Nathaniel
Fish
aka Fyshe
Born about in East Farndon, Northamptonshire, England
Ancestors 
Son of Thomas (Fyshe) Fish
and Mary (Sprigge) Fish
Brother of
Cradock (Fyshe) Fishe, Ambrose (Fyshe) Fish, John Fish, Jonathan Fish, Esther (Fyshe) Fish and Hannah Fish
Husband of
Mehitable (Unknown) Fish
— married
about 1646 (to before 1665) in Plymouth Colony, New England [uncertain]
[uncertain] Husband of
Lydia (Miller) Fish
— married
about 1656 (to before 14 Mar 1694) in Sandwich, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]
Descendants [uncertain] 
Father of
Thomas Fish, Nathaniel Fish, Ambrose Fish, John Fish, Lydia (Fish) Jefts, Mercy (Fish) Blackwell, Nathan Fish, Jonathan Fish, Thomas Fish and Samuel Fish
Died before
before about age 76
in Sandwich, Barnstable, Province of Massachusetts Bay
Profile managers:
Bobbie Hall 
[send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], and John Putnam [send private message]
[send private message], Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], and John Putnam [send private message]Profile last modified
| Created 21 Sep 2010
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| Nathaniel Fish migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 115) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
Contents |
Biography
Nathaniel Fish was born about 1618,[1] and baptized the same day as his brother John, on 20 June 1619 in East Farndon, Northamptonshire, England, son of Thomas and Mary (Sprigge) Fish.[2]
He was one of three brothers, all sons of Thomas and Mary (Sprigge) Fish of East Farndon, Northamptonshire, England, who migrated to the colonies. Nathaniel, John and Jonathan were among a large number of persons who came with the "Ten men of Saugus," who came "chiefly from Lynn, Duxbury, and Plymouth" to Sandwich on Cape Cod.[3] Winthrop's History of New England, p. 253, tells us that in 1637:
- Another plantation was begun (and called Sandwich) about fifteen miles beyond Plimouth, towards Cape Cod, by many families, which removed from Saugus, otherwise Lynn.
The three Fish brothers were in this group of early settlers of Sandwich.
Nathaniel was granted meadow land in Sandwich 17 Apr 1641 with his brothers John and Thomas.[4]
Nathaniel married first probably in Sandwich, some say (without documentation) Mehitable _____, who was NOT the daughter of Rev. John Miller; she probably died by 1657 when he married secondly to Lydia Miller, a young daughter of the Rev. John Miller.[5][6] Lydia was about 16 years old[7] compared to Nathaniel's age of about 45. Their marriage record is not extant, but they likely married by the time their first child Lydia was born about 1658, also an estimated date.
He died before 14 March 1693/4 in Sandwich when the inventory of his estate was taken. "Lydia Fish vid Relict of Nathanaiel fish" made oath to the inventory on 04 October 1694.[8][9][9][1]
Widow Lydia and her brother, John Miller of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, administered the estate of Nathaniel Fish. In a pre-nuptial agreement, Nathaniel had agreed to pay her "as much as he had with her, £66." The inventory totaled about £31, with the entire estate was given to his 'last wife' Lydia.[8][10]
Children
- Thomas Fish, b abt 1646; d 24 Aug 1664.[4]
- Nathaniel Fish, b Sandwich 27 Nov 1648[4]
- Ambrose Fish [speculative], b abt 1650, d 1691 Sandwich; m Hannah[4] NOTE: There is no definitive proof that Nathaniel had a son Ambrose.
- John Fish b 13 Apr 1651[11]; d 8 Mar 1729/30; children included John Fish (1675) and Josiah (1681)
- Jonathan, b abt 1655[4]
- Lydia Fish b by 1658 (presumably an adult in a civil court case, Oct 1677) (last child born 1703, say age 45)
- Thomas Fish, b abt 1665.[4]
- Samuel Fish b 10 Aug 1668; d unm 2 Feb 1691/2; will proved 22 Mar 1691/2 bequests to his aged father; mentions brother Jonathan
Research notes
Two elder brothers stayed in England. One of these two, Ambrose (bapt. 18 Oct 1613), has been occasionally confused with Nathaniel's presumed son by the same name.
- NOTE: There is no proof yet that Nathaniel had a son by the name Ambrose.
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fish, Lester Warren. The Fish Family in England and America, Rutland, VT: Tuttle Pub. Co., 1948, Pages 11, 347+
- ↑ Fish, John Dean, "The Fish Family of Great Bowden in Leicestershire, England," in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 53 (1922):53-68.
- ↑ Freeman, Frederick, History of Cape Cod : annals of thirteen towns of Barnstable County, Boston: W.H. Piper & Co., 1869, c1862. Vol. 2:15-16.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Robert G Aldrich, "In Pursuit of the Elusive Miller Fish," in Connecticut Nutmegger, 22 (1989):196
- ↑ Wyman, Thomas Bellows, compiler, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, (etc), MA, 1629-1818 (Boston, MA: David Clapp and Son, 1879), Vol. 2, p. 1015. Miller-15420 Note: no dates suggested, only that she was "Lydia Fish."
