Born about in England
Son of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of
Abigail (Kimball) Severans
— married
1635 in England
Husband of
Susanna (Unknown) Severans
— married
2 Oct 1663 (to 9 Apr 1682) in Massachusetts Bay Colony
Descendants 
Father of
Samuel Severence, Ebenezer (Severence) Severans, Abigail (Severence) Severens, Abigail (Severance) Church, Mary (Severance) Coffin, John (Severance) Severans Jr, Joseph (Severence) Severance, Joseph Severence, Elizabeth (Severence) Severance, Benjamin Severence, Ephraim Severance, Elizabeth (Severence) Severans and Unknown (Severence) Severans
Died
at about age 70
in Salisbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony
Profile last modified
| Created 14 Apr 2010
This page has been accessed 10,687 times.
There are disproven, disputed, or competing theories about this person's parents. See the text for details.
| John (Severance) Severans migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 301) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
Contents |
Biography
John Severans was born in England about 1612 (based on an assumed age of 25 at the birth of his first child).
He married Abigail Kimball, born 20 November 1617 in Hitcham, Suffolk County, England. Abigail was the daughter of Richard Kimball and Ursula Scott, [1]she died 19 June 1658 in Salisbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony two days after giving birth to a daughter named Elizabeth.
Other members of Abigail's family were passengers on the Elizabeth: her father, Richard Kimball, her brothers, Roger Kimball and Thomas Kimball who sailed with his wife and children. Several of the Munnings were also on the Elizabeth.[2] The Munnings were the great grandparents of Abigail.
John and Abigail Severance were not on the list sailing on the Elizabeth and it is believed they sailed later[3] but by 17 3m (May) 1637, when John Syverens became a freeman.[4]
After a stay of two years in Boston, John and Abigail settled in the Merrimac plantation, at what is now Salisbury Massachusetts. Of the settlements of New England, Salisbury ranks among the earliest. In 1638, just 18 years after the Pilgrims landed, 10 years after the organization of Salem, a plantation was begun on the north side of the Merrimac. In March, 1638, this strip of territory extended from the Merrimac River north a distance of nearly 10 miles. The Haverhill line was on its western border and on the east, the Atlantic ocean. The location of Salisbury, with the Powow River running through the center of the territory, and encircled by a chain of hills made it an attractive place for a settlement.
John Severance received land in the “first division” of the plantation in the year 1639 as well as in Later divisions in 1640 and 1654. He was the 11th person to receive property in the Merrimac Plantation.
It must be remembered that dwellings were clustered together as a means of protection. This to include land for the house, outhouse, a barn, garden plot and a barnyard. In addition, each owner was allowed upland for planting, and meadowland or pasture. The salt-marsh to the south of town was a “common” for the harvesting of hay, and other “commons” for the pasturing of oxen and sheep were established.
The first division includes land near what is now the square of modern Salisbury close to the Salisbury Public Library. In my visit of 2002 I discovered the old landmarks have disappeared from view. There are signs posted around the town designating the locations of the church and meeting house. Only the old burying ground, where John, Abigail, and their children who died early, survives. This burying ground is well kept but the early stones are missing or weathered and the inscriptions are unreadable.
John Severance was first recorded in plantation records as a planter in 1637 and later as a Vintner and Victualar.
Townsmen recognized the need for a place where they could meet, eat and drink, and conduct town business in November of 1641. At that time they freed John Harrison from taxes on the condition that he would keep a tavern for 2 years. How it came to be that John Severance became the tavern keeper is unknown. It is known that John Harrison, a ropemaker, removed to Boston and was there in 1643.
John Severance was recruited as a member of The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in the years 1641-2.
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts was an organization founded in 1637 by a group of prominent merchants and magistrates in clear imitation of a like named organization in London. The organization trained in military fashion and was armed to defend, remember that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was still a part of England.
