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NATHANIEL FISH (bp. 1619–1694)

English Ancestry of Nathaniel Fish

John Fyshe (d. 1622/3) of Market Harborow, Great Bowden Parish, co. Leicester

John was perhaps the son of Augustine Fyshe who died on 26 Aug 1579 in Great Bowden. [1]

John married Margaret Unknown, perhaps Margaret Cradock. [1]

In his will, filed in 1622 and proved on 2 January 1623/24, John calls himself a yeoman of Bowden Magna, co. Leicester. He mentions his wife Margaret, his eldest son Augustine, his second son William, his fifth son Francis, his youngest son John, his son-in-law Robert Fish of Market Harborough and Robert's wife Alice. [1]

Children of John and Margaret, all baptisms recorded in Great Bowden [1]:

  1. Augustine Fyshe was baptized on 11 June 1578. He died on 29 April 1646. [1] He married Christian Unknown. [1] His father left him "one tazletre and a squared piece of my myle" of his timber and the "mylln post"; he was to pay his mother 40 shillings. [1] His son William went to Windsor, Connecticut in 1642; his father left him a bequest in his will, were he to return. [1]
  2. William Fyshe was baptized on 9 March 1580/1. He died on 13 September 1658. [1] He married Anne Parsons in 1620. [1] His father left him one old cottage with two cow pastures and ten sheep and the commons adjoining unto his dwelling house. [1]
  3. Kathryn Fyshe was baptized on 15 April 1582.
  4. Thomas Fyshe was baptized on 8 May 1584
  5. Sara Fyshe was baptized on 11 April 1585. She married John Johnson in 1604. [1]
  6. Ambrose Fyshe was baptized on 6 July 1588. He died in 1628. [1] He received his B.A. at Christ College, Cambridge in 1608 and his M.A. in 1612. [1] In 1616 he was ordained in London. [1] On 16 June 1619 he became rector of the parish of Raunds in Northamptonshire. [1]
  7. May Fyshe was baptized on 20 December 1589.
  8. Elizabeth Fyshe was baptized on 15 November 1591. She married Edward Marston in 1616. [1]
  9. Francis Fyshe was baptized on 29 October 1593. His father left him a cottage with a close and orchard. [1]
  10. Anne Fyshe was baptized on 2 June 1596.
  11. Alice Fyshe was baptized on 6 November 1597. She married Robert Fyshe on 24 February 1617/8. [1] His father-in-law left Robert a piece of meadow in little Bowden field, called Stony Holme. [1] Robert, the son of Thomas Fish, was baptized on 12 August 1593. [1] He was a mercer of Market Harborough in Great Bowden. [1]
  12. Mary Fyshe was baptized on 8 December 1599.
  13. John Fyshe was baptized on 26 January 1601/2. His father left him three closes and a small amount of money and the rights to some wood. [1] He lived in Wroxhall near his brother Thomas. [1] John Fyshe of Wroxhall had money transactions with Thomas Dexter, an early settler in Lynn and Sandwich, Massachusetts, which were settled in 1637. [1] He loaned money to Rev. Ephraim Huit of the Wroxhall Church, who was persecuted for non-conformity and went to Hartford, Connecticut. [1]

Thomas Fyshe (bp. 1584 - 1674) of Lubenham, East Farndon, Great Bowden and Wedgenock Park

Thomas Fyshe was baptized on 8 May 1584 in Great Bowden. [1] He died on 12 January 1673/4 in Warwick. [1] He married Mary Sprigge in 1609 in Leicester. [1] Mary was the daughter of William Sprigge of Lubenham, Leicestershire. [1] She was born on 24 January 1585 in Lubenham. [1]

Thomas appears to have lived in three nearby towns: first Lubenham, then East Farndon, and finally in Great Bowden. [1] He then moved to Wedgenock Park in Warwickshire, where he was a tenant of the Earl of Warwick. [1] In 1643 he was living in Good Rest House within the the Park. [1]

Children of Thomas Fish and Mary Sprigge:

  1. Cradock Fyshe was baptized on 9 August 1612 in Lubenham. [1] He married Elizabeth Unknown. [1]
  2. Ambrose Fyshe was baptized on 18 October 1613 in East Farndon. [1]
  3. Jonathan Fish was born in 1616. [2] He was baptized on 16 Feb 1615/6 in East Farndon. [1] He died in 1663. He married Mary Unknown. [2] Mary married second Gershom Moore. [2]
    Jonathan was an early inhabitant of Sandwich. [3] He is in the Sandwich section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [12] Jonathan settled in Long Island in the 1650s. [8]
  4. John Fish was baptized on 20 June 1619 in East Farndon. [1] He died in 1663. Inventory of John Fish's estate was taken on the oath of Mrs. Cecilia Fish by Richard Bourne and Nathaniel Fish on 18 November 1663. [13] The estate consisted of a house, land and meadow worth £30 and debts. [13]
    John was an early inhabitant of Sandwich. [1] John Fish was allocated 1-1/2 acres of meadow on 16 Apr 1640 in Sandwich. He is in the Sandwich section of the 1643 list of those between 16 and 60 able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony. [12] On 20 May 1655 John Fish pledged ten shillings for the building of a meeting house in Sandwich. [4] On 5 Nov 1657 he was one of five people appointed to make a rate of £24 14 shillings to pay Plymouth for the purchase of 'Manounscate' and to pay for catching wolves. [4] On 18 May 1659 he was a grandjuryman. [4] On 13 (10) 1659 the town paid John for his services. [4] On 15 May 1663 he was appointed constable. [4]
  5. Nathaniel Fish was baptized on 20 June 1619 in East Farndon.
  6. Esther Fyshe was baptized on 21 December 1622 in Great Bowden. [1]
  7. Hannah Fyshe was baptized on 5 October 1625 in Great Bowden. [1]
Nathaniel Fish was baptized on 20 June 1619 in East Farndon, West Northamptonshire. [1] He died in 1694. [2] He had an unknown first wife. [2] He married second Lydia Miller. [2]

