Mary (Blandford) Eames (abt. 1632 - 1676)

Born about 1632 in England

Ancestors

Wife of Jonathan Paddleford — married 10 May 1652 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Wife of Thomas Eames — married about 1662 (to 1 Feb 1676) in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1 Feb 1676 at about age 44 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts

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Biography

Mary and her father John arrived in Boston on 30 June 1638 the ship "Confidence".

In the last of April 1638 the ship Confidence, of London, two hundred tons, John Gibson, Master, sailed from Southampton, "by vertue of the Lord Treasurers warrant of the 11th of April,1638." In June 1638 the Confidence arrives from England with fifteen of Sudbury’s future families. John Blanford, age 27, appears on the passenger list as a servant. He is the servant of Walter Haynes, a linen weaver of Sutton Mansfield, Wiltshire, England, who traveled with his family on the same ship. {S4}. The entry in the passenger list says:

"Hayes, Walter 55, linen weaver of Sutton Mansfield, Wiltshire, shipper of goods Hayes wife Elizabeth, children John, Josias, Suffrance, Mary 5 Hayes per W1 Mary and Sufferance only, 3 servants".

Walter Hay(n)es did NOT have a daughter Mary; it would seem that the enumerators listed "Mary, age 5" as a daughter of Walter, when she was really the daughter of John Blanford. And the "per W1 Mary" is not a reference to a first wife Mary for Walter Haynes - it must be a reference to Mary, the wife of servant John Blanford.

Mary and Jonathan Paddleford had the following children, all born in Cambridge:

1. Jonathan, b. July 6, 1653,^[1]
2. Mary, b. August 22, 1654,^[1] bpt. November 6, 1657^[2]
3. Jonathan, b. August 13, 1656,^[1] bpt. November 6, 1657^[2]
4. Zacheriah, b. December 16, 1657,^[1] bpt. November 6, 1657.^[2] (Obviously, either the date of the record of his date of birth or the record of his date of baptism is incorrect.)
5. Edward, b. June 14, 1660,^[1] bpt. July 8, 1660^[2]

In February, 1676, while Thomas Eames was away from his home near the Framingham Plantation, about a dozen Nipmuc Indians, led by Netus, attacked his home. His wife made a spirited defense as she was making soap at the time. She threw the boiling fluid on the indians but was killed as were her children: Thomas, Sarah, and Lydia. Twelve year old Samuel and siblings Margaret and Nathaniel were taken captive and carried off. Samuel escaped and travelled some 30 miles through the wilderness until he found a white settlement. Margaret and Nathaniel were taken to Quebec and eventually ransomed.

A full account is detailed by William Barry in his 1847 book, "A History of Framingham, Massachusetts: Including the Plantation, from 1640... ISBN 0-917890-28-0

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Vital Records of Cambridge, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Volume I - Births. 1914. p. 531. Link to page at archive.org.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Sharples, Stephen Paschall, ed. Records of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England 1632-1830. 1906. p. 24. Link to page at archive.org.

See also:

• https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=54859
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQ6D-LQY : 4 December 2014), Blanford, 07 Mar 1644; citing SUDBURY,MIDDLESEX,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 1599521 IT 4.
• https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:MWB1-P3F