A 1693 Massachusetts law specified Regimental musters "but once in Three Years.” That must have been a sight to see in Barnstable village!  I can just picture John and son Hosea lined up in the ranks practicing his Majesty's Manual Exercise, an extensive ritual of 35 steps including: Poise your firelock. Cock your lock. Present. Fire! Half-cock your firelocks. Handle your cartridge!?  

One requirement for you to be "able bodied" was to have at least one tooth on top of your jaw and one in proximity on the bottom jaw to allow you to tear the powder cartridge open during loading of your firelock.  One fellow on Yahoo says gunpowder tastes sharp and peppery, with a definite metallic flavor.

John and Dorothy had four children and Hosea was their only son.  Hosea was probably born in Sandwich about 1642 when his father is about 27 and mother, Dorothy, a little older.  

There is a great article in the The American Genealogist, 1967, which includes Hosea's will.[3] Hosea was a constable in Yarmouth in 1672 [4]. "It is said he was a man of influence and means in Yarmouth and it would seem likely that this is true."  However his will describes him as Yeoman rather than Mister. A yeoman was someone who was settled, staid, married and engaged in earning a living from the soil.[5]  A gentleman, called Master (abbr. Mr.), had the ability to live without manual toil, usually ministers, landowners or successful merchants.

Hosea is in Yarmouth at the time of his death and again, his will, written 24 Jan 1712 is preserved in the old Plymouth colony archives at the Barnstable courthouse.[6]  Hosea's first wife, Martha dies when their first child is only 3 years old.  Hosea marries second, Elizabeth Chipman (subject of last week's profile), and they have ten more children. You might recognize the name Chipman as Elizabeth is the oldest of eleven children of John and Hope (Howland) Chipman.  Elizabeth is granddaughter of Mayflower passengers, John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley.  As mentioned last week, when Hosea dies he requires his sons to pay their mother £10 yearly. Son Thomas is our 5th great-grandfather and his contribution to his mother's allowance is only 30 shillings.  Thomas gets his mother's part of the house when she dies along with several small parcels of land near the house and with his brother, Samuel, the barn, barnyard and stockyard.  I hope they were good friends and able to share the homestead. 

You may wonder why the Joyce surname is not common on Cape Cod? Two of Hosea's sons died without issue.  The Joyce family name "daughters out" when the other two sons combine to have seven daughters and one son, who also dies without issue.  Hosea ends up with 58 grandchildren, 50 of them born to his six daughters. In total, 31 granddaughters and only 17 grandsons but only one with the family name, Joyce.

The vital records of Yarmouth say that "Hoseah Joyce of Yarmouth departed this life some time in February 1711."

[1]John Joyce profile https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Joyce-78

[3] Maclean W. McLean, "John Joyce of Yarmouth, Mass. (ca. 1615-1666)" TAG v.43 p. 7(1967) https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/american-genealogist-the/image?volumeId=11857&pageName=5&rId=23577549 

[4]Ply Col Recs 5:91 https://archive.org/details/recordsofcolonyo0506newp/page/n103/mode/2up

[5]Titles as Symbols of Prestige in Seventeenth-Century New England: The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 6, No. 1 (Jan., 1949), pp. 69-83 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1921860

[6]Hosea Joyce profile https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Joyce-43

#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

#52 Ancestors - #1 Jeremiah Bacon (1657-1709)

                         Week # 1  - Jeremiah Bacon (1657-1706)

An ancestor a week for 52 Weeks!   #52ancestors

This should be a fun project.  I tried to write about an ancestor each week back in 2019 but faltered about half-way through the year.  My plan in 2023 is to look at my ancestors whose parents arrived in the colonies during the Puritan Great Migration (PGM) - a twenty year time period (1620-1640). Many thousands of people arrived during that period and I would like to focus on the children of those people.

Nathaniel Bacon can be found in Wikitree at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bacon-95   He lived from about 1621 to 1672. He arrived in 1640, right at the end of the PGM time frame, in Barnstable, MA from Stratton, Rutlandshire, England. He married Hannah Mayo on 4 Dec 1642 and they had eight children.  Were Nathaniel and Hannah excited, afraid, hopeful, persistent, when they joined together in this new town?  Speaking about the project with my sisters and Mom this morning about this profile brought to light that we are talking about Bacon and Mayo!  (Maybe you had to be there?)

