John Birge

John Birge (c. 1649–1733)

Sarah Unknown (c. 1654–1716)

John Birge of Bristol was born about 1649. He died on 5 September 1733, age 84. [1]

Sarah Unknown was born about 1654. She died 25 January 1716, age 62. [1]

John and Sarah are buried in the East Burial Ground in Bristol. [1]

John Birge and Thomas Lewis are listed as attending the first town meeting in Bristol and being admitted citizens in (apparently) 1681. [2] However, John did not move to Bristol until some time between 1688 and 1691.

John Birge, tailor, was on a 6 June 1687 tax list in Boston. [3]

John Birge gave a bond to Bartholomew Mercier on 31 August 1694. [4]

A 1 September 1696 list of the debts of William Bental of Bristol's estate has the entry "Payd to Mr John Birge for work." [5]

In his will of 23 July 1697, William Hoar, baker of Bristol, appointed his "Very Good freinds" Deacon John Cary, John Birge and Nathaniel Blagrove his overseers. [5]

Inventory on John's estate was taken on 34 September 1733; it included tailor's shears. It was testified to on 6 October 1733. [6]

Children of John and Sarah Birge: Births of the first three recorded in Boston. [7]

i. Elizabeth Birge was born on 20 September 1683. She married Joseph Lewis.

ii. Mary Birge was born on 9 June 1687.

Patience Cuthbert, spinster, signed a receipt for a legacy from her grandfather John Birge on 26 January 1733/4. [8] She was probably a daugher of either Mary or her sister Sarah.

iii. Sarah Birge was born on 15 July 1688.

iv. Samuel Birge was born on 1 August 1691 in Bristol. [arnold] He died by 26 January 1733/4. He married Hannah Bragg on 9 November 1727 in Bristol. [9] Hannah, the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Bragg, was born on 27 September 1698 in Briston. [9]

Samuel, the son of Mr. John Birge, was baptized on 7 September 1712 upon his owning the covenant. [10]

Hannah Birge of Bristol, widow, signed a receipt for a legacy from her father-in-law John Birge on 26 January 1733/4. [8]

Endnotes:

1. Find A Grave website, Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com):

Name	Memorial Number	Inscription / Comments
John Birdge	129372535	"Here lieth interred ye body of Mr. John Birdge who died Septem ye 5th 1733 in the 85th year of his age."
Sarah Birge	129372639	Here lyeth the body of Sarah the wife of John Birge who dyed January the 25 1716 in the 63 year of her age."

2. Wilfred Harold Munro, The History of Bristol, R.I. (Providence: J.A. and R.A. Reid, 1880), 79.

3. Frances Everett Blake, "Boston Tax List, 1687," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 55 (1901): 140.

4. "Tables of Contents to the Land and Notarial Records of Rhode Island ...," Rhode Island Roots 13 (1987): 29.

5. Lucy Hall Greenlaw, "Bristol County Probate Records," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 62 (1908): 183–4 (Hoar) and 64 (1910): 64 (Bental).

6. "Bristol County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1686–1880," database with images, AmericanAncestors > Bristol 2000–3999, file 2074.

7. "Boston, MA: Birth, Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths, 1630–1699," database with images, AmericanAncestors > Boston, pp. 159, 172, 178.

8. H.L. Peter Rounds, Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts Probate Records, 1687–1745, volume 8 (Baltimore: Clearfield, 2001), 235.

9. "Rhode Island: Vital Records, 1636–1850," database with images, AmericanAncestors > vol. 6, pps. 1-62 (birth of Samuel) and 1-66 (birth of Hannah Bragg); vol. 8, p. 200 (marriage).

10. Ruth Wilder Sherman and Robert M. Sherman, "Bristol, R.I. Church Records," The American Genealogist 70 (1995): 183.

Last revised: 16-Jul-2023