Return to main Howland file
EDMUND HENCHMAN (d. 1668)
ELIZABETH UNKNOWN (d. 1672)
Charles Hoar of the city of Gloucester, England, made his will on 25 September 1638 and administration was granted to his widow Joane (or Joanna) on 21 December 1638. He left bequests to his "brothers" William, Walter, Edward and Thomas Henchman. This suggests that his wife Joane was Joane Henchman.
Charles was sheriff of the city of Gloucester in 1634. He requested that his son Leonard should be sent to Oxford to become a minister. His widow Joane came to New England with five of her children in 1639 or 1640. She died on 20 December 1661 in Braintree and is buried in the old burial ground in Quincy. Her son Leonard married Bridget Lisle, the daughter of the regicide John Lisle, and was briefly president of Harvard College. Edmund Henchman wittnessed a power of attorney for her son Daniel in 1653 in Boston.
Hoar suggests that Thomas Henchman was Major Thomas Henchman,. But, he is too old to be Thomas, the son of Edmund. It is more plausible that Edmund is the brother of Joane, but then it is not clear why he was not mentioned in Charles's will.
From [4]
Mr. Edmund Henchman died on 27 October 1668 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. [1]
Edmund's origins are obscure; he might be a relative of the wife of Charles Hoar: see the text box.
Waters says that Mr. Edmund Henchman was a friend of Reverend John Fiske and followed him to New England, and then to Chelmsford. [2]
Elizabeth, the widow of Edmund, married second Reverend John Fiske on 1 August 1672 in Chelmsford. [3] John, the son of John and Anne (Lawter) Fiske, was baptized in St. James, South Elmham, county Suffolk, on 20 March 1607/8/ [3] He probably died on 14 January 1676/7 in Chelmsford. [3] He married first Anne Gippes of Frenze, county Norfolk. [3] She died on 14 February 1671/2 in Chelmsford. [3]
John received his B.A. from Cambridge on 2 July 1625 and was pastor at Wenham and Chelmsford. [3]
Children of Edmund and Elizabeth Henchman:
i. Major Thomas Henchman is "supposed" to be a son of Edmund and Elizabeth Henchman. [2] He was born about 1629. He is buried in the old graveyard in Chelmsford and his gravestone says that died on 17 July 1703, age 74. [2] He married Elizabeth Unknown. [2]
It is possible that Thomas is the son of Edward Henchman, baptized on 14 February 1629/30 at St. Andrews by the Wardrobe, City of London. [5]
ii. Elizabeth Henchman was born about 1634. She died on 24 June 1693. married George Vaughan.
References:
1. "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988," database, Ancestry, citing Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Vital and Town Records (Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute (Jay and Delene Holbrook), n.d.) > Chelmsford > Town and Land Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths, image 32.
2. Wilson Waters, History of Chelmsford (Lowell, MA: Courrier-Citizen, 1917), 86, 539, 769.
3. G. Andrews Moriarty, "Genealogical Research in England: The Fiske Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 88 (1934): 265–73, specifically 272.
4. George F. Hoar, "Will of Charles Hoar of Gloucester, 1638," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 45 (1891): 285–9.
5. "London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812," database with images, Ancestry (2010): City of London > St. Andrew by the Wardrobe > 1558–1812, image 40, line 15.
Last revised: 26-Dec-2023