Surname Saturday ~ Willis of England and Massachusetts

My immigrant Willis ancestor is Michael Willis.

I recently purchased (from NEHGS) The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640, A Concise Compendium, by Robert Charles Anderson. I have many Great Migration ancestors who arrived between 1620-1635, which I listed here. Many more arrived between 1635 and 1640, and this newly-published book is a great start to finding information about these slightly later arrivals.

Immigrant Michael Willis is a superb example of one of these ancestors. The entry for him tells me that, at this time, his origins are unknown. He arrived in Massachusetts in 1637, living in Dorchester and Boston. There is also a brief list of records where he is found, including Dorchester Church Records and Suffolk County Probate files (see below).

Anderson also references the often-mentioned book for this surname: Willis records, or, Records of the Willis family of Haverhill, Portland, and Boston, 1908, by Pauline Willis. This book can be found online in several locations.

What is not noted is that Michael Willis is also found in Torrey's New England Marriages to 1700 (which can be found with a membership at AmericanAncestors.org) with two wives noted: Joan (married by 1639), and second wife Mildred (married by 1652).

He had four children with his first wife, Joan: Joseph, Experience, Temperence, and Joana, who was born in 1651.

He had five children with his second wife, Mildred: Michael (born November 1652), Adingstil, Abigail, Lydia, and Elizabeth.

The will for immigrant Michael Willis can be found online, dated 21 June 1669.

From Ancestry.com Massachusetts, Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991

"I Michael Willis of Boston in new England, this
one + twentieth day of June in the yeare of Our Lord
1669 doe make this my last will + Testament -"

He leaves his estate to his wife Mildred who is his executrix. He notes that his sons Experience and "Michaell" shall have "the free use of my shop + tooles with all the utencells thereto belonging." The will goes on to list additional bequests and additional children and at least one grandchild.

He died by October 5, 1669, when he is referred to as "the late Michael Willis."

I descend from the oldest son of his second wife, the Michael named in his will.

Mayflower Ancestor James Chilton and Daughter Mary Chilton

Yesterday, I shared a story about an ancestor who arrived on the Mayflower: John Howland is a paternal ancestor of mine. I also have maternal ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower.

My 12th great-grandfather, James Chilton, was the oldest passenger on the Mayflower, having been born about 1556, likely in Kent, England, making him about 64 during the voyage. There are records showing baptisms for ten children of James Chilton between 1586 and 1607 in Kent, however historians don't agree on his wife's name. Their youngest child was Mary Chilton, baptized at St. Peter's, Sandwich, Kent, on May 30, 1607, making her 13 years old during the trip.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

The family were Separatists and lived in Leiden, Holland, for a few years. Yet only James, his wife, and his youngest daughter, Mary, sailed on the Mayflower to the New World.

James was a signer of the "Mayflower Compact," the first governing document of the colony, which was signed aboard the ship on November 11, 1620.

It is said that Mary Chilton was the first European woman to step ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Mary Chilton's Title to Celebrity: investigated in behalf of a descendant of John Haward, minimus, by Charles Thornton Libby, published in 1926, can be found at Ancestry.com and at FamilySearch.org. The author explored various sources for the Mary Chilton story. On page 6, the author notes that the earliest form of the story was written down in 1769 by a second great-grandson of Mary Chilton:

"Mary Chilton was the first European Female that landed on the North American shore; she came over with her father and mother and other adventurers to this new settlement. One thing worthy of notice is that her curiosity of being first on the American Strand prompted her, like a young Heroine, to leap out of the Boat and wade ashore."

Mayflower Ancestor John Howland - 52 Ancestors #48

For this week's 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks writing challenge from blogger Amy Crow Johnson of No Story Too Small, the theme is Thankful. November 26 was Thanksgiving in the U.S. and genealogists think about their Mayflower ancestors at this time of year.

Four years ago, I shared the two Mayflower lines that I know of at Mayflower Passenger Ancestors.

Only as an adult did I learn the story about my ancestor John Howland falling overboard and almost being lost at sea on his trip across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower.

He was born sometime in the 1590s likely at Fenstanton, Huntington County, England, to Henry and Margaret Howland. He traveled on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Governor John Carver, who died soon after the Mayflower's arrival.

