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WILLIAM CHENEY (c. 1604–1667)

MARGARET UNKNOWN (d. 1686)

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William Cheney was born about 1604. He died on 30 June 1667 in Roxbury, age 63. [1] He was buried there on 2 July 1667. [2, cites church records] He married Margaret Unknown.

Margaret was buried on 3 July 1686 in Roxbury. [1] She married second ___ Burge. He died before 15 March 1679/80, when Margaret was referred to as a widow.

At the time of his death, William was a relatively wealthy man. His estate, inventoried on 10 Jul 1667, amounted to £886.11.4. [3] In addition to land, William owned his dwelling house and its contents, a house in Boston, five cows, two horses, a foal, a colt, two oxen and three pigs. The detailed inventory of his estate provides a glimpse at seventeenth century New England life. His house had two large rooms on the ground floor and two smaller rooms above. There was also an attic and a cellar. The main downstairs room was the parlor, which must have been sizable. In the parlor was a large bed and a trundle bed, along with an 'old chaffe bed'. The beds had bolsters, pillows, sheets, and blankets. There may have been two windows as there were two curtain rods, as well as curtains. On the floor were a red rug and a small carpet. There was a great cupboard, a little cupboard and two chests. Meals must have been set on the large table, but there were just three chairs, although one of them was 'great' and 'broad'. The other significant downstairs room was the hall. It appears to have been used for cooking and storage and must have had a fire place. In it were two tables, pewter and brass, irons and tongs, a grid iron, two trammels, an iron 'drypin', a pan, a spit, bellows, a chafing dish, a musket, iron tools, pails, and wooden ware and lumber. The two upstairs rooms were called the parlor chamber and the hall chamber in reference to the rooms below. They were apparently used for sleeping as they contained beds; one had a spinning wheel and yarn. The attic was used for storing corn, rye, malt and rope; the cellar for storing barrels, old lumber, cart wheels, a part of a bed and plowing equipment. [2, transcript of inventory][4]

William was an important member of the community. In 1645 he was a voluntary contributor to the Roxbury free school and was chosen a member of the board of directors on 15 February 1663. [2] On 21 February 1648 and on 23 February 1652 he was appointed a rater. [2] He was one of two constables in 1654/5. [2] He was a selectman on 19 Jan 1656/7. [2] On 18 Jan 1663 he was on a committee to inspect Peter Gardner's lean-to and fence and ensure that they did not encroach upon the highway. [2] He was a freeman on 23 May 1666. [2] Despite holding offices that must have been typically held by men with some education, William appears to have been illiterate, using his mark, rather than his signature. [2] His interest in the town's affairs appears to have exceeded his interest in the church. He joined the Roxbury church late; being admitted to full communion on 5 March 1664/5. [2, cites church records] Margaret joined before 4 June 1643, when her daughter Mehitable was baptized on her account. [2, cites church records]

William may have made his money by buying and selling land. He acquired extensive and widely scattered lands in Roxbury. On 18 July 1639 William bought the dwelling house and home lot in Roxbury, along with forty acres of land and pasture, of Nicholas and Richard Parker of Boston. [5] On a 1634/43 Roxbury estate list; he is shown as having 24.5 acres. [6] On 2 March 1647 Humphrey Johnson of Roxbury granted William 20 acres of land in Roxbury. [2, transcribed deed] On 6 July 1658 William and Margaret sold John Pierpont a quarter share of a watermill in Roxbury and a quarter piece of the acre of marsh ground that went with it. [2, transcribed deed] An early description of his land says that his house, garden and lands near his house abutted William Parke's to the south and east and the highway to the north and west. He had 16 acres in the Great Lots, between John Johnson's to the west and the school lands to the east. He had 10 acres of swamp near the Great Lots, between those of Giles Pason, Ralph Hemingway and the heirs of Samuel Hagvorne. He had six acres of salt marsh on Gravelly Point and six acres of fresh meadow in the Great Meadow, between John Stowe's land to the east, Richard Sutton's land to the west and John Turner's land to the south. His land from the first land allotment in the last division was the fifth lot, lying between John Johnson's and that of the heirs of George Alcock. He had 24.5 acres in the 1000 acres near Dedham. He had about 20 acres in the Great Lots, lying between the way to the fresh meadow on the east, the land of the heirs of John Levens on the south, Richard Peacock's land to the northwest and Giles Pason's land and the highway to the north. He had 3.5 acres of meadow in the fresh meadows, west of John Pierpont's land; an acre called Wolf Trap, lying to the north of John Gorton's land and to the west of the highway, that he bought from Humphrey Johnson; eight acres of woodland that had previously been Richard Sutton's and then John Johnson's. [2 cites Roxbury records]

In his will, dated 30 April 1667, William demonstrates his devotion to his "deare & afflicted wife, Margaret". He left detailed instructions for her care and gave her the income and the residue of his estate. He left his son John about 20 acres in the Great Lots; two acres of fresh meadows and an acre of salt marsh that was formerly Isaac Heath's. He left his son William his land in Medfield on the condition that he and his wife Deborah be reconciled and live together (but not in Providence). He left his son Joseph 37 acres and 20 pounds. He left land to Thomas's sons, for Thomas to improve, and £10 each to his daughters Ellen, Margaret and Mehitable. [2]

Six years after William's death, his wife Margaret recovered from her affliction, which may have been depression. The church appears to have looked upon Margaret with more exasperation than her husband did; the 24 1673 1673 church record says (my spelling and punctuation): [2]

