Holbrook line: John Eames 1668-1735

 Here's another John Eames, our ancestor, the first John Eames in our line of three men by that name, but to have a blog post devoted to him.  (I have a strange way of choosing subjects for a blog post, mostly akin to throwing darts at a dart board, sometimes missing entirely!)  He may actually be the most interesting of the three men, although all have their own stories to tell.

John Eames (also seen as Emms, Emes, and Ames) was born May 9, 1668 in Woburn, Massachusetts, the son of Robert and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown) Eames.  He was one of at least eight children born to the couple, with at least two and possibly three siblings dying as infants.  John was the next to the youngest child, so he would not have had memories of the deaths of his siblings.  Either he heard the sad stories, though, or he heard nothing at all.  We don't know how his parents dealt with their losses as more children arrived, whether they communicated or held their sorrows inside.  

We don't know anything about John's childhood, whether he attended school, was taught at home, or even whether his was a Puritan family, because his father's history is murky.  Fortunately, we do know a little more about John's life after he married.  John married Abigail Rosemorgie, later known as Morgan, on February 1, 1698, in New London, (or Groton, across the river) Connecticut.  Abigail's parents were Richard and Hopestill Merrick Rosemorgie, who had Welsh ancestry.  John had been in New London since at least 1695, but we don't know how or why he settled there.  

John and Abigail had at least five children before Abigail died, probably in childbirth, on February 25, 1713.  He soon remarried, to Paltiah Stebbins, on July 30 of that same year, and they had three children together.  It would have been quite a household, with the oldest children just entering their teen-aged years when they lost their mother and acquired a step-mother in very short order.  

John then pretty much disappears from New London's story, although we have no reason to think that he ever lived elsewhere.  We don't know whether he was caught up in King William's or Queen Anne's war, and we're not even sure what his occupation was, although we do know he owned land and farmed.  Most of the additional information we have, sadly, is from his will.

John died June 1, 1735 at New London, having just turned 67 a few weeks earlier.  He is buried at the Ancient Cemetery there.  Information we can glean or infer from his will:  He was a religious man, because his will opens with more than the typical verbiage about returning the body to the earth and the soul to God.  He commends his spirit to God, "humbly beseeching Him to accept it in and through the mediation of His Beloved Son my only Saviour and (can't read) Redeemer."  

He left half of his home and farmland to his wife during her widowhood (more than the law required), and one third of his moveables to be hers forever, so that she could give them to whomever she wished.  His two older children received ten shillings each, because he had already given them what he intended to earlier in their lives, and a daughter received five pounds because she also had received a deed of gift earlier.  Sons Samuel and Robert received land, and daughter Hannah received 80 acres of land at "Vollington". which would be Voluntown.  Most of the land at Voluntown was granted to men, or their heirs, who had fought in King Philips War, which gives us a clue that perhaps Robert had fought in the war.  It's also, of course, possible that John had simply purchased this land from someone else.  

John's inventory is hard for me to read, although someone with better eyesight than mine may be able to make out more words than I can.  It includes books, spinning wheels, farm animals and tools, and an unnamed Negro woman, among other "items".  (I had speculated in an earlier post about his son John as to whether the son was a slave holder, and now here is evidence that his father was such a man. The unnamed woman was valued at 20 pounds.)  The inventory isn't totaled but appears to include mostly small items, supporting John's statement in his will regarding earlier "deeds of gift" to his older children.

I would love to know more about John, especially his occupation, and whether the "Negro woman" was the only slave he had held.  But this is enough to put him in a particular time and place, and to give him a place in our family history.

The line of descent is:

John Eames-Abigail Rosemorgie

John Eames-Rachel Comstock

John Eames-Elizabeth Longbottom

Hannah Eames-James Lamphire

Susan Lamphire-Joseph Eddy

Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants