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EZRA PERRY (c. 1625–1689)
ELIZABETH BURGE (c. 1629–1717), daughter of THOMAS BURGE and DOROTHY UNKNOWN
Ezra Perry was born about 1625. He died on 16 October 1689, age 64, [MVRS] He married Elizabeth Burge there on 12 February 1651. [MVRS]
Elizabeth (Burge) Perry, the widow of Ezra Perry, died on 26 September 1717, age 88, in Sandwich. [MVRS]
Ezra was a yeoman. He appears to have had a fairly quiet life; playing on a modest political role and not becoming openly involved in religious controversies. However, his eldest son's wife was the daughter of Mr. Edmund Freeman and granddaughter of Governor Thomas Prence.
It is not clear what—if any—the relationship was between Ezra Perry and the Quaker Edward Perry who was repeatedly fined for refusing to take the oath of fidelity or marry in the required way. [NBS3] It is also unclear how, if at all, he was related to Sarah Perry, whose estate he sought to administer. On 7 June 1659 the General Court allowed Ezra Perry to administer the estate of Sarah Perrey, but seemed to register some disapproval:
[T]here being no other (although shee hanth many other friends in the country,) that claimeth any interest in the said estate, having put in securitie into the Court to bee accountable for the estate encase it shalbee required by any that have better title thereto.It seems that Ezra first appears in the New England records in 1644. At a Sandwich town meeting on 6 (7) 1644, townsmen volunteered to pay (in corn) for repairing the church meetinghouse. Thomas Tupper collected ten shillings (worth) from Edmund Freeman and Thomas Dexter, nine shillings from Thomas Gibbs, Sr., Ezra Perry and [Ezra's brother-in-law] Jacob Burge, seven shillings from Thomas Tobey, Sr. and six from William Bassett. [HCC]
Thomas was one of six men appointed by the town on 7 November 1652 to be in charge of the fish [whales] cut up by the Indians in Sandwich. [SBCR]
On 29 May 1655 Ezra Perry contributed five shillings to the building of a public meetinghouse. [SBCR] On 11 July 1657 Ezra Perry agreed to contribute 15 shillings a year to paying the minister. [SBCR]
Along with his father-in-law Thomas Burge and his brother-in-law Thomas Burge, Jr., Ezra posted bond for his brother-in-law on 4 June 1659. Ezra's share was 50 pounds. The condition of the bond was that his brother-in-law—who had committed adultery, a serious offense in Plymouth colony—would appear at the next General Court. [NBS3]
Ezra Perry was on the Grand Enquest on 4 June 1661, 3 June 1674 and 5 June 1677. [NBS3][NBS5]
On 6 June 1666 the Court granted Ezra about 30 acres in the neck of land where Mr. Edmund Freeman, Jr. has his lalnd. [NBS4]
On 5 June 1671 the General Court appointed a committee to view the damage done to the Indians by English horses and hogs. Ezra was one of the men of Sandwich chosen to be on the committee. [NBS5] On 13 (5) 1671 Ezra was chosen by the town of Sandwich to be one of five men to exchange town land with James Skeffe. [SBCR] He was the constable in Sandwich on 3 June 1679. [NBS6]
Ezra Perry, Sr. of Monument and the town of Sandwich, made his will on the day he died, 16 October 1689. Inventory was taken on 24 October and his widow Elizabeth testified to it on 18 April 1690. He had disposed of his land during his lifetime. He left one shilling each to his sons Ezra and John and his daughters, Deborah, the wife of Seth Pope, and Sarah, the wife of Ephraim Swift. He left his daughter Remember two cows and mare. He left his son Samuel two steers, a heifer, a filly, a gun, a sword and bandolier, and an iron pot. He left his son Benjamin two cows, two steers, a gun, and a sword. He left Samuel, Benjamin and Remember each a bed and its furniture. [BMPR]
Children of Ezra Perry and Elizabeth Burge: Births recorded in Sandwich. [MVRS]
