10th

Zachariah Rhodes b. 1603

/ Kirstin Miller

Zachariah Rhodes 10th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree.

Zachariah was born in 1603 in Lancashire, England and was in America before 1644. In Rehoboth, Massachusetts on July 3, 1644 Zachariah with others in Rehoboth signed a compact “to order the prudential affairs of the plantation”, then land lots were assigned.


The history of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, compact

Zachariah married Joanna Arnold in March 1646, they had 9 children. Zachariah didn’t stay long in Massachusetts and may have been in a Boston jail, he refused Massachusetts religious laws, “the courts have naught to do with matters of religion”. The Rhodes family followed Roger Williams to Providence, Rhode Island. In both Providence and Rehoboth, Zachariah was a commissioner, constable, treasurer, deputy and more.

Zachariah died on October 11, 1665, “drowned on the Pawtucket shore”. He was 64 years old. He wrote his will April 28, 1662. Zachariah named widow Joanna as overseer of the estate, left lands and money to his children and gave Joanna permission to change the will if needed, “if any Shall Marry or Match themselves with any Contrarey to ye Mind of their Mother or of my two friends my will is then that it shall be in their Mothers liberty what to give them, whether anything or No”.

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Sarah Whipple b. 1642

/ Kirstin Miller

Sarah Whipple 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Sarah Whipple was born on February 6, 1642 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Her parents were John Whipple and Sarah, new to America in the 1630s. Sarah had 10 brothers and sisters. By 1658 the Whipple family was in Providence, Rhode Island where Roger Williams had set up a community.

John Whipple will in The early records of the town of Providence

In Providence Sarah married John Smith, known as John Smith (Miller), because he owned the town mill and there were a 2 John Smiths in the area, the other a mason. Sarah and John had 10 children. Two children, Sarah Smith m. Richard Clemence and Joseph Smith m. Lydia Gardiner, are 7th great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy. In that small community the families were linked together through generations. Sarah Whipple’s sister Mary Whipple m. Epenetus Olney also 7th great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy.

Sarah and family lived through King Philips War. “March 30, 1676, Providence was attacked … citizens had removed to Newport … leaving only 27 men to defend the town … the Indians burned houses, the mill, the tannery, and the miller’s house on Moshassuck river. John Smith [Jr] town clerk … the records were in his possession [and] thrown from his burning house into the millpond to preserve them … One wonders what part Sarah could have played in saving the records.”

Sarah’s husband John died in 1681. She and her son John Jr. were overseers of the estate. In John’s will. “I bequeath to Sarah my wife halfe the mill with ye halfe of ye land”. Lots of lands in the will: ten acres on a hill and valley where the house stands, land & meadow at the west River, the meadow at the Great meadow.

Sarah is in her dad John Whipple’s will of May 8, 1682, “I Give unto my three daughters (Namely) Sarah , Mary & Abigall unto Every of them Tenn shillings”.

Around 1684 Sarah married 2nd husband Richard Arnold, also a widow. Richard’s will of 1710 mentions Sarah too. “I Richard Arnold of Providence … Considering the uncertainty of this life, & not knowing how soone it may please God to take me out of this world … my last will … First I give to Sarah my wife for the Terme of her naturall life my two lotts in the Towne with the orchard & house upon them & also my meadow at the West River”. Sarah probably died a few years after 2nd husband Richard and at her death she had at least 20 grandchildren.

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Deborah Bell b. 1650

/ Kirstin Miller

Deborah Bell 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Deborah Bell was born on November 29, 1650 in Boston. Her dad and mom were Thomas and Anna Bell who migrated from England separately, met then married in Boston around 1640. Thomas Bell was one of Boston’s public executioners. Deborah had 7 siblings: John, Joan, Tabitha, Thomas, Hopestill, Moremercy and Joseph.

1670 Stonington census

Deborah married James York on January 19, 1669, probably in Boston. They moved to New London, Connecticut where they were on the 1670 census with 42 other families. Deborah’s brother Thomas Bell and James’s dad James York Sr. were on the census too. They founded a church, The First Congregational Church of Stonington, James Noyes the first pastor is on that same 1670 census. The church is still there today, organized in 1674 it was rebuilt after a fire in 1829. On June 16, 1678 Goodwife York was admitted to the church.

