Clare Rood/Mary Dodge descendants and ancestors

     David Twitchell [5ggf 1722-1786]: Whereas the above Rood/Foster lines were split between Connecticut and Massachusetts, the Twitchell line is found solely in Massachusetts for all six generations from David’s great-great grandfather Joseph Twitchell down to David’s daughter Mary Bennett (Twitchell) Rood [4ggm 1762-1840]. All of the identified ancestors of David Twitchell immigrated to Massachusetts from England. They are:

• Joseph Twitchell [9ggf ca. 1600-1657] arrived at Boston in 1633, probably with his wife Mary and son Benjamin Twitchell [8ggf 1625-1676]. Tradition declares that at the outbreak of King Philip's War, Benjamin was killed by Indians and his house burned.

• Edward Riggs [9ggf 1589-1672] before Aug 1633, was at Roxbury with wife Elizabeth and six children including daughter Mary Riggs (later Twitchell) [8ggm 1625-1694]. “Like all other immigrants, they had their full share of trials and sorrows. The first death in the old books of Roxbury was that of Lydia Riggs, daughter of Edward in August 1633. In May 1634, another daughter, Elizabeth, died, and in October of the same year, the son John. August 1635 the wife and mother Elizabeth died.”

• Capt. Thomas White [9ggf 1599-1664] arrival date with wife Susanna and son John White [8ggf 1628-1676] has not been found but was probably in the 1630s or 40s. Early details are difficult to nail down due to common name.

• Thomas Goble [9 & 11ggf 1591-1657] arrived in 1634 with wife Alice. Their daughter Elizabeth Goble (later White) [8ggm 1634-1684] was born either en route or shortly after the family arrived in Charlestown, Mass. Late in life, Thomas moved about 16 miles to Concord, in order to get away from the congestion in the immediate Boston area. Thomas will be mentioned again much later in my recap of our trees. Here he is my 9 great grandfather as we descend from his daughter Elizabeth through the Twitchell/Rood line down to Grampa Clare. Later you will see where he is also my 11 great grandfather as descended from his son Thomas II through the Shumway/Dodge line down to Nonnie. That means, in this instance, Clare and Nonnie were 8th cousins, twice removed. There will be other ways where their trees cross.

• Richard Sanger [8ggf 1620-1691] arrived 1638 (age 18), one of 84 passengers on the sailing ship Confidence out of Southampton; listed as a servant of John Goodenowe. Settled in Hingham, moved to Sudbury in 1646. Richard’s wife Mary Reynolds [8gg, ca. 1620-1711] arrived around 1634 with her parents (see below). Richard became a blacksmith.

• Robert Reynolds [9ggf ca. 1598-1659] arrived with his wife Mary and (probably) five children before 10 Aug 1634. It was on that date that he was admitted to the Boston church. Some family trees claim he came with the Winthrop Fleet of 1630. His home lot was at corner of modern day Milk and Washington Streets,(then known as High Street) across from Gov. John Winthrop, current site of Old South Meeting House. He was a shoemaker who lived on the edge of what is now Boston Common. Zoom in on a rough and inaccurate map of 1650 Boston <click here>. In later years, the Reynolds family rented part of their land to the Franklin family, of Ben Franklin fame.

• Samuel Morse [10ggf 1586-1654] Enrolled at London 15 Apr 1635 as passengers aboard the ship Increase were Samuel (age 50, husbandman), his wife Elizabeth (age 48) and son Joseph (20); first residence Watertown. In 1636, they moved to Dedham and on 15 Aug 1636 he became the third of (eventually) 125 signers of the "Dedham Covenant". The covenant stipulated that only those "may be probably of one heart with us," in essence those who held the same Puritan Christian beliefs, could be admitted to the community. On 19 Jun 1650, he received one of the first 13 house lots in Medfield (then known as New Dedham) which was first settled in 1649, principally by people who relocated from Dedham. His occupation was listed as husbandman (small landowner).

• Daniel Morse I [9ggf ca. 1610-1688] also arrived in 1635, but apparently separately from his parents (above). He was made a Massachusetts Bay ‘freeman’ on 6 May 1635, the “first in a sequence of three Watertown men”. He was the 28th signer of the “Dedham Covenant” (1636) and later (before 1662), purchased 800 acres of land of what would become Sherborn and with his sons was “by far the greatest landholder”. Like his father, he was also listed as a “husbandman”.

• Anthony Fisher [10 &11ggf 1591-1671] arrived in 1637 and settled at Dedham, where he also subscribed to the “Dedham Covenant”. He was described as “one of the men who did not bow promptly to the Puritan despotism. The minister and deacons had a great deal of trouble with him. He was ‘proud’ and ‘haughty’ and did not become sufficiently ‘humbled’ to be ‘comfortably received into ye church’ until 11 Mar 1645.” We will see Anthony again later in this project. Here Clare descends through his daughter 9ggm Lydia (below) to the Morse/Twitchell line. Nonnie descends through his son 10ggf Daniel to her Shumway line.

• Lydia (Fisher) Morse [9ggm 1621-1691] arrived in 1637 with her father Anthony (above) and the next year married Daniel Morse (above). Both their fathers were signers of the Dedham Covenant. It is likely that the Morse and Fisher families knew each other in Suffolk, England as their birth towns were about 10 miles apart.

• Capt. George Barbour [9ggf ca. 1615-1685] arrived before 1640 and settled in Dedham. One source claims he came on the Transport in 1635. Another that he arrived 1637. However, Robert Charles Anderson rejected those claims, finding no proofs of his arrival in the colonies before 1640.

• Elizabeth (Clarke) Barbour [9ggm 1620-1683] wife of George above, arrived separately from her husband, sometime between 1638 and 1642. Elizabeth’s father Thomas died in England, however her widowed mother Mary (Canne) Clarke [10ggm ca. 1575-1642] probably arrived with one of her children sometime between her husband's 1638 death and her admittance to the Dedham church in April 1642. Mary would die 1 ½ months later, on 21 May 1642 in Dedham.