Holbrook line: Stephen Gates 1597-1662

 Stephen Gates's origins are pretty much a mystery.  Oh, we know where he was born and when, and we know who his parents were.  But beyond that, there are questions.  I'll start with speculation and then we'll go to known facts, which fortunately, are relatively plentiful for this immigrant ancestor.

Stephen Gates was baptized December 26, 1597 in Coney Weston, Suffolk, England.  This was a very small village near the east coast of England.  His parents were Eustis or Eustace and Rose Wright Gates.  We know Rose's parents, Martin and Elizabeth (maiden name not known) Gates, but we don't know the parents of Eustace.  We do know that Eustace described himself in his will as a laborer.  We also know the will spelled his last name as Jacques.  I've also seen it as Jayuettes. 

 Now, here's the speculation:  Either the English clerk who wrote this out was a notoriously bad speller, or...perhaps Eustace himself, or his father, was from a French speaking country.  This would not be the first family of French descent we've found in Elizabethan England, as the French Huguenots had been allowed into the country following the massacre of St Bartholomew's Day (and following) in 1572.  Many of the Huguenots, even though they may have had a good education in France, could find only menial jobs, such as laborer, in England.  That is speculation, but what we can say with a degree of certainty is that Stephen was not the grandson of Peter and Mary Josselyn Gates, names frequently seen on family tree databases.

Stephen was 28 years old when his father died in 1626, and apparently what he inherited from his father was enough to allow him to marry on May 5, 1628 in Hingham, Suffolk, England to Anne Neave, daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Neave.  (There is some controversy about Anne's name, some thinking it was Veare, but a 2009 article by Edward Harrison in The Register has me pretty well convinced it's Neave. The Coney Weston web site lists her name as Beare, which is another possibility.) 

The couple had at least three children in England, and they came to Massachusetts together as a family in the ship Diligent in 1638.  They lived for a time in Hingham, which was part of Plymouth Colony, possibly finding relatives or neighbors from the "old country" there.  Some of their children were baptized in the Puritan church there, in 1646.  It appears that Stephen was able to pay for his passage and that of his children, since there is no mention of him as an indentured servant. 

By 1654, Stephen and Rose were in Lancaster, Massachusetts, about 43 miles from Hingham, and still pretty much a frontier town.  Stephen was made a freeman there in 1656 and in 1657 was chosen as constable.  There may have been some tensions with neighbors, though, because Stephen asked in court to have John Whitcomb recompense him for the loss of three swine killed by his sons.  Whitcomb responded by saying he was aged and weak and asked for the fine to be withdrawn; I didn't find a resolution to this issue.  One of Stephen's daughters, Mary, was apparently outspoken and was chastised for speaking out in church.  

It may have been time to move on, or Stephen may have been aging, but he died in Cambridge, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1662.  Roger Thompson in Cambridge Cameos suggests that some may  have thought Stephen was not of sound mind when he died, so perhaps he had gone to live with or near family who could care for him.  (I don't, however, show any of the 7 children of Stephen and Rose as having died in Cambridge, so perhaps they had other reasons for moving.)

We are fortunate to have Stephen's will, but not so fortunate in that it is difficult to read.  He left legacies to his wife as long as she remained a widow, and to his children.  His inventory is 4 columns long but isn't totaled in the papers I found.  He still owned several plots of land in Lancaster, plus various farm animals and even some silver, if I'm reading this correctly.  At any rate, he didn't die a poor man.  

I haven't found mention of Stephen in any skirmishes with the natives but he died well before King Philip's War.  He likely would have been part of the training band (militia) but whether he ever had to go on patrol or not we don't know.  That's just one of the questions remaining about Stephen.  

The line of descent is

Stephen Gates-Ann Neave

Elizabeth Gates-John Lazell

Israel Lazell-Rachel Lincoln

Isaac Lazell-Deborah Marsh

Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood

Susanna Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook

Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants