Allen line: Thomas Noble 1632ish-1703/04

Earlier, I wrote about Thomas's supposed parents.  I wasn't sure at the time that I had the right people and I am still not sure.  So I will just say Thomas's parents may or may not have been Thomas and Rachel Gardiner Noble.  His father also may or may not have been John Noble.  The Thomas and Rachel may or may not have come to New England, and they may or may not have both died during the year of Thomas's birth.  End of speculation for now.

The first that i really known of Thomas Noble is that he was "admitted" to Boston on January 5, 1653.  "Admission" generally means that he had no family there but that he had a trade or other means to provide for himself.  Boston did not wish to have people in its community who could not be trusted to contribute to its growth, and who might, for whatever reason, become a burden to the town.  (This was common for single men in most early Massachusetts towns and villages).  Thomas, then, had permission to stay, but he didn't stay for long.

Later in the year he is found in Springfield, Massachusetts, a town which was founded in 1653. He was still a single man so would have been required to have stayed in someone else's home.  (The First Century of the History of Springfield gives his arrival date as 1656.  I think that is in error, because in 1657 Thomas had already gained enough approval from Mr. Pynchon to be advanced money for a trip to and from England. We can only speculate whether the trip was trade-related, or family related, or on some kind of errand for Mr. Pynchon.) 

Thomas Noble did have a trade, or at least a part time trade.  He was a tailor when he wasn't farming.  Again, it is hard to trace who he lived with and how he could practice a trade when he had no place to call his own.  He married Hannah Warriner, daughter of William and Joanna Scant (probably) Warriner of Springfield on  January 11, 1660, in Springfield.  It's possible that he had stayed in the home of his in-laws until and even after the marriage, but as far as I know there is no documentation of that.  We can see that after his marriage he acquired a bit more status than he had as a bachelor.  In 1659, he was assigned to the 9th row of men in the meeting house, and in 1662 he was already moved to the sixth row.  Marriage made a man more respectable, in and of itself. 

Thomas and Hannah stayed in Springfield for several years, eventually moving to the new town of Westfield, a little further to the west of the Springfield village.  In 1664 he was one of four men who were given permission to set up a saw mill, and were also given 70 acres of land to use.  The sawmill was to be in operation by April 1, 1666.  The sawmill was on the west side of the Agawam river, which appears to be just where Westfield was created.  Thomas Noble is noted as having been there in 1667, so probably the family moved during or after the construction of the sawmill. 

Yes, Thomas and Hannah had a family, and there are probably tens of thousands of descendants from this family now.  There were at least ten children born to the couple.  The family didn't realize it at the time, but later learned that a native American called "Gray Locks" had often had some of the children in his sight, saying he could have killed several at one time, but that he wanted to capture them so they could be held for ransom. Thankfully, this goal was not accomplished. During King Philip's war, the same Gray Lock would open the door to the cabin, and let it swing shut before playing his game again.  This encouraged the family to move from their farm to the relative safety of Westfield, at least for the duration of hostilities.  

Thomas farmed, of course, and probably helped in the saw mill operation, and also did tailoring work until close to the end of his days.  He was involved in another saw mill operation in 1684, but it's not clear whether he had already relinquished his partnership in the earlier saw mill, or whether this was a separate enterprise entirely.  At various times he was a constable, an appraiser, and on committees to help set the boundaries between Springfield and Westfield. 

Thomas joined the Westfield church on February 26, 1681 and was made a freeman in the fall of the year.  He was on juries, including one conducting an inquest into the manner of death of one of their neighbors, concluding that Eliezer Weller had hanged himself.  But Thomas also had his minor run-ins with the law, specifically, church law.  He was fined 5 shillings in 1683 because he traveled on a day of court-ordered fasting and humiliation.  Thomas stated that he was just trying to get home, but that didn't fold water with the court. 

Thomas seems to have been often, if not always, in debt, especially to William or John Pynchon, despite acquiring more and more land during his lifetime.  When he died on January 20, 1703/04, he left a will naming his ten children, although it appears that son James died at the same time that Thomas did.  Hannah survived him and later married Medad Pomeroy, another of our ancestors.  She lived until 1721.

Thomas's inventory was valued at 448 pounds, which was mostly land, farm animals, and farm implements.  He had arms and ammunition, but I didn't see any mention of books in the inventory, nor did I see tailoring tools, although they could have been included with  "other small things".  There is much more information available about Thomas, but the big mystery is still the identification of his parents, and of how and when he arrived in Massachusetts. 

Fun fact:  I was fascinated to learn that Agatha Christie, the mystery writer, is his sixth great grand daughter.  He is my 8th great granddaughter, so that makes us very distant cousins.  Other famous grandchildren are Samuel Colt, Humphrey Bogart, Nancy Davis Reagan, and Ken Burns. 