A grant was made to Edmund Freeman and nine associates who had been residents of Saugus (Lynn) to have land for a settlement at what is now called Sandwich on 3 April 1637. Nathaniel, [his brother] John and Jonathan Fish were three of about 50 men who came with them as settlers. [3]

Nathaniel Fish and [his brother] John Fish each received one and a half acres of meadow land in Sandwich on 16 April 1640; [their brother] Jonathan received two acres. [4][5]

Nathaniel Fish was appointed constable in Sandwich on 5 June 1651. [6]

The town granted him five acres on 10 March 1669. [4] On 31 March 1681 Joseph Burge was chosen to lay out the five acres that were granted to Mr. Nathaniel Fish in 1669. [4]

Nathaniel was one of those who signed a 1655 letter to Mr. Leveridge, asking him to the minister in Sandwich. [4]

Nathaniel was chosen a grandjuryman on 18 May 1658 [4]

On 16 January 1682 the town considered the necessity of contributing something for the relief of Mr. Nathaniel Fish in respect to his current want, especially because of his wife's sickness. [4]

On 29 May 1655, John Fish contributed ten shillings to the building of a public meetinghouse. [4] On 5 November 1657 John Fish was on a committee to make a rate of 24 pounds and 14 shillings for the purchase of Manonascate and for wolf traps and wolves. [4] On 18 May 1659 he was chosen a grandjuryman. [4] On 15 May 1663 he was chosen constable. [4]

Children of Nathaniel Fish:

i. Thomas Fish was born about 1646. He was killed on 19 August 1664 when about 18 years old. [7] He was helping to build a dam and there was a sudden collapse of earth from where the construction material was being taken. [7]

ii. Nathaniel Fish was born on 27 November 1648. [9] He probably married Deborah Barrows. [8] She was probably the daughter of John and Deborah Barrows of Plymouth. [8]

iii. Ambrose Fish was born about 1650. He died in 1691 in Sandwich. He married Hannah Swift.

iv. John Fish was born on 13 April 1651 in Sandwich. [9]

iv. Samuel Fish was born on 10 August 1668 in Sandwich. [9] He died after 2 February 1691/2.

He signed his will on 2 February 1691/2 and left eight pounds to his father. [10][11] He left his land, a meadow in Sandwich worth eight pounds, to his brother Jonathan; the rest of his estate was to be divided among his brothers and sisters. [10]

Children of Nathaniel Fish and Lydia Miller:

v. Nathan Fish (probable son) was probably born in the early 1660s. [8] He married Deborah Burges. [8]

References:

1. Lester Warren Fish, Fish Family in England and America (Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing Co., 1948).

2. "New England Marriages to 1700," digitized books, AmericanAncestors, originally published as Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015), 1: 544.

3. Frederick Freeman, The History of Cape Cod: The Annals of 13 Towns of Barnstable County, vol. 2 (Boston: George C. Rand & Avery, 1862), 15–16

4. Sandwich and Bourne Colony and Town Records, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy (Yarmouthport: C.W. Swift, 1912), no page numbers, book in poor condition.

5. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855).

6. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 2, Court Orders, 1641–1651 (Boston: William White, 1855).

7. Lydia B. (Phinney) Brownson and Maclean W. McLean, "Richard Handy of Sandwich, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 125 (1971): 124–37.

8. David Kendall Martin, "The Wife of Nathan Fish of Falmouth," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 138 (1984): 130–3.

9. Caroline Lewis Cardell and Russell A. Lovell, Vital Records of Sandwich, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850, 2 vols. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996), vol. 1: 3 (Nathaniel Jr.'s birth), 6 (John's birth), 18 (Samuel's birth).

10. Charles Henry Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts (Boston: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1900).

11. George Ernest Bowman, "Abstracts of Barnstable County, Mass. Probate Records," Mayflower Descendant 16 (1914): 77–80.

12. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, "List of Those Able to Bear Arms in the Colony of New Plymouth 1643," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 4 (1850): 255–9.

13. George Ernest Bowman, "Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories," Mayflower Descendant 1 (1899): 24–26, 79–83.

Last revised: 11-Feb-2024