Robert Hibbart and his wife Joan (Luff) of Salem, MA

Well after a brief look at the genealogical evidence for Robert Hibbart and his wife, said to be Joan Cluff, I can see I have a lot of work to do to get this one correct. One of the first things I noticed is the many spellings of the name Hibbard: Hebert, Hibbert, Hibberd, Hibird, Hibbard, Hibbart are just some of the variations of the name. In the signature above, Robert himself spells is surname Hubard. For this blog I am going to spell it Hibbart when I write about him.  If I am writing from another source I will spell it the way they did. 
I know that there are multiple Hibbart family websites and a Hibbard book but they just might have some of their info wrong. The identity of Robert's wife Joan is also under scrutiny. So, who were Robert and Joan Hibbart, let's get started.

english origins

In Sidney's History of Salem, MA he writes a Robert Heberd lived in the salt works built and owned by John Winthrop Jr., son of Governor Winthrop, in about 1638 or 1639. Sidney says Robert Heberd was about 23 years old and was born about 1615. Other than the estimated year of birth and the fact that Robert was almost certainly born in England he offers no information concerning the birthplace of Robert.
So a search of ancestry.com and other websites shows that most  believe that Robert was born in Salisbury, England, and baptized on 13 March 1613. This information comes from the book, Genealogy of the Hibbard Family who are Descendants of Robert Hibbard of Salem, MA by Augustine George Hibbard. The author states that Robert the immigrant was baptized on that date in Salisbury, but offers no reason why he believes it to be so. Well there was a Robert, son of John, who was baptized on that date, but how do we know that he was the same Robert who immigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony? 

salem, ma
There are no records which would prove the year of immigration for Robert, but he was definitely in Salem by 1639. A Robert Hebert is recorded as being in Salem in 1639 in the employment of John Winthrop Jr. in the business of making salt, a very important industry in the early days of the colony for preservation of fish that were caught and sent back to England.  He is also described as a bricklayer.  

Robert and his wife Joan were admitted as full members of the church in Salem on May 3, 1646. They had their children baptized after their admittance.  Their oldest surviving child was Marie who was born on November 27, 1641. Robert and Joan must have been married by the end of 1640 or beginning of 1641 if Marie was their first child, their marriage is not recorded in Salem and it is entirely possible that they were married in England prior to their departure.   
Because Robert was a full church member he was able to take the freeman's oath, which he did 6 July 1647. In 1659 he bought 13 acres of land from a William Hascall, he is called Robert Hibbard, bricklayer in the deed. 

beverly, ma
On 12 August 1650 the selectmen of Salem granted Robert Hiberd 20 acres of ground to be used for commonage and wood, this land was on across the river from Salem proper. In March of 1665/6 he was granted more land on the Cape Ann side and across the Bass River from the Salem.  This area was set apart from Salem and became known as Beverly.  I have read that Robert moved to Beverly but I think that the land he lived on became Beverly when it was incorporated as a separate town. 

who was joan
Joan is said by many on the net and ancestry.com to be the daughter of John Luff and his wife Bridget of Salem.  In the records of the Court and of the town of Salem, John Luff is called "father" by Robert Hibbart. This inferred relationship has been interpreted as meaning that John Luff was Joan's father and Robert's father in law. However, Robert Charles Anderson of the Great Migration Series disputes this relationship in his bio on John Luff.
John Luff sailed from England on the Mary and John in March of 1633/4, no other family members were listed.  John received land in the 1636 division of land in Salem, the amount of acreage was not listed.  Significantly, in the records of the 1637 division, each recipient's name was recorded along with the size of their household. The acreage of each man's allotment was dependent on the size of his household. In 1637 John Luff had a household of one, no wife and no children. Anderson surmises that John Luff married Bridget Unknown between 1637 and 1647, after the land grant of 1637 was made.  He believes that Bridget was either the mother of Robert Hibbart or of his wife Joan, making John Luff the step-father of one of the two. I tend to agree with Anderson so my Joan will be Joan Unknown. 

joan in court

Joan was presented at least twice in the Quarterly Court held at Salem.  In November of 1659 she was appeared and was accused of railing and speaking several lies upon Zackary Herek.  It was said by witnesses that she claimed that she saw Zackary leaving the house of John Ston.  She, it was claimed, said he was drunk.  She denied ever saying such thing and swore as God is her witness that she did not.  The court apparently did not believe her and offered her a choice of being fined or acknowledge her lies, she chose the fine.

Jane was again in court for saying that Liddea and Mary Grover (who I think was married to Zachary Herick) were "the veriest lyers att Bass River and they were able to ly the devill out of hell".  She confessed that she said it and that it was the truth, she paid a fine. 

children of robert and joan
Marie, b. November 27, 1641 Salem, m. Sept. 8, 1660, Nicholas Snelling 

John, b. Feb. 24, 1642/3 Salem,   m. (1) Abigail Graves (2) Ruth Walden
Sarah, b. October 26, 1644, d. January 8, 1644/45Sarah bp. 17 May 1646
Joseph, bp. May 7, 1648, m. Elizabeth Graves, their daughter Dorcas married Nathaniel Abbott of Andover their daughter Mary Abbott m. Benjamin Blanchard. Chloe Blanchard their descendant married Samuel Thornton.
Robert, bp. May 7, 1648; m. Mary Walden
Joanna, bp. 9 March 1651, m. John Swanton
Elizabeth, bp. 1 June 1653
Abigail, bp. 6 June 1655,  m. Thomas Blashford
Samuel, bp. 20 June 1658, m. Mary Bond
(the dates for the first three children were recorded as their birth date as reported by their father Robert in Court, the dates for the remaining children are their baptismal date not their birth date, these baptismal dates were recorded in the Salem records. The dates were recorded using the old Puritan calendar in which the first month of the year was March and not January.  So Marie who was born on 27-9-1641 was born in November and not September.)

