John Bland

John Bland (c. 1585/90–aft. 1663)

Isabel Drake (c. 1585/90–1639)

John Bland/Smith was born about 1585/90. [1] He died after 2 November 1663. [2] He married first Isabel Drake. [1] He married second Joanna Unknown. [2]

Isabel Drake was probably born at about the same time or a little later than her husband. She was buried in Watertown on 12 October 1639, age 60 (probably inflated or a transcription error). [1]

Ancestry of Isabel Drake [1]

William Drake married Joan Merrylls of Halstead, County Essex (near Colchester) on 12 October 1578 in Halstead. Joan (Merrylls) Drake left a will date 16 March 1616/7, in which she mentions her son Robert, her other children and her daughter Isabel Drake, the wife of John Smith. William and Joan's son Robert was baptized 23 July 1581. He emigrated to New England and lived in Hampton. His two sons, Nathaniel and Abraham, are cousins of Isabella Bland and the persons named in the depositions. John Bland was from Colchester. [1]

John Bland was one of the earliest settlers of the Vineyard, owning land there as early as 1633. [1] The John Bland of the Vineyard is also the John Smith, Sr. of Watertown in the 1630s. [1]

John Bland of Martha's Vineyard made his will on 2 November 1663, naming his wife Joanna and his only two living children, his daughters Annabell and Isabel. [1]

A Dukes county deed says, "Thomas Levit and Isabel Levit (sometime Isabel Bland, daughter of John Bland of Martha's Vineyard, deceased) both of Hampton, N.H. constitute their son John Levit their attorney in the settlement of the estate of John Bland by an instrument dated 1691. In support of their claims they file depositions of Nathaniel Drake aged 78 and Abram Drake, aged about 70, both of Hampton, dated April 27, 1671, in which deponents state that they have known Isabel Bland since childhood and that John Bland formerly lived at Colchester, England, and 'he was sometimes called John Smith but his name and his ancestors was Bland.' Samuel Smith aged 29 and Benjamin Gould aged 42 both of the Vineyard testify to the same effect." [3]

John gave land in Watertown to his son-in-law William Barsham. This explains why Isabella was suing to get the Vineyard lands. [1]

In 1657, 1660 and 1661 the Commissioners of the United Colonies authorized payments to "Mistress Bland of the Vineyards for her pains and care amongst the Indians there and for physic and surgery not brought to account last year. [2]

Children of John Bland and Isabell Drake:

i. Annabel Bland was born about 1613. [1] She married William Barsham of Watertown about 1634. [1]

ii. Isabella Bland was born about 1615. [1] She died on 9 February 1698/9. She married first Francis Asten. She married second Thomas Levit.

References:

1. Robert Charles Anderson, "John Smith of Watertown, Massachusetts," The American Genealogist 61 (January/April 1985): 18–31, specifically 18–23.

2. "Great Migration 1634–1635, R–S," database with images, AmericanAncestors, 391–4 (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB397/i/0/392/0).

3. Charles M. Banks, "Genealogical Notes from Martha's Vineyard," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 28 (January 1898): 28, transcript of deed.

©a. buiter

19-May-2023