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WILLIAM NELSON (d. 1679)
MARTHA FORD (c. 1619–1683), daughter of Unknown Ford and Martha Unknown
William died between 31 October and 15 December 1679.
William Nelson married Martha Ford on 29 October 1640 in Plymouth. [1][2][3]
Martha Ford was born about 1619. She died on 20 December 1683, age 63. [2]
William was in Plymouth by 1636. On the last day of March 1637, he was hired to keep the cows of the town of Plymouth at the same wages he had gotten the previous year: 50 bushels of Indian corn. [4]
On 3 August 1640 William was granted six acres of upland. [3]
William was a freeman in Plymouth in 1658. [3] He moved to Middleborough and was a freeman there in 1670. [3]
On 3 June 1662, by right of his wife—one of the first born children (although she was born in England)—land in Middleborough. [3]
William made his will on 31 October 1679; inventory was taken on 15 December 1679. He named his wife Maratha, sons John and William, and daughter Martha Cobb (wife of John) and Jane Faunce (wife of Thomas). [5]
Children of William Nelson and Martha Ford:
i. Martha Nelson was born about 1641 in Plymouth. She died after 4 February 1711/2. married John Cobb.
ii. John Nelson died after 29 April 1697, when he made his will. [6] He married first Sarah Wood on 4 March 1675 in Plymouth. [6] Sarah, the daughter of Henry and Abigail (Jenney) Wood and granddaughter of John and Sarah (Cary) Jenney, died on 4 March 1675 in Plymouth. [6] John married second Lydia (Bartlett) Barnaby. [6] Lydia was the widow of James Barnaby. [7] He married third Patience Morton. [6] Patience was the daughter of Ephraim Morton. [7]
John was constable and surveyor of highways in Middleborough in 1669; he was a selectman in 1681, 1682, 1683, 1685 and 1686. [7] In 1687 he moved to Lakeview. [7]
iii. William Nelson was born about 1645 in Plymouth. He died on 22March 1718, age 73, in Middleborough. [3] He married Ruth Foxwell. [3] Ruth, the daughter of Richard and Anne (Shelley) Foxwell, was born on 25 March 1641 in Barnstable and died on 7 September 1726 in Middleborough. [3]
iv. Jane Nelson was born on 28 February 1650 in Plymouth. [3] She married Thomas Faunce on 12 December 1672 in Plymouth. [3] Thomas, the son of John and Patience (Morton) Faunce, was born about 1647 in Plymouth and died there on 27 February 1745/6. [3]
Thomas was the ruling elder of the First Church of Christ in Plymouth at the time of his death. [3]
References:
1. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, vol. 1, Court Orders, 1633–1640 (Boston: William White, 1855).
2. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 686–7.
3. Robert S. Wakefield, "Men of the Fortune: Ford," The American Genealogist 56 (1980): 32–35.
4. Records of the Town of Plymouth (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1995).
5. Mrs. John E. Barclay, "Goodwife Martha Ford alias "Widow" Ford, Her Second Husband, Peter Browne, and Her Children," The American Genealogist 42 (1966): 35–42.
6. Alicia Crane Williams, "Henry Wood alias Atwooed of Middleborough, Massachusetts," Mayflower Descendant 48 (1998): 135–40, specifically 16–18.
7. Thomas Weston, History of the Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts (New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1906), 50–51 (William and John).
Last revised: 25-Feb-2024