Who are the parents of Captain William Gerrish (–1687), early settler of Newbury, MA?

Question

Hi,

While researching the family of my ancestor John Gerish (–1638) of Bromham, clothier, I stumbled on the WikiTree profile of Captain William Gerrish (–1687), an early settler of Massachusetts who served in the Frontier wars. Interestingly, many of the names of the Captain’s children overlap with those of my ancestor’s children. In particular:

• He named his first son John, the same name as my ancestor and one of his sons;
• He is said by James Savage to have named his second child Abigail, the same name as my ancestor’s second wife and one of his daughters;
• He named one of his sons Benjamin, the same name as one of my ancestor’s sons;
• He named one of his daughters Mary, the same name as one of my ancestor’s daughters;
• He named one of his daughters Elizabeth, the same name as one of my ancestor’s daughters; and
• He is said by Savage to have named one of his daughters Ann, the same name as one of my ancestor’s daughters.

Now, as it turns out, my ancestor and his second wife Abigail also had a son named William who was baptised on 24 February 1622/3 in Rowde. I have been unable to find a burial or marriage record in Rowde or Bromham (where my ancestor later moved) to show that that William either married or passed away.

Even more interesting is that my ancestor died in 1638 and this William is said to have moved to Massachusetts in either 1639 or 1640.

The primary obstacle to connecting William to my ancestor is that he is said by a great many secondary sources to have been born on 20 August 1617 in Bristol.

To date, however, I have been unable to find a primary source to support that claim, whether it be a will that refers to William as a relative or a record that gives his age at a particular date, yielding that birth year. On the contrary, I recently discovered that William was deposed in a trial in Essex, Massachusetts in 1685 and gave his age as 64, which results in a birth year of 1621, just one year off from when my ancestor’s son was baptised.

My question is thus, who are the real parents of William and what is his true birth year? Could he be the son of John and Abigail Gerish of Bromham? Is there anything to support his asserted birthdate of 20 August 1617?

Comments

Hi O, Thanks for posting this.  Can you explain what you mean by "this William is said to have moved to Massachusetts in either 1639 or 1640."  Wondering who is saying this?

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I found a reference to 1639 that cited “Biographical sketches of representative citizens of the commonwealth of Massachusetts”. I found 1640 in James Savage’s “A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England”.

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May or may not be useful

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D862180

Abigail’s will.  She leaves all her children twenty pounds a piece, (if you include Abigail getting £40, because her brother John already owes her £20), apart from her sons Edward Baynton & William Gearish; they only get £5 & must demand it within two years or it goes to other children.

Not sure if it really helps, on one hand this could be taken as William not being there; but Edward appears to have remained in England, so possibly not. 

I’m not sure that Ydna helps that much. Surely it can only tell you if the two sets of Gerish’s are related to one another, but can’t answer this specific question? It would still be a guess, without more evidence.

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Thanks, O. I was wondering if the reference was something perhaps on the England side...along the lines of what L Felix was referencing.

L Felix, that is interesting. It indicates that her son William was alive (or at least believed to be) in 1649 when the will was written. If only people had known the weight of their words over 400 years later when they wrote their wills.

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Great find L! Just wondering what evidence you've identified to suggest that Edward Baynton remained in England? I've actually being trying to figure out where he ended up... I assumed he died young since I couldn't find him but maybe he left with William?

RE Y-DNA, you could confirm William's parentage by finding another descendant of John's and checking whether they are a close Y-STR match of a descendant of William's. I've been able to use Y-DNA to confirm my line going back to the 1500s. However, it may be quite difficult to find anyone that's tested their Y-STRs. But even knowing someone's haplogroup as reported by 23andMe can be enough to make John and Abigail good candidates, that is particularly so if the haplogroup is rarer.

I can give a real-life example. Last year or the year before, while also looking for a child of one of my ancestors, I found that someone had linked Aaron Rawlings, an early settler of Anne Arundel, to my family on an Ancestry family tree. I ended up researching his life and found a great many similarities, including the names of his children (Daniel, Stephen and Moses), the fact that he named a parcel of land 'Wiltshire', his religion (Quakerism) and the fact his reported age at the time of his passing yields the same birth year as his baptism. I ended up tracking down a living descendant of his, asked if they had done a 23andMe DNA and if so what their haplogroup was and it turned out to be the same as mine. It also helped that my haplogroup is relatively rare.