The matchlock musket was the state of the art military weapon, though the saber was still carried, undoubtedly to defend oneself during that vulnerable period after discharging the musket and reloading was complete. There was a social aspect to the artillery company. Members met to eat, drink and compete in shooting, and perhaps, swordmanship. Once a year they paraded in uniform. The company was active in Boston. It may or may not have had activities in Salisbury. There are reports that John and his son, also named John, were licensed to keep a tavern in Boston and Beverly as well as Salisbury. Indications are that he kept a residence and maintained the tavern in both Salisbury and Boston, only a 30 odd miles apart,
For those with an interest in The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts there is an Internet Web Site. The organization is open to membership for those who can trace ancestry to one of the original members which would include John Severance.
Court records of the colony of Massachusetts Bay indicate that John Severance, Tristram Coffyn, Philip Chalice and others petitioned the court for the right to form a troop of horse cavalry in 1656. The petition was approved. Transcripts of the town records for Salisbury first mention Cornet Severans when he is assigned to a building committee for a new meeting house with Captain Pike and Captain Bradbury in 1662.
A Cornet is an officer rank in the Horse Cavalry, so named for the Cornet or Trumpet like instrument which he carries. Essentially this rank is the equivalent of an Ensign, or flag-bearer, in the infantry. As the ensign is the rallying or parley point for the infantry, the cornet is the source of orders for the cavalry, blowing the charge, parley, or retreat, the instrument replacing the flag of the infantry which is difficult to carry while mounted on a horse.
John was a respected member of the community. Town records reflect that he was elected as one of the seven men, or selectmen, a governing committee, following Biblical tradition, along with Mr Batt, Thomas Macy, Mr John Hall, Robert Pike, John Sanders, and Thomas Bradbury.
He was also elected to several committees to set the town boundaries, survey roads, and build a meeting house. He was a regular member of the prudentialmen, another governing body, which I believe was responsible for the finances of the town.
Minutes of the town meetings and town activities are recorded in The History of Essex County, authored by W. H. B Currier.
John also served in some capacity in the administration and financial process of this cavalry, for the Court records of the Colony of Massachusetts contain the following:
Page 327
Answer of the Court to Cornet John Severans Petition
Warrants issued accordingly, 15 December 1681
In answer to the petition of Cornet John Severans, it is ordered, for a fynall issue of the matter, that the secretary issue out his Warrant directed to the Constables of Salisbury, Haverhill, and Amesbury, requiring them forthwith to collect and gather out of the several towns their just proportions of what is due from them as their share, ie, four pounds and eight pence from Salisbury, from Haverhill three pounds and fourteen shillings, and from Amesbury one pound seventeen shillings and four pence, and deliver the same to John Severans in full satisfaction of all his claimes, the Treasurer of the County having satisfied him all the county was to pay him.
This was the resolution of an earlier petition by John Severance to recover amounts due from several towns in the vicinity in support of the Cavalry. Apparently, non-payment was due to continued boundary disputes between the towns, some tax payers billed by more than one jurisdiction refused to pay either.
Henry Ambrose was a carpenter who bought land in Salisbury in 1649. He died there in 1658. Abigail Severance died that same year giving birth to a daughter named Elizabeth.
Susanna, the Widow of Henry Ambrose, and John Severance were married 2 October 1663. John appears to have had Inns in both Boston and Beverly and spent time in both locations until removing to Salisbury where he died 9 April 1682. [5], [6]
John's will, written 7 April 1682 (not proved), named his wife, Susanna, son John, the rest of my children (unspecified), grandchild Jonathan Church, son in law James Coffyn, son Ephraim Severans (executor). [7] See details on Image tab.
John and Abigail Severans were the parents of thirteen known children. Widower Severans was survived by six children. [8], [9]
Children
- Samuel 19 7 37; d. young
- Eben 7 1 39; d. 1667 unm
- Abigail 7 11 41; d. 7 1 41
- Abigail 25 3 43; m. John Church 29 9 64
- Mary 5 6 45; m. James Coffin 3 dec 63
- John (24 Sep 1647-1711), m. 1672 Mary Unknown
- Joseph 14 12 49
- Elizabeth 8 2 52; d. 5 12 62
- Benjamin 11 mo 54
- Ephraim 8 2 56
- Elizabeth 17 4 58; daughter d. 22 4 58
Research Notes
Disputed Parents: John (Severns) Severence (1559-1660) and Mary (Langley) Severence (abt.1580-1675) were previously attached as parents, citing John Severance (1609-1682) His Life in the New World by C W Severance (unless otherwise noted) [10] a source which could not be identified or corroborated. The Great Migration Directory lists his origins as unknown.[11] If evidence comes to light provinge the relationship, they can always be reconnected.
Miscellaneous
- primary source vital records for John's English birth and/or scholarly research for the names of his parents have yet to be discovered, e.g. primary source records such as govermental, church, Genealogical Society (e.g. NEHGS, The American Genealogist, and others). I.e., proof of parentage has yet to be found.
- The following entries provide contectual information pertaining to John Severans, his life, times and places of interest. They are not primary sources, rather these research entries include published but not peer reviewed family genealogies which suggest family origin and members. In John's case, John and Mary (Langley) Severns (Severence) are posited within as his parents.
- John Severans in "The Severans : genealogical history," by Severance, John F. (John Franklin), b. 1817, comp, pub. 1893 [12]
- "The Severances : an American odyssey, from Puritan Massachusetts to Ohio's Western Reserve, and beyond," by Tittle, Diana, 1950- [13]
- Mary Severence in Coffin, Allen, 1881. "The Coffin Family: the life of Tristram Coffyn, of Nantucket, Mass., founder of the family line in America,". Hussey & Robinson, publishers, Nantucket, Mass.Internet Archive
- History of Amesbury including the first seventeen years of Salisbury By Joseph Merrill, Haverhill Press of Franklin P Stiles, 1880 [2]
Sources
- ↑ "Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775", database with images,Ancestry Sharing Link (free access), (Ancestry Image : $, accessed 13 November 2023),Abigail Kimball,citing Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume IV > Kimball Family > image 1 of 6, pg. 184.
- ↑ Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874. pp 280-282
- ↑ Davis, Walter Goodwin, 1885-1966. The Ancestry of Phoebe Tilton, 1775-1847, Wife of Capt. Abel Lunt of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Portland, Me.: Anthoensen Press, 1947. p. 112
- ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Volume I 1628-1641 (William White, Boston, 1853) p. 373
- ↑ 1682 Death for John Severns in "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCMR-TMP : 17 January 2020), Jno. Severans, 1682.
- ↑ 1682 Death for John Severns, Sr. in "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHRS-TMX : Wed Oct 25 11:44:43 UTC 2023), Entry for Jno. Sr. Severans, 9 Apr 1682.
- ↑ 1682 Will for John Severence in "Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.) NEHGS Record
- ↑ Living children of John Severans in !867 in "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.) [Subscription] NEHGR Record 8:162
- ↑ 1637 to 1682 Vital Record Images [275-280] for Family of John Severance (1609-1682) in "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch Select Image 275-280
- ↑ John Severance in "His Life in the New World by C W Severance," geni.com, online, [1]
- ↑ Anderson, Robert C. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640: A Concise Compendium (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Great Migration Study Project, Boston, 2015):, Page 521
- ↑ John Severans in "The Severans : genealogical history," by Severance, John F.", archive.org, text online Internet Archive
- ↑ John Severance in "The Severances: an American odyssey," archive.org, text online Free login and borrow
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S > Severance | S > Severans > John (Severance) Severans
Categories: Salisbury, Massachusetts | Puritan Great Migration
I kept the Needs Relationship Check category on because it would be good to have a source for his wife Abigail Kimball. Its odd Anderson doesn't seem to mention it in the sketch on Richard Kimball, although Richard Kimball refers to John Severans as his son-in-law in his will. Abigail wasn't included with her family on the list of the Elizabeth, so it does seem that she married in England. Anyway, it would be great for that relationship to be vetted and better sourced, as I'm just skimming.
Name Severant, Christopher Dates 1654 Place General, England Book Index of Acts of Administration in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1649-1654 (Acts of Administration) Collection England: Canterbury - Administrations in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 1649-1654 Text Severant, Christopher, died beyond seas 1653-4 1 8
Samuel Appleton had a daughter, Mary who married a cleric named Thomas Sebborn and he was apparently descended from a family who lived in Colchester, England. They lived near to Dedham, England and he was involved with the church in Langham.
http://www.pbdy.com/begin2.htm The Planter sailed from London about Apr. 10, 1635, and arrived in Boston, Mass., June 7, 1635. Francis Peabody, a farmer and miller, settled first at Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts, where he was living in 1636 near "Labour in Vaine" on a road that led to the beach. The first reference to Francis in the Ipswich records appears in a description of lands owned by Samuel Hall: "Eight acres of planting ground, by an act of the Towne as in the old book Anno 1636, lying near the highway going to Labour in vaine meadowe, butting to ye East upon ye planting ground of John Seaborn and on ye North planting ground of Francis Pebody." 1636-In Ipswich, Ma-Under the date February 13, 1636, the entry in the Town Record occurs, "Granted to John Severance, a six acre planting lot on the far side the Brooke, and on this side Appletons farm."
Samuel Appleton also had a man named Sibborne doing legal work for him in England. So there is close proximity in New England. There was proximity in England of this Seborne family to the Kimballs that John Severans married into. We know that Henry Kimball, purported brother of Richard Kimball who was John Severans father in law, married a woman from Mistley. It has been proposed that Henry Kimball and Richard Kimball’s father was from Lawford, England. Mistley and Lawford are within walking distance of Dedham and Langham. They are all in the Stour River valley on the border of Essex and Sussex. This is a long way from Powick and Worcester which is on the other side of England. (I have a 1998 AZ Great Britain Road Atlas from our trip to England that I use frequently to look up locations.) We did go to Worcestershire and actually to Powick when we were there. No indications that John Severans of Salisbury, MA was from that area, and it is a long way from the Colchester/Dedham area. The Severns from the Worchestershire area seem to have been more soldierly people, one became an army general, than sea people. Certainly there is an association of Thomas Seborne, etc., with a ship that his mother had a part share in.
So this is an interesting coincidence—The Kimballs traveled to New England on a ship named the Elizabeth. Thomas Sebborn of Dedham, probable husband to Mary Appleton, was the son of a woman who was part owner of a ship, called the Elizabeth of Manningtree. Manningtree sets at the head of navigation of the Stour River, across from Mistley, and downriver from Dedham. Could this be the ship that brought the Kimballs to New England? Was John Severans and Abigail Kimball some sort of supercargo, not carried on the passenger list? John Severans of Salisbury is known to have owned a ship in New England and his son Samuel was an owner and perhaps ship captain carrying pipe staves from New Hampshire to Boston. So they probably did have some seafaring skills. There can be found a John Severns in the records who was a ship captain of the ship George carrying passengers to New England and Virginia in the 1630s timeframe.
Pronounciation of the name Severans. In the Essex County Massachusetts Court records, in which I found all sorts of information about John Severans, the name is spelled several different ways. Including in one case Seavornes. Depending on local accents V and B could be pronounced much the same. Thus Seavornes/Seborne/Sebborne/Sibbone all could sound alike.
I know this is outside of the thinking about the origins of the Severance/Severans/Severns family, but when I attended some genealogy conferences and seminars, we were taught to look for associations and connections to try solve genealogy problems. If you do not think this discussion belongs in this space please remove it.
edited by Janice McKinley
I actually do not believe it or believe it to be extremely unlikely. There appear to be many records out there with some near variation Severance/Severans which never confuses a V with a B, and would not be confused with some variation of Seborne/Sebborn/Seaborn. One name is almost always a three syllable word while the other is a two syllable word - I just don't see one morphing into the other at all. The evidence you have laid out is very circumspect, and does not tie in the immigrant John Severans. John Seborn has many records of his own and it is clear he is not the same person as John Severans.
All that said, on a quick look around, I also do not believe John Severans the immigrant is the same as the son of John Severence and Mary Langley of Powick, Worcestershire, England - or at least it is unproven. This appears to be idle speculation going back to the 1927 The Severance Genealogy (if not before) in which the author himself said there there is no positive proof of it. In fact there is no evidence of it at all other than the name John.
