Robert Fletcher

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Robert Fletcher (c. 1592–1677)

Robert Fletcher was born about 1592 in England. [1] He died on 3 April 1677 in Concord. [2]

Robert is said to have settled in Concord in 1635. He was chosen constable on 2 November 1637. [3][4]

Robert was discharged, being found not guilty [of some unspecified offense] at the 4 June 1639 court. [4]

Along with other inhabitants of Concord, Robert signed a petition concerning the building of two bridges in Concord. It is undated, but found with the 1656 records. [5, 1: 52]

Robert was selected for jury duty at the Middlesex County court on 20 November 1656. [5, 1: 61] He was a juror on the enquest into the death of 15-year-old Samuel Betman of Concord on 25 May 1663. [5, 1: 166]

Robert Fletcher of Concord made his will on 4 February 1676[?]. He said he was about four score years old. He named his wife, his son Francis and his wife, and his sons William and Samuel. Inventory was taken on 12 May 16[illegible]; it was sworn to by Francis Fletcher on 19 June 1677. [6]

Children of Robert Fletcher:

i. Luke Fletcher [1] died in 1665. [3]

ii. William Fletcher was born about 1622 in England. He died on 6 November 1677. He married Lydia Bates.

iii. Samuel Fletcher married Margaret Hailston on 14 Ocober 1653. [1]

Samuel settled in the part of Chelmsford that became Westford. [1]

iii. Francis Fletcher was born in 1636 in Concord. [1][7] He married Elizabeth, the daughter of George and Katherine Wheeler, on 1 August 1656. [1][7] She died on 14 June 1704. [7]

iv. Grissell Fletcher was probably born about 1618 in England. [8] She died on 9 July 1669 in Chelmsford. [8][9] She married first as his second wife Thomas Jewell. [8][9] He was born about 1608 and died between 10 April and 21 July 1654. [9] Grissell married second Humphrey Griggs on 1 November 1655 in Braintree. [8][9] He died in 1657. [8] She married third as his second wife Henry Kibby on 8 October 1657 in Dorchester. [8][9] He died there on 10 August 1661. [8] He married first Rachel ___. [8] She died on 15 July 1657 in Dorchester. [8] She married fourth John Gurney, Sr. on 12 November 1661 in Braintree. [8][9] He died in 1662/3. [8] She married fifth as his third wife John Burge on 3 July 1667 in Chelmsford. [8][9] He died on 22 October 1678. [8] He married first Rebecca ___. [8] He married second Mary Stearns on 9 June 1662. He married fourth Jane, the widow of John Gornell, on 6 September 1677. [8]

Thomas Jewell came to New England on the Planter in 1635. [4]

Endnotes:

1. Records of Littleton, Massachusetts: Births and Deaths (Littleton: Littleton, 1900), 438–9.

2. Concord, Massachusetts: Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1635–1850 (Concord: Beacon Press, 1895), 19.

3. Lemuel Shattuck, History of the Town of Concord (Boston: Russell, Odiorne and co., 1835), 18, 370 (page numbers from reprint).

4. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 1628–1641 (Boston: William White, 1853). 206, 267.

5. "Middlesex County, MA: Abstracts of Court Records, 1643–1674," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, from Unpublished abstracts by Thomas Bellows Wyman, "Abstract of Middlesex court files from 1649," n.d.

6. "Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648–1871," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, case 7913.

7. Edward H. Fletcher, "Fletcher Genealogy," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 22 (1868): 390.

8. Mary Lovering Holman, "Grissell of the Many Marriages," The American Genealogist 10 (1933): 70–73.

9. "Great Migration, 1634–1635, I–L," digitized book, originally published as Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration to New England, 1634–1635, Volume IV, I–L (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005), 59–61.

Revised 08-Jun-2023