Eames Family of Fordington

An Account of the life of Captain Anthony Eames (1595 – 1686)
Churchwarden of St Georges Church & Constable of Fordington Manor©Compiled by Michael Russell OPC for Fordington December 2009

Churchwarden of St Georges Church & Constable of Fordington Manor©Compiled by Michael Russell OPC for Fordington December 2009

1. Millicent (Millisaint) Eames (c1616-1695/6) The eldest of their children was named after her paternal grandmother. Her baptism appears to have occurred when Parish Registers for Fordington are missing and is estimated to be c1616 (as per genealogical note 32 below). She married in Charlestown Suffolk Colony Massachusetts on 26 May 1635 (the year after their arrival) to William Sprague (1609-1675) ⁽²⁴⁾ the youngest of the three brothers from Upwey Dorset. He had been in New England since 1628 and was then thought to be about 26, only a year shy of the average for men to marry in England.

Millicent had known the Sprague family all her life as her fathers elder brother Richard Eames (1589/90-c1634) had married Alice Sprague (1597-1668) from Upwey, and they had settled in Fordington in 1615. Alice Sprague’s younger brother Ralph Sprague (1599-1650) also married and settled there when Millicent was about seven so she grew up with their children. In some accounts of the family Millicent is said to have been betrothed to William Sprague in England but this seems unlikely to me as William emigrated with two brothers to America arriving in Salem on the ship Abigail in 1628 when Millicent, still in England, would have been only 12. They did however marry within 12 months of her arrival in New England when she was still only about 19 and we know letters were carried back and forth to New England in the Pilgrim Ships, so perhaps they did reach an understanding.

William & Millicent had the first of their 11 children (Anthony Sprague) baptised in Charlestown 2 Sep 1636 before they moved, along with her father Anthony Eames, to Hingham where they were granted land. William is known to have visited Hingham by boat as early as 1629 so may well have been the main architect behind both families relocation. His house lot according to the 'Sprague genealogy' was on Union Street 'over the river' and one of the pleasantest in Hingham.⁽³³⁾ Throughout the period 1636 to 1647 the 'Old Grant Book' of Hingham records many parcels of land and meadow being granted to him by the town. William was elected as a 'Selectman of Hingham' in 1645 and about 1650 his father-in-law Anthony Eames moved to Marshfield. The following year on March 28th 1651 he purchased from Thomas Hammond 'Planter' a dwelling house with 5 acres of land adjoining his own homestead together with other lands in that locality. Also 20 acres on the opposite side of the river against the end of Thomas Hammond's dwelling house. He was made Constable of Hingham and collector of the town rates in 1662 ^{(18 & 26)} and died in 1675 leaving a very detailed Will, making his wife executrix. Millicent lived another 20 years and was buried in Hingham on 8th February 1695/96 when she would have been close to 80.