John (Pierce) Pearce (abt. 1606 - 1661)

Born about 1606 in England

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Pierce — married 6 Mar 1639 in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Husband of Rebecca (Unknown) Pearce — married 10 Aug 1654 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 17 Sep 1661 at about age 55 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay, Colony of England

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John (Pierce) Pearce migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 1469) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Name and Origins

Name: John Pierce, of Dorchester, Massachusetts.

The parents and origins of John Pierce of Dorchester are unknown. The Pearce Genealogy makes him a son of Richard Pearce of Rhode Island, a grandson of Richard Pearce of Pearce Hall in Yorkshire, and eventually connecting to the royally descended Percy family.^[1] There is no evidence any of this fanciful ancestry is true as well as being chronologically impossible.

Anderson claims his origins are unknown^[2]

Birth

Born: About 1606, estimated by Anderson based on his first marriage by 1631.^[2]

Were there 2 John Pierces in Dorchester?

Spoiler alert in case you don't want to read this section: No.

The source of this claim is the "History of the town of Dorchester". It asserts that John Pierce the cooper was married to Mary and then Elizabeth and that John Pierce the mariner was married to Parnell and parcels out children accordingly.^[3] Is this right? In favor of this argument is the overlap between Parnell's death in Dorchester VR and the birth of the first child of John Pierce with Mary. Anderson addresses this by saying the Dorchester VR was wrong and simply wrote Parnell's death (Oct. 1639) as the same as the actual death of her son Nehemiah. The "History" states, regarding John the husband of Parnell:

This John, it is supposed, is the one designated mariner and was of Stepney, county of Middlesex in England.

The source of a mariner from Stepney, Middlesex? Unknown at this time. See Captain Michael Pierce and the Fake Genealogy of Frederick Clifton Pierce for an excellent examination of the misinformation about the Pierce family including that William the mariner from Middlesex had a brother John who came to New England. Not surprisingly you can easily find "John Pierce" christening records in the late 1590s and early 1600s in the area of Stepney at familysearch, freereg etc.

So what is the answer? We find it in John's will. He bequeaths to all the children of John Pierce and Mary as well as his daughter Abigail who married Jeremiah Rogers. Abigail's mother was Parnell, not Mary thus proving that the same John Pierce was married to Parnell Unknown and to Mary Unknown.

Marriages and Children

Married: 1st - Parnel Unknown by 1631 (based on birth of 1st known child Joseph on 30 Oct 1631). Dorchester Vital Records (cited by Anderson) gives her death date as October 1639, the same as the death of her child Nehemiah. As Anderson points out, this conflicts with the documented birth of the next child of John with his second wife Mary (daughter Mary on 6 Mar 1638/39) so he asserts that Parnel likely died in 1637, possibly related to the 12 Nov 1637 birth of the aforesaid Nehemiah.^[2]

Married: 2nd - Mary Unknown by 1638. A death record for Mary Pierce appears in Dorchester on 12 July 1647 but it is PROBABLY NOT THIS Mary Pierce as the death record lists her as "servant of Nathaniel Sparhawke", NOT "wife of John Pierce".^[4] Anderson states that she died in 1647 in Dorchester but then goes on to list two children, Exercise and Samuel born after that year with no explanation.^[2] This simply seems to be a mistake on Anderson's part and all we can say of Mary is that she died before 1654 when John remarried.

Married: 3rd - Rebecca Unknown, the widow of Thomas Wheeler of Boston, on 10 August 1654 in Boston.^[5]

Massachusetts

John Pierce migrated to New England about 1630. After settling first in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and removed to Boston about by 18 October 1655, seen in a deed of that date^[6]

He was a cooper and became a freeman 18 May 1631.^[7]

John was able to sign his name to deeds and to the Dorchester agreement of 2 February 1646[/7]^[8] He served as Deputy from Dorchester to General Court, 13 March 1638/9^[9] Before that he was a Dorchester selectman, 8 October 1633, 2 October 1636, 13 February 1638/9 (six months), 1 February 1640/1; a setter of rates, 2 June 1634; a lot layer, 1637, 1638; and a fenceviewer, 1637/8.^[10]

Real estate transactions were fairly common in the new colonies. John received a grant of 2 acres 1 February 1635 from the town of Dorchester. In the calves' pasture he received another two acres on 2 January 1637/8. He purchased two acres of marsh from John Bingham before 23 April 1638. He was granted lot number twenty-two of four acres in the meadow lands beyond the Naponset river. He agreed to arbitration regarding the fencing about the great lots, 2 February 1646[/7].^[11]

28 February 1642[/3] John Pearce of Dorchester, cooper, sold to Richard Curtis, shoemaker, "my old dwelling house and one acre more or less of planting land behind it" in Dorchester, also one acre and a half of meadow before the house. 18 October 1655 John Peirce of Boston, cooper, and Rebecca Peirce his wife, "late wife of the said Thomas Wheeler" of Boston, tailor, acknowledged the sale of land by Thomas Wheeler in his lifetime for which no deed was previously entered. 2 December 1658 Stephen Greenelefe of Boston, blacksmith, sold to John Pearce of Boston, cooper, one dwelling house with the garden & orchard belonging to it.^[12]

There are a few records that may or may not belong to this John Pierce. 31 August 1657, John Peirce was admitted an inhabitant of Boston and again 31 May 1548, 9 March 1656/7 a John Pierce was a Boston highway surveyor^[13]

John's will was dated 16 September 1661 and proved 11 October 1661. "John Pears of Boston ... in consideration of my unfeigned love unto Rebecca my wife and also by way of restoration of what I received with her & have enjoyed of her former husband's estate, I leave the house & land we live in freely unto her & also out of that little God hath given me, my will is she have in such things as may be to her comfort and content to the value of £13 in necessaries as bed, table, chair, pot, & other household stuff"; "for my own house and land that I lately purchased in Boston" to "my wife during the time of her widowhood ... one half of the yearly rent & profit of the same"; "the other half of the yearly profit ... for the education & maintenance of my son Samuell, & after the death or day that my wife shall change her condition of life by marriage" all to Samuel; to "my son Nehemiah Pears ... all my working tools & implements belonging to my calling with all the timber & stuff to work upon be it at home or elsewhere abroad desiring he may by the help of God be a good husband in the use of it & then I hope he may live like a man"; for "my daughter the wife of Jeremiah Rog[e]rs ... whereas her husband Jeremiah Rog[e]rs stands deeply indebted unto me ... freely give [the sum of £20] to my daughter and her children and also 20s. apiece unto her three children in money"; to "my three daughters Mary, Mercy & Exercise" residue "at Boston or Dorchester or elsewhere"; if any of them die before age eighteen years or marriage, their portions to be divided amongst the survivors; "loving friends William Killcupp & William Robinson & John Wisewall" advisors [SPR 1:374]. This will was ruled imperfect and administration granted to Mr. John Wisewall, William Robinson and William Killcupp.^[14]

Death

Death: Date: 17 Sep 1661 Place: Boston, Middlesex, Massachusetts^[15]

Children

With first wife

• 1. Joseph was b. in Dorchester 30 October 1631; not named in father's will.^[16]
• 2. Abigail was b. Dorchester 17 July 1633; m. by 1653 Jeremiah Rogers (eldest child bp. Dorchester 10 May 1653. (Savage gives Mehitabel as the forename of the wife of Jeremiah Rogers, but this was the name of one of the daughters of Jeremiah and Abigail.^[16][17]
• 3. John was b. Dorchester 3 March 1634[/5]; d. Dorchester 30 March 1634 [sic, probably 1635].^[16]
• 4. Nehemiah was b. Dorchester 12 July 1637; d. Dorchester October 1639.^[16]