Since I am focusing on the generation after the migration, people typically born in the colony, I will focus here on their son, Jeremiah Bacon, my 6th grt-grandfather.  I imagine there were less than a 1,000 people in Barnstable when Jeremiah was born 8 May 1657. He is listed in The First Settlers of Barnstable, MS., The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass., 1848) Vol. 2, Page 65 with his parents and siblings.  Growing up with five older siblings and two younger must have been quite an experience.  Their house couldn't have been very large.  

Jeremiah is also listed in Otis, Amos. Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families (F.B. & F.P. Goss, Publishers and Printers, Barnstable, Mass., 1888) Vol. 1, Page 21-25.  His older sister, Hannah is listed as one of the remote members of the Barnstable church in 1683 probably living with her husband, a reverend in Taunton, Mass. "Jeremiah was a tanner [just like his father, Nathaniel]. His house was a two story building with a Leantoo on the west end, stood a little distance north-east from William Cobb's house. His tannery was in the low ground on the north-east of his house. [It is related of Jeremiah's father that, 'as there were other tanneries in town, it is probable that they worked at their trade in the winter and were employed in the cultivation of lands the remainder of the year'] I think his land was on the north side of the Old King's Highway just east of Meeting House Hill.

Jeremiah married Dec 1686, Elizabeth Howes of Yarmouth. Ten children were born to this family:

I. Sarah b. 16 Oct 1687

II. Anna b. 16 Mar 1688

III. Mercy, (my 5th grt-grandmother) b 30 Jan 1690 m. 19 Mar 1719 Thomas Joyce. On a sad note, "Mercy and Thomas,  had  a  large  family  of  girls noted  for  their  beauty,  which  however  did  not  prevent  the father  from  committing  suicide."

IV. Samuel, b. 15 Aug 1692, married thrice and called "Scussion Sam" for his noted response to queries- "We will discuss that."

V. Jeremiah Jr, b. 2 Oct 1692

VI. Joseph, b. 15 Jun 1695 m. and had seven children

VII. Ebenezer, b. 11 Mar 1698

VIII. Nathaniel, b. 11 Sep 1700

IX. Job, b. 23 Mar 1703

X. Elizabeth, b. 6 Aug 1705.

Poor Elizabeth with so many children under foot.

"Jeremiah died in 1706, aged 49, leaving a good estate which was settled Feb 15, 1713. His house lot, a part of the Dimmock farm, contained nine acres and he had thirty acres in the Common Field, adjoining the house lot on the north, lands at Stony Cove, and at Middleboro, meadows and wood land. Of the homestead two and three fourths acres were set off to son Job... This land is now (1888) owned by William Cobb. To Samuel, his eldest son, and his mother, three acres, bounded... by Job Bacon, with the barn and other buildings thereon. To Jeremiah, second son, 3 and 1-2 acres, bounded.. now the town road to the common field." Other children are mentioned in Jeremiah's will- "son Nathaniel had one third of land at Middleboro, &c.; in his portion were 1 silver spoon, 1 silver porringer, &c. [Nathaniel's] Wid. Elizabeth, and daughters Anna and Mercy had portions set to them in severalty. Sarah and Elizabeth are not named and were probably dead." 

I hope that gives just a glimmer of an ancestor and his family from long ago.  If you want to read about the smelly and lowly task of making leather, take a look at this-  https://blackstockleather.com/history-of-the-leather-tanning-industry/

Watch This Space- 52 ancestors in 52 weeks

 You may have heard about the 52 ancestors in 52 weeks program from Amy Johnson Crow- well it is back for 2023  - "For those of you who don’t know, 52 Ancestors is a way of chronicling our ancestors by writing about them in a prompt every week. Individuals do this through a blog, their website, whatever works for them and isn’t too much effort - we’re going for telling stories, not getting bogged down in how they’re told.

This year had some incredibly poignant tales, some that truly touched me, some that made me laugh, and some that even inspired me to work more on my own family history. I felt a kinship to all of you, and your ancestors as well."

Go to this page AmyJohnsonCrow.com/52ancestors and sign up for weekly prompts and monthly summaries.  Each Friday, you'll receive the theme for that week, plus suggestions for how you might approach it. If 52 is too many for you, there is also a 12 Ancestor (once a month) program.

Use the hashtag #52ancestors on social media (like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc  mine are at  https://linktr.ee/lrsears  ) if you share your work as well as get inspired by others in the project!