11th

John & Frances Partridge b. 1578

/ Kirstin Miller

John and Frances Partridge 11th great grandparents on RootsMagic tree.

John Partridge was born in 1578 in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England. Olney is in central England, 30 miles north of London, on the River Great Ouse. John Newton, who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace, was from Olney too. The town is also famous on Pancake Day, which falls on Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, the day before Lent. On this day since 1445, in Olney there’s a pancake race. “The Olney pancake race is now world famous. Competitors have to be local housewives and they must wear an apron and a hat or scarf.”

Olney Pancake Race and Photo Author: Robin Myerscough

The Partridge family lived there in Olney. John and Frances had 2 children: William and Jane. Not much is known of their lives until 1647 the year John wrote his will. “John Partridge of Olney, laborer, now deceased, did give grant and dispose of all and singular his goods, cattle, chattels and debts unto William Geynes, Richard Kent, and Roger Tayre of Olney upon this trust that they maintain Frances Partridge, widow, the then wife of the aforesaid John, so long as she should live after his decease, and also pay the debts of the said John.”

When Frances died the remainder of their possessions was left to son William and son in law Henry Gaines husband of Jane Partridge. “The residue was to be divided between the children of William Partridge and of Henry Geynes who now or late were in New England.” This Gaines family through descendants would travel from Olney, England all the way to Iowa where Mary Gaines married James Miller in 1878 and their first grandbaby Faber Miller was born in 1905.

John died in 1647 or 48, Frances probably soon after. Both are buried at St Peter and St Paul Churchyard. Their headstones don’t survive. Newton, of Amazing Grace is in this same cemetery. The St Peter and St Paul church at the cemetery is known for its spire 185 feet high.

Sources

George Parkhurst b. 1588

/ Kirstin Miller

George Parkhurst 11th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

George Parkhurst was born in 1588 in Ipswich, England. He married Phebe Lette and they had 9 children. Their daughter Phebe was baptized, “1612 Pheby Parkhurst the daughter of George Parkhurst of the Key Parish and fo Phebe his wiffe 29 November”. This church, St Mary at the Quay (Key), is Quay Place now, their website has a timeline featuring George and Phebe Leete Parkhurst’s 1610 marriage, about 30 years after Queen Elizabeth’s 2nd visit to the church. In 1948 the church was officially closed, then remodeled and reopened as Quay Place. Quay Place has a Facebook page with photos of the remodel. https://quayplace.co.uk/quay-place-history/quay-place-history-timeline/.

George was mentioned in his dad’s will of 1610. “The will of John Parkhurst of the parish of Saynte Marye Keye in the town of Ipswich co. Suffolk, clothier 29 Mar 1610. To son George Parkhurst all shopstuff, all my implements of trade as a shearman, all my books of what title and print, and all the rest of my goods and stock, movables and immovables.”

Watertown mapBy 1642 George had left Ipswich, England and was in Massachusetts. He was a freeman on May 10 1643 in Boston. George’s first wife Phebe could have arrived with him or could have died in England, it’s unknown. George remarried in Massachusetts and he and 2nd wife had a few more children. His 2nd wife was Elizabeth the widow of John Simson. Both George and John were original English land owners in Watertown. On the map of Watertown, they’re neighbors, No. 12 right in between Strawberry Hill and the Meeting House. George has land at the top right too, No 16 above Sherman’s Pond

On June 13, 1655 George sold his last piece of land in America land, his 2nd wife and younger children were back in England, George joined them. George died and was buried June 18, 1675. He was buried at St Lawrence Church about 1 mile from St Mary at the Quay church. St Lawrence Church built in is also still there and now a restaurant, public center. Ipswich has lots of medieval churches.

Sources

William Holdridge b. 1610

/ Kirstin Miller

William Holdridge 11th great grandpa on RootsMagic tree

William Holdred or Holdridge was born in London, England in 1610. In 1635 he sailed on the Elizabeth to America. He lived in Ipswich until 1640 when he married Isabelle, last name unknown, and they moved to Salisbury, Massachusetts. He was in Haverhill, MA in 1650, and Exeter, New Hampshire by 1671. William was a tanner, he turned animal skins into leather. He was also a planter, landowner, farmer. He and Isabelle had 9 children. His life story is big with lots of movement, land deeds, purchases and sales, appearances in court for different reasons some good some not so good.

  • 1635 Wm Holdred age 25, a tanner


Most fascinating is his parish in London, St Alphage, built in the 1100s. The parish was built right on the London Wall, a defensive wall built by Romans between 190 and 225 in Roman Britain. Through the centuries St Alphage changed names, was built up and torn down, damaged in WW1 and WW2 and now the remaining ruins are in between two modern concrete, steel and glass office buildings. In 2018 the ruins were opened to the public with new garden areas and walkways: St Alphage Garden.

