Hugh Drury (abt. 1616 - bef. 1689)

Born about 1616 in England [uncertain]

Husband of Lydia (Rice) Drury — married about 1645 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Drury — married after 1675 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 30 Jul 1689 before about age 73 in Boston, Suffolk, Colony of Massachusetts Bay

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Hugh Drury migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 98) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Unknown Origins

Hugh was previously linked to an unsourced family unit (gedcom-imported) and has been severed from supposed parents Obed Drury and Lydia Drury. This claimed origin is posted on Hugh's FindAGrave profile citing "Descendants of John Gamage of Ipswich, Mass." by Arabella Morton. However, this book actually describes a JOHN Drury born c. 1616, not a HUGH Drury in it's brief tale of immigration to New England under the name of "George" (who does appear in the GM Directory), descent from a John de Drury and a history going back to William the Conquerer so should be disregarded with respect to Hugh Drury.^[1]

The profile also asserted "He was born circa 1616, the son of Lieut. Hugh and Lydia Drury." without specific source which was probably conflating him with his own son. The parents, birth location and birth date of Hugh Drury are unknown.

Holman in her "Drury Line" section of her work on the Stevens family^[2] states that Hugh was "perhaps" born in Worcestershire based on the fact that on 8 October 1677 Hugh was at that location on a return trip to England where he supposedly went for a cure for his impotence per the testimony of his second wife Mary (he apparently issued his denial on this date from Worcestershire). For Hugh's New England life Holman cites primary sources extensively in support of asserted facts.

His birth year of "about 1616" comes from a court deposition of 26 Jan 1674 in which he stated he was age about 57.^[2]

Immigration

Hugh's "Great Migration Directory" entry says his origins are unknown and that he was in Massachusetts by 1640 and resided at Sudbury and Boston citing Sudbury Town Records 16, Stevens-Miller 2:53-71 i.e. "Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller" by M.L.Holman.^[2]

Marriage & Children

He married Lydia Rice, daughter of Dea. Edmund Rice and Thomasine Frost; though the marriage is not found in the vital records of Sudbury or Boston. Torrey in "New England Marriages to 1700" says only that they were married by 1646, appearing as a married couple in Boston by that date.^[3] Torrey also cited Stevens-Miller 2:51.

Son John's birth appears in Sudbury Vital Records on 2 May 1646 as son of Hugh and "Lidia".^[4] Holman explains that while John was born in Sudbury he was baptized in Boston on 19 March 1648/49 where Lydia (his mother) was admitted as a church member one week prior. Hugh himself was admitted to the First Church of Boston several years later on 16 April 1654. Thus while Torrey gives Boston as their first appearance as a married couple, it seems very possible that they were actually married in Sudbury where John was born and where Hugh appeared in various town and court records through at least 14 December 1646.^[2] Whether Hugh and/or Lydia were members of the First Church of Sudbury in 1646 is not known; although the church apparently met as early as 1640 membership records don't seem to be available.

Hugh is known only to have had one child, son John. A reading of his will (see below) led to the natural assumption that he also had a son Thomas. Cutter (See Also section) also mistakenly assigned daughter Mary and speculated that Hugh was the "George Drury" who came on the 1635 "Abigail" (unlike Hugh's FIndAGrave memorial which speculates that a John Drury was this George Drury of 1635).

Holman (and others) assert that after Lydia died in Boston on 5 April 1676, Hugh married Mary Unknown Fletcher by 23 May 1676; that she was age 54 in 1677 and that she died in Boston in 1680. She was widow of Edward Fletcher.^[2]

Colonial Life

Note that Holman provides a great many details about Hugh's colonial life, citing her sources in all cases.

Hugh had a land grant in Sudbury (likely Anderson's reference) appearing in Book 1 of the town records; the transcript available online from the Sudbury Archives lists this as 1641 but does not give a specific date of the meeting where the grant was given. Hugh was given four acres "lyinge upon the feilde unto Fyne Brook if soe much be there more than what is formerly granted" indicating that he died have a previous, presumably 1640 grant.^[5] He appears in several other entries at this same site (for example in September 1642 he was in court related to debt payments owed him by WIlliam Swift which Swift had not paid.

Hugh became a freeman of the Colony on 3 May 1654^[2] (Holman citing NEHGR 7:336 among other sources).

He became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1659 and was subsequently its Lieutenant.^[2]

His name appeared at a town meeting of 13 Feb 1673 where it was noted that he would be paid at the "Town Rate" of 3 pounds for his "Deputy's Dieu" while he was at Boston.^[5]

On 26 January 1674 at the Superior Court of Judicature he gave his age as 57 years.^[2]

Death & Estate

Hugh's will was written 1 November 1687 and proved in court 30 July 1689 (given in full by Holman^[2]) with an image of the original at familysearch.org^[6] His will listed his grand-son Thomas (of Hugh's only known son John who was dead by this date) as "son Thomas" who married a Rice cousin. This description of his grand-son has led to the understandable assumption that Hugh also had a son John. Holman explains this by saying Hugh had raised his grandchildren, including Thomas, as if they were his own children and considered them in that light. Savage in his "Genealogical Dictionary" made the assumption that Thomas was a son of Hugh.^[7]

This profile originally asserted a specific death date of 6 July 1689 at Boston, MA without a primary source. He was dead by 30 July 1689 when the inventory of his estate was presented at court.^[2][6]

He is buried at Kings Chapel Burying Ground, Boston, Suffolk, MA - his stone is still there but no longer legible per his FindAGrave memorial listed below.

Sources

1. ↑ Descendants of John Gamage of Ipswich, Mass. by Morton, Arabella L. G. (Arabella Lyman Gamage) Publication date 1906 Publisher Worcester, Mass. : Press of C.R. Stobbs p. 53 note: this source refers to a different man, John supposedly aka George Drury
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and his wife Frances Helen Miller by Holman, Mary Lovering, 1868-1947; Pillsbury, Helen Pendleton Winston, 1878-1957; Holman, Winifred Lovering, 1899- Publication date 1948 Publisher Concord, N.H. : Privately printed at the Rumford Press Vol. 2 p. 53
3. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 1 p. 477 $subscription
4. ↑ Vital records of Sudbury, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 by Sudbury (Mass. : Town); New England Historic Genealogical Society Publication date 1903 Publisher Boston : New-England Historic Genealogical Society, at the charge of the Eddy Town-Record Fund p. 41
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} The Sudbury Archives "Town Clerk's Office. Town Records, Book I." search for "Hugh Drury"
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Suffolk County (Massachusetts) probate records, 1636-1899 Probate records v. 10-12 1687-1697 1 will of Hugh Drury
7. ↑ A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England showing three generations of those who came before May, 1692, on the basis of Farmer's Register by Savage, James, 1784-1873; Making of America Project; Farmer, John, 1789-1838; Dexter, O. P. (Orrando Perry), 1854-1903 Publication date 1860-62 Publisher Boston, Little, Brown and company Vol. 2 p. 75

See Also:

• Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), pp. 5, 9, 223.
• Rice Gen'l Register, pp. 1, 4.
• Robert J. Dunkle and Ann S. Lainhart, Boston, MA, Cemeteries, p. 745.
• William Barry, Framingham, MA, History (Barry), p. 222.
• Rice Gen'l Register, p. 4.
• Linda Lightholder (4922) Kmiecik, Early Drury Line.
• Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), pp. 9, 223.
• Sarah Drury Rice, Drury Family.
• Andrew Henshaw Ward, Rice Family (Ward), p. 9.
• The Edmund Rice (1638) Association
• Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of ... By Ellery Bicknell Crane GoogleBook
• New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the ..., Volume 4 edited by William Richard Cutter GoogleBook
• History of the Town of Marborough
• Jacobus, Donald Lines. An American Family, Botsford-Marble Ancestral Lines (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, Connecticut, 1933) Page 238.
• Holman, Mary Lovering. English Notes on Edmund Rice, The American Genealogist (1933) Vol. 10, Page 136.
• Find A Grave: Memorial #26590112

See also:

• GoogleBook Search