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Benjamin Crispe (c. 1610–1682/3)
Bridget Unknown (d. 1676)
Benjamin Crispe was born about 1610 and died between 31 October 1682 and 2 December 1683. [1] He married first Bridget Unknown about 1635. [2] He married Second Joanna (perhaps Goffe) Longley, the widow of William Longley, Sr. of Groton, after 29 November 1680, when William died. [2] She died on 8 April 1698 in Charlestown. [2]
Bridget died in Groton about the time of the Indian attack on 13 March 1675/6 and may have been killed then. [2]
Benjamin Crispe was a mason. He came to New England in 1631 and settled in Watertown. [1]
Benjamin was a servant of Major Gibbons in 1630 or 1631. [3]
Benjamin received 20 acres in the Third Division of the Great Division of land on 25 July 1636 in Watertown. [4, pt. 2: 4] He received three acres in the division of plow lands at Beaverbrook Plain on 28 February 1636. [4, pt. 2: 6] He received 3 acres in the division of Remote or West Pine Meadows on 26 June 1637. [4, pt. 2: 9] He was granted a 64-acre farm on 10 (3) 1642. [4, pt. 2: 12]
He was a freeman on 6 May 1646. [5]
On 21 September 1666, Benjamin, mason of Watertown, sold his house in Watertown and about 92 acres of land to Thomas Boyden. [3] He probably moved to Groton about then. [3]
Benjamin might be the Mr. Crispe who arrived on the Plough in 1631. [1, although the honorific seems odd]
Children of Benjamin Crispe:
i. Elizabeth Crispe was born on 8 January 1636/7 in Watertown. [4, pt. 3: 4] She died on 28 May 1681. She married George Lawrence on 1 September 1657. [3] He married second Elizabeth Holland on 16 August 1691. [6]
ii. Mary Crispe was born on 20 May 1638 in Watertown. [4, pt. 3: 5] She married William Green about 1661. [2]
iii. Jonathan Crispe was born on 29 January 1639/40 in Watertown. [4, pt. 3: 6] He died between 24 April 1676 and 25 October 1680, when his father administered his estate. [2]
Jonathan was a soldier in King Philip's War. [2] He was an early proprietor of Groton. [3]
iv. Eleazer Crispe was born on 14 January 1641/2 in Watertown. [4, pt. 3: 9] He died after 10 April 1706 in Groton. [2] He married Elizabeth Unknown. [2]
v. Mehitable Crispe was born on 21 January 1645/6 in Watertown. [4, pt. 3: 12] There is no further record of her. [2]
vi. Zachary (Zachariah) Crispe (probably) was charged with Mary Stanwood on 23 September 1673 with fathering her unborn child. [2]
vii. Mercy Crispe died before 1 April 1686. She married Robert Parish.
viii. Deliverance Patience was born about 1650. She married William Longley, Jr. of Groton before April 1674. Both Deliverance and william were killed by Indians at Groton on 27 July 1694. [2]
The Indians killed five of Deliverance and William's eight children and took three into captivity. One was baptized as a Catholic on 24 April 1696 as Lydia Madeleine Longley in Montreal. She said that her parents were William Longley and Deliverance Crispe; they were protestants and she had been born on 14 Apirl 1674 in Groton. [2]
Endnotes:
1. "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), 493–5.
2. Frederick C. Warner, "Mary Green and Mercy Parish, Daughters of Benjamin and Bridget Crispe of Watertown," The American Genealogist 62 (1987), 25–27.
B. Henry Bond, Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, 2nd edition (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1860), 188–9.
4. Watertown Historical Society, Watertown Records, vol. 1 (Watertown: Fred G. Barker, 1894, 1900).
5. "Massachusetts: Miscellaneous Census Substitutes 1630–1788, 1840, 1890," database, AmericanAncestors, entry for Benjamin Crispe.
6. Emily W. Leavitt, "Descendants of George Lawrence," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 46 (1892), 49.
Revised 16-Dec-2023
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