William Bradford, who became Plymouth Bay's governor and was a signer of the Mayflower Compact, kept a detailed diary, which is the only primary source account of the Mayflower voyage. It includes the following account of how stormy it was and of John Howland's miraculous rescue:

Surname Saturday ~ May of England and Boston, Massachusetts

East Sussex, England
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

My immigrant May ancestor is John May. He was born in Mayfield, Sussex (now part of East Sussex), England, about 1590.

He was captain of "The James," a ship which sailed between London and New England. Ultimately he settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by 1640. His first wife's name is unknown; she died on June 18, 1651, and is noted as "Sister Mayes" in the Roxbury Vital Records.

He had at least two sons with this first wife, John and Samuel, as they are acknowledged as arriving in New England with him.

At some point, he married a second time, because a wife is mentioned in his will, though she is not named.

His will is dated April 24, 1670. It references his house, his land (to be divided between his two sons, John and Samuel), and his carpenter's tools (which were left to his son John).

Immigrant John died on April 28, 1670, in Roxbury. I descend from both his sons down to my maternal grandfather (in three ways, as noted below).

Surname Saturday ~ Townsend of England, Massachusetts and Maine

My Townsend line is a crumbling brick wall. I am working to find additional primary source evidence confirming the following line.

Norfolk County, England
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

The immigrant Townsend ancestor appears to be Thomas Townsend. He was the third son of Henry Townsend and Margaret, baptized at Bracon-Ash, Norfolk County, England, on 8 January 1594/95.

He probably had at least two and possibly three wives.

He was in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts by 1638, when he was granted 60 acres at Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. He arrived too late to be included in the Great Migration Study Project (which goes through 1635).

He is found in various records in Lynn, serving on a jury, signing various petitions and deeding land to a couple of his sons.

Thomas Townsend married Mary (possibly Newgate) as his second or third wife but it's unclear as to who is the mother of the children:
Thomas (b. about 1636 or about 1640)
Samuel (b. 1638)
John (b. about 1644)
Elizabeth (b. about 1648)

Mary is identified as mother of youngest son Andrew, born in 1654.

(Interestingly, there is also a theory (note: only a theory, no evidence) that he might be the father of Lydia Townsend, who married Lawrence Copeland, the immigrant Copeland ancestor. See Surname Saturday ~ Copeland. And Lawrence and Lydia's first child was named Thomas.)

Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Immigrant Thomas Townsend died in Lynn on December 22, 1677. His wife, Mary, died February 28, 1692/93. I descend from his son Thomas.

This Townsend line seemed to move to a different community in every generation. Following is my Townsend line which includes a series of maps showing Thomas' descendants' westward movement within Massachusetts.

Surname Saturday ~ Henry Sewall of England and Massachusetts

Coventry, England
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

My immigrant Sewall ancestor is Henry Sewall. He was baptized at St. Michael's Church, Coventry, Warwickshire, England, on April 8, 1576. His actual birth date is unknown, but could be as much as three years earlier.

Coventry is the red area in the image at right. According to The Descendants of Henry Sewall 1576-1656, by Eben W. Graves, an invaluable source for Sewall descendants, the Sewalls were in Coventry, or at least parts of Warwickshire, for generations. What I share here is only a brief summary of the wealth of information to be found in this book, which I purchased soon after its 2007 publication by the Newbury Street Press.

In 1591, Henry Sewall entered the Drapers Company of Coventry, for a nine-year apprenticeship. According to Wikipedia, the Drapers Company was a large trading guild in Coventry. A draper is an old term for one who sells cloth and dry goods.

At some point between 1611 and 1615, Henry moved about 100 miles north from Coventry to Manchester, where he, his wife, and his infant son are listed in the Manchester parish records in the summer of 1615.

Henry's wife was Anne Hunt, who died soon after the baptism of their son, Henry, in 1615. Not much is known about her except for the record of her burial on July 1, 1615. Within a year, Henry Sewall married Ellen (Mosley) Nugent, a young widow. They had six children, all of whom died young. The Sewall family lived in or near Manchester, England, from about 1615 to about 1631. By April 1634, Henry Sewall was back in Coventry, selling property in preparation for leaving England.

Newbury, Essex Co., Mass.
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

In 1634, Henry Sr., about 58 years old, sent his son, Henry, Jr., about 20 years old, ahead to New England to "begin a plantation." Henry, the father, arrived in New England by July 1635, when he first appears in records in Essex County.