rip
Robert died in Beverly on 7 May 1684.  Although he had signed his name on documents when he was younger he was unable to sign his will which was written on 9 April, barely more than a month before he died. Joan lived another 12 years, dying in Beverly in 1696. Robert died before the Salem Witch trials but Joan and their children would have had front row seats as the drama unfolded.  I do not think that they were involved in any of the trials but surely they would have known accusers and victims of the trials. Bridget Luff lived with Robert and Joan until she died sometime after June of 1671, when she was in court testifying. 

related posts
George Abbot, father of Nathaniel Abbott

Sources:

Perley, Sidney, A history of Salem, Massachusetts, Vol II 1638-1670, Salem, MA, 1926

Hibbard, Augustine George, The Genealogy of the Hibbard Family who are Descendants of Robert Hibbard of Salem, MA, CN, 1901

Anderson, Robert Charles, Great Migration Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Vol IV, I-L, pg. 361

Records and Files of the Quarterly Court of Essex

Hebard, Harvey and Smyth, Ralph D., "Descendants of Robert Hebert of Salem and Beverly, Mass", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol 51, 1897

English Ancestry of George Abbott of Bishop's Stortford and Andover, Massachusetts

William Abbott b. c 1470  d. after November 1532 + Unknown Wife 
          i.  John b. c 1495

John Abbott b. c. 1495 d. after 1545 + Unknown Wife
          i.  John b. c. 1520 d. 8 April 1570
         ii.  William b. c. 1525

William Abbott b. 1525 d. 1569 + Margaret  Unknown b. 1525
          i.  George b c. 1550
         ii.  John
        iii.  Robert
        iv. Thomas

George Abbott b . 1550 d. 1619 + Bridget Unknown d. 1625
          i.  George bp. 17 July 1577 buried 10 August 1577
         ii.  John b. c. 1579 buried 2 April 1589
        iii.  Anne bp. 3 Dec 1581
        iv. Johanne b. 17 June 1584 d. young
         v. Grace bp. 10 Oct. 1585 buried 6 Jan 1585/6
        iv. George bp. 28 May 1587
       iiv. Johane bp. 5 Apr. 1590

George Abbott b. 1587 d. Unknown +  1615 Elizabeth Unknown
          i.  George bp. 22 May 1617
         ii.  Edward bp. 25 March 1623
        iii.  Christoper bp. 2 November 1628

George Abbott b. 1617 d. 1681 + Hannah Chandler b. 1629 d. 1711

William Chandler and Annis Bayford of Bishop's Stortford and Roxbury, Massachusetts

This blog post comes  hard on the heels of one written about George Abbott who also hailed from Bishop's Stortford, in fact it is believed that he traveled with the Chandler and Dane families to Roxbury in 1637.  The English ancestry of both the Abbott and Chandler families has been well researched. The story of William in America is a short one, Annis however, lived a long life, outliving three husbands.  As is typical of women of her time, her story  can only be told through the records of her husbands and her children. 

english origins

Like the family of George Abbott, William Chandler's ancestry can be traced back to his gg grandfather Thomas Chandler. The family was well established in the Bishop's Stortford area where they were flourished. They were never rich but they seemed to be successful. Thomas Chandler, gg grandfather of William was first documented in Bishop's Storford in 1514 when the burial of his wife was recorded in the parish records.  His surname was spelled Chaundeler and it seems that he may have been in fact a "chandler" by occupation; a candle maker. 

William the immigrant's father was Henry Chandler who was born around 1560, married wife Anne Unknown by 1590 and wrote his will and died in 1618.  He was a Glover by trade, but by then the surname no longer represented the occupation of the individual. William was a "pointer" he made the tips of laces for clothing, shoes and boots. Hard to believe you could have made a living at that but there you are. 

William married twice in England.  His first wife was Alice Thorogood of nearby Farnham, they married 29 January 1621/2. They had two children, both girls, who died early.  Alice died in June of 1625.  William wasted no time and was remarried on 6 November 1625 to Annis Bayford, also of Farnham.  Annis, whose name is also given as Anne and Agnes was the daughter of Francis and Johan Bayford. She was baptized in Farnham on 12 June 1603.

In 1637 he and his wife and four small children, along with quite a few of their neighbors, left their homes in England behind forever for a new life in New England. Although his wife and children would prosper in their new home, William was dead within four years of his arrival. 

rocksberry

William and his family as well as other families from the Bishop's Stortford area made Roxbury their initial home. He was given a house lot and some land, totaling 22 acres for farming. His oldest son Thomas was still a boy of nine years of age so would not yet be strong enough to help with the laborious task of clearing and plowing virgin land.  George Abbott, a young man also from Bishop's Stortford who would one day marry the then seven year old Hannah Chandler, was believed to  have traveled with and been living with the Chandler family.  If so, he would have been a strong pair of hands to help the 42 year old William. 

William took the freedman's oath on 13 May 1640. In order to do so, William had to be a full member of the church at Roxbury. Being a freedman would enable a man to participate fully in the running of the new colony but by 1640 William was dying.  He suffered from a lingering illness which lasted the better part of a year, as recorded by the Reverend John Eliot, minister of Roxbury. He wrote that William "fell into a consumption to which he had been long inclined, he lay near a year sick".  He described William as poor but God opened the hearts of his nabs (neighbors?) to him, yet he never wanted". His death was recorded on the 26th of the 11th month of the year 1641. This is often interpreted as 26 November 1641, but if Rev. Eliot was referring to the 11th month of the Puritan calendar than the date is actually 26 Jan 1641/2.  The Puritan calendar year began on March 25th not January 1. 

children of William and Annis

1. William bp. 26 March 1627 Bishop's Stortford; buried 27 Nov. 1633

2. Thomas bp. 9 Aug 1628 Bishop's Stortford, m. Hannah Brewer, d. 1702/3 Andover

3. Hannah bp. 22 May 1630 Bishop's Stortford, m. George Abbott, m. Francis Dane, d. 17 Feb. 1696/7 Andover 

4. Henry bp. 13 Aug. 1632 d. young

5. John bp. 27 July 1634 Bishop's Stortford, m. Elizabeth Douglas d. 15 April 1703 Woodstock, CN

6. William bp. 20 March 1635 Bishop's Stortford, m. Mary Dane, d. 1698 Andover

7. Sarah b. Roxbury m. William Cleaves, m. ? Wilson, m. Ephraim Stevens, m. ? Allen d. unknown probably in Andover.  

second marriage for annis

On 2 July 1643 Annis married widower John Dane.  He too hailed from Bishop's Stortford. John assumed responsibility for raising and maintaining her children for which he was awarded the house and land originally granted to William Chandler. Annis' son William married John Dane's daughter Mary and her daughter Hannah married his son Francis, quite a combining of the two families. 

John Dane was born about 1587 in Little Berkhampstead, he had married and had children in England which he brought with him to New England.  His wife died the same year as William Chandler. John and Annis were married for 15 years before he died in Roxbury in 1658. He divided his estate amongst his children and his "loving wiff".

third husband
Annis married for a third and last time on 9 August 1660 to John Parmenter, widower, deacon of the church, and resident of Sudbury.  His wife had died the previous April.  He died, aged 83, in 1671  in Roxbury.  Annis lived another 12 years, dying in March of 1683. She was recorded as "old mother Parmiter, a blessed saint". 

final note
Someone on ancestry.com has William Chandler as Sir William Le Chaundler and his wife Annis is called Lady Annis.  In this same tree George Abbott who married their daughter Hannah is called Sir George Abbott and they include a portrait of him.  While this is good for a giggle, it is pure fabrication.  The portrait is actually of George Abbott who was at one time the Archbishop of Canterbury, he died in 1633.  




Sources:

Moriarty, G. Andrews, "Ancestry of George Abbott of Andover, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 85, 1931, 79.

Moriarty, G. Andrews, "Ancestry of William Chandler of Roxbury, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 85, 1931, 133 -.

Chandler, George, The Chandler Family: The Descendants of William and Agnes Chandler who settled in Roxbury 1637, 1883, Massachusetts 

George Abbott of Bishop's Stortford, England and Roxbury and Andover, Massachusetts

Here is another ancestor who can be traced to his birthplace in England and this time thankfully most of the internet sites have his ancestry correct. At least two of my ancestors, including George Abbott and his wife hailed from Bishop's Stortford in the county of Hertfordshire, England.  The Reverend Francis Dane, who would later marry George Abbott's widow, Hannah Chandler Abbott, was also from Bishop's Stortford; he would become the minister of Andover for many, many years. John Norton, who sailed in 1634, was ordained and became a noted Puritan Divine in Ipswich was also from Bishop's Stortford. The Reverend John Elliott, who was the Puritian Minister at Roxbury was from the village of Widford about 7 miles from Stortford, it is possible that these three influential men were the driving force behind multiple family migrations from Stortford to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

english origins
George Abbott was baptized in the church St. Michael's on 22 May 1617. His ancestry in Bishop's Stortford can be traced back at least five generations to his ggg grandfather, William Abbott who was born circa 1470. The names of his ancestors, Williams, Johns and Georges are found in the Bishop's Transcripts and Court Rolls. They owned, bought and sold land.  They were church wardens, they paid taxes and they were taken to court by their neighbors. Good solid Englishmen, rooted in their village for hundreds of years, what would it take to make them pack up and leave their home, forever? 

too many georges

George was the third in a line of George's and of course he named one of his sons George. His father, George, was born in 1587 and married a woman named Elizabeth, her surname is unknown, she may have been the immigrant George's mother.  In any case, George the father has no known will or record of his death. This lack of information has lead to the confusion of George Abbott of Bishop's Stortford with another English immigrant of the same name who arrive about 1642 and died in Rowley five years later in 1647.  This second George came over with his four sons: Thomas Sr., Thomas Jr., Nehemiah and, of course, George. Prior to his death George Abbott of Rowley deeded most of his land to his eldest son Thomas Sr.. The remaining sons were not yet of age and were apprenticed or taken in by men in Rowley. This family of Abbotts is not the same as the George Abbott of Roxbury and Andover. Confused, me too and adding to the confusion is the fact that George Abbott, son of George of Rowley, moved to Andover in 1655.  He was called George Jr. and our George was called George Sr. 

roxbury
George was known to be in Roxbury, his marriage to Hannah Chandler was recorded by the Rev. John Elliot in 1646. The Chandler family was also from Bishop's Stortford and they had arrived in Roxbury in 1637.  He is said to have come on the same ship as the Chandler's but I cannot find any mention of him in any records.  He would have been 22 in 1637, so what was he doing?  He wasn't married. He didn't join the church at Roxbury, so he could not have been made a freeman. He wasn't given any land grants in Roxbury, if he was there he kept a low profile. It is possible that he lived with and worked for the Chandler family, until he was able to establish his own homestead.  

marriage and andover
In her article "The Two George Abbott Families of Andover" Marjorie Wardwell Otten, writes that because George was unmarried at the time he relocated to Andover in 1643, he required a sponsor to attain land.  His sponsor was John Dane, who had recently married Annis Chandler, widow of William Chandler.  He also sponsored Thomas Chandler, his then step-son and brother of Hannah Chandler. With John's help George was able to get a four acre home lot. 
In 1646 George, now aged about 30,  married Hannah aged 16. The difference in their ages seems to stand out, especially in light of the fact that George would be in prison today for committing a serious sexual offense. I wonder why he married her, was there a shortage of marriageable women, did he fall in love with her while she was growing up and he waited for her to become of age? Who knows, but judging by his will they had a good marriage. They also had 13 children, 10 boys and 3 girls.
George did not seem to hold many town offices in Andover.  He served on the Grand Jury of the Quarterly Court in Ipswich in 1658. In 1673 he was chosen surveyor and in 1676 branding man, both jobs important but not quite elite.  However, the town records only go  back to 1656, 13 years after he settled there.  It is possible that he held other civic jobs prior to the beginning or the records. George and his sons took the Oath of Allegiance 11 Feb 1678/9, a requirement for all males over the age of 16.  

children
1.  John b. 2 March 1647/8 Andover,  m. 17 November 1673 Sarah Barker, d. 18 March            1720/21 in Andover
2.  Jospeh b. 11 March 1648/9, d. 24 June 1650 Andover
3.  Hannah b. 9 June 1650 m. 20 December 1676 her first cousin John Chandler, d. 1 Aug          1727
4.  Joseph b. 30 March 1652 d. 8 April 1676, killed by Indians
5.  George b. 7 June 1655, m. Dorcas Graves, d. 21 Feb 1735 
6.  William b. 18 November 1657 m. Elizabeth Gerry 19 June 1682, d. 21 Oct 1713
7.  Sarah "Sally" b. 14 November 1659, m. 11 October 1680, d. 29 June 1711
8.  Benjamin b. 20 December 1661, m. 22 April 1685 Sarah Farnham, d. 30 March 1703
9.  Timothy b. 17 November 1663, m. 27 December 1689 Hannah Graves, d. 9 Sept. 1730 
10. Thomas b. 6 May 1666, 7 December 1697 Hannah Gray, d. 28 April 1728
11. Edward b. 1668/9 died young by drowning
12. Nathaniel b. 4 July 1671, m. 22 October 1695 Dorcas Hibbard, d. 1 December               1749, Nathaniel's daughter Mary Abbott m. Benjamin Blanchard, Chloe Blanchard 
      who m. Samuel Thornton in 1841 is a descendant
13. Elizabeth b. 29 January 1672, m. 24 October 1692 Nathan Stevens, d. 4 May 1750

fyi
The town of Andover, which is about 27 miles from Roxbury, was first settled in about 1641, the land was purchased from the Indians for 6 pounds and an old coat. In a list of the original settlers, George's name is 19th. Unfortunately the first town meeting was not recorded until 1656 so details of the early days are sketchy. In 1646 Francis Dane, step-brother of Hannah Chandler Abbott became the minister of Andover, a position he held for many years.     
In about 1655, George Abbott Jr. arrived in Andover, he was also called George Abbott "the tailor", after his profession or George Abbott "of Rowley". He became a sexton in the church as were his sons after him. Other townsmen of note were the Blanchards and Lovejoys to whom I am also related. 

indians
After many years of, if not good but tolerable, relations with the native Indian population, things began to become troublesome around the year 1675. Sometime before 1663 George Abbott purchased a house on the south end of Andover.  This new house was designated as a garrison house, a place of safety in the event of an Indian attack.  Garrison houses were built to withstand an assault, with thick log walls.  They were usually enclosed by a wooden palisade and could accommodate multiple families. In 1675 there were 12 garrison houses in Andover, including the Abbott's. 
In December 1675 Joseph Abbott was impressed into military service and took part in what is called "The Great Swamp Fight" during King Phillip's War.  The colonial militia attacked a Narragansett fort in Rhode Island.  The outcome was a victory for the colonial forces and resulted in the demise of the Narragansett people.  Joseph returned safely from the expedition. 
On 10 Feb 1676 King Phillip and his forces attacked and wiped out the town of Lancaster, MA which was some 37 miles to the southwest of Andover. Word spread rapidly that the Indian war parties were on the move.  The news was unsettling if not terrifying.
On 18 March two Indian scouts were spotted near Andover.  The town sent two riders to Ipswich to ask for aid to help defend the town. On 8 April 1676 the long dreaded Indian attack occurred. An alarm was raised when the Indians were spotted crossing the Merrimack River and all who heard it fled for the safety of the garrisons.  Joseph and Timothy Abbott were working in the fields and were unable to make it to the garrison. Joseph turned and fought the Indians, reportedly killing at least one before he was overcome and killed. His young brother Timothy, age 13, was taken into captivity.   Timothy was returned to Andover in August of 1676 by an Indian Squaw who apparently took pity on him, he was described as being "much pined with hunger", but otherwise alright.


death of george

John Glassford, findagrave.com

George Abbott wrote his will on 12 December 1681, he was only 64 years old, but he obviously knew he was dying.  His will is a testament to his love and esteem for his wife of 35 years, Hannah Chandler Abbott.  He wrote "considering the great love and affection I have unto my loving wife Hannah Abbut, and the tender love she hath had to me and her care and diligence to me to get and save what God has blessed us with and also her prudence in management of the same, I leave her my whole estate for life..." Wow, his whole estate, that almost never happened. She would of course divide the estate among her sons, the oldest John was to get a double portion. George died on the 24th of December and was buried in the Andover burying grounds.  On the 200th anniversary of the founding of the town of Andover his descendants erected a memorial to him. 

remarriage
Hannah became a widow at the age of 52, she chose to remarry in 1690 her step-brother the Reverend Francis Dane, who had recently  lost his second wife. Francis was born in Bishop's Stortford in 1615, his father, John, married Hannah's mother, Annis, in Roxbury after the death of her father, William Chandler.  Hannah had probably known Francis her whole life. They were 60 and 75 years of age when they married, I'm sure they were looking for quiet companionship in their old age. It's not quite what they got.

