Untangling the John Smalley - Ann Waldon, Walden, Wallen, Walling Genealogy

Question

Hello fellow Wikitree genealogists,

I am a direct descendant of the couple John Smalley (Smalley-17) and his wife, Ann Waldon (Waldon-1) via their daughter who married my 5xgreat-grandfather John Snow.  As a member of the Mayflower project, I am trying to unravel this family's genealogy.

Here on Wikitree there are 2 John Smalley profiles and 2 Ann Waldon / Ann Walling profiles already but before getting involved in merging, I am asking if anyone else is interested in this family of very-early Plymouth MA immigrants - they arrived on the Anne and a 1635 boat) and if you have sources that give:  1) Who were Ann Wallen / Waldon / Walling 's parents (from England) 2) Who were John Smalley's parents (Devon, England) etc.  Their history in MA and NJ is documented; it's where they came from and who they were on arrival that is in question.  Any help is much appreciated.  Chet Snow

Comments

I am a direct descendant of this couple too. I also am tied to them through the show family. have you solved the mystery yet?

Thank you for any assistance.

Maribeth

Answer 1

Chet,

John Smalley has a Great Migration entry, qualifying him and his wife as members of the Puritan Great Migration project.  I'll add what it has to say to the lower-numbered of the duplicate profiles. 

 

Comments

Actually, it looks like the higher-numbered profile has a fair amount of info on it.

I read Anderson's GM profile on him-- he recognizes no origins, nor parents.  I've posted a message to the lower-numbered profile asking the profile manager what her source is for his origins and parents. Perhaps there's been a recent discovery?

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Hi Thanks for the addition; I already have sent a private message to Mary Pitcher.  Also it's my bad but the correct profile is Waldon-4 and not Waldon-1... for Ann Waldon Smalley.

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According to Anderson, their marriage is recorded in the Plymouth Colony records, but there is nothing further about Ann's origins.  In other articles, she has been suggested as a relation to a Massachusetts WALLEN, but nothing was ever proved.

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Chet are you sure about the spelling? Anderson uses Walden.

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wait... let me double check that.

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Yes, he uses Walden, citing PCR I:103

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AND, I just did a quick (?) search of NEHGS journals for anything newer on John Smalley. Nothing from their collection of journals.  I did find reference to a 1960 genealogy but I'm assuming that Anderson would have checked that.

 

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Hi Again Jillaine

Thank you so much for your research - I agree totally that WALDEN is the preferred spelling for Ann's surname - neither of the 2 existing wikitree profiles uses that spelling, however...    I sent a private message to one of the managers about this and will do the same for the other before I see about getting a merge.  Some sources mention a Ralph WALLEN as her father, married a JOYCE NELL in England as they came over to MA on the Anne in 1623 and Ann W. was born either that year or in 1624.  She married John Smalley in November 1638 at 15 years old - not so unusual for that place and time when young women were very scarce.

On Smalley-17, I did most of the current additions from my own research but have run into a snag about his parents from Devonshire, England.  That's why I requested help.  The Smalley family apparently did some research 20+ years ago and were unable to find definitive answers either (so reported on the "findagrave.com" web site the NJ based family set up).   There is a wikitree profile that lists him as son of an Edward SMALL but... that man is said to have been born in 1600, and since the Smalley biography says John S. was born in 1613, that makes his Dad only 13 years old at his birth - just a tad too young for a man, even back then!!  Hence my quandry.

I hope Mary will reply and/or the other managers as I'd like to get the Waldon vs Walden vs Walling surname decided on and go from there.

Yours truly,  Chet

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The link to Wallen has been, if not disproven, sufficiently questioned to make me doubt it. Probably worth a link under a Disputed Origins section in the narrative, but not in the parents' fields.  Let me go see where I found that discussion.

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"Thomas Walling of Providence, RI," in The American Genealogist, 73:97-93, specifically footnote #47:

"There is a remote possibility that Thomas Walling had a sister in New Jersey who could have provided him and Margaret refuge. It has been suggetsed that Ann "Walden" who married John Smalley in Plymouth in 1638 was a daughter of Ralph and Joyce Wallen: the surnames Wallen and Walden are frequently confused. John and Ann Smalley subsequently ived at Barnstable and Eastham, and removed to Little Compton (Plymouth Colony, now Rhode Island), then to Piscataway, NJ "about 1667" (Maribell H. Wilder and H. Bruce Wilder Jr., A Wallen/Walling Genealogy, 2 vols. [Baltimore, 1985-91], 1:3-8). Opposing this speculation is the absence of an Ann Wallen or Walden in the list of Plymouth residents at the time of the 1627 divisoin of cattle (Shurtleff and Pulsifer, Plymouth Col. Records, 12:12). The best account of John Smally and his family is in Lora Altine Woodbury Underhill, Descendants of Edward Small..., rev. ed., 3 vols (Boston, 1934), 1:22-40; Underhill makes no suggestion about Ann Walden's parentage."

