Margaret (Unknown) Weston (abt. 1565 - bef. 1645)

Born about 1565 in England

Wife of Robert Pease — married 1586 in Great Baddow, Essex, England

Descendants

Died before 1 Jan 1645 before about age 80 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message] and Michael Sanderson [send private message]

Margaret (Unknown) Weston migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed origins:

As is often the case, especially when a wive's maiden name has not been sufficiently proven and/or her ancestry well documented, various notions of who she might have been are found in family files. Such seems the circumstance of Margaret _______, the wife of both Robert Pease (d. 1623, Great Baddow)^[1] and Francis Weston.^[2] Margaret was a Puritan Great Migration immigrant, as were her two sons, Robert Pease^[3] and John Pease^[4]; likewise, her second husband, Francis Weston.^[5]

WikiTree profiles exist about Margaret as Margaret ______; Margaret King (both as King-629 and King--8017) and as Margaret Rhodans. Other than Margaret _____, the duplicate WikiTree profiles are generally unsourced.

1. Robert Charles Anderson called her Margaret _____ in 1995 and 2010, but might she have been Margaret King, born 1574 at Great Baddow, daughter of Francis King and/or Margaret King, born 1566 at Great Baddow, daughter of Francis King?

The notion the Robert Pease's wife was Margaret King no doubt springs from correspondence attributed to H. G. Somerby^[6] concerning the will of Robert Pease of Great Baddow, said Margaret's first husband. In 1854, Somerby reportedly wrote,

Robert Pease of Great Baddow, Co. of Essex, Locksmith. Will dated

May 10, 1623. Mentions his wife Margaret, sons Robert and John,

daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Abraham Page, and brother-in-law Fran-

cis King. Will proved June 12, 1623.

Working from the abstract (not ideal), the will is said to mention Francis King as Robert Pease's "brother-in-law." This alone does not imply Robert had a father-in-law with same name, nor that the decedent's relationship with Francis arose via wife Margaret (or any wife).

As such, Margaret's identity as "Margaret King" is simply not confirmed or proved.

Note: The above abstract is found repeated in later dated publications and countless family files, but a full transcript of the will is not known to have appeared in print. Thus the information is not known to have been confirmed or widely viewed, especially as one might compare the abstract to the contextual content of the will. Given the named researcher (Somerby), such confirmation seems warranted. [H. G. Somerby (aka, Horatio Gates Somerby) was once highly thought of by the New England genealogical community, but his reputation has not been sustained. Various articles appear concerning genealogical fraud (see, for example, see Paul C. Reed, "Two Somerby Frauds ..," The American Genealogist 74 (1999):15+).]

An Essex (England) Record Office finding aid (Seax-Essex Archives Online) reports about the "Will of Robert Pease of Great Baddow, locksmith" dated 1623/(created 10 June 1623),^[7] suggesting this document is extant/discoverable.

2. Was the woman Robert Charles Anderson called Margaret actually Margaret Rhodans, born 1574 at Clemsford?

FreeREG database contains the indexed entry concerning a marriage at Chelmsford (St. Mary), Essex, England, 08 October 1598 between Robert Pease and Margaret Rodans.^[8]

The given names found in this record seem promising. As discussed more below, however, nothing additional was learned[*] regarding the identity of the 1598 bride or groom such as their ages and residences at the time of the marriage, his occupation, whether or not this was a first marriage, the further identity of kin. Without additional information such as that outlined, there is no way to confirm that the 1598 marriage concerns the locksmith and the woman who became his widow, and/or the parents of the immigrant men, Robert and John.

3. More Rhodans/Rodans. The surname "Rhodans" (and its presumed variant Rodans) is apparently rare, yet there are women by that name are associated on WikiTree with two different generation of men, Robert Pease. See profiles

• Rhodans-1, Margaret Rhodans, wife of Robert Pease (buried 1623 at Great Baddow), and also
• Rodans-1, Marie Rodans, second wife of the immigrant Robert^1 Pease (d. 1644, Salem, Mass.).