In New London, Deborah and James had 7 children. Deborah was widow in 1676 at age 26. She married Henry Elliot and they had 5 more children. Deborah and Henry Elliot’s marriage is recorded in a diary of the time, “… It was in the 5 day of March 78-79 mrs bruster was buried the 12 day father avery was buried: Henry Eliot was here to be maried Curtice brought the wine,.”

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Prudence Heath b. 1597

/ Kirstin Miller

Prudence Heath 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Prudence was born in Ware, Hertfordshire, England and baptized there on November 6, 1597. Her parents were William and Agnes Cheney Heath. The town of Ware is 30 miles north of London, it’s as old as the Roman Empire from 55 B.C. The Heath family’s church was St Mary’s Parish, still there today.

In 1622 Prudence married Edward Morris, he was also from Ware. They were married in London, on Friday, October 25 at St Mary Mounthaw a parish church “in Old Fish Street Hill”. This church was destroyed in The Great Fire, started in a London bakery on September 2, 1666 and spread fast through the city. Mayor, Sir Thomas Bloodworth ignored the fire or didn’t realize the seriousness and by the time he acted it was a firestorm that lasted 5 days, destroyed one third of London and left 100,000 without homes. “The social and economic problems created by the disaster were overwhelming”. Even though the church burned, and was never rebuilt, a register record with Prudence and Edward’s marriage of 1622 survives.

Marriage in London 1622

Prudence and Edward had 4 children, all born in Ware, all left for America. Prudence and Edward both died in their 30s, Edward in 1631, Prudence in 1632. Around this time Prudence’s bothers William and Issac left for America and Prudence’s kids did too. Daughter Elizabeth migrated in 1635, she was 11 and was a servant to George Giddings. Son Isaac migrated the same year, he was with the Ruggles family and age 9. Youngest son Edward Morris (7th great grandpa of Elizabeth Speedy) stayed in Ware until 1651 then left for America to join his family there.

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Mary Hopkins b. 1623

/ Kirstin Miller

Mary Hopkins 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Mary was born in 1623 in England, the daughter of William and Mary Andrews Hopkins.

The Hopkins family were in America by June, 1640 and in Cupheag (now Stratford) Connecticut where Mary’s dad surveyed and divided up land. “Mr. Roger Ludlow, Mr. William Hopkins and Mr. Adam Blakeman shall survey and divyde and sett out the bounds betwixt the Plantations of Cupheag.” The Hopkins family later moved to Hartford, Connecticut. In Hartford, Mary’s dad died around 1643 and her mom married Richard Whitehead.

Mary -by her married name Lewis- was in her step dad’s will. She inherited money and lands in England that were probably in her mom’s family and provided rent income. “… due and owing unto my daughter in law Mary Lewes the sum of one hundred pounds … and the gift and delivery of several goods and chattels … unto the said Mary Lewes, and her heirs forever, my message or tenement, with the backside, orchard and garden and all edifices and buildings upon the same built and standing, lying in Knoll in the county of Warwick in the kingdom of England.”

Hartford 1640 land lots

Mary married William Lewis in 1644 and they had 10 children: 7 sons, 3 daughters. William Lewis was an only child so would have inherited his dad’s home in Hartford. CT. On the map the Lewis family is No. 25 at the top. They lived right by the meeting house, market and jail in the center of town and on the landing of the Big River, or Connecticut River. The oldest Lewis daughter Mary, leads to Obed Gaines and family who were in Bremer County, Iowa by 1855. Mary Hopkins Lewis died at age 46, William remarried and lived a few years longer. Mary’s burial place is unknown.

