William Learned

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William Learned (c. 1581–1646)

Goodith Gilman (say 1583–aft. 1632)

William Learned was born about 1581. He died on 1 March 1645/6 in Woburn. [1] He married first Goodith Gilman on 22 April 1606 in St. Olave, Southwark, Surey. [2] He married second Jane Unknown. [3] She died on 24 January 1660/1 in Malden. [2][3][4]

Goodith Gilman died after 6 December 1632.

William, age about 49, and Goodith migrated in 1631. [2][5, 27][6] William and Goodith, his wife, were admitted to the church in Charlestown on 6 December 1632. [7] William was admitted a freeman on 14 May 1634 and he was a selectman in 1636. [2]

William is on a 14 May 1634 list of freemen. [8]

William was a selectman in Charlestown in 1636 [5, 59] He was a field driver in 1637. [5, 71]

When Governor John Winthrop charged Wheelwright with sedition on 9 March 1637, William was one of 60 people, and one of 12 people in Charlestown, who signed a remonstrance. [5, 285–8]

On 16 November 1637 William acknowledged his fault in subscribing to the "seditious writing" of Reverend John Wheelwright and asked that his name be crossed out, which it was. [9]

On 26 April 1638 William was a committee "to consider some things tending toward a body of laws &c." [2]

In 1640 Woburn was granted four square miles to form a new town and William was one of those who moved there. [5, 288]

The widow Jane Learned moved to the new congregation at Malden and was one of 28 women formerly of Charlestown who signed a petition in favor of their suspected antimonian minister Reverend Marmaduke Matthews on 28 October 1651. [5, 349]

Children of William Learned and Goodith Gilman: Baptisms—except for Sarah's—recorded in St. Mary Magdalen's, Bermondsey. [2]

i. Sarah Learned was baptized on 18 January 1606/7 in St. Olave, Southwark. She married first Thomas Ewer. She married second Thomas Lothrop.

ii. Bethia Learned was baptized on 29 October 1612. There is no further record of her. [2]

iii. Mary Learned was baptized on 15 September 1615. She was buried on 26 July 1625 in Bermondsey. [2]

iv. Abigail Learned was baptized on 30 September 1618. "Abigaill Larnett a child" was buried on 8 August 1625 in St. Mary Magdalen. [6]

v. Elizabeth Learned was baptized on 25 March 1621. She married John Hall by 1645. [2]

vi. Isaac Learned was baptized on 25 February 1623/4. He died on 8 (10) 1657 in Chelmsford. He married Mary Stearns.

Endnotes:

1. Edward Francis Johnson, Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Part 2, 111.

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), 1164–5.

3. "New England Marriages to 1700," digitized books, AmericanAncestors, originally published as Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015), 2: 933.

4. Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Malden, Massachusetts, 1649–1850 (Cambridge: University press for the city of Malden, 1903), 358. The widow Sarah [!] died 24 (11) 1660.

5. Roger Thompson, From Deference to Defiance: Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629–1692 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012).

6. Randy A. West, "Updates from English Records for Some Great Migration Immigrants who Came by 1636," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 172 (2018): 356–7. West says that, in private correspondence, Robert Charles Anderson agrees with a migration date of 1631.

7. James F. Hunnewell, "The First Record Book of the First Church in Charlestown, Massachusetts," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 23 (1869): 191.

8. Lucius R. Paige, "List of Freemen," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 3 (1847): 92.

9. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, vol. 1, 1628–1641 (Boston: William White, 1853), 208.

Revised 25-Oct-2023