The line of descent is

Thomas Noble-Hannah Warriner
Thomas Noble-Elizabeth Dewey
Thomas Noble-Sarah Root
Stephen Noble=Ruth Church
Ruth Noble-Martin Root
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Holbrook line: Edmund Hobart 1573-1646, Immigrant

 Update:  The is not our ancestor, at least not through this line.  John Beal was married to Nazareth Hobart, but she was his second wife, and our connection, Sarah, came through his first wife.  A blog post about John will follow later this week, Lord willing.  Meanwhile, I'm leaving this up for the usual reason-someone may benefit from it.  My apologies to anyone whom I may have misled. 


I love writing about the members of the Holbrook line.  They are numerous indeed, and many of them are well documented.  Edmund Hobart is such a man, at least after he arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Eminent genealogists have written about him and although there is some dispute about his parents (Robert Charles Anderson of The Great Emigration Begins volumes doesn't identify them), I am reasonably confident that they are properly identified.

So, Edmunt Hobart was born about January 1, 1573 (not sure if this is a christening date) in Hingham, Norfolk, England to Thomas and Helen Windsofer Hobart.  Thomas was "Lord of the Manor in Hingham", although I've not been able to find more information about that claim.  When Thomas died in 1603, Edmund became the Lord of the Manor.  The family must have had some money, because Edmund's son Peter was able to attend Cambridge University and obtain his master's degree there.   

Edmund married Margaret Dewey, daughter of Robert and Margaret Stasye Dewey on September 7, 1600 in Hingham, Norfolk, England.  The couple had a least 10 children, with the last known birth in late 1617.  (Let's bless our female ancestors, specifically this one!)  Edmund and Margaret are noted as being a very pious couple, so we are not surprised that they made sure that at least one of their sons had the opportunity to become a pastor.

Edmund was 60 years old when he came to the New World in 1633 with at least five of their children.  Sarah, the youngest, would have been 15 years old.  Margaret, his wife, is believed to have made the trip but did not survive long.  The family came on the ship Elizabeth Bonaventura, with a total of 95 passengers.  They may have come with the intention of setting up a congregation and location for their son Peter to pastor later, because Peter stayed in England for a few years.

Like many early arrivals, Edmund first settled in Charlestown, where he joined the church on October 19, 1633.  Soon after, in March of 1634, he was made a freeman, and on September 10, 1634 he married Sarah Oakley Lyford, the widow of Rev. Peter Lyford.  That was certainly an eventful year, with highs and lows. He held the offices of Charlestown constable, lot-layer and assessor, so he was a highly respected person, almost as soon as he arrived in Charlestown  

Edmund and Sarah were some of the first founders of Hingham, Suffolk, Massachusetts, which was established in 1635. It's not certain exactly when they took up residence there, but he was serving on a grand jury there in 1637.  Later he was on a committee to levy a colony rate, and was deputy for Hingham to Massachusetts Bay Colony Court at least four different times.

Edmund died on March 8, 1646/47 in Hingham, at the age of 73 or 74.  Unfortunately, his will, if he left one, has not been found but there are records of land settlements among the Hobarts in 1647 that may relate to his estate.  Sarah survived him and was apparently cared for by Rev. Peter Hobart.

I would love to know more about Edmund.  Did he have an occupation other than "Lord of the Manor"/  How did he support himself and his family in Massachusetts?  Did he still own the manor in Hingham, England?  He obviously placed a high value on education.  What was the level of his own education?  While I have lots of questions about Edmund, I am also gratified to know this much about our pious ancestor, who courageously came to the New World when it was very new and he could almost have been termed "old", or at least well past middle age.  Thank you, grandfather Edmund, for your courage and your example.

The line of descent is:

Edmund Hobart-Margaret Dewey
Nazareth Hobart-John Beal
Sarah Beal-Thomas Marsh
Thoms Marsh-Sarah Lincoln
Thomas Marsh-Mary Burr
Deborah Marsh-Isaac Lazell
Deborah Lazell-Levi Rockwood
Susannah Rockwood-Nahum Holbrook
Joseph Holbrook-Mary Elizabeth Whittemore
Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Note: The first six generations of this family were born or/and died in Hingham, Massachusetts.  Our roots there run deep! 

Allen line: Philip Randall, Immigrant possibly 1574-1662

Or the correct dates might be 1590 to 1648, or some combination thereof.  At this point, I'm thinking the dates in the title of this post are likely correct, but I'm open to considering any further evidence that comes up. 

There was a Philip Randall born in 1574 in Allington, Bridport Parish, Dorset, England and it seems plausible if not completely proven that this is our Philip Randall.  If this is our man, he came to the New World about 1633 (some sources say as early as 1630, so he may have come first and then gone back for his family).  If he arrived in 1630, he was already possibly 56 years old, but he must have been a vigorous man, to be willing to live in the Colonies.  He was a smith, so was in high demand for his goods and his life would not have been quite as difficult as that of some of our immigrant ancestors.

