Running from the Law - 52 Ancestors #41

Henry Jaques, Jr. is my 8th great-uncle. He was born in 1649,  the son of Henry & Anna (Knight) Jaques. In 1666, at the age of 17, Henry got himself into some trouble with the law and fled, possibly with some help from his father. Henry Jr. was found guilty of fornication with Elnor Bryner. 

Elnor was left to face the charges alone and was sentenced to be whipped or pay a fine of £5. Her fine was paid by John Knight. 








The court dealt harshly with Henry Jaques, Jr. He was ordered to appear in court or the penalty would be the forfeiture of 30% of his estate and the loss of the right to vote. Henry ended up with two fines. The first was for £30, six times what Elnor paid! He paid a second fine two months later, but the amount of the second payment is unknown. 



Henry married Anne Trueman, probably about 1673. They had four children.

Sources:
Essex Quarterly Court records
The Ancestry of Phoebe Tilton  by Walter Goodwin Davis

Henry Jaques, Sr. 
Elizabeth (Jaques) Knight
Henry Knight
Eunice (Knight) Sawyer
Hannah (Sawyer) Hilton
Catherine (Hilton) Churchill
Loann (Churchill) Rowe
Anna J. (Rowe) Hayes
Eva D. (Hayes) Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Tombstone Tuesday - Nathaniel Merrill

Memorial Stone - Newbury First Burying Ground

Nathaniel Merrill's Will, Part 1

Nathaniel Merrill's Will, Part 2

Nathaniel Merrill's Inventory, Part 1

Nathaniel Merrill's Inventory, Part 2

The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, Vol. 1

Nathaniel Merrill
Abel Merrill
Nathaniel Merrill
Priscilla (Merrill) Knight
Eunice (Knight) Sawyer
Hannah (Sawyer) Hilton
Catherine (Hilton) Churchill
Loann (Churchill) Rowe
Anna J. (Rowe) Hayes
Eva D. (Hayes) Yates
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

The Knights of Romsey - 52 Ancestors #19

The tangled tale of the Knights of Romsey, Hampshire, England. Try to follow all the family connections if you can. 

William & Elizabeth (Carter) Knight lived in Romsey, Hampshire, England and had at least four children according to baptismal records. The oldest son, Richard, was baptized in May 1589 and buried in June 1596. Next came daughter, Thomasine, who was baptized in June 1590. The other two children, John (baptized in January 1595) and Richard (baptized in January 1603) came to the Massachusetts Bay colony on the James in 1635 and settled in Newbury. They are both called tailors. 

John Knight was married and had several children but only two were living when they family came to the colonies. He married Elizabeth Vincent on March 29, 1624 in Romsey. Their children were:

1. Elizabeth baptized on May 16, 1625 and buried two days later. 
2. John baptized on May 14, 1626.
3. Elizabeth baptized on October 13, 1628 and buried six days later. 
4. Elizabeth baptized on May 22, 1632 and no further record. 
5. Mary baptized on August 10, 1634.
6. Sarah was born after they came to the colonies, probably about 1636.

Elizabeth (Vincent) Knight died on March 20, 1645 in Newbury and John would marry again. 

He and his son, John, married a mother and daughter but there is no record that shows which marriage came first. John, Sr. would marry Agnes (Langlye) Ingersoll between 1644-1652 and John, Jr. would marry Bathsheba Ingersoll before 1648. 

John Knight, Sr. appears to have been quite prosperous as he had a servant, William Nef. He also paid court fines for two women. On April 8, 1651, he paid a fine for Frances Usellton so she would not be whipped but her crime is not listed and I can find no other information on her. On March 27, 1666, he paid the fine for Elnor Bryer so she would not be whipped for the crime of fornication.  A Sketch of the History of Newbury, Newburyport, and West Newbury, from 1635 to 1845, by Joshua Coffin shows a Richard Bryer married Eleanor Wright on December 26, 1665. She died August 29, 1672. and the couple had three children born between 1667-1670. It is unclear if this is the Elnor Bryer for whom John Knight, Sr. paid the fine but it is the only reference to an Elnor Bryner that I could find. 

Richard Knight, brother of John Sr., married a woman named Agnes before 1626. The couple had children born on both sides of the Atlantic. 

1. A Stillborn child was buried on June 17, 1626 in Romsey. 
2. Richard was buried July 15, 1627. 
3. William was baptized on December 7, 1628 in Romsey. 
4. Anna was baptized on May 5, 1631 in Romsey. She would come to Massachusetts and marry Henry Jaques on October 8, 1648. 
5. Richard was baptized on October 18, 1633 in Romsey. 
6. Elizabeth was born between 1634 and 1641. She married Anthony Morse on May 8, 1660. 
7. Rebecca was born on March 3, 1642 and married Abiel Somerby on November 13, 1661. 
8. Sarah was born on February 23, 1648 and married John Kelley on May 20, 1663. 

Richard Knight was in the court record on May 5, 1663. "Richard Knight and Hugh Marsh" were presented "for playing cards at the house of the former." One of the witnesses against them was Bathsheba (Ingersoll) Knight, wife of John Knight, Jr., nephew of Richard Knight. 

John Knight, Sr. died in May 1670 and Richard Knight died on August 4, 1683. 

So ends the tale of these two Knights of Romsey. 

Lines of descent:
William Knight - John Knight, Sr. (he married second Agnes (Langlye) Ingersoll and his son married her daughter) - John Knight, Jr. (he married Bathsheba, daughter of Richard & Agnes (Langlye) Ingersoll. Bathsheba testified against her husband's uncle, Richard Knight) - Richard Knight -Henry Knight - Eunice Knight - Hannah Sawyer - Catherine Hilton - Loann Churchill - Anna J. Rowe - Eva D. Hayes - Linona A. Yates - my grandmother

William Knight -Richard Knight - Anna Knight - Elizabeth Jaques m. Richard Knight (see above)

Richard Ingersoll m. Agnes Langlye - George Ingersoll ( I also descend through his sister, Bathsheba, who married John Knight, Jr.) - Samuel Ingersoll - Dorcas Ingersoll - Jonathan Rowe - William Rowe - William Rowe - Stephen B. Rowe - Charles H. N. Rowe - Anna J. Rowe (see above).

Hugh March (Marsh) - George March - Sarah March - Elizabeth Deering - Eliakim Emmons - Jacob Emmons - Laura Emmons - Estes G. Yates - Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother. 

Dressed To Impress? - 52 Ancestors #17

Only the wealthiest were allowed
to have gold buckles or buttons

This week's optional 52 Ancestors theme is "prosper" so I thought it appropriate to talk about the case of Agnes Knight who was not thought to be wealthy enough to warrant her wearing a silk hood. Well, apparently her family had prospered in the New World as her husband's good friend testified in his letter to the justices of Salem.


In her book, Women in Early America: Struggle, Survival and Freedom in the New World, Dorothy Mays discusses the sumptuary laws of colonial Massachusetts. These laws banned the wearing of gold or silver lace or buttons, ribbons, silk hoods, and other "fancy" items. Only the most wealthy of colonists were exempt from these laws. Even the very wealthy were banned from long wigs or flowing shirt sleeves. Mays outlines some historical precedents for these laws and notes that many Governor John Winthrop even spoke to colonists about the need to keep adornments in the home to a minimum because such displays caused others to feel bad about themselves.

In 1653 the wife of Deacon Knight (Agnes, wife of Richard), was summoned to court for wearing a silk hood. This troubled him exceedingly, and in his behalf his friend, Mr. Edward Rawson wrote to one of the justices at Salem the following note:

Honorable Sir, 
An honest godly man, a friend of mine in Newbury, whose name is Richard Knight, whether of ignorance or wilfulness by some neighbour is presented for his wife's wearing of a silk hood, supposing he has not been worth two hundred pounds. It being grievance to him, who is advanced (in years) to be summoned to court, that never useth to trouble any, at his request I thought fit to inform you on my owne knowledge of his estate is better worth than three hundred, and therefore I desire you would, as you may, forbeare, in your warrant to insert his name, in it, it may be; if not, at least that you would take private satisfaction of him in your chamber, which he can easily give you, or any, in a moment. Not else at present but my service to you and Mr. Symon Bradstreet. 
Yours friend and servant, 
Edward Rawson
Now at Newbury, the fourteenth of August, 1653 

Agnes Knight was my 10th great-grandmother.

Richard & Agnes (__) Knight
Anna Knight
Elizabeth Jaques
Henry Knight
Eunice Knight
Hannah Sawyer
Catherine Hilton
Loann Churchill
Anna J. Rowe
Eva D. Hayes
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

Massachusetts Sumptuary Laws Women of Early America by Dorothy A. Mays, 2004

Surname Saturday - Gawkroger of Platts

One of the more interesting names in my family tree is Gawkroger. Depending on which source one finds, it means something along the lines of "awkward or clumsy" Roger or "left-handed" Roger. Tracking down the Gawkrogers gets interesting as some of the family of immigrants used the surname Platts. Heather Wilkinson Rojo wrote a post about the family last July. Platts is a place name and evidently used to distinguish my ancestors from those of another "awkward/clumsy/left-handed Roger."

Names and History: People, Places, and Things by George Redmond uses the Gawkroger surname to demonstrate the linguistic and social development of a surname (p. 38-39). "In a roll of 1545, for example, six individuals were taxed in Sowerby and two more in Hartshead and Liversedge. It was not a prolific surname but probably more numerous than these figures suggest, for there would be some families who were not sufficiently well off to be included." He goes on to trace the evolution of the name to various aliases that different branches started to use. The name Platts came from a property and the family was said to be "of Platts" and some eventually took Platts as their surname. Another branch of the family lived near Sowerby Bridge and took the surname Brigge. Yet another became Barker - possibly from the northern England word for a tanner. He concludes "The lesson for genealogists is clear, for while they would probably accept that Gaukroger might have such variants as Gawkroger and Gaukrodger, or even Corkroger and Cockroger, they would find it more difficult to to come to terms with aliases such as Barker, Platts, Brigg, Ro(d)gers, Gawke, and even Cockrobin."

Mary Gawkroger was the daughter of Abram and Martha (Riley) Gawkroger. She married John Prescott on April 11, 1629 in Sowerby, Yorkshire, England. The couple went first to Barbadoes and then became one of the first families of Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Mary Prescott married Thomas Sawyer and had a daughter, Mary.
Mary Sawyer married James Houghton and I descend from two of their sons, Ephraim & Thomas.

Ephraim Houghton & Hannah Sawyer
Elisha Houghton & Meriah Pierce
Moses Houghton & Martha Haskell
Sally Houghton & James Dunham
Florilla Dunham & Asa Freeman Ellingwood
Nina Ellingwood & George Gibbs
Annie Florilla Gibbs & Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton

Thomas Houghton
Hannah Houghton & John Pierce
Meriah Pierce & Elisha Houghton (first cousins, once removed)

Names & History: People, Places, and Things