"Favourite Name" - #52ancestors: Zerubbabel JEROME

This week, in the year-long #52ancestors challenge by genealogist Amy Johnson Crow, has the prompt: Favourite Name.  

Mine is Zerubbabel JEROME.

This is indeed my all-time favourite first name in our ancestors. I also listed a few more which are appealing for various reasons, but this one is the winner.

Can you picture a darling little boy in the arms of his mother, with father looking on happily, and they smile and say, "Let's call him Zerubbabel!"  

Of course, that is not how they named him - such a very unusual name. No, they would have opened their Bible and poked a finger at a page, then looked at the nearest male name. Apparently Zerubbabel is listed only three or four times in the Bible, and  translates to Seed of Babylon. 

I immediately wonder how he was called to come in for supper when he was playing outside, and what did his best friends call him... 

I know little about him as yet. He was born 3 Apr 1715 in Windham, Connecticut, married two sisters in Meriden, Connecticut, lived for a time in Bristol, CT, and died in October 1783 in Farmington, Connecticut, aged 68.  

Zerubbabel was the third child of the seven known children, second son, of Timothy JEROME & Abagail RICH, who married in 1709 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. All seven children married and had children, the start of a large pool of descendants to this day. By the way, Timothy JEROME is Winston Churchill's wife's great-great-great-grandfather [Jennie Jerome]. 

Zerubbabel married two sisters, daughters of Henry COOK. His first wife was Sarah Cook, and in 1737, she died in childbirth, her baby girl, Mary, also died.  

The following year, August 30, 1738, he married Sarah's sister, Phebe, in Meriden, New Haven, Connecticut. I can hear Judy G. Russell's voice in my head - "Did you check the laws to see if this marriage was approved/allowed by law-? There could be records!" Sigh, I haven't but I will. Honest! Any day now.

Zerubbabel and Phebe had 11 children, several of whom died youngish [females in their 20s], as well as a namesake Zerubbabel who died as an infant. A subsequent son, the 10th child, was named Zerubbabel also, and lived into his 60s. I have written about Zerubbabel previously - search the site for other posts, using the Search this Blog box below my photo, on the right. 

My line comes from their youngest daughter, Ruth JEROME, who married into the GRAVES family in Harwinton, Connecticut.

A few other interesting first names:

• Achsa Beebe - I believe this is a girl, born in Naugatuck, CT
• Agnes Gosling - 1500s England; this one tickles my fancy, as Agnes means "lamb of God" and Gosling - well really, "little goose."
• Barzilla Beebe - those Beebe's! born in the 1700s, early 1800s 
• Cliofus Veach - late 1800s, in Illinois [RICE line]
• Concurrence Meigs - mid-1600s, Massachusetts
• Egbert Noyes Foster - mid-1850s, Oregon - AKA "Norman" 
• Eusebius Jacobus Owings - early 1800s, PA
• Gamaliel Reynolds - early 1700s, CT; and Gamaliel Veach, 1800s Illinois
• Increase - several, in mid-1600s to 1700s, MA & CT. Since a pregnant woman was said to be 'increasing', this seems an odd name to give a baby girl... 
• Jabez Healy - meaning "sorrowful" - for a boy, late 1700s in MA. Hmmm. 
• Legoria Kuhn - I have no idea here: perhaps a Spanish name
• Macedon Ault Rudisill - a mouthful, born in late 1800s, PA
• Resolved White [Mayflower] - born 1614 Eng; brother born on ship 1620, Peregrine.
• Taliaferro Craig - eventually spelled as pronounced: Tolliver, born 1700s in Virginia

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If any of these are ancestors of yours, I would be happy to hear from you with your comments or corrected information. I am also very happy to share any details I might have that are not shown on this post. Contact information is found at the very bottom of this blog.

Blogger has a glitch which is stopping me from replying to your comments, but please do know that I appreciate your comments very much. You make my day! Thanks so much for stopping by to read my family blog.

52 ANCESTORS, 52 THEMES, No. 37, Large Family: Mary KING - 13 children, 87 grandchildren

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog based on Themes. Last week's theme was Working For A Living, and this week's is LARGE FAMILY.  Hmmm, time to go trolling through my tree to see who has a very large family...