He had married Joanne or Joanna Fush in England in 1608,  If the 1574 birth date was correct than he would have been about 34 years old, so possibly this was not his first marriage.  Joanne was born in1578 in Allington, Bridport Parish, Dorset, England so she would have been 30 at the time of the April 10, 1608 marriage.  The relatively late marriage of this couple may help to explain why we have record of only three or four children for the couple.  The children were Abraham, Elizabeth, Philury and Frances, all born in England.

When the couple came to the New World, it appears that the children, who were in their late teen and early adult years, came with them.  Philip settled first at Dorchester, where he was made a freeman about 1635.  A year later, he went to Windsor, Connecticut where he helped settle the town and where his smithing skills were undoubtedly needed. We don't know whether he was involved in the Pequot War of 1637 but it seems at least possible. He stayed atWindsor until the end of his days, receiving land grants and possibly buying more land as time went on.  He died May 6, 1662, and the inventory was taken May 28, 1662.  He had real estate valued at  72 pounds and the rest of his estate, including smith's tools and books, was valued at 41 pounds.  He signed his will with an X but that doesn't mean he was illiterate.  He may have merely been weak or/and ill. 

I haven't found any information that follows his church life, other than he was a freeman in Dorchester so must have belonged to the church at that time.  It would be interesting to know what he thought of the various controversies that the church was involved in, and whether he stayed faithful to his religion.

The line of descent is:

Philip Randall-Joanne Fush
Frances Randall-Thomas Dewey
Thomas Dewey-Constant Hawes
Elizabeth Dewey-Thomas Noble
Thomas Noble-Sarah Root
Stephen Noble-Ruth Church
Ruth Noble-Martin Root
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John W. Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Allen line: Richard Hawes, Immigrant 1606-1656

Richard Hawes has been sitting on my family tree for a long time, basically unnoticed and neglected.  I didn't even have a folder prepared for his information.  Yet, here he is, not only an immigrant but an early one, covered in the Great Migration 1634-1635.  How did I miss this?

Richard was born in 1606 in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England, to Richard Hawes and (probably) Susan Dean.  He may have been an only child, at least I've not yet found record of siblings.  His mother died in 1609 at the age of 25 so she may have died in or following childbirth, and perhaps that child did not survive.

That is as much as is known about Richard until the birth of his first daughter, Anne, who was baptized at Great Missenden on December 17, 1632.  We learn that his wife's name was Anne, from the register of the ship "Truelove", which sailed September 19, 1635 from London.  By that time, a son, Obediah, had been born.  He was about six months old when the family of four set sail for Massachusetts.

Once landed, the family went to Dorchester, where the couple were admitted to the church in 1637 and Richard was made a freeman in 1638.  He doesn't seem to have held offices of any consequence, though he was a fence viewer several times.  We can believe he was educated to some degree because there were books listed in his inventory.  He may also have been involved in military training or/and service, as were most of the men of early Massachusetts, because his inventory included two muskets, two swords, and a pair of bandoliers.  The family stayed in Dorchester as long as Richard lived. 

We know that he and Anne had at least seven children: Anne, Obediah, Bethia, Deliverance, Constant, Eleazer, and Jeremiah.  Also we know that he was granted various lands for his role as settler, and had apparently acquired additional land.  His real estate was valued at 87 pounds at the time of his death.  Also, there is a clue that perhaps his father, although a husbandman at his death,  was not poor, in that he left the two oldest children 20 pounds apiece, with an additional 10 pounds to be divided equally between the other grandchildren (whom he had probably not seen). 
"
Richard appears to have been a peaceable man, only once being called into court, which was almost nothing compared to many of his neighbors.  He saw an opportunity in America and by hard work acquired land to leave his family.  Like many in early Massachusetts, he did not have a long life, being about 50 when he died.  Obediah was eventually granted administration of the estate including "binding and placing out the children".  Our ancestor, Constant, would have been 14 years old when her father died.  It was seven years later that she married Thomas Dewey, so I'd love to know what happened to her during this time!  We don't know when Ann died.  The last child, Jeremiah, was born about 1647, and there seems to be no further mention of her after that time. 

I'm thankful for Richard Hawes and his wife.  I wouldn't be here without them!

The line of descent is

Richard Hawes-Anne
Constant Hawes-Thomas Dewey
Elizabeth Dewey-Thomas Noble
Thomas Noble-Sarah Root
Stephen Noble-Ruth Church
Ruth Noble-Martin Root
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward F. Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants

Allen line: Thomas Noble, 1606-1666, Immigrant or not?

I thought I'd found an immigrant to write about, but now I'm confused as to whether I should be writing about Thomas, or about another Thomas who was born about 1632.

According to very sketchy information I've found, the Thomas I intended to write about was born in 1606 in Aldingha, Kent, England.  Except that he may be the Thomas who was born in 1606 in St Giles, Cripplegate, England.  If the second theory is correct, his occupation may have been that of pinmaker, which was a working class job except that he seems to have been admitted to a guild.

Thomas may or may not have married Rachel Gardiner, and he may or may not have died in 1666 in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts.  Right now I am not finding sources or documentation for any of these statements.  I am finding that Thomas Noble born 1632 is noted as "The Settler".  He was admitted an inhabitant of Boston in 1651.  The internet assumption is that this refers to Thomas born 1632, but I don't know that there's proof about that.

I'm also wondering about the death date and location for Thomas.  There is at least some thought in the genealogy world that Thomas senior died in England about 1650, and that Thomas the settler went to England soon after at least partly to claim his inheritance.  This would explain a lot of things, but absolute proof is lacking, since the will of Thomas in England leaves an inheritance to Thomas Jr but doesn't state the younger Thomas's whereabouts.

I'll write another blog post about Thomas the Settler, but I wanted to at least throw out the ideas that are floating around, about Thomas's father.  He may have been from Aldingham, Kent, England or he may have been from London.  He may have married Rachel Gardiner, or he may have married someone else.  He may have died in London, or he may have died in Westfield, Massachusetts.  And someday, we may have the answers to these questions, and more!

The line of descent may be:
Thomas Noble-Rachel Gardiner
Thomas Noble-Hannah Warriner
Elizabeth Noble-Richard Church
Jonathan Church-Ruth Hitchcock
Ruth Church-Stephen Noble
Ruth Noble-Martin Root Jr.
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Allen
Their descendants

Their is another line that would go

Thomas Noble-Rachel Gardiner
Thomas Noble-Hannah Warriner
Thomas Noble Elizabeth Dewey
Thomas Noble-Sarah Root
Stephen Noble-Ruth Church  and then duplicates

So Stephen Noble, Revolutionary War soldier, and Ruth Church were second cousins. 

Allen line: Thomas Dewey, Immigrant

Thomas Dewey is another mystery.  His birth date is given as 1603 but it may be as late as 1613. He is generally said to have been born in Sandwich, Kent, England but the estimable "Great Migration Begins" series gives this little credence.  The identity of his wife is also unsettled.

Regardless, we know that Thomas Dewey was in the New World by 1633, when he witnessed a nuncupative (oral) will of John Russell of Dorchester.  He became a freeman in 1634, and was also granted land in Dorchester in 1634, which he sold in 1635 to Thomas Holcombe and Richard "Joanes".  He was apparently part of the contingent that went from Dorchester to Windsor in 1635, because his name is on a list labelled as such from 1640.  He married Frances, who may or may not have been Frances Randall but was certainly the widow of Joseph Clark on March 22, 1638/39 in Windsor, Ct. (Frances had two children when she married Thomas, had five children with Thomas, and then later married George Phelps and had several children with him.) 

Windsor, Ct of course was a frontier town since Thomas had gone there as an original settler. This would have meant that homes, farms, roads, mills, church, and other necessities of life would have had to have been established by the first settlers and their servants. There is no known evidence that Thomas had servants, so he probably did much of the hard work himself. Also there were the native Americans to contend with, and on top of that, political problems between Springfield and Hartford, over how to deal with a grain famine when the natives demanded higher prices for their grain. This was in 1648, so Thomas may not have known about much of this.

Thomas died on April 27, 1648 in Windsor, 9 or 10 years after he and Frances were married.  He left behind five children: Thomas, Josiah, Anna, Israel and Jedediah, and there may have been John also.  His estate was valued at 213 pounds, of which 118 pounds was real estate.  I've seen comments that this indicated he was not financially successful, but if he was somewhere between 35 and 45 years of age, this was not the estate of a pauper.  A court appointed committee distributed the funds, of which Frances got 60 pounds.  This wasn't a full third of the estate so I'm not sure why there wasn't more for Frances, but there may be extenuating circumstances that went into the decision.  One of the Dewey descendents several generations down the line put up a monument in Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, perhaps because none could be found in Windsor.

The line of descent is

Thomas Dewey-Frances possibly Randall
Thomas Dewey-Constant Hawes
Elizabeth Dewey-Thomas Noble
Thomas Noble-Sarah Root
Stephen Noble-Ruth Church
Ruth Noble-Martin Root Jr.
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendents

Fun fact: Admiral George Dewey of the Spanish American War is a descendent of Thomas and Frances, so we are distant, distant cousins to him.  Admiral Dewey is the one person to have ever held the rank of "Admiral of the Navy".