A new year is fast approaching and I have made some New Year's resolutions in regards to my genealogy research. The resolution to which I will really really try to keep is to always document and properly cite all my sources. With that idea in the forefront of my mind, I am going back and rewriting some of my old blog articles, including this one, and adding in my sources. (this blog updated December 2015).This year I have adopted a new motto: Nullis Credite, meaning, Trust No One. And by no one I mean no other genealogy researcher. Why this lack of faith you ask? Because in this internet driven genealogy age, people are putting up all kinds of really bad research. Often times the problem is actually lack of research. Many web posters are just "copy and pasters." They copy stuff from ancestry.com, wikitree, and other web based sites and in doing so, perpetuate incorrect information.
So, here is what I think I know about William Berry and his wife Jane.
english origins
Okay friends repeat after me, William Berry's English ancestry is unknown. Yes, I know that you have seen on ancestry that his parents are John and Susanna Philbrick Berry, but this is a giant error which we can thank those copy and pasters for passing on. So here's the deal, William's oldest son was John Berry. He married a woman known only as Susanna. Somehow they have been transformed on ancestry into William's parents. It's always fun to be able to pinpoint where our ancestors originated, but in this case we do not know where William hailed from, nor who his parents might have been. [1]
who was jane?
I went to a seance last night and the spirit of Jane Berry Drake came through from the other side. She softly whispered in my ear that she had a message for all her descendants. She said, "for God sake quit calling me Jane Locke Hermins." Jane's last name is unknown. Where did the name Locke Hermins come from? William and Jane's son, William, married a woman named Judith Locke on 8 July 1678. Her father was Nathaniel Locke and her mother's maiden name was Hermins. According to one source her mother's name was also Judith. This would make her Judith (Hermins) Locke, but there is no one named Judith or Jane Locke Hermins. [2] Needless to say, Jane's English ancestry is also unknown. masons man or not
In 1622 Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges received a patent from Council of New England for a swath of land that included New Hampshire. William Berry's name appears on a list of stewards and servants of Captain John Mason.The men and women listed are commonly believed to have been sent to New Hampshire in or around 1631. John Mason died in 1635, so it would seem that they would all have arrived by then. However, this list was drawn up in 1824 by Nathaniel Adams, almost two hundred years after and it is possible that not all those named arrived by 1631. William Berry's name is not found in any of the very early records, so it makes me wonder if he was in New Hampshire on or before the year 1631. Of course, if he was a servant, then maybe there was no reason for his name to be recorded. [3][9]
William was certainly in New Hampshire in 1640 when he signed "The Glebe Conveyance". He was described as an inhabitant of the lower end of the 'Piscataquack'. A glebe, by the way, is a parcel of land given to the benefice of a clergymen in order to generate income and offset the cost of supporting the minister. The Portsmouth glebe was 50 acres in size. It is interesting to note that the first church in Portsmouth was not a Puritan but rather an Anglican church, unlike those in the Massachusetts Colony. If William had come in 1631 as a servant, he was his own man by then. [4]
newbury
The name William Berry is also found in the records of the town of Newbury. Newbury was established in 1635 as a plantation for raising cattle and some family researchers say that he was in Newbury by 1635, however he is not on the original plat map of 1635 and his name is not in Newbury records prior to 1642. So for whatever reason, William left his first home in New England and moved south to Massachusetts.
newbury
The name William Berry is also found in the records of the town of Newbury. Newbury was established in 1635 as a plantation for raising cattle and some family researchers say that he was in Newbury by 1635, however he is not on the original plat map of 1635 and his name is not in Newbury records prior to 1642. So for whatever reason, William left his first home in New England and moved south to Massachusetts.
He took the freemans oath in May of 1642 and became a freeholder of Newbury on December 7th that same year. Williams doesn't seem to have found what he was looking for in Newbury as he very soon returned to New Hampshire. Jane couldn't have been too thrilled with all this 'toing and froing', packing and hauling a bunch of kids around. In 1649 Job Clement of Newbury was granted land formerly owned by William Berry and in 1651 it was recorded that "William Chandler hath William Berries land".[5]
sandy beach
On August 14, 1646 as a signer of a grant, William's home was listed as Strawberry Bank. On June 6, 1648 he gave (sold) his bourn (barn) at Strawberry Bank to Antony Ellis. In 1648/49 William was given a grant of land on the south side of Little River in Sandy Beach, now called Rye. He was also part of the committee to lay out the land of Sandy Beach along with Anthony Brackett (of the Brackett Lane Massacre), Thomas Peavey and James Johnson. He was also a grantee of an "out lot" of Portsmouth on January 15, 1652. [6]
All men, who were capable, were required to perform military and civic duties. Court Records in the year 1650 show that William served on a jury at the Courte at Strawberye. At the following court, also held in 1650, William was chosen as constable for Strawbery Bank for one year. One last mention of him in the court records involves reimbursing him for costs that were incurred in 1645 when he was was acting on the orders of the court, so he may have been constable then as well. [7]
children of william and jane
 |
| Location of William Berry's land |
There are no records of the birth of baptism for William's children so their date of birth is just a guess. Their birth order is also not known.
1. John b. 1630-1637 England, m. Susannah unknown
2. Joseph
2. Joseph
3. Mary m. John Foss
4. Rachael m. John Marden
5.James m. Eleanor Wallis
6.William m. Judith Locke 8 July 1678
7. Elizabeth m. John Locke
| Photo by Rusty Clark |
On 28 June 1654 the probate court appointed Jane Berry administrator of her deceased husband's goods. William was dead and left no will. Jane was still a relatively young woman, 38. And she had seven children to provide for. What's a woman to do? Remarry, of course. Jane Berry married Nathaniel Drake of Rye. Her death was not recorded. [8]
Sources:
Sources:
[1] Langdon B. Parsons, History of the Town of Rye, NH From Its Discovery and Settlement to December 31, 1903, (Concord, NH: Rumford Print. Co., 1905), 296, digital image, Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 23 December 2015).