i. Ezra Perry was born on 11 February 1652/3. He died on 31 January 1729/30 in Sandwich. [EPSM] He married Rebecca Freeman, the daughter of Edmund and Rebecca (Prence) Freeman and granddaughter of Governor Thomas and Patience (Brewster) Prence. Rebecca, the widow of Ezra, died on 16 April 1738 in Sandwich. [MVRS]
Ezra Perry of Sandwich, yeoman and son-in-law of Mr. Edmund Freeman, late of Sandwich, was appointed administrator of his father-in-law's estate on 5 January 1703/4. Ezra and his wife Rebecca received 12 pounds and 14 shillings as their share of the estate on 9 June 1705. [BMPR]
ii. Deborah Perry was born on 28 November 1654. She married Seth Pope by 1675. [GMB0] Seth, the son of Thomas Pope and Sarah Jenny and grandson of John Jenny, was born on 13 January 1648/9 in Plymouth. [GMB0] Seth married second Rebecca Unknown. [GMB0] Rebecca, the widow of Seth Pope, Esq., was buried on 25 January 1741, age 78, in Dartmouth. [GMB0]
Seth and Deborah were the ancestors of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Douglas MacArthur. [EPSM]
iii John Perry was born on 1 January 1656/7. John Perry, Sr. died on 31 October 1732, age 78, in Sandwich. [MVRS] He married Elizabeth Williamson. [EPSM] Elizabeth was the daughter of Timothy and Mary (Howland) Williamson of Marshfield. [EPSM] She was the granddaughter of Arthur Howland and niece of John Howland. She was born about 1661. She died on 23 or 23 April 1727 in Sandwich. [MVRS] John might have married second Hannah, the widow of Aaron Savary. [EPSM]
iv. Sarah Perry was born about l659. [EPSM] She married Ephraim, the son of William Swift. [HST]
v. Samuel Perry was born about mid-March 1667. Samuel of Sandwich married Esther Tabor of Dartmouth on 23 October 1689. [MVRS] Esther was the daughter of Thomas and Esther (Cook) Tabor and granddaughter of John Cook of the Mayflower.
vi. Benjamin Perry was born on 15 January 1670. He married Dinah Swift, the daughter of William Swift. [HST]
vii. Remember Perry, was born on 1 January 1676. She died on 3 November 1732, probably in Sandwich. She married Jonathan Tobey.
References:
SBCR. Sandwich and Bourne Colony and Town Records, Library of Cape Cod History and Genealogy (Yarmouthport: C.W. Swift, 1912), no page numbers.
MVRS. 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: 12 (marriage of Ezra and Elizabeth), 21( marriage of Samuel), 22 (births of the children), 30 (death of Elizabeth), 32 (death of John's wife Elizabeth), 148 (death of Ezra's wife Rebecca); vol. 2: 1536 (death of Ezra, Sr.), 1619 (deaths of Ezra and John).
BMPR. “Barnstable, MA: Probate Records, 1685–1789,” database with images, AmericanAncestors, vol. 1: 36–37; vol. 2: 131–2, 145.
EPSM. Lydia B. (Phinney) Brownson and Maclean W. McLean, "Ezra Perry of Sandwich, Mass. (c. 1625–1689)," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 115 (1961), 181–198.
HST. Mrs. John E. Barclay, "Hannah (Swift) Tobey, daughter of William2 Swift, and the Family of Ambrose2 Fish, of Sandwich, Mass.," The American Genealogist 35 (1959): 40–43.
NBS3. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 3, Court Orders, 1651–1661 (Boston: William White, 1855).
NBS4. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 4, Court Orders, 1661–1668 (Boston: William White, 1855).
NBS5. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 5, Court Orders, 1668–1678 (Boston: William White, 1855).
NBS6. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 6, Court Orders, 16781–1691 (Boston: William White, 1855).
HCC. Frederick Freeman, The History of Cape Cod: The Annals of 13 Towns of Barnstable County, vol. 2 (Boston: George C. Rand & Avery, 1862), 45, 50.
GMB0. "Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1630," database with images, AmericanAncestors (2010), 1496.
Last revised: 17-Jul-2021