Unknown (UNKNOWN) Rust (abt. 1615)

Born about 1615 in England

Descendants

Died [date unknown] in Hingham, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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

Biography

No contemporaneous records have been found to indicate the name of Henry Rust's wife, nor how many times he may have married. No mother's name is recorded on their children's baptisms, and there's no record of her/their death.

The proposed name "Hannah" is a complete invention by Henry's biographer, writing in 1891:

"The name of his wife nowhere appears, hence we are left to speculate as to the name of our maternal emigrant ancestor. We have no knowledge of there being but one daughter, to wit : Hannah, and we may infer that the mother's name was the same as that of her only daughter. We are also left in the dark as to the date of her death and find but two allusions to her. It is recorded on the books of the First Church, Boston, 'Henry Rust & wife admitted to the church 20 of ye 12 mo 1669,' again in Henry Rust's deed of conveyance to Nathaniel Rust and Robert Earle [dated 28 Jan 1684/5] he refers to 'my wife.'^[1] We are quite as much in the dark as to whether our ancestor married in England or America, but probably the latter as he was in America as early as June, 1635, and perhaps earlier,^[2] and their first child, whose birth is recorded, was born in August 1638."^[3] (emphasis added)

Their children, all recorded in Hingham, were:^[3]

1. Samuel, bap. 5 Aug 1638
2. Nathaniel, bap. 2 Feb 1639/40
3. Hannah, bap. 7 Nov 1641
4. Israel, bap. 12 Nov 1643
5. Benjamin, bap. 5 Apr 1646
6. Benoni, d. 23 Oct 1649 (proposed by Rust 1891 to be an error for Benjamin)

Research Notes

A name of "Hannah Appleton" has been suggested as the wife of Henry Rust based on the book "700 Ancestors..." by Lewis Keeler Leonard.^[4] Leonard asserts, without source, that the wife of Henry Rust was Hannah Appleton, a daughter of Samuel Appleton and "Mary Everard" (Samuel's wife was actually Judith Everard) and that Hannah was born about 1616 at Little Waldingfield, Essex where Samuel & Judith's other children were christened at that time. This is not supported by parish registers or any other primary or vetted secondary source. Leonard gave as sources for this entry "NEHGR VII" (presumably meaning the 1853 death notice of Samuel Appleton on p. 97 which only asserts that he was the son of 1635 immigrant Samuel but says nothing about the children of this immigrant) and Vol. 5 of George Norbury Mackenzie's "Colonial Families of the United States", a series of books that is known to be problematic, especially as it relates to English origins of early immigrants. In fact, Mackenzie in his entry on Samuel the immigrant shows only one child (John) and lists Samuel's wife as "Mary Everard" instead of Judith so clearly was not accurate with this family.^[5] Leonard also shows this information in his chapter on the Rust family, but with no further primary sources for the wife of Henry Rust as Hannah Appleton. So why he thinks Hannah Appleton was the name of Henry Rust's wife, and why he associated her with Samuel Appleton & Judith Everard is a bit of a mystery although pretty clearly Mackenzie was his main source given that he also mistakenly called Samuel Appleton's wife "Mary". Given all this, no support is seen for "Appleton" as a surname for the wife of Henry Rust (or for "Hannah" as her first name) in Leonard's work.

Sources

1. ↑ It actually says "myself & wife", see Rust p. 6
2. ↑ The evidence for a 1635 arrival is questionable; Anderson's Great Migration Directory for Henry Rust, p. 292, says 1637.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Rust, Albert D., Record of the Rust family: embracing the descendants of Henry Rust, who came from England and settled in Hingham, Mass., 1634-1635 (Waco, Tex.: the author, 1891), pp. 12-13
4. ↑ Leonard, Lewis Keeler.. Seven hundred ancestors. unknown: unknown, 1975. Ch. 4 p. 12 $subscription and free image courtesy of ancestry.com
5. ↑ Colonial Families of the USA, 1607-1775 for Samuel Appleton Colonial Families of the United States of America, Volume V Appleton Family Vol 5. p. 13 $subscription and free image courtesy of ancestry.com

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/116387257/hannah-rust: accessed March 12, 2024), memorial page for Hannah Appleton Rust (1615–1674), Find A Grave: Memorial #116387257; Burial Details Unknown; Maintained by Eternal Peace (contributor 48793983). (Cites Leonard for the unproven claim that she was Hannah Appleton.)