I think his name needs to be changed to Severans as Anne suggested last year, and then disconnected from his unproven parents.
There is an entry for him in the GMD, which uses "Severance" as the spelling of the LNAB, and indicates his English origins are unknown. I have not tracked down all the sources cited in the Directory yet, but here is the entry:
Severance, John: Unknown; 1636; Ipswich, Salisbury [ITR 20, 22; MBCR 1: 373; WP 3: 433; SyTR 5; EIHC 57: 157; HAHAC 1: 117; NEHGR 27: 364; Phoebe Tilton Anc 112-13; David C. Dewsnap, The Severance Genealogy (Bowie, Maryland, 1995)].
Robert Charles Anderson, FASG. The Great Migration Directory (Kindle Locations 6333-6334). New England Historic Genealogical society.
As far as "C W Severance" goes, he was probably Chester Wells Severance (1831-1927) of Leyden, Massachusetts and a descendant of John Severance. Chester was billed as "Leyden's first 'historian.'" (William Tyler Arms, History of Leyden, Massachusetts, 1676-1959 (Orange: The Enterprise and Journal, 1959) p. 199 https://archive.org/details/historyofleydenm00arms/page/198/mode/2up.) But I was unable to track down the book/article John Severance (1609-1682) His Life in the New World. Based on when he lived and the info available to him, I doubt he added any new knowledge that wasn't already in circulation.
If there were indications that Captain John Severns, the shipmaster, was sailing out of Bristol, I could maybe accept a west of England origin, but it is recorded in at least one instance that he sailed out of Gravesend which is on the Thames River 21 miles downriver from London. In general the Essex and Sussex and Kent areas of England were a huge hotbed of Puritan activity in the 1500s and most of the 1630s Winthrop migratory group, numbered at about 3000 people, were from that area.
So I am really more inclined to go with who knew who and proximity. I just think it would have been strange for a young woman from a seemingly respectable Puritan family, the Kimballs, to have married a person from the west of England unless there was some sort of family connection or proximity.
I don’t focus just on the Severns family in my researching. I have a more extensive Puritan background than Ron has and I have done quite a bit or research on the Stour Valley people in relation to some of my own people. It was when I was doing that, that I realized the close relationships between so many of the Massachusetts Bay settlers and how intertwined they were with some of the Puritan ministers. My focus has been on the folks who probably knew the Reverend John Rogers of Dedham in Essex and who would go to hear him speak. He was not known as “Roaring John” for nothing. Thomas Sebborne, husband of Mary Appleton, was a curate of the Church at Langham, whose tower was visible from Dedham. If the Kimballs were serious Puritans, as I think they were, they likely would have walked up from the Mistley or Lawford area sometimes to hear Rogers speak, and could have had contact with the nearby Sebborne family and their relatives, and the relatives were plentiful in the Dedham area. The relatives were involved with the cloth trade and in a couple of cases in their wills they would leave John Rogers enough cloth to make him a robe. My road atlas is just studded with stickies marking where folks lived in that area. I do a lot of map work to figure out proximity. Another area of proximity is Monks Eleigh where the Appletons had land to Hitcham where the Richard Kimball family lived. Very close.
We were in England in 1997, shortly after Princess Diana died, because we signed a couple of Condolence books. We were focused on doing things in the West of England and the Severn Valley, looking for Severns connections. If I knew then what I know now, we would have done the Stour Valley and a lot of villages in Suffolk/Essex looking for clues.
I sm 80 now and getting a bit wobbly to do independent research, so I am just passing along my thoughts on the subject to perhaps enable someone else to do some research in Essex and Sussex England.
Thank you for clarifying.
https://www.geni.com/people/John-Severance-Sr/5590237225880085958
with some extra indentations added.
February 13 lh 1636. Granted to Mr. Gardner a house lott: where his house now standeth. Granted to Thomas Hewlett a house lott, where his house now stands, and which is now in his possession. Granted to John Severance, a six acre planting lott. on the farr side the Brooke, and on this side Appleton's farme.
Burial: Salisbury Colonial Burying Ground, Salisbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA