RICHARD CHURCH
The Great Migration Begins
Immigrants to New England 1620 - 1633
by Robert Charles Anderson, Boston 1995
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Weymouth
REMOVES: Plymouth 1631, Eastham 1649, Charlestown by 1653, Hingham 1654
OCCUPATION: Carpenter [PCR 1:69]. (On 16 February 1632/3 Richard Church hired William Baker to work for him for seven months as a sawyer [PCR 1:8]. On 23 July 1633 William Mendlove bound himself apprentice to Richard Church for seven years "in the trade of carpentry" [PCR 1:15].)
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 [MBCR 1:80]. Admitted Plymouth freeman 2 January 1632/3 [PCR 1:6]; in "1633" and 7 March 1636/7 Plymouth lists of freemen [PCR 1:4, 53]; and in Plymouth section of 1639 list [PCR 8:174].
EDUCATION: His inventory included "books" valued at £1. Made his mark as witness to a deed of 1 June 1649 [PCR 12:181].
OFFICES: Plymouth petit jury, 7 June 1636, 5 October 1640, 1 March 1641/2, 1 November 1642 [PCR 1:42, 7:17, 28, 32]; Plymouth grand jury, 7 March 1636/7, 4 June 1639, 1 March 1641/2, 7 June 1642, 7 March 1642/3, 1 June 1647 [PCR 1:54, 126, 2:34, 41, 53, 116]; appointed arbitrator in a civil dispute, 7 August 1638 [PCR 7:9].
Volunteered for service in Pequot War, 7 June 1637 [PCR 1:60]. In Plymouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:189].
ESTATE: Assessed £1 16s. in the Plymouth tax list of 25 March 1633 and £1 7s. in the list of 27 March 1634 [PCR 1:11, 28].
Granted forty acres "at the head & on the south side of Eele River Swampe," 4 December 1637 [PCR 1:70]. On 3 June 1647 Richard Church exchanged this parcel with Manasseh Kempton, receiving in return "a parecel of land next adjoining unto the said Richard Church his lot" and also a small piece of meadow [PCR 12:144]. Granted one acre and a half of meadow "lying up the river, betwixt the two Mannamett Ponds," 7 August 1638 [PCR 1:92]. On 9 April 1649 "Richard Church senior" sold to Robert Bartlett "an house and land lying at the Eel River near Plymouth aforesaid with all the meadow land" [PCR 12:165].
On 13 July 1649 "Mr. Thomas Prence of Nawset" sold to "Richard Church ... of Nawset ... carpenter" and Anthony Snow of Marshfield, feltmaker, "a certain tract of upland and marsh meadow in the limits of Green's Harbor alias Marshfeild" [PCR 12:176]. On 22 October 1650 "Richard Church sometimes of the town of Nawsett ... carpenter" sold to John Dingley of Marshfield, smith, his half-share in this parcel of land [PCR 12:197].
On 24 January 1652[/3] Thomas Joy of Boston, carpenter, and Joan his wife sold to "Richard Church of Charlestowne, carpenter," one half the corn mill at Hingham, with one half the land and other appurtenances thereto belonging [SLR 2:77].
On 2 July 1667 Plymouth court "do admit of Richard Church to come with the ancient servants for a share of land at Saconett" [PCR 4:159]. On 29 October 1668 Richard Church was one of four men permitted to seek out "a parcel of land ... lying at Namassakett Pond" [PCR 5:5].
In his will, dated 25 December 1668 and proved 26 January 1668/9, "Richard Church of Hingham" bequeathed to "my beloved wife Elizabeth Church ... the remainder during her natural life" (after debts are paid); after her decease remainder to "be equally divided amongst my children only my son Joseph to have a double portion ... by reason of the lameness of his hand, whereby he is disenabled above the rest of my children" [SPR 6:21].
The inventory of "the estate of Richard Church of Hingham deceased," taken 1 January 1668[/9], totalled £365 14s., of which £270 was real estate: "the dwelling house with the barn, orchard & houselot containing six acres," £110; "half a tide mill," £100; "his share of the ironworks at Taunton," £50; and "2 acres of land lying by the mill," £10 [SPR 5:116].
BIRTH: About 1608 (deposed 25 August 1664 aged about 56 [PCR 4:85; MD 4:152]).
DEATH: Dedham 26 December 1668 [DeVR 11], probably on a visit to his son Caleb. In his will, written the day before his death, he calls himself of Hingham, but the witnesses are all of Dedham.
