Richard Child

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RICHARD CHILD (c. 1631–1694)

HANNAH TRAIN (b. 1657), daughter of John Train and Margaret Dix

Richard Child was born about 1631. He died on 11 November 1694 in Watertown. [1, 1: 64] He married first Mehitable Dimmick on 17 April 1662 in Watertown. [1, 1:24] Mehitable, the wife of Richard, died on 18 August 1676 in Watertown. [1, 1: 41] Richard married second Hannah Traine on 16 January 1678 in Watertown. [1, 1: 44]

Hannah, the daughter of John and Margaret (Dix) Train, was born on 7 September 1657 in Watertown. [1, 1: 19]

Hannah is referred to as Hannah Child in her father's will of 21 January 1680/1.

ENGLISH ANCESTRY OF RICHARD CHILD

Richard was the son of Joshua (or possible Nathaniel) Child and the grandson of Wolstone Child and Ellen Empson. [6]

Thomas Empson (d. 1595) married Amy Ymal or Imal (d. 1611). [14] They had the following children (order uncertain)

i. William Empson

ii. Elizabeth Empson married John Bradshaw on 16 May 1586 in St. Margaret Westminster. [14] John, the son of John and Barbara Robinson, was baptized on 25 November 1564 in St. Margaret Westminster. [14] John Bradshaw, brewer of Westminster, made his will on 3 November 1606. One of his bequests was to Nathaniel, Benjamin, Ephraim, Joshua, and Elizabeth Child, and Abigail Waren, children of his sister Warren. [14] Hyde and Child [14] demonstrate that it is overwhelmingly likely that the Ephraim mentioned was the Ephraim Child of Watertown.

iii. Ellen Empson

Wolstone Child married Ellen Empson on 4 May 1590 in Chalfont, St. Peter's Buckinghamshire. [14] She was baptized on 21 September 1570 in St. Margaret Westminster and was buried on 26 June 1616 in St. Botolph Aldgate. [14] She married second Edward Warren. [14] Administration of his estate was granted to Benjamin Child, the half brother of their daughter Abigail Warren. [14] The children of Wolstone and Ellen (in the order given in John Bradshaw's will) are:

i. Nathaniel Child is possibly the father of Richard Child

ii. Benjamin Child

iii. Ephraim Child married Elizabeth Bond, the widow of Samuel Palmer on 8 February 1624/5 in Nayland, Co. Suffolk. [14]

deacon Ephraim dyed 13 (12) mo 1662

iv. Joshua Child is probably the father of Richard Child.

v. Elizabeth Child married first Benjamin Miles about 1626. [14] She married second Robert Foot about 1632. [14] He was buried on 17 August 1646 in St. Dunstan, London. [14] He married previously Dionis Unknown. [14] She was buried on 16 August 1630 in St. Dunstan. [14]

Benjamin and Elizabeth lived in Ware, Herts. [14] Robert and Elizabeth lived in St. Dunstan. [14]

Elizabeth loaned Ephraim Child of Watertown 100 pounds when he visited her in London on 15 March 1647/8. [14]

Richard Child was a member of Captain Mason's Watertown Train Band in 1652. [2]

Richard's presumed uncle Ephraim Child left Richard and Richard's (presumed) brother John land in his will of 20 November 1662. His wife Elizabeth left bequests to Richard, his wife, and his two sons in her will of 11 June 1664.

Richard Child deposed that he was forty years old on 20 December 1671. [3]

Richard Child was admitted to the church in Watertown on 19 August 1688. [1, 4: 120] Richard and his son Richard were on an 18 April 1690 list of freemen in Watertown. [4]

Richard Child of Watertown, being sick, made his will on 1 November 1694. He mentioned his wife Hannah, his eldest son Shubael, and his other children, whom he does name. He refers his four eldest daughter, whom he suggests are of age, and his other daughters. Inventory was taken on 5 December 1694 and it amounted to £224-18-09. The will was proved on 10 December 1694. [5]

Richard was the six times great-grandfather of U.S. President (John) Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) (John Calvin Coolidge, Calvin Gahisa Coolidge, Calvin Coolidge, Hannah Priest, James Priest, Margaret Child). [6]

John Child of Watertown was probably Richard's brother. John, the husband of Mary died on 15 October 1676 in Watertown. [1, 1: 41] John married first Mary Unknown. They had a child born 8 January 1663 in Watertown. [1, 1: 25] He married Mary Warren on 29 May 1668. [1, 1: 30] Mary married Nathaniel Fisk on 13 April 1677 in Watertown. [1, 1: 43]