Both profiles, Margaret (Rhodans) Pease and Marie (Rodans) Pease, are undocumented.

Robert Charles Anderson twice referred to Margaret without attributing a surname. Likewise, he attributed no surname to the second wife of Robert^1 Pease in 2010--Anderson called her Mary _____.

[*] Null search returns:

• A query of AmericanAncestors.org for either surname (Rhodans or Rodans) returned no hits.^[9]
• A query of the Family History Library Catalog for the surname Rhodans returns no results. The same query posed for surname Rodans returns a single result, pertaining to the family of Micajah Gwartney (ca. 1750-1818), who "moved from Virginia to Kentucky in the early 1800's."
• A query of all FamilySearch Historical Record collections for the surname Rhodans, filtered for any result, 1500-1675 returns no results. The same query for surname Rodans returns three results, all pertaining to English marriages in 1681 for "Jane Rodans" at either Stafford or Cumberland, England.

[*] Note: No historical record has been documented for the variant spelling "Rhodans."

Might this vital date be characterized as a "Date Guess?"

No English or New England records are known to state her birth or age. Records about the family do not provide much of a reference point for estimating her birth. In 1634, two sons stated their age was 27 in the course of their emigration, ^[10] but even these ages are not without conflict among historians. Transcribed baptismal records from Great Baddow report a series of three likely infant records between 1600 and 1609.

Considering the circumstance, an estimate or "date guess" that she was born in the 1570s seems reasonable at this time.

Biography

Margaret ______ (Pease) Weston died at Massachusetts, probably Salem, before 1 January 1644/5.^[11]

Notes

• Margaret (_____) Pease presumably came to New England with one of her sons John & Robert Pease.
• There are two competing versions of her later history, each of which has its problems. We prefer the first of these two stories. On 3 November 1635 it was ordered "that John Pease shall be whipped, & bound to his good behavior, for striking his mother, Mrs. Weston, & deriding of her, & for diverse other misdemeanors, & other evil carriages." On 1 September 1644 "Margit Pease" of Salem made a will in which the principal beneficiaries were the children of her son Robert Pease; this will was proved on 1 January 1644/5. For this to be the widow of Francis Weston, we would have to assume that he had died before 1 September 1644 (and there is nothing to contradict this), and that after his death she had returned to Salem and reassumed the name of an earlier husband. Richard Harcourt, who later held some of the land of Francis Weston, noted that Margaret had held a life interest in these lands, so there should not have been a competing claim from her Pease heirs.
• The second story is that she married (2) by early 1651 Adam Goodwin, was supported by the town because of her distracted condition, and died on 2 May 1651. This later history for Margaret is dependent on a letter of Roger Williams in which in early 1651 he mistakenly called her "Mrs. Weston" when she was already married to Adam Goodwin.

Source: Anderson's Great Migration: 1634-1635.

• There is no real proof of her maiden name

Family links:

Spouse: Robert Pease (1565 - 1623)

Children:

# Robert Pease (1607 - 1644)* # John Pease (1608 - 1689)*

Notes on Disputed origins

(1) Identification as Margaret King, daughter of Francis.

Lacking documentation and reasoning to the contrary, it is likely the identification of Robert Pease's widow Margaret as Margaret King springs from multiple mis-steps in interpreting the published abstract of Pease's 1623 will.

The abstract is attributed to 1854 correspondence from H. G. Somerby and reads as follows^[12]

Robert Pease of Great Baddow, Co. of Essex, Locksmith. Will dated

May 10, 1623. Mentions his wife Margaret, sons Robert and John,

daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Abraham Page, and brother-in-law Fran-

cis King. Will proved June 12, 1623.

Margaret's identity as "Margaret King" seems simply not confirmed or proved. In both 1995^[13] and 2010,^[14] Robert Charles Anderson referred to her as Margaret _____ in the Great Migration series.