I always knew that boy was trouble: benjamin abbott
In 1683, when Benjamin was 22, he engaged in a sexual relationship with a widow, Naomi Holt Lovejoy, she was 30. In June of 1683 she was fined in court for fornication with Benjamin Abbott, she was also pregnant with his child, a daughter born in 1684.  The daughter's name was Ben Naomi Abbott. Benjamin married Sarah Farnham in 1685, Naomi also remarried.
About 1690 Martha Allen Carrier and her bedraggled family came to town. At first they were warned out, but later the town recanted and gave the family a small plot of land. The Carrier family contracted small pox and several family members as well as other inhabitants of Andover died of this disease.  Blame fell on Martha, who appears to have been a difficult woman to deal with.
The town gave Benjamin Abbott a piece of property that bordered Martha's land.  This did not sit well with her and she began to direct her malicious talk against Benjamin.  Saying she would hold his nose to the grindstone. Words which would come back to haunt her. 
In 1691 Benjamin came down with a hideous cause of carbuncolosis, boils.  It began with a pain in his foot, and then his side.  He developed a boil which when lanced yielded "several gallons of corruption".  Boils also appeared in his groin.  While he was suffering "near to death" his wife Sarah noted unusual behavior in their cattle, several of which died.  
In August of 1692 the witch trials in Salem were at their zenith.  The minister of Andover, Reverend Barnard, invited the Salem accusers to come to Andover to seek out any witches that might be living there. Needless to say, Benjamin laid his troubles on Martha and called her, she was, he said, a witch. He and Sarah testified against her on August 3rd 1692, as did many others. Martha was found guilty and hung on August 19th.  

the righteous reverend francis dane
Francis Dane, now Benjamin' step-father, was not a fan of the witch trials, in fact he had serious doubts about the validity of the accusations, the confessions and the evidence on which the trials, like that of Martha Carrier, were  based.  His stance against the trials brought a backlash of accusations against him and his family. Two of his daughters, his daughter in law and five of his grandchildren were accused of witchcraft.  Francis' opposition to the trials went into overdrive and he is credited with helping to bring the madness of the accusations and trials to a halt.  I wonder if he and Benjamin Abbott ever spoke of what occurred and what part Benjamin played in bringing about the death of an innocent woman. 

hannah
Hannah outlived her second husband Francis who died in 1697.  She died on 2 June 1711 at the age of 81.  Not much can be said about her life from her perspective, but she did do one pretty remarkable thing. In 1706 she deeded land to her sons Timothy, Nathaniel and Thomas.  This was apparently the only time land was deeded solely by a woman. Hannah was survived by nine children. 

      

Sources:
Moriarty, G. Andrews, "Ancestry of George Abbott of Andover, The New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 85, 1931, p. 79-86

Otten, Marjorie Wardell, "The Two George Abbot Families of Andover, Massachusetts  The Essex Genealogist, Vol. 20 (2000) p. 19-23

Bailey, Sarah Loring, Historical Sketches of Andover: Comprising the Present Towns of Andover and North Andover, Boston, 1880

Vital Records of Andover

Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts

Munroe, J., A Genealogical Register of the Descendants of George Abbott of Andover, 1847

Jobe, Sara, Reverend Francis Dane, essay written in 2001

www.salem.lib.virginia.edu 

Fiege, Mark, The Republic of Nature: an environmental history of the United States, University of Washington Press, 2012

I did the DAR

Well, I posted a while back that I was dithering about whether or not to join the DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution.  My biggest obstacle was that I wasn't sure about their genealogy, it didn't correspond to what I have about my ancestor.  Since I believe that I have quite a few ancestors who were involved in the Revolution I don't feel like I cheated my way in, I just need to add them to my patriot list.  My paperwork was submitted some months ago and today I took my oath and now I am a full fledged member. 

I know some people think that lineage societies are snobbish and exclusionary, but hey I can't join the Ladies Baptist Guild or the Aggie Mom Support Group or the Polish American Society.  I also can't join the Mayflower Society or the Daughter's of the Texas Revolution, and that's okay with me.

The Cheney Boys of Roxbury: John and William Cheney

Well I'm back again, poking around in the far past after writing a few blog posts about my more recent ancestors.  I have taken up the slog again, writing about my more distant kinfolk. My ancestor under scrutiny this time is William Cheney who immigrated from England to Roxbury, MA.  John Cheney, who lived there briefly, is often identified as his brother or close kinsman.  A quick glance at ancestry.com shows me that as usual there is a lot of chaff to wade through before I find the nugget of truth.

english origins

A quick search of the internet results in three very different locations sited as the birthplace of John and William Cheney.  The most popular seems to be Bennington, Lincolnshire, second is Lambourne, Berkshire and finally Waltham Abbey in Essex. In his book "The Cheney Genealogy", Charles Henry Pope, noted genealogist, identified multiple Cheney families in England from whom it was possible that immigrants John and William Cheney might have come from including Benningon, Lambourne and Waltham Abbey.  Just before he explores these families he stresses "no link has been found which connect William of Roxbury or John of Newbury with any English family". He then goes on to give an unbiased overview of all the Cheney families that were found. Obviously family researchers have picked the Cheney family that they like best and just run with it.  I have even seen sites where a family identified with one location was uprooted and transferred to another, sort of an ancestor mash up.

The editor of William's findagrave bio claims he is from some place called Maynall Longley, Derbyshire. There is no such place.   There is a Meynell Langley in Derybshire.  Most of the info in the bio is questionable and there is no documented evidence to back it up.   And really, if you can't even spell the name of the place correctly how am I supposed to  have any faith in your information. 

