An excerpt from our family history, this
month featuring John Leigh (1600–1671) and Anne (or Joanne) Hungerford
(1605–1684), the eighth-great-grandparents of my siblings and me
Our
earliest known ancestors to come to colonial America were John Leigh and Anne
Hungerford. We do not know the circumstances of their arrival, but they were
both in Massachusetts by the time they married in Boston in 1638, just eight
years after Puritan settlers from England founded the town.
Spellings
of names in the 17th century were not consistent, even for the same person, and
a common variant of Leigh shows up
as Lee. John and some of his children
appear in records with either spelling. Later generations spelled the name Lee.
John
was born in Chigwell, Essex, England in April 1600. The names of his parents
are not known. Tradition holds that “John Lee was of an ancient and honorable
family of the city of London, and lived with his parents, being well instructed
in the principles of the Christian religion, and fitted for business at home,
or abroad, in the world by sea, or land.”
Family
tradition states “that John was son of a Londoner of means, probably a
merchant, that he had an elder sister, that he kept doubtful company and was
of a rebellious spirit, and that he was sent to the country to keep him out of
mischief. We trace him from this time on in the records preserved at Salem,
and find that it took several severe admonitions from the Puritan rulers to
keep down this spirit of mischief which seems to have been troubling him in
his early years, at least.”
And then followed a listing of John’s convictions and fines:
-
October 1634: Fined for speaking reproachfully of the governor.
-
1641: Accused, tried, found guilty for stealing the Widow Haffield’s Bible;
fined to pay the widow 15s [shillings]
for her Bible and 10s for lying about
it.
-
March 1660: Complained of on suspicion of intent to wound an ox and kill a pig;
not proven.
-
May 1660: Fined for railing speeches; fine released.
-
March 1665: Fined for contempt for non-appearance at court.
-
Mar. 27, 1667: Brought before court to answer for working in his swamp on
Sunday, but brought witnesses to prove he was putting out a fire, and so was
discharged.
Anne
was born in 1605 in Farleigh Hungerford Castle, Somerset, England, the
youngest of six children born to Sir Anthony Hungerford Knight (1567–1627) and
Lucy Farley (1560–1627). The “Knight” at the end of her father’s name was
likely a title and not a surname. Her father’s line back at least nine
generations (back into the early 13th century) all bore the name Hungerford.
Anne
and her brother Thomas came to New England together, probably landing in
Boston. Thomas settled in Connecticut. And Anne remained in Boston or
thereabouts, where she married John.
After
their marriage in Boston, John and Anne became the parents of at least five children:
John (born in 1639), Joseph (1643, through whom we are descended), Sarah
(1645), Mary (1649), and Ann (1651). There may have been other children,
probably including infants who died.
The
family lived in Ipswich, where all of the children were born and where John
eventually died. Originally called Agawam, Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex
County, Massachusetts, about 28 miles northeast of Boston. It was founded in
1634 by John Winthrop the Younger, son of the John Winthrop who was one of the
founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and its first elected governor.
The early inhabitants of Ipswich were farmers, fishermen, shipbuilders, or
traders.
John was a landowner and a farmer. Based on an inventory at his death,
we know that he grew flaxseed, rye, Indian corn, barley, oats, and hay. He had
horses, cows, oxen, steers, sheep, and pigs.
“John
Leigh at the time of his death dwelt in a house at Heartbreak Hill, which was
surrounded by an orchard and considerable land, which with a barn and
outhouses constituted the homestead. Besides he had meadow pasture and arable
land; with land on Hog Island which was marsh land where he raised hay and used
his canoe to reach it.”
John
died on July 8, 1671, in Ipswich at age 71. Anne lived another 13 years before
she died on September 30, 1684, in Concord at age 78 or 79.