Oh my, there are so many couples with 10 or more, born by the same parents. And of course, there were some families which had larger numbers of children, but with several different mothers, or different fathers. I decided to look for a direct ancestor, a WOMAN who birthed the largest number of children:  Mary KING, wife of Thomas RICE.  Mary is my ex-husband's 6th great-grandmother, and she had 13 children, 87 grandchildren!

Mary KING, b. abt 1630 was the 5th of the 6 children of Thomas KING and Anne COLLINS, whose family arrived in early Massachusetts about 1638, from an unknown town in Dorset, England, possibly Shaftsbury (Shaston). She had 1 brother, and 3 older and 1 younger sisters.

Thomas RICE, b. 1625/26, the 4th of 13 children (father, Edmund RICE, mother Thomasina/Tamasin FROST), and his family came from Stanstead, Suffolk, England, arriving in early Massachusetts in 1638. Stanstead/Stansted is a small village about 40 miles north of London, England.

The Edmund RICE (1638) Association keeps detailed genealogies [with sources quoted/listed], and may be searched for more information. This is where I found my first details for this early immigrant family.

Mary KING married Thomas RICE in about 1651, although this has not yet been confirmed with documents.  They settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts, where they had 13 children:

1. Grace, b. 1652, d. 3 Jan 1653/54
2. Thomas (jr), b. 30 Jun 1654, d. after 1747; m. 10 Jan 1681/2 to his 1st cousin, Anna Rice; 14 children
3. Mary, b. 4 Sep 1656, d. 22 Aug 1733; m. (1st) 28 Nov 1678 to Josiah White; 7 children; (2nd) 15 Jul 1718 to Thomas Sawyer
4. [Capt.] Peter, b. 24 Oct 1658, d. 28 Nov 1753; m. abt 1688 to Rebecca How(e); 9 children
5. Nathaniel, b. 3 Jan 1660/61, d. 13 Nov 1726; m. (1st) Sarah Stone (d. 1704); (2nd) Dec 1704 to Patience Brown; 3 children
6. Sarah, b. 15 Jan 1661/62, d. abt 1742; m. bef 1706 to John Adams; 1 son
7. Ephraim, b. 15 Apr 1665, d. 25 Oct 1732; m. (1st) 21 Feb 1687/88 to Hannah Livermore, 10 children (Hannah d. 25 May? 1724);  m. (2nd) Mary Noyes
8. Gershom, b. 9 May 1667, d. 19 Dec 1768! ; m. abt 1694 to Elizabeth Balcom(me); 6 children
9. James, b. 31 Mar 1669, d. 14 Oct 1730; m. abt 1695 to Sarah Stone (not related to #5 or #11's wives); 10 children
10. Frances, b. 3 Feb 1669/70, d. abt 1767; m. abt 1689 to Benjamin Allen; 6 children
11. Jonas, b. 6 Mar 1672/73, d. 22 Sep 1753; m. 10 Feb 1701/02 to Mary Stone (sister to #5's wife, Sarah), 5 children
12. Grace, b. 15 Jan 1674/75, d. after 19 Dec 1768; m. 10 Feb 1701/02 to [Deacon] Nathaniel Moore [cousin?]; 9 children
13. Elisha,  [direct ancestor] b. 4 Dec 1679, d. bef 19 Oct 1761; m. 10 Feb 1705/06 to Elizabeth WHEELER, granddaughter of Resolved WHITE (Mayflower - see ship below); 7 children.
    Our family line goes down from their 6th child, Elijah RICE.  

A few family trees and articles note a 14th child, named "Remnant Rice" (b. 1681).  However this is quite unlikely for many reasons: the name itself is a big clue that this is a hoax, and in addition, it would be unlikely that Mary was still having children in 1681 or so. The Edmund Rice Association lists this name, but only to explain there is no evidence whatsoever that there has ever been such a child.  

Mary's 13 children (one died young) produced a grand total of 87 grandchildren! My hat tips to her in awe. I'm certain there would have been extended family members available to help, and I note there were several RICE families in the region, including her sister Elizabeth King who married Samuel Rice, Mary's brother-in-law. It does indeed take a village to raise families which were so large. I'm daunted by the laundry, sewing, cooking, gardening, and other tasks which would take so much of Mary's time each day, each season. 

Wish I could find a diary of this time, in order to find any details of how the women handled their daily tasks, and managed to find time with their many children. Generally, such a large group would break into several 'groups', e.g., the older few, the middle ones, the younger few. And the older children would have responsibility for the younger children, as soon as they became old enough to help out in that way.  

If you have information and corrections on Thomas RICE & Mary KING, and their children, I would be very pleased to receive any details. I may be contacted through the email at the bottom of the page, or in the Comments section below.

Blogger - or my computer - is still not letting me "reply" to your comments, for some unknown reason. If I don't reply to your Comment, please know that I'm totally thrilled you came to read my post and commented!  You truly make my day.

52 ANCESTORS, 52 THEMES, No. 22, Commencement/Beginnings: Resolved WHITE 1614 - abt 1687

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog based on Themes. Last week, it was Military.  This week, the theme is Commencement / Beginnings:  I've chosen Resolved WHITE.     

Time to write about the Mayflower ancestors, eh? Some information may be found on The Mayflower History site, Wikipedia, and the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, among other sources.  The image on this page is of a postcard, published by Smith's Inc, Plymouth, Mass., about 1930-1945, displayed in Boston Public Library.

William & Susanna WHITE, and their two sons, Resolved, born in England [direct ancestor] and Peregrine, his younger brother, born in the Provincetown harbour, are on my children's father's lines. They link into the RICE line, first immigrant Deacon Edmund RICE, who arrived in the colony in 1632. Details of the Pilgrim's colony beginnings may be found on many sites, as noted above.

William & Susanna WHITE and 5 year-old Resolved had a very rocky start to their trip to New England. Note that the WHITE couple with their two servants were part of the London Merchant group, which boarded in London, then sailed to Leiden to add the congregation members as passengers. In Leiden, the other ship needed lengthy repairs, and the group in the Mayflower set off finally quite late in the season, early in September.  Here is an excellent set of sketches to show the inside of the ship, Mayflower.

Mentioned above, after arriving at safe harbour in Provincetown Harbour on November 9th, Susanna delivered a second son on board ship, whom they named Peregrine, at the end of November 1620. As all know who learn about the Mayflower group of settlers, their first winter was extremely challenging and approximately half of the crew and passengers died. On 21 Feb 1620/1, William WHITE died, leaving his wife and two children on their own.  

Three months later, 12 May 1621, Susanna married Edward Winslow, who had also been widowed, his wife having died two months earlier. It must have been amazingly challenging for this couple to manage. Each had been very recently widowed, and were determined to settle in this new country with extremely limited resources. Susanna and Edward went on to have five children, plus her two earlier children.  Edward Winslow served as Governor, Assistant Governor and, as the colony's agent in England. 

Resolved WHITE was born 9 Sep 1614, in England.  By the 1630s, he moved with his stepfather and mother to Marshfield, later moving to Scituate where he was granted 100 acres next to William VASSALL's land.

On 6 Nov 1640, he married Judith VASSALL, whose family (William VASSALL & Anna KING) had arrived in 1635.  William VASSALL was a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; he left the Colony and settled in Barbados - another story altogether! 

Resolved and Judith had the following nine children, born and baptized in Scituate:

1. William, b. 10 Apr 1642, d. 24 Jan 1694/5
2. John, b. 11 Mar 1643/4
3. Sylvanus, b. 13 Mar 1645/6, d. as infant [not listed in some records]
4. Samuel, b. 13 Mar 1645/6, d. between 1720-1731; m. Rebecca ___, abt 1667.
5. Resolved [jr.], b. 12 Nov 1647, d. bef 27 Mar 1670
6. Anna, bap 10 Jun 1649, d. 25 May 1714 Concord MA; m. abt 1670 to John Hayward.
7. Elizabeth [ancestor], b. 10 Jun 1652/bap 4 Jul 1652, d. 27 Oct 1732 Concord MA; m. to Obadiah WHEELER on 17 Jul 1672; 9 children; Wheeler family arrived about 1639.
8. Josiah, b. 29 Sep 1654/bap 14 Oct 1654, d. bef 5 Jun 1710; m. abt 1680 to Remember Read; 5 known children
9. Susanna, b. Aug 1645/bap 9 Nov 1645

In 1656/7, Resolved and Judith - and likely, some of their children - travelled to Barbados, likely to aid in the settling of the estate of her father William who had settled there.

