John Weston - disconnect parents?

Question

I'm hoping to get some research assistance on this profile.

John, the son of Rev.John Weston, Vicar of Cholsey, Berkshire (d.1660) and Martha Piers, supposedly died in England c.1676 without heirs and his brother Henry lived at a manor Lane House which matches my impression of gentry status of the Weston family. This John was from Buckinghamshire, and fled his widowed mother as a stowaway on a ship at age 16 and probably worked his way across the Atlantic.

The facts of John's life seems a bit off but his father was in conflict with the Parliamentary authorities which lead to his ejection from his parish so it sort of makes sense John fled the civil war. He apparently visited England during his lifetime as a ship's Captain and died relatively well off so perhaps the circumstances of his emigration were not that far off.

I've tagged the parents as 'uncertain' but he was changed back recently. He needs some more research - he emigrated in 1644 which is just outside the PGM boundary but he might be in Anderson since I found his name in some ships manifests. I haven't found a lot of evidence for his ancestry, but I hoped more eyes could help or at least come to a consensus what to do with his parents.Thanks!

Comments

Oh no not another one

Answer 1

He does fall outside of the current criteria for the PGM project (1620-1640), although some people have expressed a wish that the criteria should extend to 1650. 

While I'm no longer co-leader of PGM, I would support PGM adopting this profile for purposes of protecting it, lacking any other project that might do so. (I think there was, at some time, talk of a broader colonial New England project that would include PGM and profiles through the US Revolution, but it never gained traction.)

THAT said, I think an argument can be made that for early profiles like this one, project or not, PPP tagging is appropriate when there is parental or origin conflict. 

And, I doubt Anderson covered him; his Great Migration book series didn't even finish those through the 1630s, much less 1640 or later. However, I believe that NEHGS does have a project to extend Anderson's work and document all pre-1700 New England families. 

Comments

Thanks - I think he or his his descendants should be in NEHGS so that's one place to look. Another wrinkle is either he or his descendants used the surname Wesson instead of Weston. I don't know if this means different parents or an alias.

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i'm an nehgs member; I'll take a look...

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I ran out of time (i um have a... job...) did lok through a handful o fpages of search results in the Journals section of NEHGS. He's mentioned in a number, but I saw nothing that discussed his origins. There could be more that I didn't get to. Gotta run...