Request for PGM sources for arrival of John West of Saco, ~1635 [closed]

Question

I'm cleaning up John's profile and trying to properly source it.  Davis's book says John came on the Speedwell in 1635, but there's 2 problems.  One, Davis says John was born in 1588, but his age on the Speedwell passenger list was 30.  Two, I don't find any record of John West in The Great Migration Begins or Series 2 - and if he had arrived by 1635, I'd expect him to have an entry.  Since there was a more famous John West in Virginia and other West family may have arrived there, and the Speedwell actually stopped in Virginia first, I'm not confident that this is where John came from.

Does anyone else have another source for John's arrival?  I haven't been able to check the most recent Great Migration books to see if he has a profile in them; by all accounts, he should, since there are records of him in Saco as early as 1637; I'm concerned that if John doesn't appear, it indicates a problem with the other sources.

Comments

Anderson (Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T-Y, p 301) says this about John West (not sure if it's the same as "your" John West):

Origin: Unknown

Migration: 1635 on the Abigail (17 June 1635, "Jo[hn] West," aged 11, was enrolled at London as a passenger for New England on the Abigail [Hotten 92].

First residence: Unknown.

Comments: No records for this passenger have been found in New England.

Savage included an entry for "John [West of] Saybrook, or other place in its neighborhood, may be he who came in the Abigail, 1635, from London to Bosont, age 11 years" [Savage 4:487]. On 24 April 1649, at a court held at Hartford [Connecticut], "John West" was fined L10 for "exchanging a gun with an Indian" [CCCR 1:182; RPCC 63]. Given the gap of fourteen years between the 1635 passenger list and the 1649 court entry, there is no obvious reason for assigning these two records to the same immigrant.

Pope claimed that this passenger "[s]ettled at Ipswich, proprietor" [Pope 487]. This John West was in Ipswich court on 29 March 1642, when he was plaintiff in two civil suits [EQC 1:41]. The passenger of 1635 would have been only about eighteen years old at this time, so these must have been two different men."

Anderson includes no further information about him in this profile. No wife, no children.

 

 

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Mm... if John West came on the Speedwell in 1635, then Anderson should have an entry for him. Let me double check as the entry above, is NOT the man who came on the Speedwell.

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Coming on the Abigail at age 11 in 1635 would not be the John West I am looking for - he needs to have a daughter marrying Thomas Haley before 1650; so John should be born 1610 or earlier I would think.

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Stephen,

Have we addressed this issue to your satisfaction? If so, please CLOSE the thread (it's an option under your name up there).  If not, please let us know what else needs to be addressed.

This helps the PGM project track outstanding g2g posts. Thanks!

Answer 1

Robert Charles Anderson. The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 (Boston, Massachusetts. New England Historic and Genealogical Society. 2015) 365; Unknown; 1636; Saco, Wells [MBCR 1:6, 43; NHPP 40:4; Trelawny 210; Charity Haley Anc 17-19; GDMNH 740]

 

MBCR :Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., 5 volumes in 6 (Boston 1853-1854) 1:6, 43

 

NHPP: Provincial Papers, Documents and Records Relating to the Province of New Hamp­shire from 1686 to 1722, 40 volumes, Nathaniel Boulton, ed. (Manchester, N.H., 1867-1943) 40:4

 

Trelawny Papers: The Trelawny Papers, James Phinney Baxter, ed., in Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 2nd Series, Volume 3 (Portland, Maine, 1884) 210

 

GDMNH: Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin Davis, Genealogical Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (Portland, Maine, 1928-1939; rpt. Balti­more 1972) 740 2 JOHN, West Saco, Wells, prob. came in the Speedwell in 1635. Saco before 4 Apr. 1637 when his corn on the isl. in the river had been harvested contrary to law. In Nov. 1638 he leased from Vines for 1000 yrs. a ho. and 100 a. on so. side of the river reaching from Cole’s Brook to ‘what shall now be called West’s ditch’ (see Cole 28). Sued Thomas Roberts in Piscataqua ct. 1641. Jury 1640, 1645; gr.j. 1640, 1645, 1655 (for Saco). In 1643 as ‘Deputy for the country’ he and Francis Robinson, Magistrate, laid out the bounds of Black Point patent for Capt. Cammock. Submitted to Mass, and named selectman, com. t.e.s.c. and had gr. of Cow Isl., all in 1653; selectman also 1654. Apprais. Thomas Rogers’ est. 1655. Bv Mar. 1651-2 he owned in Wells adj. John Wadleigh, inhab. there 15 June 1658, and sold in Saco to Capt. Pendleton in Mar. 1658-9, w. Edith signing; in 1653 he was suspected of having two wives. Wells constable 1660, 1661; freed from training 1 July 1661, being 73; apprais. John Barrett’s est. 1662. Lists 22, 24, 25, 243ab, 249, 252, 262, 264, 235. Will, 29 Sept. - 5 Oct. 1663, places his est. for 3 yrs. in hands of Wm. Cole for use of his gr.ch., their fa. to have nothing to do with it; Francis Woolfe got his best clothes and Mary Read certain articles; Wm. Cole, exec., Thomas Little-field and John Read overseers. Only ch. Mary, m. Thomas Haley (7).

 

The ancestry of Charity Haley, 1755-1800 : wife of Major Nicholas Davis of Limington, Maine. Boston, Mass.: Stanhope Press, 1916. 17-19 http://interactive.ancestry.com/18606/dvm_GenMono004027-00013-1/18

 

Torrey 3:1630 WEST, John (1589-1663) & Edith ____; ca 1625?; Saco, ME {Haley Anc. 18; GDMNH 740}

 

Note GDMNH is under copyright so please paraphrase and don't quote. 

Comments

Thanks!  It all seems to reference the same underlying documents as Davis has mentioned in his Ancestry of Charity Haley works, so I think that's the limit of what we know of John West.