Resolved was made a Freeman of Plymouth County on June 1, 1658. By 1670, he was a Freeman of Marshfield.  He was actively involved in the early colony, and was a soldier in 1670, in King Philip's War. 

Judith, his wife, died by 3 Apr 1670 in Marshfield, aged 51 years.  On 5 Oct 1674, Resolved married for a second time to widow Abigail Lord [maiden name unknown].  Abigail died 27 Jun 1682, while they were living in Salem, where he had become a Freeman of Salem. 

After Abigail's death, Resolved moved back to Marshfield, likely living in the household of one of his children.  He is mentioned in a land transfer of his eldest son, William White, on 19 Sep 1687, and it is suggested that he died within a few years of this date. 

Resolved and his first wife Judith are buried in Winslow Cemetery in Marshfield. It is not known where his second wife, Abigail, is buried, nor when. 

Blogger is still not letting me "reply" to your comments, for some unknown reason. If I don't reply to your Comment, please know that I'm totally thrilled you came to read my post and commented! You make my day.

52 WEEKS, 52 THEMES: No. 2: When a VASSALL marries a KING

This year's challenge by Amy Crow is another weekly blog, but based on Themes.  Last week, it was Fresh Start.  This week, it's on King - anything related to the word, concept, or ancestral connection. 

Background:  My children's father's mother's line, the RICE line, goes back to the 1632 immigrant, Deacon Edmund RICE.  His grandson married Elizabeth WHITE, daughter of Resolved WHITE (who was the elder son of William & Susanna WHITE), an original Mayflower settler.  Um-hm, my ex-husband has Mayflower ancestors in the WHITE family.

But going back a bit further... Resolved WHITE, b. 9 Sep 1614 in Leiden, Netherlands, married first on 4 Apr 1640 in Scituate, Plymouth, Massachusetts, to Judith VASSALL, b. 1619 in Stepney, England, likely baptised in the same church as her mother; Judith was the eldest child of William VASSALL & Anna KING. Ah-ha!  Here's the KING in the family. Whew... bagged one.  The Vassall family had arrived in Massachusetts in 1635, arriving to settle, on the vessel, Blessing.

Anna KING.  
We have her baptism record as 1 Dec 1594, Woodham (Woodham Ferrers) Essex, England.  She likely was born within a few weeks of this date, but it is not listed on the record.  It does list her father - George KING, but not her mother. Likely this is because it was common for the mother to have a 'lying-in' for several weeks after the birth, and since she was not present at the baptism, she would not be listed as such. Frustrating, however. A family tree or two online have her mother listed as "Joane". An online index lists details of a likely Joane ROWSE married to a George Kinge as follows: ( Accessed: Ancestry.com. London, England, Extracted Parish Records [database on-line].):  

25 Feb 1589-90 George Kinge, of Hayes, co. Middx., Yeoman,
& Joane Rowse, Spinster, of Northall, sd co.,
dau. of William Rowse, late of same, Yeoman, decd; Gen. Lic.

And now doing a smidge of new searching, I find George KING's will, dated 14 Oct 1625, naming his wife as Joane, all three of his sons, listed in order as George, a daughter Judith, and his daughter Anna Vassall and his son-in-law, William Vassall.  Well, well, well. It wasn't posted anywhere last year, but here it is today. From the will one can find that George KING(e) owned several different farmlands and buildings, and also was Yeoman to 'his knight, Sir Arthur Harris'. His marriage lists him as Yeoman as well.

His burial record, in St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey, in south London on the south side of the Thames is quite clearly dated 7 Dec 1626, although I see online trees stating his death to be Dec 1625.  
The Church Register, "p.187-8, 1626, Burials - December, clearly shows written: 

                   7 | George King"

I wonder if this couple teased each other about how a King married a Vassal(l)? 

The five children they bore - 3 boys, 2 girls - all seem to have survived to adulthood and I may do a smidge more research on those other children if only to see if any others followed Anna & William over to the new colony in New England.

If you have information or corrections, please do not hesitate to let me know, either by contact through calewis at telus dot com, or in the Comments below.  Thank you so much for visiting and reading this post!