(2) Date and location of birth as "1574 at Great Baddow."

The profile is not documented, so no commentary supports this information about Margaret's birth and birth location.

Sources

1. ↑ Dr. Charles Banks, M.D., History of Martha's Vineyard, 3 vols. (1911-1925), 2:95-96, 3:385; digital images, Family History Library Catalog (accessed 2013),
2. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III 3 vols. (1995), 3:1965-1967, "Francis Weston"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).
3. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 418-420, "Robert Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).
4. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 414-418, "John Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).
5. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III 3 vols. (1995), 3:1965-1967, "Francis Weston"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).
6. ↑ Including abstract of Robert Pease will as correspondence from "Mr. Somerby" (elsewhere as H. G. Somerby) dated 6 June 1854 in Fred S. Pease and [H. G.] Somerby, "Pease Ancestry," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 10 (1856):159; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).
7. ↑ For Essex Record Office, Archdeaconry records, Commissary of Bishop of London, Wills, "Will of Robert Pease of Great Baddow, locksmith," D/ABW 44/262; finding aid, Seax-Essex Archives Online (accessed 2014).
8. ↑ FreeREG, index of parish and non-comformist church baptisms, marriages and deaths (http://www.freereg.org.uk/: accessed 24 August 2014), Pease-Rodans (1598), citing "FileNumber 2723." Index reports church as "St. Mary" in Chelmsford, Essex on 08 Oct 1598" [Separately, this seems Chelmsford (St. Mary) as opposed to the long established church, St. Mary's at Great Baddow. This marriage does not appear in the transcribed account of the Great Baddow registers of this time period found on Steve's genealogy pages.
9. ↑ Search by GeneJ X on 24 August 2014.
10. ↑ Citing "Hotten 278, 279" in Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 414-418, "John Pease" and 418-420, "Robert Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).
11. ↑ Citing the will of "Margit Pease" (Salem) dated 1 September 1644, proved 1 January 1644/5 as "EPR 1:40-41" in Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III 3 vols. (1995), 3:1966 (in particular part); digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).
12. ↑ Fred S. Pease and [H. G.] Somerby, "Pease Ancestry," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 10 (1856):159; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).
13. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III 3 vols. (1995), 3:1965-1967, "Francis Weston"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).
14. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 414-418, "John Pease" and 418-420, "Robert Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).

• Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1636-1686 (The Essex Institute, 1911) Vol. 1, Page 85-6

• Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III 3 vols. (1995), 3:1965-1967, "Francis Weston"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).

• Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 418-420, "Robert Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).

• Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume V, M-P (2010), 414-418, "John Pease"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2013).

• Dr. Charles Banks, M.D., History of Martha's Vineyard, 3 vols. (1911-1925), 2:95-96, 3:385; digital images, Family History Library Catalog (accessed 2013),

• Austin S. Pease and David Pease, A genealogical and historical record of the descendants of John Pease, Sen. [including a reprint of Austin S. Pease, The early history of the Pease families in America (1869)] ([1869]), part 1, pp. 1-3 "First Generation: Ancestry of John Pease, Sen."; part 2, 8-16, "Origin of the Salem and Enfield Peases"; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2013).

• Fred S. Pease and [H. G.] Somerby, "Pease Ancestry," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 10 (1856):159; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).

• Fred. S. Pease, Sam'l Drake and H. G. Somerby, "Facts relative to the Pease Family," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 9 (1855):91-92; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).

• Frederick S. Pease, Facts related to the Pease family," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 7 (1853):12; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).

• Frederick S. Pease, "The Pease Family," New England Historical & Genealogical Register 3 (1849):27-31, 169-175, 233-238, 390-398; digital images, Hathi Trust (accessed 2014).

• Find A Grave Memorial# 65262161

• HISTORY OF SALEM VOL 1 P.370. VITAL RECORDS OF SALEM ESSEX, MASS; PROBATE RECORDS OF ESSEX, MASS, P.42-4;