  • St Alphage Garden

Sources

Joan Hurst b. 1568

/ Kirstin Miller

Joan Hurst 11th great grandma on RootsMagic tree.

Joan Hurst was baptized March 13, 1568 at St Mary’s Parish in Henlow, Bedfordshire, England. Her first husband was Thomas Rogers who died around 1595. Her 2nd husband was John Tilley. They married September 20, 1596 in the same St Mary’s Parish. They had 5 children, Elizabeth Tilley was the youngest she was baptized in the same church as her mom. In 1620 Joan 52, John 48 and Elizabeth 13 were on the Mayflower and in America by November. Joan’s husband John was in the exploring party on December 6 noted for the first contact with American Indians. By January 1621 the exploring parties found a location to set up their colony, an abandoned Wampanoag village. The men built shelters, with each man responsible for his own family, ‘by that course men would make more haste than working in common’. In February this group had homes, food and water sources and supplies unpacked form the Mayflower.

Tilley, John 1620 Mayflower exploring party

1620 Mayflower exploring party

By March the number of passengers and crew, was down from 102 to 47 souls. In Bradford’s History. “Of these hundred persons which came first over in this first ship together, the greater half died in the general mortality, and most of them in two or three months’ time.”

Joan Hurst, her husband John Tilley, John’s brother Edward Tilley and Ann, his wife, they died the first winter and were buried in Coles Hill Burial Ground. Joan and John’s daughter Elizabeth was left an orphan and eventually married another passenger John Howland. Elizabeth and John had 10 kids who all survived so today this couple has more than 2 million Mayflower diverse descendants. I’m working on getting this Mayflower connection officially verified, the 400th anniversary was November 2020, greatly hampered by the global pandemic.

Sources

Thomas Barnes b. 1602

/ Kirstin Miller

Thomas Barnes 11th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

Thomas was born about 1602 in England and was living in Hingham, Massachusetts by 1637 when he and his (probable) brother Peter were on a handwritten list, First Settlers, of Hingham. About 1643 Thomas married Anna her last name is unknown. Thomas was a weaver and farmer. He was a freeman in 1645.

Barnes, Thomas headstone

Thomas Barnes d. 1672

His will was written April 29, 1671. He named his wife and children and his inventory included books, blankets, a cedar chest, yards of cloth, cotton and woolen yarn, 5 painted earthen ware dishes, weaving and farming supplies, livestock, bushels of produce, lots of land.

Thomas died in 1672 and is buried in Hingham Cemetery. The cemetery was founded in 1672 Thomas’s headstone was the first, this is noted on FindAGrave. The headstone is original but doesn’t mark his burial place. It was placed with others in a circle around the Founders Monument. The cemetery is right behind Old Ship Church, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meeting house in America.

The ancestry of Emily Jane Angell, 1844-1910 page 195 Barnes section

At Ancestry. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 Hingham Records of First Settlers image 2 of 81 Thomas and Peter Barnes 1637 Thomas d. Nov.29 1672

At HathiTrust.

Find a Grave memorial 51474179. Oldest original headstone in the cemetery. Headstone photos “Added by Hammer”

Old Ship Church on Wikipedia

Christiana Peake b. 1584

/ Kirstin Miller

Christiana Peake 11th great grandmother on RootsMagic tree

Christiana Peake was baptized on Feb 15 1584 in Somerset, England. Her dad was Thomas, her mother and siblings are unknown. Christiana lived in Elizabethan England with the pencil invented, the new idea that the Earth rotated around the Sun, Shakespeare’s plays, the Spanish Armada, religious turmoil and major migrations to New England.

By age 25 she married William Arnold also of Somerset. Their church was St Mary Major in Ilchester where husband William was a church warden. They had 4 children that lived to adulthood and when William’s sister Joanne and her husband William Hopkins died, Christiana and William took in the Hopkins kids and they all sailed to America in 1635. The only record of their trip is son Benedict’s note,”Memorandom my father and his family Sett Sayle from Dartmouth in Old England, the first of May, friday. Arrived In New England June 24 Ano 1635″. Christiana arrived in Massachusetts when she was 48. Her family moved to Rhode Island and were on that list: A family census of Moshassuck and Pawtuxet, for September 1, 1636. The Arnolds moved to Pawtuxet, now Cranston where they were probably the area’s biggest land owners. Both Christiana and her husband lived to their 70s, their burial place is unknown. They probably died in Kent Rhode Island going there to live with their son Stephen to escape King Philips War in Pawtuxet. Christiana lived to see her grandchildren and her children’s successes including son Benedict becoming a governor of Rhode Island.

Benedict’s note. The New England historical and genealogical register 1879 Volume 33 page 427 to 432 (England origins of this article are now considered false. The American information is good.)

Arnolds leaving King Philips War, William Hopkins giving his recollection 16 October 1678 in The early records of the town of Providence, volume 15 page 182.