Margaret fought with her son Thomas over William's estate and petitioned the court regarding his treatment of her. The court ordered Thomas to pay her to to live peacefully with her or leave the house. [7]

On 15 March 1679/00 Margaret Burges, widow of Boston and her sons and daughters, Thomas and Margret Hastings of Watertown, Thomas and Mehitable Wight and Joseph Cheney of Medfield sold a parcel of land in Boston for 30 pounds for her support. Her son Thomas Cheney consented. [2][7]

Margaret was dismissed from the church at Roxbury to the South Church in Boston on 9 April 1682. [2] Thomas agreed to become responsible if she became a burden on the town on 24 April 1682. [2]

Margaret wrote her will on 15 May 1686. The witnesses were Robert Sanderson, a wealthy goldsmith, and his third [handwritten 'third' over 'second'] wife Elizabeth. The will appears to be in Elizabeth's handwriting and is signed with Margaret's mark. She left her son Joseph 30 pounds, her daughter Mehitable her clothes, her grandson William [the son of her son William] five pounds and his two brothers 50 shillings each. [2][7] She died soon after and was buried next to William in Roxbury on 3 July. [2]

Children of William Cheney and Margaret Unknown:

i. Ellen Cheney was born about 1623 in England. She died on 29 September 1678 in Hingham. She married Humphrey Johnson.

ii. Margaret Cheney married Deacon Thomas Hastings as his second wife in April 1650 in Roxbury. [2] He married first Susanna Unknown. [2]

Thomas and Margaret were of Watertown. They had eight children. [2]

iii. Thomas Cheney died between 23 October 1693, when he wrote his will, and 6 November 1693, when it was proved. [2] He married Jane Atkinson on 11 January 1655 in Roxbury. [1] She died on 29 July 1724. [2]

Thomas moved to Cambridge. On 26 April 1659 Richard Dana and his wife Ann sold their house on the south side of the Charles River, along with 13 acres and a landing place, to Thomas Cheney, husbandman of Cambridge. [2, transcript of deed] He was a soldier in Capt. Johnson's Roxbury company in King Philip's War. [2] He became a relatively wealthy man; his estate was valued at 1064 pounds. [2, transcript of inventory] He had 11 children. [2]

iv. William Cheney married Deborah Wiswall. He died on 22 September 1681. He was hanged for the rape of his servant Experience Holbrook. [8]

His father's will suggests that at some point William was estranged from his wife.

The usually exhaustively thorough Cheney genealogy [2] has little to say about William.

William was accused of rape and, although his wife Deborah called Experience Holbrook a "lying wench," a jury found him guilty. [7]

Cotton Mather wrote in his diary on 21 September 1681: [9]

The appalled Cotton Mather described his misdeeds and says he would have been reprieved if he had not refused to hear a sermon on his scheduled execution day. [10]

William Cheney of Dorchester of Dorchester made his will on 21 September 1681. He refers to his father-in-law John Wiswall and his brothers Humphrey Johnson and Thomas and Joseph Chaney. His main heirs were his wife Deborah and his children William, John, Benjamin, and the child Deborah was pregnant with. He left bequests to Thomas's wife Jane and Deborah Winsor, who was apparently kind to him during his imprisonment. Inventory was taken on 30 September 1681, his witnesses took oath on 10 November 1681, and Deborah posted bond on 3 February 1682/3. Deborah is referred to as Deborah Williams late Cheney on 2 February 1682/3. [11]

William had an illegitimate son William with Sarah Daniels on 3 August 1666 in Medfield. [7]

v. John Cheney was born on 20 September 1639 or 25 September 1640 in Roxbury. [1] He is probably the John Cheney who entered Harvard in about 1655, just about the time his older brother Thomas moved to Cambridge. [2] It is not known if he graduated. [2] He accidentally drowned in the river; the jury ruled that his death was accidental, he had been trying to catch eels. [2]

vi. Mehitable Cheney was baptized on 1 or 4 June 1643 in Roxbury. [1] She was baptized on 4 (4) 1643 in Roxbury. [2 cites church record] She married Thomas Wight of Medfield. [2] She had five children. [2]

Endnotes:

1. Vital Records of Roxbury, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, vol. 1, vol. 2 (Salem: Essex Institute, 1925).

2. Charles Henry Pope, The Cheney Genealogy (Boston: Pope, 1897).

3. William B. Trask, "Abstracts from the Earliest Wills on Record in the County of Suffolk, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 16 (1862): 164–5.

4. John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2000.

5. "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), 1394 (Nicholas Parker).

6. "Early Records of Roxbury," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 2 (1848): 52–54.

7. Dean Crawford Smith and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, ed., The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, 1878–1908, Part I (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996), 229–233.

8. John Noble, Records of the Court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 1630–1692 (New York: AMS Press, reprinted 1973), 199.

9. Cotton Mather, Diary of Cotton Mather, vol. 1, Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.).

10. Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (London: Printed for T. Parkhurst, 1702), Book 6: 40.

11. "Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, case 1189.

12. Alfred L. Holman, Hinsdale Genealogy (Lombard, IL: printed for Alfred Hinsdale Andrews, 1906), 68.

13. John Dean., "Medfield's Contribution to Harvard College," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 10 (1856): 49–50.

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© A. Buiter 2014

24-Oct-2023 6:21 PM