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Jane Partridge b. 1612

/ Kirstin Miller

Jane Partridge 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Jane Partridge was born around 1612 in Olney, England, one of 2 children of John and Frances Partridge. Jane married Henry Gaines, also of Olney, England. By 1638 Jane, Henry and their 3 sons John, Daniel and Samuel, were in Salem, Massachusetts. The family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts where they lived on the Nahant Bay. In their times there was a small stream called Gaines Neck. Their home was near a salt marsh so they probably ‘fished’ for shrimp, mollusks, and hunted all kinds of game birds that no longer exist. Their south east view was Egg Rock a tiny island. Today Egg Rock is a bird sanctuary, it had a lighthouse for awhile.

Egg Rock, Nahant

Both Jane and Henry died fairly young, in their 30s. Jane’s will survives and shows an inventory of possessions and apprenticeships for each of her sons. John age 13 was apprenticed for seven years to Francis Dowse a shoemaker. Daniel age 11 was apprenticed for eight years to Luke Potter, a tailor in Concord. Samuel age 7 was apprenticed to Nathaniel Hanforth “who was to educate him”. Nathaniel Hanforth was also asked to oversee the money left to each of the boys and improve it if possible.

The inventory showed possessions of the family. A house and a parcel lot including upland, 8 acres of salt marsh. Several bushels of Indian corn, a featherbed, plows, blankets, clothing, one trunk, a straw hat, ten handkerchiefs, four pewter dishes, one kettle, a handsaw, a sword, a pitchfork, 3 spoons, an earthen ware pot, flax and hemp, 2 bibles, a parcel of books.

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John Jones b. 1594

/ Kirstin Miller

John Jones 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

John Jones was born in 1594, in England. A minster, on December 19, 1613 he was ordained as Deacon of Peterboro and by 1619 he was the minster at Abbot’s Ripton in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1630 the courts removed John for not following rites and rituals of the Church of England. In 1635 John and family left England for America. They sailed with another minister Peter Bulkeley- also a Miller ancestor, John and Peter’s children married in Connecticut in 1640.Jones, John suspended

Jones and BulkeleyOn 6 April 1637 the church of Concord ‘kept a day of humiliation, chose Mr Bulkeley teacher and Mr. Jones pastor’. In August 1637 John and other minsters held an Ecclesiastical Council- they worked on their new religion: beliefs, requirements, practices in the new world. In 1644 another council was held and this time Peter Bulkeley and John Jones split- they couldn’t agree so John Jones and family left Concord and went to Fairfield Connecticut where John was the 1st pastor of the Congregational Church of Fairfield. John and Peter’s kids were married by this time, Peter’s son Thomas, married to Sarah Jones, Thomas and Sarah Jones Bulkeley went with John, to Fairfield.

John Jones as minister in Fairfield is shown in a book, Prime Ancient Society of Fairfield, Connecticut, summarized: ‘It is Lord’s Day. Sabbath hush pervades the air. At nine o’clock the drum summons the people, the meeting-house is a plain low structure, as people enter the men go to one side women go to the other. The children are put under the care of the tithing-man. Mr. Jones begins the service with a long prayer, then a longer sermon, a short prayer and the benediction. A brief intermission at noon then the afternoon service. At close of service people walked home and devoted their hours to the reading of the Bible and religious conversation in the family. The minister was expected to be vigilant, observant, energetic in respect to the innumerable details of town affairs. He had a sort of censorship in respect to matters of public import. His influences were far reaching’.

John Jones died and was buried in 1664. His burial place is in Old Burying Ground Cemetery in Fairfield, CT, about 10 miles north of the Long Island sound. His original headstone is long gone, there’s a monument added in recent times.

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Humphrey Wise b. 1591

/ Kirstin Miller

Humphrey Wise 10th great grandpa on RootsMagic

Humphrey Wise or Wythe was born in 1591 in England. His dad Benjamin died in 1601 and “with his mother Humphrey was an infant co-executor of the will of his father, he received land in Harkstead and Erwartoon”. On April 8, 1616 Humphrey married Susan Pakeman, they had eight daughters and 2 sons. Humphrey lived in Suffolk County, near the River Orwell, on the eastern edge of England on the North Sea. Humphrey has records in Ewarton, Harkstead, Holbrook, Nacton and Woolvertsone, villages, all within 10 miles of each other in ipswich, England. Humphrey was a mariner, sailor.