The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence, Volume 1 page 158 Providence It’s Beginnings. September 1, 1636 census or list of residents.

John Smith b. 1598

/ Kirstin Miller

John Smith 11th great grandfather on RootsMagic Tree

John Smith was born in England, around 1598. In England he married Alice her last name unknown. John was in Dorchester, Massachusetts by 1634 and by 1635 he was ordered to leave because ‘dyvers dangerous opinions’. At about the same time in Salem, Massachusetts Roger Williams had the same contrary views that didn’t align with the people in power. Roger had to return to England and maybe have a trial or meeting with superiors.

screenshot
The story is Roger escaped in the night in a canoe and with 4 others they made their way to a spot, connected peacefully with the native people and founded Providence, Rhode Island. The seal of Providence shows this event. In 1636 John and the others had built their homes and begun organizing. John was a miller and given a land to build a mill. He operated the mill agreeing that every 2nd and 5th day of the week the mill was reserved to grind corn for the town. John was a town clerk in 1641 so his name is on deeds and wills and laws passed. He probably died in 1648 and his will (not yet found) leaves the mill to his son and widow. The town council OKed this as long as Alice and John Jr provided good service, as John Sr. had, they did.

The history of the state of Rhode Island and Providence volume 1 page 144

Seal of the city of Providence Rhode Island at Wikipedia 

Records of the Governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay Volume 1 page 159 John Smith banished 2 Sep 1635

John Smith banished

/ Kirstin Miller

John Smith 11th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Smith, the Miller, of Providence Rhode Island, some of his descendants by Charles Farnham page 114, image 11 of 19

Ordered, that John Smyth shalbe sent within theis 6 weekes out of this jurisdiccon, for dyvers dangerous opinions, wch hee holdeth, & hath dyvulged, if in the meane tyme he removes not himselfe out of this plantacon Jn Smith banish’t

Records of the Governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay
Volume 1 page 159

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uma.ark:/13960/t0gt5x713;view=1up;seq=183

john smith

Jeremy Adams b. 1605

/ Kirstin Miller

Jeremy Adams 11th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

Jeremy Adams was born in England, parents unknown. He sailed to America on the Griffin, maybe he was associated with Puritan minister Thomas Hooker. Jeremy married twice, both his wives were widows named Rebecca. Jeremy’s jobs included: minister, farmer, innkeeper and liquor distributor. As an official innkeeper for the Colony he was famous and his inn was the main meeting site in the area. At Jeremy’s funeral the colony paid for 3 gallons of wine.

In the early days of Connecticut Jeremy was also a scout: “On 5 April, 1638, it was ordered that six men be sent to the Warranock Indians to trade; and moreover to knoe the reasons why they saide they are affraide of us, and if they will not come to us willingly then to compell them to come by violence, and they may leave 2 of the English as pledges in the meane time. Jeremy Adams was one of the six.” 

Jeremy Adams (1605 – 1683) John Adams (1637 – 1670) Rebecca Adams (1658 – 1716) Samuel Risley (1679 – 1756) Richard Risley (1709 – 1792) Prudence Risley (1735 – 1816) Joseph Gaines (1756 – 1841) Obed Gaines (1793 – 1877) William Newcomb Gaines (1825 – 1907) Mary Ella Gaines (1855 – 1917) William Earl Miller (1879 – 1949) Faber W Miller (1905 – 1957) m. Gladys Mae Cable (1913 – 1991)

Sources: 

Job Drake b. 1622 and Mary Wolcott b. 1622

/ Kirstin Miller

Job Drake, 11th great grandfather married Mary Wolcott. Job was b. in Devon, England 1622/3. Mary was born in Tolland, England 1622/3. They both arrived at Boston in 1630 on the “Mary and John”. Job was 7, not sure who he arrived with. Mary was 8 and came with her family. [Source listed on Ancestry.com for these facts: SPEAR, BURTON W. “Passengers Aboard the Mary & John.” In The Second Boat (Pentref Press, Machias, ME), vol. 1:2 (Aug. 1980), pp. 4-8.]

It’s a coincidence they arrived in America on the same ship. Mary’s family ends up in Connecticut by 1636. Job’s family location is not known. On June 25, 1646 they marry, probably in Windsor, Connecticut. I wonder if they ever knew they arrived together in America- did people of those times talk about things like that in getting to know each other?

An even bigger coincidence is that this husband and wife die on the exact same day: September 16, 1689. Their double headstone is at FindAGrave in the Palisado Cemetery,
Windsor, Connecticut: Mrs. Marih Drake, Mr Job Drake.

Sources

U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s Place: Boston, Massachusetts; Year: 1630; Page Number: 8. Listed as source for this $ source: “Passengers Aboard the Mary & John.”  by Spear, Burton, -at Ancestry $ 

U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current, free via Ancestry. The Drakes