- ↑ Suffolk County Probate Records, Vol. 11:66, Will of Susan White, 1687, Charlestown.
- ↑ Essex Institute, Vital Records of Rowley, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1928-1931), p. 138.
- "Miller, Lidea, d. John and Lidea, 2:12m:1640."
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Barnstable County Probate Records, Vol. 1:104. Inventory Nathaniel Fish.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bowman, George Ernest, "Abstracts of Barnstable County Probate Records," Mayflower Descendant, Volume 23:66-67, The Estate of Nathaniel Fish of Sandwich.
- ↑ Cutter, William Richiard, Genealogical and family history of central New York : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation (New York : Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1912) Vol. 1:30.(Also available here.)
- ↑ Kardell, Caroline L., and R.A. Lovell Jr., Vital Records of Sandwich Mass. to 1885 (Boston, MA: NEHGS, 1996), p. 6, citing PCR 8:14, "1651 Sandwidge Regester of beirths of children"
See also:
- Filby, P. William, ed., Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s, Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2009.
- Freeman, Frederick, The history of Cape Cod : annals of thirteen towns of Barnstable County, Boston: W.H. Piper & Co., 1869, c1862.
- The Connecticut Nutmegger. Glastonbury, CT: Connecticut Society of Genealogists, 1970-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) Vol. 7 (1974):477-479 (Contains errors).
- Vital Records of Rowley, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849; Essex Institute, Salem, MA, 1928-1931
Contributors
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships. Paternal line Y-chromosome DNA test-takers:
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- Profile in need of help from Mayflower project. Sep 24, 2013.
Rejected matches › Nathaniel Fish (1648-aft.1706)
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Categories: Puritan Great Migration
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
Winthrop's History of New England, p. 253, tells us that in 1637:
Freeman's History of Cape Cod, Vol 2:15-16 gives us a list which includes the 3 brothers Fish, and says that a large number of persons came with the "Ten men of Saugus, who came "chiefly from Lynn, Duxbury, and Plymouth."
More recently published is R.A. Lovell Jr.'s Sandwich, A Cape Cod Town, pages 7, 11, which reaffirms that the earliest family groups were from several towns:
To dismiss their route via Saugus/Lynn/Plymouth is to dismiss all of these sources. When I have a chance I'll try to reword the phrasing to clarify the unsourced section which does ask for a citation to support it.
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
In checking Lewis' History of Lynn, he lists the "Surnames Of All Residents of Lynn, from the time Plantation begain, in 1629, to the year 1700." That list includes the surnames Fish & Gaunt. I don't see how you can misread that to mean something other than they were seen, by Lewis' [corrected from Farmer's] research, to be in Lynn. See page 576. This is a later version of the book, published 1865, not 1829, so perhaps he found the need to clarify or expand, but I read this version to say he found their names in the records.
[Edited to add:] Out of curiosty, I checked Anderson's Great Migration Directory, thinking that perhaps there were a few other Fishes or Gaunts that he might be refering to. There is only one Gaunt, and that's Peter. There is one other early Fish up in Exeter, otherwise only the 3 Fish brothers who removed to Sandwich.
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall
I'm pointing out that a simple statement that they came from Lynn isn't credible. In all the work done on the Fish family of Sandwich I've seen, in print or otherwise, no one has provided good evidence that they were in Lynn, and I didn't find any when looking for primary documentation. Of course I may have missed something, which is why I ask that people who have seen it, or find it, share it.
You reference Farmer when mentioning Lewis's 1865 list of Lynn residents. Are you saying that Fish and Gaunt being on that list is based on Farmer? You say "I don't see how you can misread that [the inclusion of Fish and Gaunt] to mean something other than they were seen, by Farmer's research, to be in Lynn." Fish and Gaunt as Sandwich proprietors are in Lewis's 1829 edition (with the possibility that Lewis thought they were of Lynn, but that's unclear), published the same year as Farmer's work. In any case, I don't see an obvious connection. And, do we know where Farmer got the idea that the Fishes were in Lynn? Maybe from Lewis? Again, who knows.
Maybe some later publications say that the Fishes were from Lynn based on Lewis's second edition, but every one that I've seen says it in conjunction with their going to Sandwich. Lewis doesn't mention the Sandwich connection in his 1865 edition. So I infer that it was the 1829 edition that was the source. Clearly by 1865 Lewis certainly thought the had been in Lynn. It's not certainly stated in his 1829 edition. Therefore my reference to it, the Fish/Lynn/Sandwich scenario, as a possible misreading of that edition.
There are many published histories and genealogies from the 19th and early 20th centuries that have information that has since been disproven or come into serious question now that we have easier access to contemporary sources. That's why I don't think Lewis or Farmer hold up to the standards of genealogical proof. Hopefully, as a collaborative group, we can, at some point, say definitively that the evidence is lacking for some of these Lynn connections. Which is why I asked for input from others about credible evidence.
edited by Bobbie (Madison) Hall