Clare Rood/Mary Dodge descendants and ancestors

Bathsheba (Sears) Howes [5ggm 1739-1799] This group of family ancestors lived almost exclusively on Cape Cod, the town of Yarmouth. Although agriculture was a prominent part of Yarmouth life, the town's location led some to make their living from the ocean. Bathsheba’s first cousin Capt. Ebenezer Sears [1755-1835] was the first American skipper to take a merchant vessel around the Cape of Good Hope. Two generations later, her second cousin was Capt. Asa Eldridge [1809-1856] <Click here> for his biography. In 1854, he guided the clipper ship Red Jacket to the fastest trans-Atlantic crossing (13+ days) by a commercial sailing vessel, and that record still stands today. Yarmouth is a small, lightly populated area, so we again find several inter-relationships. Her parents were second cousins, once removed. Paul Sears [8/9ggf ca. 1637-1708] is great-great grandfather of her mother Deborah through his daughter Bethia and is also great grandfather of her father Deacon John through his son Capt. John. That makes him both my 9 great grandfather and my 8 great grandfather. Genealogy sure is fun. Immigrant ancestors of Bathsheba include:

• Richard Sears [9ggf ca. 1595-1676] arrived in Plymouth before March 1633 when he was assessed 9 shillings of corn at 6 shillings per bushel in the Plymouth tax list. In early 1639, he was among a party lead by John Crowe (more about him later- see below), Thomas Howes and Anthony Thatcher that first settled Yarmouth. Richard was a “husbandman”- one that plows and cultivates land (farmer). Records indicate that he married his wife Dorothy in 1637, after his arrival in New England, but I have not been able to find when she separately immigrated.

• George Willard [9ggf 1614-1656] arrived between 1634 (possibly with his older brother Simon) and 1639 (when he took the ‘oath of allegiance’ in Scituate, Plymouth Colony). He apparently chafed under the yoke of the Puritan leaders and was called into court to answer charges a few times. In 1652, finally having had enough, he moved his family to Maryland, which one writer describes as "... home of real Christian liberty at that day... One who was so free in expressing his opinions would be glad to join in such a colony.” He became a tobacco farmer.

• Samuel Freeman [10ggf ca. 1600-1646], the first of 3 in a row in our tree by that name, arrived about March 1630 with wife Apphia (Quick) Freeman [10ggm 1604-1668] and oldest son Henry (age 5), settling in Watertown, Mass. Following the March 1631 death of his mother in London, Samuel sailed back to England, most probably aboard the Lyon, in order to settle her estate. There were many lawsuits over his father's partnership with William Bannister involving property in Clerkenwell called "The Glass House". Due to false testimony, he was confined to prison from 1634 until May 1636 (when his petition for release was finally granted). He returned to Watertown shortly thereafter, and his son Deacon Samuel Freeman II [9ggf 1638-1712] was born there in May 1638. Samuel, Sr. and Apphia divorced before 1644 (no records found) when she remarried and became the 3rd wife of Gov. Thomas Pence (see above).

• Alice (Carpenter) Southworth/Bradford [10&11ggm ca. 1590-1670] we descend from her in two different manners: In this part of our tree, through her son from her first marriage Constant Southworth [10ggf 1615-1679] and in the Warner part of our tree, through her son from her second marriage Maj. William Bradford, Jr. [9ggf 1624-1704]. A widow, she left two sons in England in the care of relatives, and arrived in Plymouth in July 1623 aboard the Anne after a stormy three month voyage. The Anne was the third ship financed by the London-based Merchant Adventurers- following the  Mayflower in 1620 and the Fortune in 1621. A few weeks after her arrival, she married the widowed Gov. William Bradford. You will hear more about him later in the Warner branch of our family. Her two sons from her first marriage, 9ggf Constant Southworth (age 13) and Thomas (age 12), arrived in 1628 and finally rejoined their mother in the Bradford household.

• William Collier [10ggf ca.1585-1671] was sworn a free brother of the Grocers Company first in London (1609) and later in Soutwark (1628), England. <click here> for more details on his life. In 1626, he became one of 58 “Purchasers”, the new investment group for Plymouth Colony (see further discussion in the Barnabas Alden section below). He finally arrived in Plymouth in 1633, aboard an unknown ship, possibly the Mary and Jane and moved to Duxbury by 1639. With him were his wife Jane (Yates) Collier [10ggm 1587-aft.1666] and many children. We descend separately from two of those children- daughter Elizabeth Collier [10ggm ca.1617-1682] married 10ggf Constant Southworth (above) and descend to Clare through this line. In addition, Ruth Collier [9ggm 1627-1694] the youngest daughter of 10ggp William and Jane Collier, will appear in Nonnie’s tree in the Elisha Cole section of 3ggf Abraham Cranmer.

• Richard Sparrow [10ggf 1580-1660] Although one author/descendant claims an early migration to Jamestown in Virginia, followed by a later move to Plymouth, no support for this has been found. The Great Migration has him in Plymouth by 1632, then moving to Eastham by 1653. He is described as a ‘yeoman’- which denotes the social distinction of a farmer lesser than ‘landed gentry’, but higher than ‘husbandman’. Around 1640, Richard built a house in Plymouth and it still stands today (42 Summer Street) as a house museum and art gallery- the oldest surviving house in Plymouth. His son Capt. Jonathon Sparrow [9ggf 1633-1706] (a military title) should not be confused with Capt. Jack Sparrow (the movie pirate).

• Edward Bangs [10ggf ca. 1581-1678] also arrived in Plymouth in July 1623 aboard the Anne (see Alice Carpenter above). By 1645 he had moved to Eastham and by 1657 he was an innkeeper there: “Liberty is granted to Edward Bangs to draw and sell wine and strong waters at Eastham, provided it be for the refreshment of the English, and not to be sold to the Indians.” The identity and thus the arrival of his second wife Rebecca, remains uncertain.

• John Crowe I [10ggf ca. 1590-1652] and his wife Elishua (Unknown) [10ggm unk-1688] arrived in Charlestown in 1623 and in 1638 he was one of three men who led a party of families that first settled Yarmouth. He is the first of four in a row in our tree of that name, but his grandson John Crowell 3 [8ggf 1662-1728] was the first to change the last  name to Crowell. Some sources state Mehitable, the wife of John Crowe 2 [9ggf 1639-1689] is Mehitable Miller, daughter of Rev. John Miller, but according to The Great Migration, “the evidence for this has not been seen”.

• William Eldred [9ggf 1627-1679] it is thought that he and his brother Robert came from England about 1635 and both first settled in Yarmouth. His wife Anne Lumpkin [9ggf 1627-1676] arrived as a young girl in 1637 with her parents William Lumpkin [10ggf 1584-1670] and Tamesin (Constable) Lumpkin [10ggm 1598-1683] and that family also settled in Yarmouth.

• Richard Taylor [9ggf 1619-1703] arrived in Boston between 1635-39. His wife Ruth Wheldon [9ggm 1625-1693] arrived in June 1638 with her parents Gabriel Wheldon [10ggf ca. 1590-1653] and unknown wife. Her father, Gabriel Weldon, apparently grudgingly, acquiesced to their 1646 marriage in Yarmouth. Ruth's sister Mary married a man before 1646 who also had the name of Richard Taylor, an entirely different man, and they also lived in Yarmouth. In addition, at least three or four other Richard Taylors have been encountered in the records of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies. It took a 2010 project to sort out the two men of the same name who married sisters and lived in Yarmouth. In order to differentiate them, our Richard is referred to as "of the rock", due to a large and noteworthy stone near his house, while to other is called “the tailor” due to his occupation.