ORIGIN: Unknown MIGRATION: 1630 FIRST RESIDENCE: Massachusetts Bay REMOVES: Duxbury by 1639, Marshfield 1650 FREEMAN: In Duxbury list of those who took oath of fidelity in 1639 [ PCR 8:182]. Admitted freeman 1 June 1658 [PCR 3:136]. In Marsh~field section of lists of freemen dated 1658, 29 May 1670 and early 1683/4 [PCR 5:277, 8:201, 207]. EDUCATION: Morris Truant made his odd circular mark to his 1647 deed. OFFICES: Duxbury highway surveyor, 2 June 1646 [PCR 2:102]. Marsh~field constable, 4 June 1650 [PCR 2:153]. Coroner's jury, 14 December 1652 [PCR 3:28]. Refused to serve on grand jury, 3 June 1657 [PCR 3:115]. In Duxbury section of 1643 Plymouth list of men able to bear arms [PCR 8:189]. ESTATE: On 28 March 1642 Francis Sprague sold two acres of marsh meadow at Wood Island to Morris Truant [PCR 12:78]. On 16 September 1645 Morris Truant and Solomon Lenner of Duxborrow acknowledged that they had "mutually exchanged their now dwelling houses and uplands and meadow" [PCR 12:113]. On 4 March 1647[/8] "Moris Truante inhabitant of the town of Duxborrow and Jane my wife" sold to John Washburne their right to all the planting land between John Irish and John Alden, and in two parcels of meadowland adjoining Phillipe Delanoy and others [PCR 12:153-54]. On 9 April 1650 Jacob Cooke of Plymouth sold to "Moris Truant of Marsh~field" one hundred acres of upland and meadow at the North River [PCR 12:185]. In 1654 "by virtue of an order of court bearing date some three years since ... Captaine Myles Standish and Mr. John Alden were deputed by the court to determine of certain bounds of marsh in controversy" between "Morish Truant" and "Richard Garrett" [ MD 8:130-31, citing PCLR 2:1:127; see also PCR 2:149-50]. No later than 1664 some member of the Vinal family of Scituate had purchased from Morris Truant "a parcel of meadow ... lying on the southerly side of the North River" [MD 34:163, citing PCLR 3:1:26]. In his will, dated 31 December 1678 and proved 28 October 1685, "Morris Treuant of Marshfeild ... aged about seventy-two years" bequeathed to "my son John" cattle and furniture; to "my son Joseph ten shillings which with lands, cattle & other estate which I have already given him I judge a sufficient portion for him"; to "each of my five daughters five shillings" (Mary, Jane, Elizabeth, Mehitable and Hannah); residue to "my loving wife Jane during the time of her natural life, & immediately after the decease of my said wife, I give & bequeath my dwelling house & my other houses & all my land both uplands & meadows ... unto my abovesaid son John Treuant," he to pay to "my two youngest daughters Mehetable & Hannah" £5 apiece; wife Jane to be executrix [ PCPR 4:2:104]. The inventory of the estate of Morris Truant, taken 15 May 1685, totalled £338 6s., including "housing & lands in Marshfield" valued at £240 [PCPR 4:2:105]. BIRTH: About 1606 (deposed aged sixty-one years in 1668 [ SJC #857]; aged about seventy-two on 31 December 1678 [PCPR 4:2:104]). DEATH: Marshfield 21 April 1685 [ MarVR 17]. MARRIAGE: Plymouth 16 October 1639 Jane [blank] [PCR 1:134]; she was living on 31 December 1678 (husband's will). CHILDREN:
COMMENTS: On 22 March 1630/1 "Morris Trowent" was "whipped for stealing three pigs of Mr. Ralfe Glover's" [ MBCR 1:85]. On 2 January 1636/7 he was clearing land in Plymouth Colony for Nathaniel Bowman, probably as his servant [PCR 1:49]. On 28 October 1645 "Nathaniell Bowman complains against Morris Truant, in action of trespass upon the case, to the damage of £4" [PCR 7:41], and on 3 March 1645/6 "Nathaniell Bowman is awarded to pay 2s. to Morris Truant for not prosecuting his action against him" [PCR 2:95]. (Pope claimed that Truant resided in Dorchester in his early years in New England, but the associations noted above with RALPH GLOVER and NATHANIEL BOWMAN suggest that he more likely lived in the Charlestown-Cambridge-Watertown area.) On 7 June 1651 Thomas Tilden and Morris Truant successfully sued Joseph Tilden for £5 in damages [PCR 7:54]. On 7 October 1651 Joseph Tilden unsuccessfully sued Morris Truant [PCR 7:56]. On 5 July 1671 "Moris Truant" sued Thomas Summers for debt, and was awarded the debt plus court costs [PCR 7:166]. The daughters of Morris Truant are apparently named in birth order in his will, and the two youngest, who were unmarried at the time of the will, were given larger bequests than the other three. This would indicate that daughters Jane and Elizabeth were already married in 1678. The ages estimated for these daughters are very crude approximations. |