My 'go to guy' in times like these is Robert Charles Anderson of the Great Migration series. Anderson has not written about William as an immigrant as he does not show up in the records until 1639, but he did a bio on John Cheney who landed in Massachusetts in 1635. He states that the English origins of John Cheney are unknown. He also says that John and William may have been brothers. Good enough for me, although I was kinda hoping it would be Lambourne, as that is where Miss Elizabeth Bennett reunites with Mr. Darcy, but oh well, that is just another fantasy. 

but wait there's more

St. Mary & St. Michael, Mistley by Tony Peacock

In a 2001 article in The American Genealogist entitled "The English Origin of John Cheney of Roxbury and Newbury, Massachusetts", author Leslie Mahler identifies John as the John Cheney who lived in Lawford and Mistley, Essex. She located a previously unknown marriage of John Cheney to an Amy Unknown and the baptism of their children, John, Mary and Martha.  After Amy's apparent death John was recorded as marrying Martha Smithe. The baptism of their son Peter is found in the Lawford parish records, all subsequent children were born in Massachusetts, including a second son named Peter. In a 2008 article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, "Various Wills Relating to New England Colonist", the same author, Leslie Mahler, states that the will of one George Lansdalle of Lawford confirms this identity by naming John Cheney, shoemaker, in his will. John Cheney of Newbury, MA was indeed a shoemaker by trade.

Robert Charles Anderson's comment on first bit of  information was that it was not impossible for John of Newbury to be the John from Lawford but that more research was needed. I wonder what his opinion is now in light of the discovery of will of George Lansdalle? 

so were they brothers?

Pope did not seem to believe that there was any evidence to declare outright that they were brothers. John arrived first and only lived briefly in Roxbury and then moved on to Newbury.  Pope's only comment on their relationship was that if they were brothers "they do not say it or act it". William seems to have arrived at a later date and is only recorded as living in Roxbury, why not Newbury where John, if he was his brother, lived? Pope also commented on the theory that John and William shared a house in Roxbury until such time as John left for Newbury, he said "Theories are easy to handle; but they are of little historic weight".  I guess the answer is we don't know if they were brothers and there is no way to prove it, and in genealogy if you can't prove it you can't say it.

Leslie Malher stated in her article concerning John's origins that there was no sign of William Cheney in any of the parish records or other records that she could find, leading her to  believe that William was not from Lawford. In fact she states that the name Cheney is rarely found in that area of Essex and the trail ends there. No parents  have been identified for John. I think I will repeat that last sentence: NO Parents have been identified! Got it...good.

william and margaret in massachusetts

William and Margaret met and married in England by the year 1626, based on the estimated birth year of their oldest child. Their arrival in Massachusetts is impossible to pinpoint, they are not listed on any ship manifest and William's name cannot be found in any record prior to 1639. William and Margaret had at least seven children, the first one named in a Massachusetts record was the fifth child, John, born September 29, 1639 in Roxbury.

Roxbury was one of the original towns founded by the Winthrop group after their arrival in Massachusetts in 1630.  The name was originally spelled Rocksbury and was so called because of the extremely rocky soil. The original settlement was close to the Boston Neck, Thomas Dudley said it was two miles from Boston, and spread westward into what is Jamaica Plain.  The town center was called Meeting House Hill, today it is known as John Eliot Square.

In July of 1639 William bought a house and house lot  from the Parker Brothers of Boston.  He is known to have lived on what is now Dudley St. near it's intersection with Warren St. but I am not sure if this was the lot he bought in 1639. In a audit of landowners in Rocksbury, done between 1634-1640 there were about 69 men who held acreage from 3 acres up to 356 acres, William's estate was a modest 24 1/2 acres.  At his death, William had land scattered around Roxbury and in Boston.

what's the matter with margaret

In his will, written in 1666/7 not too long before he died, William makes provisions for his "dear afflicted wife". What was she afflicted with?  The only clue comes in a church record when it was recorded in 1673 that "Margaret Cheaney widow having long been bound by Satan under a melancholick distemper (above 10 or 11 yeares) which made her wholly neglect her calling and live mopishly, this day gave thanks to God for loosing her chain and confessing and bewailing her sinful yielding to temptation".

So, Margaret at about age 60 seems to have had some sort of mental breakdown, possibly entering a chronic depression of some sort.  This apparently began several  years prior to her husband's death and lasted until about 6 years afterwards. The only thing surprising about this is that more women weren't likewise afflicted. Just think how hard and awful their lives were. I get depressed just thinking about what it was like to live in that age.  At any rate, she seems to have recovered her senses and got on with what was left of her life.

Margaret also revived enough to remarry sometime between 1673 and 1679 when she was identifed in a deed as a widow.  Her second husband's surname was Burdge, nothing else is known about him.



the reluctant puritan

In 1632 the Puritan Church in Roxbury  finally had it's meeting house and it's minister, the Reverend John Eliot. Eliot recorded each new member as they joined. Church membership was more than just a religious experience, it's significance was far reaching. No man could become a Freeman of the Colony without first becoming a member of a church and for a while your children could not be baptized unless one of the parents was a member. Of course everyone had to go to church, whether or not you were a full member, but becoming a member required a full disclosure of your sins, sort of a baring of the soul.  Not everyone was prepared to go through with what must have been an uncomfortable  event. Margaret became a member within a few years of arriving in Massachusetts. William however put off becoming a member for almost 20 years, finally taking the plunge in January of 1664/5.  Did he feel his years creeping up on him, was his health beginning to fail, did his thoughts turn to the state of his soul, who knows what his reasons were, he just finally took the plunge. He became a freeman in May of 1666 and died the following year.

a good citizen

Despite his lack of church membership and the fact that he was not a Freeman of the Colony, William seems to have been a good citizen of Roxbury.  In 1645 the town established their first school.  At that time the costs were covered voluntarily by the town's people.  William was not only a contributor to the school but served in the office of Feoffee.  Feoffee is an old word that doesn't get much use these days. A Feoffee is a trustee, so William was a trustee or administrator of the new school.

William was elected and served as the town constable.  We associate the job of constable with law enforcement and police work. In 1630 the job was a bit different.  The constable collected taxes, served writs and warrants as well as enforced local laws. He did this in addition to working his farm or other form of employment. Often times men would refuse to serve as constable after they were elected and were fined for turning down the job. William also served as a selectman for the town for one term.

children

Ellen b. in England by 1626, m. 1642 Humphrey Johnson d. Sept. 1678
Margaret b. unknown m. 1650 Thomas Hastings of Watertown
Thomas b. unknown 1633 d. 1698
William b. unknown 1635 d. 1681
John b. 29 Sept. 1639 Roxbury d. 12 Oct 1671 (drowned apparently catching eels)
Mehitable b. 1 June 1643 Roxbury d/. 1693/4
Joseph b.   6 June 1647 Roxbury d. 1704 Medfield

rip

photo by Jeff Lloyd findagrave.com

William had  his will written on 30 April 1667.  He was not able to sign but made his mark.  In his will he indicated that he was sick and he probably felt the time had come to face the inevitable, despite being only about 63 years old.  William divided his estate among his children and left provisions for the care of his wife. He asked that one of his children live in the Roxbury home with Margaret to care for her.  William died shortly after writing his will, the inventory of his estate was taken only a few later on 30 July of 1667.  The executors of his will were Thomas Cheney his son and Thomas Hastings, husband of his daughter Margaret.

Margaret Cheney Burdges moved to Boston by 1682 when she was released by the church at Roxbury and joined the South Church of Boston. Her son Thomas had to post surety to the town of Boston that his mother would not become a burden to it's citizens.  Margaret signed her will, or rather made her mark,  and died in July of 1686 in Boston.  She was buried in Roxbury next to her husband William Cheney. 

Related Posts:
Thomas Hastings of Watertown and Margaret Cheney


Sources:
Charles Henry Pope, The Cheney Genealogy, Boston, 1897
Robert Charles Anderson,  Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, Vol II
Leslie Mahler, The English Origins of John Cheney of Roxbury and Newbury, Massachusetts, The American Genealogist, Vol. 76, 2001, pp. 246-247
Leslie Mahler, Various English Wills Relating to New England Colonists: Gillette, Swaine, Cheney, and Tutty-Knight-Whitman, The New England Genealogical and Historical Register, Vol. 162, 2008, pp. 116
Archealogia Americana Volume 7
Francis S. Drake, The Town of Roxbury: It's Memorable Persons and Places, Roxbury, 1878

Questions Comment Queries Corrections Welcome 

Please site your sources 

Marvelously Modern Mabel and her Much Married Sister Dorothy Mae

Mabel Ora Risheill, my husband's great grandmother, was born in 1888 in Granite Township, Phillips County, Kansas.  A quick look at the map shows that Granite is smack dab in the middle of nowhere. (Sorry Kansas) In the year 2000 the population of the township was 21, I can only imagine what it was when the Risheill's were living there. 
Mabel was the forth child, of seven, born to David Oliver Risheill and his wife Elizabeth Miriam Trevor. David, son of a farmer/preacher married Elizabeth, daughter of a farmer/preacher in Kansas by the year 1883. David was born in Henry County, Illinois and his wife Elizabeth in England.  Both families had been on the move for some time and they crossed paths in Kansas. Elizabeth's stayed put as did some of David's brothers, but David and his father moved on finally stopping in Colorado.  

When I think of the men and women of that era I think of them as being very traditional and very set in their gender roles.  Men worked, women stayed home, raised children and basically took life as it came to them, staying with their husband, good or bad, until one of the two of them died. When you throw in a couple of Methodist Ministers into the mix, I would expect even stricter standards of behavior. However, Mabel and her sister have made me revise my belief about women in the early 20th century. Here is what I know about Mabel and her sister Dorothy Mae.

kansas to colorado

The Risheill Family

David and his father, the Reverend Joseph Oliver Risheill, appear to have given up on farming by the middle of the 1890's.  They are not in the 1895 census of Kansas. Joseph is recorded as officiating at his daughter Jessie's wedding in Hilltop, Douglas County, Colorado in 1896. Hilltop is to the southeast of Denver. Beginning in 1897 David Risheill's name began appearing in the Denver Directory. He seemed to have had a different job every year, he was a butcher, a fireman, a clerk, a driver, a watchman and a janitor. I am not sure if his work history said something about him or the state of the economy at that time.  In any case, by 1910 he was dead at the age of 48.

first marriages
Dorothy Mae, Mabel's younger sister, took the plunge for the first time at the age of 15, she married Duncan Cameron in  1908.  Mabel waited until the ripe old age of 22 for her first marriage. On December 25, 1910 she married Forrest Oliver Babcock.  During their marriage they lived in rural Teller County which due west of Colorado Springs. 

