The family of John Root 1642-1687

 Our next family head is John Root, the son of John and Mary Kilbourne Root.  He has my admiration because he chose to marry one of my favorite ancestors, Mary Ashley, the daughter of Robert and Mary (maiden name unknown) Ashley.  Anyone who chooses to marry a feisty woman like Mary goes high on my list.  John was born in 1642 in Farmington, Connecticut and was one of several Roots who moved north.  John died in Westfield, Massachusetts, as did at least four of his adult children.

John and Mary were married in 1664 and their children started arriving in 1667, all born in Westfield.  There may be an unsuccessful pregnancy at the start of their marriage.  (Many couples in this time period had a child born within 15-18 months of their marriage, it seems.)

The first child we know of is Mary, born in 1667.  She married John Smith , the son of John and Mary Partridge Smith.  Their children are Mary, Mercy, John, Rachel, Hezekiah and Noah.  Mary died in 1721 in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Sarah was born in 1670 and married Adijah Dewey, the son of Thomas and Constant Hawes Dewey.  (Thomas and Constant are our ancestors also, so we are once again in an entwining family, with deep and inter-connected roots.  Sarah and Adijah's children are Abijah, Thomas, Adijah, Sarah, Esther, Mary, Abigail, Bethiah, Anna, and Moses.  Sarah died in 1721 in Westfield.

John was the next born and the couple's first son, born in 1672.  He married Sarah Stebbins, the daughter of Edward and Sarah Graves Stebbins, who are also our ancestors.  They had just one daughter, Sarah.  He next married Elizabeth Bissell, the daughter of Samuel and Abigail Holcombe Bissell.  They had two children, Stephen and Moses.  John died in 1731 in Westfield. I'll write more of this family in my next post.  

Samuel was born in 1675 and died in Westfield in 1756.  He married Mary Gunn, the daughter of John and Mary Williams Gunn.  Their children are Jonathan, Mary, Margaret, Abigail, Samuel, Martin, and Margaret.  We are descended through this line, also, and I will write more of this family in a later post.

In almost every family I've been writing about, there is at least one mystery person.  In this line, it's Hannah, who was born in 1677.  We know that she married John Davis, "of Coventry" and that's all we know.  On one ancestry tree, John is identified as the adopted son of Samuel Root who died in 1711, but I find no documents to back that up.  We also don't know what happened to this couple.  I refer to these as witness protection plan people, because they seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth.  It's possible, of course, that they were killed in an Indian raid or lost at sea or died in an epidemic.  It's also possible that we just haven't looked in the right place to find them yet.

Abigail was the next daughter, born in 1680.  She married Joseph Moseley, the son of John and Mary (maiden name not found) Mosely.  Their children are Abigail, Abner, Sarah, David, Mary, Hannah, Isaac and Rachel.  Abigail died in 1773 in Glastonbury, Connecticut.  

Joshua was born in 1682 and died in 1730.  He married Margaret Gilbert, the daughter of Thomas and Anna Bancroft Gilbert.  (Anna is a descendant of yet another of our ancestors, Samuel and Margaret Stratton Wright.) Joshua and Margaret's children are Mercy, Joshua, Margaret, Hannah, Thomas, Ruth, Experience, Catherine, and Israel.  Joshua died in Sheffield, Massachusetts.

The last child born to John and Mary was Mercy, born in 1684.  She married Samuel Fowler, the son of Samuel and Abigail Brown Fowler.  Their children are Mehitable, Samuel, David, Bethesda, Stephen, Mercy, Bildad and Daniel.  

If this count is complete and correct, John and Mary Ashley Root are the parents of eight children and 51 grandchildren.  Many of the men fought in the various colonial wars and their descendants fought in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.  They helped establish the families that helped establish America.