Holbrook line: Edward Rainsford, Immigrant

It's a great day for me when I easily find a lot of information about an ancestor.  Most of this information comes from work done and published by James Rasmussen in 1985 in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and by Robert Charles Anderson in The Great Migration Begins.  I have been both fascinated and frustrated with the genealogy of this man; fascinated because he was listed as a Gateway Ancestor, with ancestors going back to the Plantagenets, and then frustrated when that line was withdrawn.  Now it appears that he may indeed have a line, or more, to the Plantagenets but the article I need to review is not available on line.  (However, my favorite library will undoubtedly have a copy, which I shall pursue.)

All that is incidental to his post, because so far I have written almost nothing about our links to our royal ancestors.  It's enough that we know that Edward is the son of Robert and Mary Kirton Raynsford, and that he was baptized at Staverton, Northampton, England on September 9, 1609.  He came to New England as a young man in 1630, probably with the Winthrop Fleet.  When his father died, he had left his son 100 pounds, which was a nice sum of money in those days.  Edward was an apprentice to Owen Rowe of London, in the Haberdashers (merchants of small wares) Company.  So Edward had training as a merchant, and money to get him started, and he shared his master's Puritan views.  Those attributes would serve him well in Massachusetts.  Edward joined the First Church at Boston shortly after his arrival in Massachusetts Bay Colony, although he wasn't made a freeman until 1637.

By that time Edward had married, buried his first wife but had a daughter (one of twins but her brother died as an infant), and married again.  He had also made a trip to England and returned, perhaps to introduce his new wife to his family in England.  Her identity is not confirmed but she may have been Elizabeth Dilloe.  She was the mother of 11 children.

Fortunately, Edward had the means to support a large family.  Although I have seen him described as a fisherman, that may have been his first occupation. He became more of a sea merchant, since at his death he was owner or part owner in at least six shipping vessels, ranging in size from a canoe to a ship.  He also owned a warehouse "with privileges", which apparently meant that he had access to the harbor for easy loading and unloading of goods. The warehouse housed both fish and haberdasher goods.

Edward was a deacon of the First Church but was dismissed in 1668 when he did not support Rev. Davenport as minister of the church.  He then went to the Third Church when it formed in 1669 and was the Ruling Elder there.  He must have had some education because his estate included books valued at five pounds, which is larger than most of the inventories I've looked at.  He was also selectman for Boston from 1662 through 1670.

Edward's estate was quite large when he died August 16, 1680.  It totaled almost 1639 pounds, about half of which was real estate in several different locations.  He also had "one negro boy Nat: and one negro girl Nance" included in the inventory.

Edward was many faceted.  Elder, selectman, father, fisherman, merchant, ship owner, probably part of the training band, land owner, slave owner, on various committees to set rates, draw up instructions, and so on.   He was respected in his town and probably in England, too.  I may have passed by his grave at Kings Chapel Burying Grounds in Boston, not knowing at the time that he was an ancestor.  But to me, maybe that was his most important role.

The line of descent is:

Edward Rainsford-Elizabeth possibly Dilloe
Ranis (also seen as Uranis) Rainsford-Josiah Belcher
Elizabeth Belcher-John Paine
Stephen Paine-Sarah Vallett
Stephen Paine-Sarah Thornton
Nathan Paine-Lillis Winsor
Deborah Paine-Enos Eddy
Joseph Eddy-Susan Lamphire
Susan Eddy-Hiram Stanard
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants