Return to main file

JOHN STOCKBRIDGE (c. 1608–1657)

ANNE KENDALL (c. 1614–bef. 1643)

---

John, the son of John Stockbridge of Hockney, Essex, was born about 1608. [1] He died on 13 October 1657 in Boston. [1] He married first Anne, the daughter of John Kendall, on 16 January 1631/2 in Raleigh, Essex. [1] John married second Elizabeth Soane of Scituate on 9 October 1643. [2][3, 1:94] Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Hatch) Soane was baptized on 6 April 1621 in Tenterden, Kent. [2] She was the granddaughter of William and (Anne) Tilden Hatch and the second cousin of Nathaniel Tilden. [2] John married third Mary __ by 1665. [1] She was living in 1695. [4] She married second Daniel Hendrick of Haverhill on 8 April 1660 in Boston. [1] Daniel was born about 1610 and was the widower of Dorothy Price, who died on 5 June 1658. [4] He died between 1700 and 1713. [4]

Anne Kendall was born about 1614. She died before 9 October 1643.

John Stockbridge, age 27, Anne, age 21, and Charles, age one, enrolled as passengers for New England on the Blessing on 7 June 1635 in London. [1]

Anne Kendall was the sister of Susan (Kendall) Saywell, the wife of Robert Saywell. The Saywells enrolled for passage on the Blessing, but probably did not go. [1]

John was a wheelwright—a profession that may have made him valuable to Plymouth Colony. Goodman Stockbridge "ye wheeler" had a house in Scituate in 1636. [5]

Goodwife Stockbridge joined the church in Scituate on 16 July 1637. [4] Quarrels over how baptism should be performed led to Reverend John Lothrop and about half the congregation leaving Scituate for Barnstable in 1639. Anne was one of those who stayed under the leadership of Timothy Hatherly. The following year Charles Chauncey—a proponent of immersion—was called as the new minister. Anne, along with William Vassall, his daughter Judith, Elder King, his wife Sarah, Thomas Lapham, and John Twisden, refused to join the call. Anne's daughter Hannah was baptized by Lothrop but her daughter Elizabeth was taken to Boston to avoid immersion. The first child of John's second wife was baptized by Reverend William Wetherell in the second church in Scituate. [4]

John took the oath of allegiance and fidelity on 1 February 1638/9. [4] However, he was apparently not fond of the Plymouth government and was willing to let it be known. John Stockbridge of Scituate was presented to the court for disgraceful speeches on 5 June 1638. John Stockbridge, wheelwright of Scituate, was fined ten shillings at the 4 September 1638 court for contemptuous words against the government. He was among several men of Scituate who were presented to the court on 4 December 1638 for receiving [religious] strangers and foreigners into their houses and land without license. They were later discharged. John, wheelwright, was presented for contemptuous speeches against the government on 7 September 1642. [3, 1: 86–87; 96–98; 105–7; 2: 53]

John was appointed a constable of Scituate on 7 March 1642/3. He is in the Scituate section of the 1643 list of those able to bear arms in Plymouth Colony [6] He was a appointed a surveyor of the highways in Scituate on 4 June 1645, 2 June 1646 and 8 June 1655. [3, 2: 53, 84, 102; 3: 79] He was a Conihassett partner. He was propounded as a freeman on 4 June 1650. [3, 2: 154] However, there is no record of his ever becoming one.

John built a grist mill (shown in the photo) in Scituate in about 1650: [7]

[Isaac] Stedman proceeded to dam First Herring Brook – forming the pond later made famous by the poet Samuel Woodworth – and built a much-needed sawmill in 1640. A few years later, c.1650, John Stockbridge constructed a water-driven grist mill for grinding corn alongside the Stedman sawmill.  Before moving his family to Boston, Isaac Stedman sold the saw mill.  In 1662, John’s son Charles Stockbridge would become sole owner of both the saw and grist mills.  They would be known from then on as the Stockbridge Mills.  On the pond, Charles Stockbridge also built his family home – so strongly constructed as to serve as the principal garrison for the Greenbush colonial settlement.

