Holbrook line: John Upham, Immigrant

It's a wonderful thing to find information about an ancestor who hadn't really been on my radar.  However, he was on Robert Charles Anderson's radar, for his "Great Migration" project, and I'm so glad.  He actually found about 10 pages of information about our ancestor, but I'll not use all of it here as I try to keep these posts to ten paragraphs or less. 

John's parents were Richard and Maria Upham, and he was born in about 1599 in Bicton, Devon, England.  This was a tiny little village (current population about 280) with a long history dating back to the Domesday Records.  The church that was in place when John was born is partially demolished now, and was replaced by something more "modern" in 1850.  It's almost on the coast of southern England, but with no apparent connection to the ocean.  We don't know anything about John's like in England, until in 1626 he married Elizabeth Slade, also in Bicton.  We then find that they traveled to the New World on board the Marygould in 1635.   He was listed as a husbandman, aged 35 and his wife was 32.  There were three Upham children, and also Sarah Upham, who was 26 and traveling with them.  She was a sister to John.

John and his family first settled at Weymouth, probably with a newborn son Phineas, and there were two additional children born to the couple while they lived at Weymouth.  He probably joined the Weymouth church almost immediately, because he was made a freeman on September 2, 1635.  He was a deputy for Weymouth several times in the 1630s,.  During the middle 1640s, he was selectman four different times,  He was given land at least twice during the land divisions of the villate of Weymouth, and by 1643 owned a lot of thirty acres, plus two acres of salt march, and other plots of four acres and two acres.

Sometime in 1650 or 1651 it appears that the family left Weymouth and moved to Malden.  , where he served several times as a Malden commissioner to end small cases, and a Malden Selectman.  He also got himself in trouble with the church, or rather, with the pastor who was called to the church against the wishes of several Malden men, and the advice of the authorities.  Thirteen of the men, including our John Upham, were forced to apologize, and they were fined, which fine was upheld when the men appealed the judgement.  The men may have had the last word, however, as the pastor did not stay long in Malden.  John was selected a deacon of the church in 1658.Katherine 

By 1662 John was starting to dispose of some of his lands.  He gave land to his daughter in law, and to his son Phineas.  Unfortunately, Phineas died shortly after his father, not having carried out the terms of his father's will to give legacies to John's three surviving daughters.  Elizabeth Slade Upham died after February 2, 1670 and John married shortly after August 14, 1671, to Katherine Richards Hollard, who was a widow.  John gave up his right to any of Katherine's goods or estate that came to her from her husband Angell Hollard.  When he died on February 25, 1681/82, he had very little left in his estate, about 19 pounds and 4 shillings.  He had dispensed of the real estate earlier.  

That's what is known of John Upham.  He was a respected and respectable man although perhaps his education was less than desired.  He could sign his name, however.  He woked himself up from "husbandman', to "yeoman", to "planter", and acquired the title of "Deacon".  Not bad for a man from a town of 280 or so. We can be proud of him.

The line of descent is:

John Upham-Elizabeth Slade
Mary Upham-John Whittemore
John Whittemore-Elizabeth Annable
John Whittemore-Elizabeth Lloyd
John Whittemore-Lydia Clough
Josiah Whittemore-Lucy Snow
Josiah Whittemore-Betsy Foster
Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph R Holbrook
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gloadys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants