Rowley, Massachusetts; Home of a Few of our Puritan Ancestors, The Boyntons, The Jewetts, The Spoffords, The Willards and Elijah Grout

Town Hall, Rowley Massachusetts

Something a little bit different today,,,I am going to start by featuring a place rather than  person or an ancestor.  The locations our ancestors lived in played an important role in their lives and it is important to know where they lived if you are trying to do your own Genealogical research. In the US, Vital Records are kept at the County level, although this can vary from State to State.  In Illinois, for example-there are some records in the County Court House files but they are also stored regionally and can be found online.
There are many locations that have played an important role in our family's History.

 Right here in Illinois, in Rock Island-I am a 4th generation Born and Bred Rock Islander-my Daughter was #5-all on the maternal line-My Great Grandmother Lena Gross Schieberl, her Daughter Mildred Schieberl McKenrick, My Mother, Barbara McKenrick Wright, me, my Daughter.  On Dad's side-three Generations, Dad, Robert Wayne Wright, me and my Daughter (My son was born in the next town over!)


Mercer County is also important to our family as our Wrights and Pattisons lived there for several generations.  James Monroe Wright settled there with a toddler Traverse Rock Wright, the father of our grandfather-who true to the old song...after WWI moved from rural farm country to the bustling town of Rock Island after he'd seen "Paree"

Camanche, Iowa was where the McKenrick brothers from Adams County, PA,  settled and raised their families.  When I was young, there were a lot of McKenricks in Camanche.  Today, there are still a few and many with allied names like Mensinger and Anson.

Adams County, of course is important as the home of the McKenricks-it was from here that this family spread throughout the US and indeed, the world.  Wherever you go, if you meet a McKenrick without a "d"...it is a good bet that they are my Cousin!

Plymouth Massachusetts is vital to our family History as it was the place our Pilgrim Ancestors first settled on New World soil.  From Plymouth, they moved on to other small communities in the Bay Colony and from there into Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.  After several generations, our Cushmans moved to the Georgia, Alabama, Panhandle of Florida area.

European places include Bohemia, home of the Schieberls for probably hundreds of years.  Alsace was where the Gross family traveled from, to land in LeClaire, IA, and our branch then came to Rock Island.  Many English villages and towns-mostly in the West and North of England were an original home of many of our Ancestors.  Scotland of the McKenricks and Duncans (and perhaps Northern Ireland at one time) and the McCorkles: the Hortons and Powells were undoubtedly from Wales originally There were Walloons, the Soules and the Rue family and French Huguenots, the Delano and Bessonette families from the Low Countries and France and Hanoverians, the Dickmeiers from Niedersaxon in Germany.

One small town in Massachusetts played a very large part in our Family's history and I'm willing to bet none of us have even heard of it.  Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts, population about 6,000.  I lived out there for a year, in Portsmouth, NH just 30 miles away and never heard of it.  Some of the bigger towns, Lawrence, Haverhill, Salem, Essex County, Masachusetts-those I heard of when I was out there, but never Rowley.  I even visited Salem.

Rowley was settled by a group of Puritans who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Spring of 1638; they sailed from Hull, England in the ship John of London.  There were about 20 families who accompanied Reverend Ezekiel Rogers.  They also shared their limited quarters aboard ship with the first Printing Press to land in the New World.  (It was later sold to Harvard University est. 1636).  This group joined a Church in Boston and wintered over there.  In the Spring of 1639, they decided to move on to form their own community and Church.

Before I go much further, I feel the need to make the distinction between our Puritan and our Pilgrim Ancestors.  Both Religious factions were predominately from England, they were Calvinists (more closely in tune with Presbyterianism, the Church of Scotland, than they were with Anglicanism, the Church of England)-they both wanted to reform the Anglican Church founded by Henry VIII.  Henry broke with the Roman Catholic Church headed by the Pope in the 1530's because he wanted a divorce from his first wife Catherine so that he could marry his second wife, Anne Boleyn.  He established the English Church with himself as its Head thus assuring he could have anything he desired.  This new Church was very similar in Theology and Ritual to Catholicism.

The 2 major Reformists groups of the time were the Separatists-those who wished to separate from the Anglican Church-the Religious Pilgrims of the Mayflower belonged to this Sect.  The other-the Puritans-wished to reform and purify the Church of its popery...in other words, its similarity to Catholicism.  While both of these groups came to the Colonies seeking religious freedom-neither of them were tolerant of religious ideology different from their own.  We have already seen a little of the difficulties of the Quakers when trying to live among the Puritans.  Eventually most of the Reformists became either Presbyterian or Congregationalists.  This is a very complex subject which I have tried to simplify in a few sentences.  To learn more:  http://www.plymouth-church.net/congregationalway.html

So, back to Rowley: to Ezekiel Rogers and his band of Puritan settlers.  3 of our Grandfathers,  John Boynton, Joseph Jewett and John Spofford were aboard the John.  Another, Richard Swan left Boston and joined the group traveling to  Rowley.  Elinor ( or Ellen) Pell also in Boston, married John Boynton and traveled with her new husband to found a Settlement and Church at Rowley.  Rowley was named for the town in England, in Yorkshire where Ezekiel Rogers had been Pastor and was dismissed for refusing to comply in reading a certain text that he disagreed with.

The line of descent for these 4 families is:
 William  Boynton (born 1590-died Unknown )our 10th Great Grandfather (1) who remained in England; his son The Immigrant John Boynton, and Rowley Founder(1614-1670) (2) married Elinor Pell, our 9th Great Grandparents; their son Captain Joseph Boynton (1644-1700) (3) our 8th Great Grandfather, married Sarah Swan, daughter of Richard Swan, The Immigrant and Rowley Founder (1607-1678);  their son Hilkiah Boynton  (1687-1745)  (4) our 7th Great Grandfather married Priscilla Jewett (4) Granddaughter of Joseph Jewett The Immigrant  (2) and Rowley Founder; their Daughter, our 6th Great Grandmother Joanna Boynton (1712-1779) (5) our 6th Great Grandmother married John Grout (1704-1770) (5) (whose family arrived in 1640 to Massachusetts Bay Colony, also probably Puritans but not from Rowley): their son Elijah Grout,  (1702-1837) (6), our 5th Great Grandfather  married Mary Willard (6) (whose family also arrived in the early 1630's) and he was a Commisary in the American Revolution and their daughter was Katy Grout (7) who married Clark Cushman (7) descendant of eight  Mayflower Passengers;  their Daughter Josephine Cushman (8) married Henry Pattison (whose mother's family the Gardners descended from George and Herodias Long  and the Whaleys descended from Theophilus-both included in previous Posts)  (8) , their daughter Kate Pattison  (9) married T.R.Wright  (9), their son was Robert Burns Wright (10), their son Robert Wayne Wright (11)  and his daughter ME  (12)!!  YAY!

The Boyton line is our oldest documented line: The name is first mentioned in 1067.  Many of the Boyntons were Knights (Sir Thomas, Sir Ingram etc).  This accounts for the fact that they are so well documented-there was land to be inherited so it was important to know the line of descent.

Above 3 pages show the Boynton Lineage from the Earliest mention in 1067 to the Father of the Immigrant John

Title Page of The Boynton Family Genealogy-this list differs from others I have seen, in which the 1st Boynton listed was named Torchill    http://www.quine.org/boynton.html

Again-thankfully, I inherited all of this Genealogy from my Grandfather.  I don't think I would have had the patience to do this family on my own!!

By the time Joanna Boynton married John Grout  the Boynton family lived in Lunenburg, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Their son Elijah who married Mary Willard lived in Charlestown, Sullivan County, New Hampshire.  The Cushmans, Clarke and Katy Grout Cushman lived on the Vermont side of the border in Barnet Vermont.


Elijah Grout, our 5th Great Grandfather was a Revolutionary Patriot.  He served as Commissary for the Vermont Revolutionary Forces.  Prior to this time, he had served as a Delegate to various Delegations at the Local and Colonial level.  He was appointed to the Committee of Safety.  Charlestown, NH-where the Grouts lived was originally called "Plantation No. 4".  Eventually during the King George's War and the French and Indian Wars a Fort was built at the site.  It was not in use during the Revolution although it was still referred to as such.  Our 4th Great Grandparents Clark and Katy Grout (daughter of Elijah) Cushman are listed in some Registers as marrying at "The Fort at No. 4" (In others it is listed as Charlestown).

There is, today, a Replica of the Fort that is a Living History Museum.  There is a great Video on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzUjSkoytMA


There is also a Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/The-Fort-at-No-4-125938420768003/

"Letters from Commissary Elijah Grout from:

               

Elijah Grout and Mary Willard had 11 children although the youngest died as a toddler.  Mary died in 1786 and Elijah remarried a Widow with 10 children.  He died in 1807