John and his family moved to Boston, probably in 1656. [4]

John Stockbridge of Boston wrote his will on 4 September 1657; it was proved on 8 April 1658. He left his eldest son Charles his mill, as well as six acres of meadow and the house, ground, and orchard belonging to it. Charles was to pay his sister Elizabeth ten pounds when she married or turned 21. He left his wife Mary his house and ground in Boston, his house in Scituate where Gilbert Brooks lived and the ground, orchard and meadow that belonged to it for her life time. After that it was to go to his youngest son [John]. This youngest son was to pay ten pounds to his sister Mary. He left his daughter Esther Stockbridge his house in Scituate that his son-in-law William Tickner lived in, along with the orchard, ground and meadow that belonged to it. He also left her his land at Brush Hill and at "fower Clift" to maintain her for life. After that the property was to be split between his other children. He left his daughter Hannah Ticknor 40 shillings and he left his daughter Sarah ten pounds, to be paid to her when she married or turned 21. He left his working tools to his eldest son and his household goods to his wife. He named his wife and eldest son his executors. [4, provides a transcription]

Inventory was taken on John's estate on 8 April 1658. He had 45 pounds worth of land and about five pounds worth of working tools. Along with his other household goods he had two bibles and "other books." [4]

On 7 April 1660, the day before she remarried, John's widow Mary deeded part of her orchard in Boston to her stepson Charles Stockbridge of Boston. Mary and her second husband lived in Haverhill and had three children. [4]

William Soane of Scituate left ten pounds with John Stockbridge before departing for England. It was agreed that if he should return, it would be returned; if he did not it would go to John's daughter Hester Stockbridge. He did return and on 1 May 1667 Charles Stockbridge of Boston and Mary, the widow of John Stockbridge of Boston, (represented by an attorney)—as executors of John's will—exchanged 12 acres of upland in Scituate that John had left Hester for the ten pounds. [8] William was Hester's stepbrother, the son of Elizabeth (Hatch) Soane. [4]

John's estate was divided on 21 January 1688/9 between grandson Joseph Stockbridge, grandson William Ticknor, Jr., Thomas and Elizabeth Hyland, Joseph and Sarah Woodworth, and Samuel Clapp, "son" [relationship unknown] and successor to half Joseph and Sarah Woodworth's share. [4]

Children of John Stockbridge and Anne Kendall:

iii. Elizabeth Stockbridge was probably born about 1638. She was baptized on 10 July 1642 in Boston. She died after 13 April 1708. She married Thomas Hyland.

Children of John Stockbridge and Elizabeth Soane:

iv. Sarah Stockbridge was baptized on 15 March 1645/6 in Scituate. [1] She married Joseph Woodworth. Joseph was probably born about 1648 in Scituate. [4] He died between 3 December 1712 and 13 June 1718 in Scituate. [4]

v. Hester Stockbridge was baptized on 11 July 1647 in Scituate. [1]

Her father's will suggests that Hester was impaired in some way.

Children of John Stockbridge and Mary __:

vi. Mary Stockbridge was baptized on 29 April 1655 in Scituate. [1] She married Benjamin, the son of Richard Singletary, on 4 April 1678 in Haverhill. [1] Benjamin was living on l9 July 1699 when he was warranted 300 acres of land in South Carolina. [4]

vii. John Stockbridge was born on 19 July 1657 in Boston. [1] He was baptized there on 26 July 1657. [1] He married Mary, the daughter of John Godfrey, on 23 November 1681. [1]

References:

1. "Great Migration 1634–1635, R–S," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org,  originally published as:  Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume VI, R–S (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009), 534–40.

2. Edward R. Taylor and Randy A. West, "Updates to the Ancestry of Brothers Thomas and William Hatch of Scituate, Massachusetts," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 174 (2020): 303–13; 175 (2020): 68–76.

3. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of Plymouth Colony: Court Orders, vol. 1, 1633–1640, vol. 2, 1641–1651, vol. 3, 1651–1661, vol. 4, 1661–1668 (Boston: William White, 1855).

4. Roger D. Joslyn, "The Descendants of John Stockbridge," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 133 (1979): 94–101, 187–93.

5. Amos Otis, "Scituate and Barnstable Church Records," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 9 (1855): 279-87; 10 (1856): 37–43, 345–51.

6. 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.

7. "The Stockbridge Grist Mill, c. 1650," web page, Scituate Historical Society (https://scituatehistoricalsociety.org/historic_property/grist-mill : accessed 16 November 2022).

8. "Massachusetts: Plymouth Colony Deeds," database with images, AmericanAncestors, pp. 52–53.

9. James Melville Hunnewell, The Tinknor Family in America (Boston: James Melville Hunnewell, 1919), 2.

Photo: Old Stockbridge Grist Mill circa 1636 in Scituate Massachusetts MA USA, converted to .png file.

---

©a. buiter

26-Dec-2022