The Wise family, parents and kids sailed to America in 1636. Humphrey and Susan were in their 40s. They settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts where Humphrey received a one acre “house lott and south side of Hartbreake Hill and a farm one hundred acres on the South side of a creek called the Labour in Vayne”. Heartbreak Hill has a legend involving a sailor and an Indian Maiden at Historic Ipswich.

Humphrey died in 1638, his burial place isn’t known and he didn’t leave a will. His widow remarried and her new husband Samuel Greenfield took control of the estate. the Court got involved.

In Boston January 13 1638/9. “Humfry Wise of Ipswich, died intestate, and Samuel Greenfeild late of Salem married his widow and took into his possession the lands and goods of the said Humfry, without legal order. The Court held at Ipswich 26 : 1 : 1639, caused them to deliver an inventory of the estate which amounted to about 140 pounds Wise left a wife and five children, Beniamyn, Joseph, Em., Sarah and Ann, besides some that were married and had received their portions. Samuel Greenfeild was appointed administrator, and with his consent the Court sold the house, and house lot of an acre & a planting lot of six acres with the appurtenances to William ffellowes for 20 pounds, also the farm of about 120 acres to Thomas Emerson for four score pounds, and such other sales of cattle & goods that the said Samuel had made the Court allowed. The money was given to Samuel Greenfeild, he giving bond for 120 pounds to bring up the five children, until the sons were twenty one years, and the daughters eighteen, at which time each to receive a certain portion of the estate”.

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Mary Barnard b. 1609

/ Kirstin Miller

Mary Barnard 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Mary was born September 1609 in Nottinghamshire, England. Mary was a ladies maid to an acquaintance of Roger Williams. Mary and Roger married December 15, 1629 in High Laver, Essex England at All Saint Parish, still there. Their marriage record, “is recorded in the parish register of High Lever, Co. Essex, as follows: 1629 Roger Williams and Mary Barnard were married the 15th day of Decern: anno dom 1629”.

Williams Roger, Mary Barnard children screenshot

Mary and Roger Williams, children

Mary and Roger left England in December of 1631. They had 6 kids, all born in America: Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel and Joseph. Mary and family were living in Salem where Roger was a minister until he was banished, asked to leave. He had issues with the church, was a friend to the Indians, critical of the colonies taking land with no payment, Roger and family had to leave the area. With a small group Roger founded Rhode Island in 1636. A census on September 1, 1636 shows 25 people including Mary and her family.  John Winthrop, governor of Plymouth visited Providence and left a gold coin with Mary during his visit, “Governor Winslow, of Plymouth. The guest was touched by the hardship and poverty which his old friends were enduring, and at his departure put into the hands of Mrs. Williams a piece of gold for her relief. Williams acknowledges with respect and gratitude the welcome gift”.

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Elizabeth b. 1614

/ Kirstin Miller

Elizabeth 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Elizabeth was born in about 1614, her last name isn’t known. In 1630 she married Thomas Judd. The birth and marriage places of Elizabeth and Thomas aren’t known. The Judds were part of the 1620-1640 ’Great Migration’ documented by genealogist Robert Charles Anderson, he’s written volumes. Elizabeth and family left England for America in 1634, this is shown in a land grant in Cambridge on August 4, 1634, “lots granted in Westend, To Tho: Judd 4 Ackrs”. Elizabeth and family stayed in the Massachusetts colony for awhile, then with Reverend Thomas Hooker, left to start a new settlement in the Connecticut Colony, fort called New Towne then called Hartford. Elizabeth and Thomas had 9 children, 3 daughters and 6 sons. Two daughters married Loomis brothers. two sons and one daughter married a Steele sibling, one son married Mary Howkins. One son, Benjamin married Mary Lewis, their 7th great grandson was Faber Miller.

1636 Hartford map

At Kenyon Street AngelFire website, an annotated map.

The single available record with Elizabeth’s name is Dr John Winthrop’s medical notebook, “8 July 1669, John Winthrop Jr. treated -Jud Elis[abeth] above 60 years wife of [blank] Jud Senior of Farmington-“. Elizabeth lived until about 1678. Her burial place is unknown.

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