Elizabeth
Pierce
formerly [surname unknown]
Born about in England
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of
Thomas Pierce
— married
[date unknown] [location unknown]
Descendants 
Mother of
Robert Pierce, John Mariner Pierce, Thomas Pierce II, Samuel Pierce, Elizabeth (Pierce) Nichols, Persis (Pierce) Harrison, Mary (Pierce) Tufts and Abigail Pierce
Died after
after about age 71
in Charlestown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]
[uncertain]
Profile managers:
Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree 
[send private message], Bob Pierce [send private message], and Christopher Wright [send private message]
[send private message], Bob Pierce [send private message], and Christopher Wright [send private message]Profile last modified
| Created 15 Apr 2017
This page has been accessed 2,615 times.
| Elizabeth (Unknown) Pierce migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
Contents |
Biography
Uncertain Origins
This profile originally stated: Frederick Clifton Pierce, Esq.'s book "Pierce Genealogy", published in 1882, had Thomas Pierce Sr. married to an Elizabeth Wortington; either an alternate name for Elizabeth Carew, another wife of Thomas Pierce Sr., or an error subsequently corrected.
However, the book does not actually say that. It only names her as "his wife Elizabeth Pierce" and states that she was born in England in 1596/96. No specific source is given, and it is not clear if the author means that her maiden surname was also Pierce but he does not claim Worthington, Carew or any other surname for her.[1] So whatever F.C. Pierce's mistakes, he does not claim a surname nor does he assert a death date or location or say anything else at all about her origins other than she came with her husband Thomas to Charlestown in 1633/34.
Regarding her birth year, Pierce is accurate in his assertion that she filed her deceased husband's estate inventory on 22 Mar 1667 listed as "age 71" so if she told the truth then a birth year of 1595/96 is correct.[1] Thomas Pierce's will and inventory is listed as as Probate packet 17583 Vol. 3 p. 81, 83 dated 22 Mar 1677.[2] The probate itself confirms this data, she was indeed listed as age 71 on that date.[3]
However, if her son Thomas was born in 1608 as estimated, assuming she was 20 at marriage (WikiTree standard guesstimate) and leaving a year for pregnancy that places her birth at 1587 or earlier. Thomas "Jr" birthdate is also not known with certainy and could have been later. With all this uncertainty, it is hard to pick a birth date but either she lied about her age in 1667 or Thomas Pierce Jr. was probably born 1616 or later.
Her FindAGrave memorial has some interesting text which bears further investigation, but has no sources and lists her as Carew: ...Some genealogies online indicate she was Elizabeth (Carew) Pierce, daughter of Richard Carew and Bridget (Chudleigh) Carew, and this appears to concur with a marriage in International Marriage Index in 1608. Other internet pages call her mother Juliana Arundel and place her birth as Apr 4,1592 at Shilligford St George, Co.Devon...
Note that the "International Marriage Index" on ancestry.com is an auto-aggregated database of a variety of "sources" including unsourced user tree and worksheet submissions and should never be relied upon by itself. A marriage proven to be for Thomas Pierce has not yet been found in a reputable source.
A few unsourced or ridiculously sourced Ancestry trees list her as Elizabeth Brown b. 1601 in Benhall, Suffolk, England married 9 Apr 1622 in Norwick, Norfolk, England
Death & Estate
Elizabeth's final fate is not yet known but her death was clearly after 22 Mar 1667 as described above.[3] A death location of Woburn was previously asserted without source on this profile, perhaps conflating her husband with the Thomas Pierce of Woburn. This family was of Charlestown as stated in Thomas' will and there is no particular reason to think she moved elsewhere unless and until other sources come to light.
Research Notes
Not the mother of Daniel Pierce: She is not shown as the mother of PGM Daniel Pierce Sr. (1611-1677).
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pierce genealogy : being the record of the posterity of Thomas Pierce, an early inhabitant of Charlestown, and afterwards Charlestown village (Woburn), in New England, with wills, inventories, biographical sketches, etc. by Pierce, Frederic Beech, 1845-; Pierce, Frederick Clifton Publication date 1882 p. 3
- ↑ Probate records 1648--1924 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts) Probate docket Pa-Ri 16801-19200 FHL film 385984 7552878 Image 136 of 467
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Probate records 1648--1924 (Middlesex County, Massachusetts) Probate papers 17480-17605 Family History Library film 421491 7553719 Packet 17583 probate of Thomas Pierce Image 1060 of 1241
See also:
- Web Archive - Merrill Society Newsletter - This link provides a revised ancestry for Barbara Pierce Bush, but it relies on FC Pierce's work, which may not be correct and should be verified Cole-12288 17:35, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
- Find A Grave: Memorial #54474228 memorial for Elizabeth (Unknown) Pierce
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DNA
No known carriers of Elizabeth's DNA have taken a DNA test.
No known carriers of Elizabeth's DNA have taken a DNA test.
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Rejected matches › Elizabeth (Cole) Pierce (abt.1619-1688) › Elizabeth (Trulle) Pierce (bef.1590-1667) › Elizabeth (Carew) Drury (abt.1560-abt.1621) › Elizabeth (Leids) Brown (abt.1605-1674)
Featured National Park champion connections: Elizabeth is 12 degrees from Theodore Roosevelt, 19 degrees from Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, 12 degrees from George Catlin, 15 degrees from Marjory Douglas, 19 degrees from Sueko Embrey, 11 degrees from George Grinnell, 24 degrees from Anton Kröller, 12 degrees from Stephen Mather, 20 degrees from Kara McKean, 12 degrees from John Muir, 16 degrees from Victoria Hanover and 25 degrees from Charles Young on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
[Do you know Elizabeth's family name?] | P > Pierce > Elizabeth (Unknown) Pierce
Categories: Frederick Clifton Pierce Fraud | Puritan Great Migration
I see now that I put this same comment on his profile about 3 months ago but had not followed up on it and nobody else appears to have either. I'm going to change his estimated birth year since we at least have Elizabeth's own testimony as to "her" age.
I have been trying figure out the ages of Thomas Sr's children. Looking at Sgt. Thomas's birth date of 1608, it seemed to be a little early, based on possible dates for the birth of other children, although I don't really have good dates for possible siblings, only my estimates. You stated that Elizabeth gave her age as 71 in 1667. The copies of the inventory I have looked at are very poor copies, so I have been unable to find where she signed. Could you point me to the place on the inventory where she gave her age? Thank you very much, Michael D Pierce [email address removed]
In his profiling of Daniel in 2007, Robert Charles Anderson did not identify an origin or birth location for Daniel Pierce. No parent or sibling associations were commented upon.
(2) I did not readily identify an entry in New England Marriages to 1700 in the array of returns at AmericanAncestors (by subscription, search results might appear here.) Has anyone else identified the entry?
Confirmed online that this person existed but could not confirm either birth date. There are now duplicate husbands that seems to be under consideration of a merge.