Henry Sewall was a founder of the town of Newbury, Massachusetts, (where my early Lowell ancestors lived), which was settled in 1635. He later moved to Rowley, just south of Newbury. (See a great map of Essex County here.) Henry died, intestate, in Rowley in March 1655/6. It took a couple of years for his estate to be settled.

Generation 2: Henry Sewall, the only child to survive to adulthood, was baptized at Manchester Cathedral, Lancashire, on June 25, 1615. Various records imply a birth year between 1611 and 1614. He immigrated to New England on the ship Elizabeth & Dorcas in 1634, ahead of his father and step-mother. He was sent with plenty of provisions for setting up a new home for the family.

He spent his first winter in Ipswich (two towns south of Newbury in the above map), where he had received a grant of 40 acres. He sold this land in the spring of 1635 and, along with his father, became one of the first settlers of Newbury.

Henry married Jane Dummer at Newbury, Massachusetts, on March 25, 1646. In late 1646, Henry and Jane returned to England with his in-laws, the Dummers, and lived in England until 1659, where he served as a minister at North Baddesley, Hampshire. Henry (the son) visited his father, Henry, in New England once, in 1650, when he bought several parcels of land in Newbury.

Henry and Jane had eight children, five born in England between 1649 and 1659 (Hannah, Samuel, John, Stephen, Jane), and three born in Newbury between 1662 and 1668 (Anne, Mehitable, Dorothy). After Henry returned to New England in 1659 to finish settling his father's estate, it took him a couple of years for him to decide he would stay and he finally sent for his wife and children. They arrived in July 1661.

Henry died on May 16, 1700, in Newbury, Massachusetts, and was buried in the First Parish Burying Ground there. His wife, Jane, died eight months later on January 13, 1700/01 and was also buried at First Parish Burying Ground.

I descend from their oldest son, Samuel Sewall.

Treasure Chest Thursday ~ 1898 Genealogy Correspondence

Included in the materials that my dad inherited from his mother when she died in 1983 were some letters from a distant Adsit cousin (Judge Allen C. Adsit of Grand Rapids, Michigan) to my second great aunt, Isabella (Adsit) Wheeler (1844-1916).

These letters and the following postcard show that my "Aunt Belle" was researching her family history (the Adsit line) 115 years ago!

I only have the correspondence received by my second great aunt (not what she sent). After exchanging a couple of letters in early March 1898, where her cousin shared with her the Adsit family genealogy, she received this postcard:

Mrs. Belle A. Wheeler
#400 Dearborn Avenue
Chicago, Ill.
[postmarked at Chicago, Mar 18, 8 AM]

I have succeeded in finding the
Adsit family record in England
Petworth + North Chapel, Sussex Co.
Parish Registers.
So I think the question of origin of
the family is settled.
For further particulars inquire of
Yours,
Allen C. Adsit
Grand Rapids, Mich.
3/17 '98 [1898]

Matrilineal Monday ~ Eliza May Wells

Eliza May Wells, my second great grandmother, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 20, 1839, to Thomas Goodwin Wells and Elizabeth Sewall Willis.

She spent her childhood in Merrimack and Walpole, New Hampshire, based on the fact that I find her father and family in Merrimack, Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in the 1840 U.S. Federal Census and I find the family in Walpole, Cheshire, New Hampshire, in the 1850 U.S. Federal Census.

Louisa May Alcott was a cousin who spent time with her "Wells cousins in New Hampshire."

By 1860, her family had moved to Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts and in 1866, she married, as his second wife, a first cousin of her mother, Samuel Sewall Greeley, in either Brookline or Cambridge, Massachusetts. (See their marriage record here.) See Samuel Sewall Greeley's obituary for more about him.

Eliza May (Wells) Greeley then moved to Chicago, where she gave birth to five children:
Elizabeth Sewall Greeley (1867 - 1868)
Ann Percival Greeley (1869 - 1876)
Henry Sewall Greeley (1871 - 1877)
Ethel May Greeley (1875 - 1931), my great grandmother. See a photograph of her.
Ruth Lyman Greeley (1878 - 1975), who deserves her own blog post one of these days.

She was also step-mother to three sons of Samuel and his first wife.

She applied for a passport application on September 25, 1879 in Chicago, Illinois. Her brother Benjamin W. Wells confirmed that she was who she stated she was.

Ancestry.com, U.S. Passport Applications, 1795-1925. Record for Eliza M. Greeley (1879)