NAZEING PARISH REGISTERS

The following baptisms entered in the Parish Registers at Nazeing[S3] appear to be Elizabeth's four brothers and her niece and nephew:

Note that George's daughter Lydia was given the same Christian name as Edward and Elizabeth's eldest daughter.

GEORGE HOLMES OF ROXBURY

Savage's Dictionary[S5] reports that George Holmes or Homes was made Freeman of Roxbury, MA, on 22MAY1639, and lists children born to George and his wife in Roxbury. Savage also says that he may have had an older child or children, and reports that a John Holmes of Dorchester, MA, "son probably of George, by wife Sarah, who was a member of the church of Roxbury, had George baptised there 10JLY1670"

Savage's Dictionary[S5] states that George Holmes or Homes died of fever 2FEB1646 saying "though Farmer, obeying the town records, says 18DEC1645". In George's will, he said "And my request is to my Dearly beloved brethren Elder Heath, brothr Eliot & brothr Parks our Deakens and my brothr Ruggles & brothr Riggs to be my overseers to counsell and guide my wife in all her affairs".[S16] Note that "brothr Eliot...& my brothr Ruggles" were two of the "Nazeing Christians". "Mr John Eliot deposed before Court, 30NOV1651 that George Holmes was of a disposing mind the yeare 1646 or thereabouts".[S16]

So George and his family followed his sister Elizabeth and her husband in emigrating from Nazeing to Roxbury, but not until a few years later, since his son John was baptised in Nazeing in SEP1637.

This Note is a precis of selected extracts from The Winthrop Society web-pages.[S7]

Governor John Winthrop brought a fleet carrying Puritan migrants from England to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. They were followed by other shiploads, coming mainly from the counties of Dorset, Essex and Suffolk.

The first ship to land, however, was the Mary and John. It had sailed from Plymouth, England, on 20 March 1630 with 140 passengers recruited by the Rev. John White of Dorchester, Dorset. All came from the West Country, i.e. the counties of Somerset, Dorset and Devon and these settlers founded Dorchester, MA.[S8]

In the first few years these voyages across the Atlantic were more hazardous and the migrants landed in what was still a wilderness. They had to endure the winter in wigwams, and about one in three perished during or soon after their voyage.

[ Within a few months of landing in New England, death started to afflict Edward's family, with Lydia dying at the age of 10. In the next year or so, Elizabeth had died aged 6 and John aged 4, and Elizabeth, Edward's wife died a year later, all within 30 months of arriving. ]

By 1633, although numbering scarcely 1,000, they had established ports, surveyed and drawn plans for a dozen towns, cleared roads, built churches and constituted a democratic government. Their efforts prepared and eased the way, encouraging more than 30,000 settlers from England in the next ten years before the English Revolution. These, like the original settlers, escaped to find a place where they might live, worship, and raise their families without persecution from the state, under Charles I, and the Church of England.

This movement of people is called the Great Migration. It ended following the start of the English Revolution in 1642 and for a time the flow of emigrants reversed. A number of the Puritans hoped they might gain religious freedom back in England, and some returned to fight in England in support of Parliament and the Commonwealth, against the Royalists.

Early in 1634, Archbishop William Laud made it mandatory for all persons emigrating to New England to swear allegiance to Church and King before their departure from England. Lists were kept of the passengers' oaths and most were prepared at the customs house at the English port where they embarked.[S9] These Lists Of Passenger Oaths tell us on which ship the settlers sailed. Usually they give the place where they were sworn (mostly their home town) and often age and occupation. However, these Lists weren't introduced until a year after Edward and his family had departed and so there is no record of which ship they sailed on.

Savage[S5] states that John Graves - like Edward, one of the "Nazeing Christians" (see next section) who settled in Roxbury - had landed with his family in May 1633 and Savage goes on to say that "The William and Jane came in that month but as Winthrop says she brought only thirty passengers. I think these came, perhaps, that month in the other ship Mary and Jane, which had 196". (Under his entry for a Mary Downing, Savage says that William Coddington came on the Mary and Jane in May 1633: Coddington later established Rhode Island after standing down as Treasurer of the Massachusetts Colony because of religious differences, and was twice Governor of RI).[S5]

However, the William and Jane was captained by William Bundocke[S6], and he later captained the Hopewell which brought the Eliot and Ruggles families - more "Nazeing Christians" - in April 1635[S5][S10] (a ship called the Hopewell had also sailed to New England as part of the original Winthrop fleet in 1630).[S30] So Edward and his family (and John Graves and his family) may have sailed on the William and Jane.

Unless stated otherwise, Savage's Dictionary[S5] is the source for all the following information on other prominent settlers in Roxbury which he identifies as having migrated from Nazeing.

THOSE ALREADY IDENTIFIED

• The earliest and most eminent was John ELIOT "the celebrated apostle of the Indians", born at Nazeing in 1603 and educated at Cambridge. He had sailed to Boston in the Lion, landing 2NOV1631, and became teacher at Roxbury and maintained the church records. Records of the Winthrop Society show him as originating from Nazeing, but state he was baptised at Widford, Herts; they also show these origins for his brother Jacob who settled in Boston.[S11]

• John's brother Philip ELIOT and his wife and four children followed on the Hopewell under Capt.Bundocke early in APR1635, and Philip became a deacon in the church of his brother and a representative.

• John RUGGLES, a shoemaker from Nazeing, came with his wife and child on the Hopewell with Philip Eliot.

• Thomas RUGGLES, John's elder brother, followed in 1637 with his wife and two of his children. The third, 10-year old John, had sailed with his uncle in 1635 though the church records say he was brought over by Philip Eliot.

• John GRAVES came with his wife and five children in May 1633, and may have sailed on the same ship as Edward and his family.

John Graves died 4NOV1644 and Thomas Ruggles on 16NOV1644. In the church records, the deaths are entered next to each other and John Eliot refers to them both as godly brothers, adding "these two broke the knot first of the Nazing Christians. I mean they first died of all those Christians that came from that town(sic) in England."

Eliot was referring only to the adult male church members, because John Graves's wife had died shortly after arriving and Edward and Elizabeth RIGGS had lost three of their four children before NOV1644.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

Savage also identified William PEACOCK as coming probably in the Hopewell in 1635, aged 12 "with such a complement of Eliots and Ruggleses, that he may be well thought to have sprung from Nazing...". One transcript of the Passenger List of the Hopewell's first sailing in 1635 describes William as being "of Nazing, in Essex."[S10], but another describes him as "of Duffil, Derbyshire"[S12]. (Of the 67 passengers, 10 were from Nazeing and 7 from Duffil; and the person preceding William in the list was from Duffil and the one following was from Nazeing.) A Richard PEACOCK also settled in Roxbury as a glazier, and was made freeman 22MAY1639 (might he have been William's father?).

Savage didn't identify George Holmes and his family as having come from Nazeing, so it is possible there were other families from Nazeing who haven't been identified. These include:-

• William Agar, landing with the original Winthrop Fleet in 1630, allegedly probably of Nazeing, Essex, and settled in Watertown (which was only a few miles from Roxbury).[S11]

• William Curtis, landed 16SEP1632 from the Lyon and settled in Roxbury.[S5] Allegedly baptised 12NOV1592 at Nazeing.[S11]