Of course, it could be that the haplogroup shared by any Gerisshes found is quite common and also given the rarity of the surname, who is to say that most Gerrishes don't belong to the same genetic family? So I wouldn't consider a shared haplogroup a confirmation of my theory, but I would consider it some additional evidence that lends more confidence to the theory.

EDIT: Just a thought, I might check if any Edward Bayntons popped up in Newbury around the same time as William... That would be very interesting since its an even rarer surname (according to Forebears).

Answer 1

My first reaction is that while there are a lot of names in common, all of those names are pretty frequently seen.  Its unfortunate that the more unusual names such as Moses, Judith and Simon are not seen in both families.

It looks like another source for his birth date comes from  Salem Vital Record transcriptions, which gives: "W[illia]m, Capt., Aug. 19, 162_. CT. R. [1620. T. C.]" The original sources are the Essex County Quarterly Court Record, and the Town Copy of the records.

I tried some searching the EQC records but didn't come up with anything to match this information, but I also didn't do a methodical search. It would be helpful to see the context to really evaluate how much weight to give that date.

Still, I think that William of Wiltshire is a good candidate, but I think additional evidence should be sought.

Comments

Here's a link to the Essex Quarterly Court record cited as Vol. 9:475:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89067299693&seq=491
You'll find William's record at the bottom of the page.

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Thanks, Bobbie.  From what I see in the Salem VR book, we are looking for a mention of a specific date, and not just an age given in a deposition.  And I didn't see that in that record.

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Understood, and my pointer to the EQC is to show that it does not actually give that date, although Savage does.

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The tan books are pretty specific about the source of the information, referencing both the court record and the town copy of those records.

Answer 2

I can empathize.  Hopefully, you will eventually solve the mystery.

I have a similar situation with the 1630’s William Franklin in Newbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Is he the 1634 Wm the blacksmith from the Mary and John (Ipswitch), the 1638 Wm the farmer (Muddy River), or are they the same person because it was easier to say he went back to England and died there (1658) than to say the truth that he was hung in Boston (June 1644) for the murder of his London street child servant? Or maybe was he snuck out of Boston and back to England after his conviction due to the people having mixed beliefs due to his importance to the local people as a tradesman plus being one of the original settlers?

Did the 1630’s stories become combined over time with Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin’s illegitimate son, Wm the Virginia Colony Governor, who did go back to England in exile for being a Loyalist?

We may never know.

Answer 3

In a half-hearted attempt to answer the question of his supposed birth date, Savage reports two dates of birth found: 20 Aug 1617 and 17 Aug 1620, and that he came of age in 1640. He further states that "by tradition it is idly said he was an officer under the Duck of Buckingham, yet as the gr. Duke was assassinated 23 Aug 1628, when Gerrish was at most eleven years old, or only eight, an anc. Duke of B. could not have come before 1640, we may slight the report."

While onomastics is a useful tool, I see it as only a "hint" for the relationships, not a solution. Finding no further record of William, son of John of Rowde/Bromham is another such "hint." But considering the general dearth of records in this era, it's inconclusive in itself. If some additional link can be found for "your" William of Bromham to the emigrant, he's a good candidate. But I don't see anything obvious at this stage. 

Comments

Agreed, none of this is conclusive unfortunately. There is, however, one way of bolstering my theory. I could track down a male-line descendant of the Gerrishes of Wiltshire and a descendant of William Gerrish and see if they share the same Y-DNA haplogroup. A Y-STR match would be even better but that may not be possible. If we can find two Gerrishes who have done 23andMe DNA tests, we’d also be able to get their haplogroups.

It wouldn’t qualify as DNA confirmation because there’s always a possibility that all living Gerrishes (barring NPEs) descend from a common ancestor or that the Y-DNA haplogroup is broad enough to encompass multiple distinct Gerrish lines, but I think it would be enough to make John and Abigail Gerrish of Rowde good candidates.

Maybe I can make a seperate post calling for anyone who is a Gerrish or knows a Gerrish to share their haplogroups.

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Excellent idea.