Mabel and Forrest

Forrest was originally from Wisconsin but his family migrated to Colorado.  He and his father worked for the same company, he a painter and his father a carpenter for the US Zinc Company.
His marriage to Mabel was actually his second one.  In 1906 Forrest married Marie L. Strange of Denver. The marriage ended tragically only a year later with the death of Marie, she died of blood poisoning.  Her mother committed suicide on hearing the news.
In the 1910 US census, Mabel was living with her parents in Denver, she worked as a clerk in a theater. Forrest, listed as a widower, was in Teller County, living with his parents. How and when they met is a mystery but they married in December of 1910.  The marriage lasted a short four years, or a long four years depending on the circumstances, anyhow Mrs. Forrest Babcock sued for divorce in 1914. Mabel's sister Dorothy was one step ahead she was already  on her second marriage. She married John C. Rogner in 1913. Neither Mabel nor Dorothy had children from their first marriage. 

second marriage: noel lane roberts
On 7 June 1915, Mabel married Noel Lane Roberts, in Buena Vista, Chaffee County, Colorado. Buena Vista was incorporated in 1879 and rapidly became a railroad town servicing the mining industry, it is about 75 miles west of Teller County. Noel was born on 5 March 1882 in Bluffdale, Hood County, Texas.  He was, oddly enough, the son of a farmer/preacher. In the 1910 census he was living in his parents home, in Texas.  A document from the State Department shows that he was in Ecuador working as a miner in 1913. Presumably he was working in Buena Vista by 1915 when he met Mabel. 
Noel and Mabel settled in the little town of Creede, Mineral County, Colorado, about 135 miles by road to the southwest of Buena Vista. Many of Noel's family were already in Colorado working in the ranching and mining industry. 

Mabel and Noel

Noel and Mabel bought a ranch "upriver" in Creede.  On June 10, 1916 their ranch, Antelope Park, opened for business. At that time Creede was on the rail line and tourist would come for the fishing and hunting. The ranch was open to tourist through the summer months, when winter came, they closed the ranch and often went to Louisiana where Noel found work. 
Fly fishing was a big part of the attraction at the ranch resort and Noel and others like him bought thousand of fish fry from the nearby fish hatchery to stock their creeks. The only picture of Noel and Mabel is one of them fishing.
The local paper, The Creede Candle, is a great source for local gossip.  The comings and goings of the town people was reported weekly.  In the January 19, 1919 issue it was reported that Mrs. Dorothy Rogner and daughter were visiting Mrs. N. L. Roberts. A November 1921 issue stated that Mr. Noel Roberts had left for Shreveport to work in the oil fields for the winter. 

childen
In the 1920 census, Noel and Mabel, living in Creede, had a 13 year old son, Floyd.  Now it doesn't take much math skills to see that Floyd, born in 1907 cannot be the child of Noel and Mabel, who married in 1915. I believe that he was adopted.  Mabel's Aunt Kate Coe ran an orphanage in Kansas City, MO and several of Mabel's nieces and nephews were adopted from there by her siblings. In later census' Floyd stated that he was born in Missouri. At the time of the 1920 census Mabel was pregnant and gave birth to Mary Lynn in December of that year.  Mary Lynn was her only biological child.

Dorothy also had only one child, Billy Jane, born in 1915.  I believe her father might have been John Rogner, but she was adopted by her mother's third husband, Peter D'Amica and went by the D'Amica name.

another divorce
A tidbit in the Creede Candle in 1922 tells of a visit to Mrs. Noel Roberts by her mother, sister Violet and her sister Dorothy D'Amica.  Dorothy divorced husband number two some time before 1919 and her marriage to Peter D'Amica.  Peter was a druggist in a drug store in Denver. 
In 1922 Noel was mining for himself, staking his own claim which he named "the Mabel". This left the real Mabel running the ranch by herself. She also sold fresh butter and dairy products which she produced herself. They seemed to have to work very hard to make a living.  At times Noel worked delivering salt and he also worked for different mining companies. I don't think life was easy for them.

Dorothy and her daughter

For whatever reason, the marriage of Mabel and Noel ended in 1923.  Mabel sued Noel for divorce and asked for half the property. Noel counter sued. Apparently most of the town showed up for the divorce case, looking for "spicy details" but was disappointed when Mabel failed to show. Maybe the neighbors were acquainted with some of the reasons for the divorce as the newspaper reported there was "considerable sparring" between them or maybe they were just easily entertained. In any case Mabel and Floyd left Creede that August, whether or not Floyd saw Noel after that is unknown the man was barely mentioned.  
Dorothy had by then dumped husband number three, divorcing Peter D'Amica in 1922.

hope hotel
In 1924 newly divorced Mabel opened a hotel, called the Hope Hotel, it was located at 1233 Welton St. in downtown Denver. If the numbering of addresses was similar to today's then it would have been near the Emily Griffith High School. Mabel was listed in the Denver Directory for several years as the proprietor of the hotel. In fact one of the first things I remember hearing about Mabel was that she ran a hotel. I don't think it was anything swanky and given it's proximity to the railroad and the economy of the day, I suspect it was more of a boarding house for workingmen.

more marriages
In 1927 Dorothy married for the forth time, Albert Theodore Altvater, grocery store owner, was next in line at the alter. Mabel made marriage number three in 1928.  This time her groom was 56 year old William M. Young.  He worked for one of the railroads that operated in Denver. He was originally from Louisiana and had been in Denver for sometime, at least 1910 when he was recorded in the census.  He was married to a Martha who presumably died after the 1930 census was taken.  They did not appear to have any children. 

Mabel and her children

William and Mabel appear in the Denver directory from 1929 until 1934.  William died in 1935 and thereafter Mabel is listed as his widow. Mabel was about 47 at that time. She never remarried. She continued to live in Denver and was listed at various addresses in the city of Denver.  In 1945 she worked at the Altvater Grocery Store on Kalamath St. Dorothy had by then separated from her husband Albert Altvater and lived with her mother. Eventually Dorothy remarried for a fifth and last time to a Donald Corman, they lived in Pueblo, Colorado.  
Mary Lynn Roberts, daughter of Noel and Mabel married twice herself and eventually settled in Pueblo.  Her mother and Grandmother left Denver and moved to Pueblo some time after 1965. 
Noel remarried in 1927 to a very young lady from Louisiana I wonder if he met her when he was working there in the winter. 

wrapping it up
I have to admit that Mabel and her sister surprised me. Not only did they dump their men when things didn't work out, but at least Mabel was able to go into business for herself and support her two children.  Mabel died in her eighty third year, her headstone says "beloved Mother".