Richard's brother John Child was the great-great-grandfather of the inventor Eli Whitney, Jr. (1765–1825) (Eli Whitney, Mary Child, John Child, Jr.). [7] He was the nine times great-grandfather of U.S. President George H.W. Bush. [6]

Children of Richard Child and Mehitable Dimmick:

i. Richard Child was born on 30 March 1663 in Watertown. [1, 1: 25] He died on 4 November 1691 in Watertown. [1, 1: 64] He married Mary Flagg on 30 December 1686 in Watertown. [8]

Richard was admitted to the church in Watertown on 19 August 1688. [1, 4: 120]

ii. Ephraim Child was born on 9 October 1664 in Watertown. [1, 1:26] He died there on 2 March 1665. [1, 1: 26]

iii. Shubael Child was born on 19 December 1665 in Watertown. [1, 1:27] He married Abigail Sanderson on 27 October 1687. [9] She died on 8 October 1693 in Watertown. [1, 1: 27]

iv. Mehitable Child (probable child) married Edward Garfield on 8 July 1691 in Watertown. [1, 1: 65] Edward, the son of Joseph and Sarah Garfield, was born on 22 June 1664 in Watertown. [1, 1: 26]

Mehitable was admitted to the church in Watertown on 27 April 1690. [1, 4: 122]

v. Experience Child was born on 26 March 1670 in Watertown. [1, 1: 32] She married Benjamin Flagg on 26 September 1689 or 1690 in Watertown. [1, 1: 62; 4: 99]

vi. Abigail Child was born on 16 June 1672 in Watertown. [1, 1: 35] Abigail of Watertown married Lieutenant Joseph Lathrop of Barnstable on 14 June 1695. [8][10] Joseph was the son of Meletiah Lothrop and Sarah Farrar, born on 15 December 1675 in Barnstable. [10]

vii. Ebenezer Child (twin) was born on 10 November 1674 in Watertown. [1, 1: 38] He died there on 3 February 1674/[5?]. [1, 1: 39]

viii. Hannah Child (twin) was born on 10 November 1674 in Watertown. [1, 1: 38] She married John Blush of Barnstable. [8]

Children of Richard Child and Hannah Traine:

ix. Margaret Child was born about 1680. [11] She married Joseph Priest, Jr. on 25 December 1701 in Watertown. [1, 2: 16][6][11] Joseph, the son of Joseph and Hannah (Hagar) Priest, was born on 18 March 1678/9 in Boston and died on 28 April 1756 in Waltham. [11]

x. Elizabeth Child was born on 4 July 1681 in Watertown. [1, 1: 49]

xi. Joshua Child was born on 27 July 1682 in Watertown. He married Sarah Stearns.

xii. John Child was born on 16 May 1687 in Watertown. [1, 1: 58] He was baptized on 22 May 1687 in Watertown. [1, 4: 123] He might be the John Child of Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts who married Experience Fuller of Newton on 27 January 1714 in Cambridge. [12] Experience, the daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth Fuller, was born on 1685 in Newton. [13]

xiii. Rebecca Child was born on 4 February 1693 in Watertown. [1, 1: 66]

Endnotes:

1. "Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620–1850, database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Watertown.

2. Anson Titus, "Watertown Train Band, 1652," Notes Section, New England Historical and Genealogical Register 66 (1912): 186–7.

3. "Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Records, 1643–1674," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, 2:135.

4. "List of Freemen," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 3 (1849): 345–52, specifically 345.

5. "Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871," database with images, case 4426.

6. Gary Boyd Roberts, "Four New or Expanded Presidential Kinship Charts," Notable Kin Section, NEHGS, NEXUS 14 (1997), 28–30, chart 3.

7. "Yankee Inventors ... ," Notable Kin Section, NEHGS, NEXUS 12(4), 1995, 116–9, specifically 117.

8. Henry Bond, Family Memorials: Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston; to Which Is Appended the Early History of the Town, vol. 1 (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1855).

9. Page Sanderson, "Edward Sanderson of Watertown, Mass.," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 127 (1972): 181–192, specifically 182.

10. "Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620–1850," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Barnstable, 43.

11. Robert Charles Anderson, "Ancestry of President Calvin Coolidge," The American Genealogist 53 (1977): 65–74.

12. Thomas W. Baldwin, Vital Records of Cambridge, Massachusetts: To the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1915), vol. 2: 154.

13.Vital Records of Newton, Massachusetts, To the Year 1850 (Boston: New England History Genealogical Society, 1905), 70.

14. Myrtle Stevens Hyde and Paul L. Child, "Child - Foot - Goddard Connections," The American Genealogist 63 (1988): 17–28.

16-Oct-2023 2:23 PM