MARRIAGE: By 7 March 1636/7 [PCR 1:54; TAG 60:129-30] (and probably by 14 March 1635/6 [PCR 1:41, 56, 152]) Elizabeth Warren, daughter of RICHARD WARREN; she died Hingham 9 March 1669/70 [NEHGR 121:124].
CHILDREN:
i ELIZABETH, b. about 1636; m. Hingham 8 January 1657/8 Caleb Hobart [NEHGR 121:107].
ii JOSEPH, b. about 1638; m. Hingham 13 December 1660 Mary Tucker [NEHGR 121:111].
iii BENJAMIN, b. about 1640; m. 26 December 1667 Alice Southworth [NEHGR 121:121 (giving date of marriage but not name of bride)], daughter of CONSTANT SOUTHWORTH.
iv NATHANIEL, b. about 1642; m. 1666 Sarah Barstow (on 8 June 1666 Nathaniel Church and "Sarah Barstow alias Sarah Church" each owed £5 to the colony treasury, presumably for fornication, as their eldest child was b. Scituate 16 December 1666 [PCR 8:116-17]).
v CHARLES, b. say 1644; d. Hingham 30 October 1659 "killed by the overturning of his cart" [NEHGR 121:110; TAG 60:131].
vi CALEB, b. about 1646; m. (1) Hingham 16 December 1667 Joanna Sprague [NEHGR 121:121], daughter of WILLIAM SPRAGUE; m. (2) by 8 June 1680 Deborah _____ [MLR 7:283-84]; m. (3) Watertown 6 November 1691 "Rebaca Scottoo" [WaVR 64], probably widow of John Scottow of Boston [TAG 60:135].
vii ABIGAIL, b. 22 June 1648 [MD 15:27, correcting PCR 8:4]; m. Hingham 19 December 1666 Samuel Thaxter [NEHGR 121:119].
viii SARAH, b. say 1652; m. Hingham 8 December 1674 James Burroughs [TAG 60:137, citing HiTR 1:33].
ix MARY, d. Duxbury 30 April 1662 [NEHGR 121:113].
x DEBORAH, bp. Hingham 22 March 1656/7 [NEHGR 121:106]; no further record. (See TAG 40:101, 60:131-32 for discussions of her possible fate.)
COMMENTS: In a letter of 6 February 1631/2 from the governor and assistants of Plymouth to the governor and assistants of Massachusetts Bay on various matters of mutual interest to the two colonies, Bradford, in listing persons who had moved from Massachusetts Bay to Plymouth, included "Richard Church [who] came likewise as a sojourner to work for the present; though he is still here resident longer than he purposed; and what he will do, neither we nor I think himself knows. But if he resolve here to settle we shall require of him to procure a dismission; but he did affirm to us at the first, that he was one of Mr. Webb's men, and freed to go for England or whither he would, the which we the rather believed because he came to us from Wessagasscusett upon the falling out with his partner" [WP 3:65].
In the settlement of a lawsuit on 3 January 1632/3 Richard Church was the assignee of William Bennett, the successful plaintiff [PCR 1:7]. Richard Church was plaintiff in civil suits in Plymouth court on 4 February 1638/9, 7 September 1642, 4 June 1652 and 3 March 1662/3 [PCR 7:11, 31, 59, 105, 108].
Richard Church was surety for Mark Mendall/Mendlove on 12 July 1637 and on 4 December 1637 [PCR 1:63, 69], on 4 June 1645 for Matthew Fuller [PCR 2:87], and on 2 March 1646/7 (as "Richard Church, of the Eale River, planter") for George Wright [PCR 2:113, 121, 127].
On 2 June 1640 several people residing at Eel River were presented for not building a bridge there according to order, and repay 50s. to Richard Church and Robert Bartlett (perhaps for undertaking some of the work themselves) [PCR 1:156].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The definitive article on Richard Church was published by Robert S. Wakefield in 1985 [TAG 60:129-39]. He analyzed in great detail the list of children for Richard Church, and discarded four alleged children included in many previous accounts of the family [TAG 60:138-39]. We concur in this, and differ from his treatment only in a few minor and insubstantial places: We do not include even as a possibility the questionable son Richard, for whom there is no documentation, and we differ slightly in some of the estimated dates of birth, where we place no reliance at all on LCVR