[2] Arthur Horton Locke, A History and Genealogy of Captain John Locke (1637-1696) of Portsmouth and Rye, N.H., and His Descendants; Also of Nathaniel Lock of Portsmouth, and a Short Account of the History of the Lockes in England, (Concord, NH: The Rumford Press, 1916), 5, 565, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org: accessed 24 December 2015).
[3] John Ward Dean, Capt. John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire: Including His Tract on Newfoundland, 1620, Together with a Memoir by Charles Wesley Tuttle, Prince Society: New Hampshire, 1887), 344, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.org : accessed 26 December 2015).
[4] Langdon B. Parsons, History of Rye.
[5] John J. Currier, History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902, (Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1902), 84, 94, 100, 154, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org).
[6] Micajah Otis Hall, Rambles about Greenland in Rhyme, (Greenland, New Hampshire: A. Mudge & Sons, 1900), 157, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.com).
[7] Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin David, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, (Baltimore: Gen. Publ. Co., 1990), 90.
[8] Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. 1 1635-1717, State Papers Series Vol. 31, Albert Stillman Batchellor, Otis Grant Hammond, Ezra Scollay Stearns, (Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Co., 1907), 800, digital images, Archive (http://Archive.org : accessed 20 December 2015).
[9] William Abbatt, "William Berry (Bury) of New England," The Magazine of History With Notes and Queries, 1907, Vol. 5. 1907, Reprint ( London: Forgotten Books, 2013). 92-3, digital images, Forgotten Books (www.forgottenbooks.com : accessed 26 December 2015).
all sources:
[2] Arthur Horton Locke, A History and Genealogy of Captain John Locke (1637-1696) of Portsmouth and Rye, N.H., and His Descendants; Also of Nathaniel Lock of Portsmouth, and a Short Account of the History of the Lockes in England, (Concord, NH: The Rumford Press, 1916), 5, 565, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org: accessed 24 December 2015).
Torrey, Charles, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Society).
[3] John Ward Dean, Capt. John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire: Including His Tract on Newfoundland, 1620, Together with a Memoir by Charles Wesley Tuttle, Prince Society: New Hampshire, 1887), 344, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.org : accessed 26 December 2015).
[4] Langdon B. Parsons, History of Rye.
[5] John J. Currier, History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902, (Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1902), 84, 94, 100, 154, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org).
[6] Micajah Otis Hall, Rambles about Greenland in Rhyme, (Greenland, New Hampshire: A. Mudge & Sons, 1900), 157, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.com).
[7] Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin David, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, (Baltimore: Gen. Publ. Co., 1990), 90.
[8] Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. 1 1635-1717, State Papers Series Vol. 31, Albert Stillman Batchellor, Otis Grant Hammond, Ezra Scollay Stearns, (Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Co., 1907), 800, digital images, Archive (http://Archive.org : accessed 20 December 2015).
all sources:
Parsons, Langdon B., History of the Town of Rye, NH From Its Discovery and Settlement to December 31, 1903, (Concord, NH: Rumford Print. Co., 1905), 296, digital image, Archive (http://www.archive.org : accessed 23 December 2015).
Torrey, Charles, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, (Boston: New England Historic and Genealogical Society).
Noyes, Sybil, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin David, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, (Baltimore: Gen. Publ. Co., 1990), 90.
McIntire, Robert Harry, Ancestry of Robert Harry McIntire and of Helen Annette McIntire, His Wife, (Norfolk, Va., 1950), 148.
Savage, James A., A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1860-1862., (Boston: Brown, Little and Co., 1860), 1:171, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org).
Stackpole, Everett S., Old Kittery and Her Families, (Lewiston, ME: Lewiston Journal Press, 1903), 293-4, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org).
Locke, Arthur Horton, A History and Genealogy of Captain John Locke (1637-1696) of Portsmouth and Rye, N.H., and His Descendants; Also of Nathaniel Lock of Portsmouth, and a Short Account of the History of the Lockes in England, (Concord, NH: The Rumford Press, 1916?), 5, 565, digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org: acccessed 24 December 2015).
Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. 1 1635-1717, State Papers Series Vol. 31, Albert Stillman Batchellor, Otis Grant Hammond, Ezra Scollay Stearns, (Concord, NH: Rumford Printing Co., 1907), 800.
John J. Currier, History of Newbury, Mass., 1635-1902, (Boston: Damrell & Upham, 1902), 84,94, 100, 154,digital images, Archive (http://www.archive.org).
Dow, Joseph, History of the Town of Hampton, N.H. from its First Settlement in 1638 to the Autumn of 1892, (Salem, Mass.: Salem Press Publ. & Print, 1893), 689.
John Ward Dean, Capt. John Mason, the Founder of New Hampshire: Including His Tract on Newfoundland, 1620, Together with a Memoir by Charles Wesley Tuttle, Prince Society: New Hampshire, 1887), 344, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.com).
Micajah Otis Hall, Rambles about Greenland in Rhyme, (Greenland, New Hampshire: A. Mudge & Sons, 1900), 157, digital images, Google Play (http://books.google.com).
Abbatt, William, The Magazine of History With Notes and Queries, 1907, Vol. 5. 1907, Reprint
( London: Forgotten Books, 2013). 92-3, digital images, Forgotton Books (www.forgottonbooks.com).
1 comment:
Jeanie, you are correct. Locke's wife is a BERRY. I had made a mistake on my blog post, thinking about earlier authors who said John Locke married Elizabeth BOLLES/BOWLES. His wife was the daughter of William and Jane Berry.
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