Of course we judge books by their covers. The cover is the first indication of what is inside. However, there are times when looking beyond the cover may reveal an unexpected treasure. Such is the case with Planters of Early New England: A Sketch of Roger Mowry Mann’s Seventeenth-Century Ancestors. The subtitle would keep almost anyone from even picking the book up, unless you know your related to this Roger Mowry Mann. That, however, may be a big mistake. Let me explain.
Mann (1944—2002), like many today, could trace his ancestry to early New England. After three hundred plus years, those early settlers of New England have millions of descendents. Mann’s history, put together by his sister and brother-in-law, reveals “much about life in seventeenth-century New England — land development, public service, religion, and other aspects of daily existence.” There is information within this book on many well-known early settlers and their families. “Planters” refers to those who founded colonies as well as referring to farmers. These early settlers were often both.
This book covers and documents the founding and early settling of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, many of whom were the ancestor of Roger Mann. These are the ancestors to many more people than just Roger Mann. To demonstrate just how diverse and large the decedents pool is from these early settlers, chapter IX lists 9 U.S. Presidents who also trace their ancestry back to this group. “The work is organized as an historical description of the period, but Chapter II and the ancestor index assure that it is also a genealogical record… Also included in this work is significant other previously unpublished material transcribed from records of deeds and wills from many different towns and counties in New England, including transcriptions of town records in Concord, Massachusetts and Guilford, Connecticut.”
The table of contents provides a good overview of what the reader can expect in these pages. There is also and index of 256 names found in this book [see below]. Perhaps one of your ancestors is there, if not this book tells a great historical story anyone could find interesting.
Note: Presidents listed in Chapter IX:
- Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (VP under Gerald Ford)
- Franklin Pierce (14th President)
- Abraham Lincoln (16th President)
- James Garfield (20th President)
- William Howard Taft (27th President)
- Chester A. Arthur (21th President)
- Gerald R. Fort (39th President)
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (32nd President)
- George Herbert Walker Bush (41st President)
- George Walker Bush (43rd President)
Obtain your own copy of Planters of Early New England from Family Roots Publishing.
Contents
Chapter I – Immigration to New England by 1652
- The First Wave of the Great Migration: 1630-1635
- Possible Participants in the First Wave of the Great Migration
- The Second Wave of the Great Migration: 1635-1639
- The Continued Expansion of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: 1640-1652
- Ancestors Migrating to Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
- Ancestors Migrating to Connecticut
- Ancestors Migrating to Plymouth Colony
- Ancestors Immigrating to Northern New England
- Summary
Chapter II – Family Evolution
- Pedigrees and Index of the Early Ancestors of Roger Mowry Mann
Chapter III – The Acquisition and Use of Land
- Place of Initial Settlement during the Great Migration
- Land Acquisition
- Immigration and Migration Continue: 1636-1650
- Challenges after 1650 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Indian Deeds
- Mortgages
- Early Business Enterprise: Manufacturing, Mining and Milling
- Common Land in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
- Travel
- Analysis of Land Matters
Chapter IV – Public Service
- Establishment of the Colonial Government
- Service in Governing Bodies
- Jury Service in New England
- Town Offices
- Deputed Tasks by the Massachusetts General Court, Counties and Towns
- Summary
- Supplement: Seventeenth-Century Deputies to the Massachusetts General Court
- Supplement: Assistants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony: 1630-1645
Chapter V – Religious Environment
- The Puritan Environment
- Church Leadership
- Church Membership
- Support for Town Ministers
- Shortage of Ministers
- Education
- Minister and Parishioner Movement within New England
- Religious Dissent within Churches and with the General Court
- Quaker Persecution
- Witchcraft
- Summary
Chapter VI – Indian Wars and Military Service
- The Pequot War: 1637-1638
- King Philip’s War: 1675-1676
- King William’s War: 1689-1697
- Military Service
- Summary
Chapter VII – Secondary Aspects of Ancestors’ Lives and Deaths
- Non-Agricultural Activities
- Services Performed by Agreement with the Town of Residence
- Old Age and Transfer of Estates
- Personal Disputes
- Dangers
- Ties with England
- Destitute Settlers
- Black Sheep
- Supplement: Probate Records
Chapter VIII – The Three Most Significant Seventeenth-Century Ancestors of Roger Mowry Mann
- John Johnson
- Hopestill Foster
- Obadiah Holmes
- Summary
Chapter IX – Relationships of Direct Ancestors to Presidents of the United States
Colony and Town Record Abbreviations
Bibliography
Appendix A. English Origins of Roger Mowry Mann’s Ancestors
Appendix B. Occupations of Early Ancestors
Ancestor Index
Place Index
Index of the Seventeenth-Century Ancestor of Roger Mowry Mann
There are a few non-relatives included in this list who appear in the book. Women are listed by maiden name with married name in parenthesis.