With second wife

• 5. Mary was b. Dorchester 6 March 1638[/9];^[16] probably died before the birth of her sister of the same name who was not yet eighteen when her father wrote his will.
• 6. Nehemiah b. Dorchester 17 January 1641^[16] (the record as published is for 1631, but it comes after the entry for Mary, and after the birth for the earlier Nehemiah, so the entry must be a simple error for 1641)]; m. (1) by 1663 Phebe Blantin (eldest child b. Boston 31 August 1663 [BVR 89]), daughter of William Blantin (on 16 October 1696 "Mearcy Pearse of Boston ... spinster, daughter of Nehemiah Pearse late of Boston, cooper, deceased," sold to Thomas Peck Jr. a parcel of land in Boston "formerly known to be the reputed land and estate of my grandfather William Planting Senior, deceased" [SLR 14:297-98; see also SLR 12:383-85]); m. (2) shortly after 18 September 1684 Anne (Addington) Moseley, daughter of Isaac Addington and widow of Samuel Moseley (or Maudsley) [SLR 13:420 (marriage contract); Sewall 94].
• 7.Mary was b. say 1644; minor (under eighteen) in father's will; m 19 Jul 1678 John Simmons of Bradford
• 8. Mercy, b. say 1646 m 22 Aug 1667 Manasseh Marston at Charlestown^[18]
• 9. Exercise, b. say 1648; minor (under eighteen) in father's will d 13 Nov 1731; m 17 Oct 1668 at Lynn, Nehemiah Jewett
• 10.Samuel b. say 1650; m. by 1673 Mary _____ (son Samuel b. at Boston on 28 January 1673[/4?] [BVR 129]). He was a cooper [SLR 8:74, 198, 215, 12:64 (and compare with SLR 3:190-91)].

Notes

Regarding the Pearce Geneaology: In 1888, Frederick Clinton Pierce published the Pearce Genealogy; it is frankly a confused mess and cannot be trusted on any aspect of the early Pierce ancestry. Anderson had this to say regarding this work, "In 1888 Frederick Clinton Pierce published one of his confused productions a Pearce genealogy, being the record of the posterity of Richard Pearce, an early inhabitant of Portsmouth, in Rhode Island. (Rockford, Illinois, 1888). He made John Pierce of Dorchester and Boston a son of this elder Richard Pierce, and the latter was supposedly brother of WILLIAM PIERCE, mariner, of Boston and father of a younger Richard Pierce of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The elder Richard Pierce does not seem to have existed, nor is there any evidence that any of these other three men are related to one another."

Confusion around wives: Genealogy of John Rogers of Boxford, Mass gives Mercy (Pierce) Marston's mother as Alice Barnett and her maternal grandmother as Mary Waterhouse.^[19]

Sources

1. ↑ Pearce. Pearce Genealogy, (1888): page 36.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins, vol. 3. (1995)" pages 1469-1472.
3. ↑ Ebenezer Clapp, History of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts By Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society, Boston, Mass., 1859, p. 71
4. ↑ Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 for Mary Pierce Boston Transcript County Records $subscription required and free image courtesy of ancestry.com
5. ↑ "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHQQ-BJX : 28 July 2021), John Peirce, 1654.
6. ↑ Andreson citing [SLR 3:296-98].
7. ↑ Anderson citing MBCR 1:366
8. ↑ Anderson citing [DTR 75].
9. ↑ Anderson citing [MBCR 1:250].
10. ↑ Anderson citing DTR 3, 19, 38, 44, 7, 29, 34, 32,
11. ↑ Anderson citing [DTR 15].[DTR 28] [DTR 33] [DTR 321][DTR 76]
12. ↑ Anderson citing [SLR 3:190-91].[SLR 3:296-98]. [SLR 2:152].
13. ↑ Anderson citing [BTR 1:139][BTR 1:143, 146] [BTR 1:134; see also BTR 1:154].
14. ↑ Suffolk County, MA: Probate File Papers.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2017-2019. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized mages provided by FamilySearch.org) Case 276: Will, Book 1
15. ↑ Anderson citing Boston Vital Records 81
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5} Anderson citing Dorchester Vital Record: 3
17. ↑ Anderson citing Dorchesster Church Records 162, 69
18. ↑ Proof of parentage is from Suffolk County Deed, 30 Dec 1726: Mercy Marston of Boxford, widow of Manasseh Marstonsells lands in Dorchester from "her honored father John Pierce late of Boston". Vol 40, Page 183
19. ↑ Dodge, Esther F, and C R. Commons. Genealogy of John Rogers of Boxford, Mass. Manassas, Va.: Manassas Journal Print, 1907. Page 44.

• Anderson, Robert Charles, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. 3: P - W, (Boston: NEHGS, 1995)" pages 1469-1472.

• Pierce, Frederick Clifton. Pearce genealogy, being the record of the posterity of Richard Pearce, an early inhabitant of Portsmouth, in Rhode Island. (Rockford, IL, 1888). Archive.org Link [Please see note regarding errors].

• NEHGS Legislators of the Massachusetts General Court, 1691-1780