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Elizabeth (Willard) Blood (bef. 1633 - 1690)

Elizabeth Blood formerly Willard
Born before in Marden, Kent, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married 8 Apr 1653 (to 29 Aug 1690) in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New Englandmap
Descendants descendants
Died after age 57 in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap
Profile last modified | Created 19 Aug 2012
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The Puritan Great Migration.
Elizabeth (Willard) Blood migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).
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Biography

Elizabeth Willard was baptized on 3 May 1633 at St Michael's and All Angels Church in the village of Marden, County of Kent, England,[1] the daughter of Simon Willard and Mary Sharpey. [Please note that her mother’s maiden name, once believed to be Sharpe, has now been confirmed as Sharpey. See profile of Mary Sharpey for more information.] This would place her birth sometime in the week prior, as by Church of England law the baptism should occur within the first week of life.

Elizabeth and her older sister Mary emigrated to New England with her parents in April of 1634 in a convoy of six ships. The small fleet made the crossing in notably quick time, arriving at Boston in mid-May.[2][3] From Boston, the Willard family moved immediately to Newe Towne, later to become Cambridge.[4] In Sep 1635 the family joined the initial expedition to the west to establish the first inland town of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[5] Founded at a place called Musketaquid by the Native Americans of the area, this town was to be named Concord by order of the General Court.[6][7]

Elizabeth’s time growing up in the frontier town of Concord is undocumented, but on 8 Apr 1653, at only 19 years of age, Elizabeth married Robert Blood.[8][9] Robert, an emigrant from Nottinghamshire who had moved to Concord in 1649, had already established himself as a substantial landowner at only 27 years of age.[10]

Elizabeth and husband Robert established themselves in The Bloods’ Farms, the cluster of three large farms north of Concord that Robert owned with brother John. The couple would eventually settle on Hough’s Farm, with their house probably located on the site of the current house of “The Gardens at Clock Barn” on the Bedford Road in Carlisle. It is here she likely gave birth to the couple’s twelve children.

The official record is largely silent concerning Elizabeth, but on 16 May 1683 she joined husband Robert on a petition to the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[11] The purpose was to seek confirmation by the court of Robert’s ownership of the Virginia Farm, a 1,000 acre property in Concord Village (now Acton). The farm had been deeded to Robert as Elizabeth’s dowry by her father, Major Simon Willard.[12][13]

In a memorandum of Jun 1686 related to the original petition of 1683, Elizabeth again joined Robert in detailing for the court their acquisition and ownership of the Virginia Farm, this time to defend against a claim by Concord that the bounds of the farm were wrong. Elizabeth signed her name to this document in a deliberate, confident hand, demonstrating she had the ability to write (and probably read as well).[14]

Elizabeth died on 29 Aug 1690,[15][16] very likely at her and Robert’s home on Hough’s Farm in what is now Carlisle (see map, "Key Properties of Robert and John Blood," in Images).

She was buried in a plot in the northwest corner of the orchard situated behind (north of) her house on Hough’s Farm.[17]

Sources

  1. England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
  2. Willard, p.134.
  3. The average crossing in the early 17th century took 10.5 weeks, as opposed to at most six weeks for the Willards’ crossing.
  4. Willard, p.135.
  5. Willard, pp.140-143.
  6. Blancke & Robinson, pp.17, 19-22.
  7. Walcott, Ch.1, pp.1-32.
  8. ”U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700.”
  9. Tolman, p.20.
  10. See profile for Robert Blood.
  11. Petition of Robert & Elizabeth Blood concerning the Virginia Farm, 15 May 1683.
  12. A farm of "…a thousand acres of land be it more or less...the most of it in Concord Village…"Harris, p.3.
  13. Petition of Robert & Elizabeth Blood concerning the Virginia Farm, 15 May 1683.
  14. Memorandum by Robert & Elizabeth re: their 16 May 1683 petition concerning their ownership of the Virginia Farm, Jun 1686.
  15. ”Massachusetts, Town Death Records.”
  16. ”Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988.”
  17. In 1734, Elizabeth’s youngest son Jonathan, who had inherited the Hough’s Farm upon Robert’s death, sold some 240 acres of it to Ephraim Jones, less a plot "about 20 feet square of the northwest corner of the orchard, the place where my father and mother are buried...behind or on the north side of the dwelling." Harris, pp.120-121. The current house at The Gardens at Clock Barn in Carlisle, built by Jonathan in the early 1700s almost certainly on the same site as Robert's original house, faces south and has an orchard behind (to the north) of it.

Original Sources:

  • Petition of Robert & Elizabeth Blood concerning the Virginia Farm, 15 May 1683 (image of original document), Massachusetts Archives Collection, 1603-1799, Vol. 39, Judicial, 1658-1683, Microfilm Reel A-35 (GSU 00500-109-2322754), pp.858-866; Massachusetts State Archives, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
  • Memorandum by Robert & Elizabeth re: their 16 May 1683 petition concerning their ownership of the Virginia Farm, Jun 1686 (image of original document), Massachusetts Archives Collection, 1603-1799, Vol. 39, Judicial, 1658-1683, Microfilm Reel A-35 (GSU 00500-109-2322754), pp.858-866; Massachusetts State Archives, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Derivative Sources:

Acknowledgments

  • Wilfred Vasile, firsthand knowledge. Click the Changes tab for the details of edits by Wilfred and others.
  • Thank you to Bruce Richardson for creating WikiTree profile Willard-682 through the import of Kent.ged on 3 Jul 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Bruce and others.
  • Thank you to Bruce Richardson for creating WikiTree profile Willard-683 through the import of Kent.ged on 3 Jul 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Bruce and others.




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Comments: 4

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PGM has been added as a co-manager of this profile. PMs, please continue to manage as usual.
posted by Jen (Stevens) Hutton
Willard-453 and Willard-468 appear to represent the same person because: Clear duplicate.
posted by Rick Gardiner
There shouldn't be a child Unknown Willard. One of the questionable children Elizabeth 1632-1633, doesn't have a profile (it probably got merged away) Do you object to my making this unknown Willard Elizabeth?
posted by Anne B
It seemed to me that Anderson had identified the names of Simon Willard's children.

Might we "merge away" this "Child Willard?"

posted by GeneJ X