- Aldrich, George
- Aldrich, Jacob
- Aldrich, Joseph
- Aldrich, Moses
- Aldrich, Ruth (Arnold)
- Aldrich, Samuel
- Aldrich, Sarah (Bartlett)
- Allen, John
- Allen, Sarah
- Allen, Samuel
- Allen, Sarah (Stratton)
- Allen, Walter
- Allen, Rebecca [Wyman]
- Angell, Alice (Whipple)
- Angell, John
- Angell, John
- Angell, Mary (Arnold)
- Angell, Thomas
- Arnold, Daniel
- Arnold, Elizabeth (Comstock)
- Arnold, John
- Arnold, Richard
- Arnold, Richard
- Arnold, Richard Daniel
- Arnold, Thomas
- Arnold, Thomas
- Ashton, Alice (Angell)
- Axtell, Mary_____ (Maynard)
- Ballou, Bathsheba (Arnold)
- Ballou, Maturin
- Ballou, James
- Bartlett, Jacob / Bartlett, Sarah
- Bartlett, John
- Bate, James
- Bate, Mary (Foster)
- Besbeech, Mary (Browne)
- Besbeech, Thomas
- Bigg, Patience (Foster)
- Blackmar, James
- Blackmar, John
- Browne, Chad
- Browne, John
- Browne, Sarah (Pray)
- Browne, Patience (Stone)
- Browne, Thomas
- Browne, William
- Bulkeley, Martha (Mellowes)
- Roger Burlingame
- Burlingame, Elizabeth (Arnold)
- Clemence, Richard
- Clemence, Sarah (Angell)
- Clemence, Thomas
- Clemence, Elizabeth
- Comstock, Hazadiah
- Comstock Samuel
- Comstock, Ann [Tucker] his wife
- Comstock, Samuel
- Comstock, William
- Copeland, Lawrence
- Copeland, Lydia (White)
- Dakin, Dorothy (Hubbard)
- Darkin, Joseph
- Dakin, Thmos
- Dakin, Susannah_____ (Stratton)
- [Daniel], Elizabeth (Comstock)
- David, Dolor
- Davis, Samuel
- Davis, Simon
- John, Field
- Field, Ruth [Fairbanks]
- Field, Ruth (Angell)
- Fletcher, Elizabeth (Stratton)
- Fletcher, Francis
- Fletcher, Robert
- Fletcher, [—-]
- Foster, Hopestill
- Foster, Patience (Browne)
- French, Judith (Rogers)
- Frost, Elizabeth (Rice) (Whale)
- Frost, Thomasine (Rice)
- Frye, Mary (Stratton)
- Gibson, John
- Gibson, Rebecca [Thompson] his wife
- Gibson, Martha (Newell)
- Gleason, Joseph
- Gleason, Joyce (Newell)
- Gleason, Thmos
- Glover, Alice
- Goldston, Sarch (Merriam)
- Goodenow, Mary (Ross)
- Goodenow, Thomas
- Goodenow, Jane [Ruddock]
- Goodrich, Hannah (Maynard)
- Goodrich, John
- Goodrich, Elizabeth
- Gourd, Elizabeth (Haynes)
- Harwood, Margaret (Hawkins)
- Hawkins, Mary (Blackmar)
- Hawkins, William
- Haynes, David
- Haynes, John
- Haynes, Walter
- Hayward, Juldah (Thayer)
- Hayward, William
- Heald, Dorothy (Davis)
- Heald, Israel
- Heald, John
- Holmes, Mary (Browne)
- Holmes, Obadiah
- Hopkins, Elizabeth (Inman)
- Hubbard, Daniel
- Hubbard, George
- Hubbard, Mary
- Hubbard, John
- Hubbard, Jonathan
- Hyde, Katherine (Holmes)
- Iggleden, Elizabeth [Bennett] Meadows
- Inman, Edward
- Inman, Joanna (Mowry)
- Johnson, Davy
- Johnson, Mary
- Johnson, Mary (Ludden)
- Johnson, John
- Johnson, Mary (Mowry)
- Kenny, Henry
- Kenny, Ann
- Kenny, Henry
- Kenny, Jemima (Blackmar)
- King, Elizabeth (Rice)
- King, Thomas
- King, Ann
- Knight, Margery (Hayward)
- Knight, Mary (Osborne)
- Lewis, George
- Lewis, [Ann]
- Lewis, Philip
- Lewis, Priscilla (Kenny)
- Lippitt, John
- Lippitt, Martha
- Lippitt, Mary (Barlingstone) (Burlingame)
- Ludden, James
- Ludden, Mary (Puffer)
- Martin, Racheal (Bigg)
- Maynard, John
- Maynard, Moses
- Maynard, Zachariah
- Meadows, Mary (Davis)
- Meadow, Philip
- Mellowes, Abraham
- Mellowes, Elizabeth (Barrett) (Wright)
- Mellowes, Oliver
- Merriam, Joseph
- Merriam, Mary (Hubbard)
- Moore Benjamin
- Moore, Hezekiah
- Moore, John
- Moore, Mary (Ward) (Stone)
- Mowry, John
- Mowry, Mary
- Mowry, John
- Mowry, Mary (Arnold)
- Mowry, Nathaniel
- Mowry, Roger
- Newell, Abraham
- Newell, Frances
- Newell, Jacob
- Newell, Jacob
- Noyes, Dorothy (Haynes)
- Noyes, Peter
- Osborne, John
- Osborne, Patience (Aldrich)
- Page, Susannah (Gleason)
- Parkhurst, George
- Parkhurst, Phebe (Dan) (Arnold)
- Parrat, Elizabeth (Worcester)
- Parrat, Francis
- Parrat, Elizabeth [Northend]
- Pike, Hannah (Ballou)
- Pike, Robert
- Pike, Catherine
- Pray, Catherine (Comstock)
- Pray, John
- Pray, Mary (Woodward)
- Pray, Quinton
- Pray, Joan
- Pray, Richard
- Pray, Mary
- Puffer, George
- Puffer, James
- Puffer, Jane (Aldrich)
- Rice, Edmund
- Rice, Elizabeth [Whale] (Moore)
- Rice, Hannah (Hubbard)
- Rice, Samuel
- Rogers, John
- Rogers, Lydia (White)
- Ross, James
- Ross, Jane (Allen)
- Royle, Dorothy (Heald)
- Russell, Martha (Gleason)
- Russell, William
- Russell, Martha
- Seald, Katherine
- Sedley, Elizabeth (Puffer)
- Sharparowe, Elizabeth (Browne)
- Smith, John
- Smith, Alice
- Smith, John
- Smith, Sarah (Clemence)
- Stone, Daniel
- Stone, Daniel
- Stone, Gregory
- Stone, John
- Stone, Ann [Treadway]
- Stone, Tabitha (Haynes)
- Stratton, Samuel
- Stratton, Alice (Beeby)
- Stratton, Samuel
- Stratton, Samuel
- Stratton, Samuel
- Thayer, Ferdinando
- Thayer, Hulday (Aldrich)
- Thayer, Thomas
- Townsend, Lydia (Copeland)
- Upson, [Stephen]
- Upson, Elizabeth
- Upson, Hannah (Wright)
- Whales, Philemon
- Wheeler, Elizabeth (Fletcher)
- Wheeler, George
- Wheeler, Katherine
- Wheeler, Margery (Thayer)
- Whipple, Eleazer
- Whipple, John
- Whipple, Sarah
- Whipple, Sarah (Smith)
- Whipple, Margaret / Margery (Mowry)
- White, Hannah (Aldrich)
- White, Joseph
- White, Joseph
- White, Thomas
- White, Hannah [Workman]
- Whitman, Susanne (Ballou)
- Whitman, Valentine
- Whitman, Mary
- Williard, Margery (Davis)
- Woodward, Joseph
- Woodward, Mary (Arnold)
- Worcester, Dorothy (Dakin)
- Worcester, Samuel
- Worcester, William
- Worcester, Sarah
- Wright, Dorothy
- Wright, Dorothy (Moore)
- Wright, Edward (Sudbury)
- Wright, Edward (Concord)
- Wright, Martha (Heald)