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Hi Again

Many thanks.  I will certainly keep all this under advisement as we go forward. These old brick walls are certainly tough nuts to crack!

Answer 2

Ann Walling born in 1623 in Plymouth, Mass.  Her father was Ralph Walling II born and her mother was Joyce Small.

Comments

Hello Anonymous

Thank you for the information but with NO sources to back up what you say, it has no genealogical value, alas.  Who has found any English or Massachusetts/Plymouth colony sources that back these relationships?   I would love for these allegations to be accurate but must have sources!

Chet Snow

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Ralph and Joyce Wallen arrived at Plimouth Colony aboard the ship "Anne" in 1623. They were on the third ship of Pilgrims arriving at Plimouth. The "Mayflower" in 1620 and the "Fortune" in 1621 preceeded them. The arrival of the "Anne" and her sister ship, the "Little James" brought the total number of colonists to a
Ann, the first child of Ralph and Joyce Wallen, was born shortly after their arrival. Ann married John Smalley, a tailor. The Smalleys moved to Eastham then to Little Compton, RI, then later to Piscataway, New Jersey.

Thomas and Richard, sons of Ralph and Joyce Wallen, moved to Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1627, a division of land and assets in Plimouth was made. Ralph and Joyce Wallen were assigned to the thirteen member Francis Eaton company. Their group was given "an heyfer of the last yeare called the white belyed heyfer and two shee goats." The documents were signed by Governor William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Nathaniel Morton, Nathaniel Clarke and Samuel Sprague.

In 1633 the freemen of the Colony were listed and Ralph Wallen was on the list. He was on the Plimouth Colony tax list for 1632/33.

In 1633/34 the name "widow Wallen" replaced her husband's on the tax list. Joyce Wallen continued to live in Plimouth until she sold her land on September 7, 1643.

The will of Nicholas Snow who had come to Plimouth on the "Anne" with the Wallens gives the names of his neighbors: Ralph Wallen, Thomas Clarke, Manessah Kempton, Edward Bangs and the Hopkins family.

The will of Dr. Samuel Fuller on July 30, 1633 directs that "my daughter Mercy be and remaine to Goodwife Wallen". "Goodwife" was a term used for a single female head of a household.

Much of Wallen family information from "Elisha Wallen, the Longhunter" by Carolyn Wallin, wherein she cites many sources.
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"The Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod on November 11, 1620 with 102 passengers, the first Pilgrims to the New World. In 1621, the Fortune brought 35 Pilgrims and on July 10, 1623, the ship Anne arrived at Plymouth with 60 Pilgrims on board. The Little James arrived in Plymouth around July 20. The Anne and the Little James were classed as the last of the Pilgrim ships. Two of the pilgrims on the Anne were Ralph and Joyce Walling.

Raalph and Joyce Wallen were assigned to the thirteen member company under the leadership of Francis EATON.

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I too descend from Ann and John Smalley. I am sorry but what you write is there a source?  I think we all want to connect Ann with Walden line but she is not mentioned in any document before her marriage and is not mentioned in the will of the Waldens.

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The line of Ralph and Joyce (Lombard) Wallen is well documented in records of the Plimouth Colony and "The Great Migration Newsletter".  The spelling that I have for their first daughter (perhaps the second as Jane was also born in 1623 and died as an infant) is "Anne".  Tracing back to the Plimouth Colony, I have not been able to close a gap in my ancestry in abt. 1788 with the birth of Benjamin Wallen of Providence, RI.  Therefore, I am not sure if I am related.  If you are still looking for references, please let me know.

Answer 3

Forgot to mention that Ralph Walling II's father was Ralph Walling I who was married to Margaret Lawson

Comments

I'm working on this family too, I noticed you referenced "Elisha Wallen, the Longhunter" by Carolyn Wallin as a source for a lot of information and that she listed her own primary sources.  If you have access to that book, could you check if she had a specific source for Anne Walden-372 born about 1618 being the daughter of Ralph Wallen-2 and Joyce Lombard?  Thanks!

Answer 4

Question dose John have a brother named Edward if so than I have what you want and if it is there parents are sir Walter Raleigh and elazbeth throckmorton you an find out more about the story of why John and Edward  last name was to small on Wikipedia under Walters name and Edward sutton smalley burial record on find a grave under memorial I'd 161721887

Comments

Hello Tracey

I see you are new to WikiTree.  On this site, we request and require Sources to back up lineage claims and the Find A Grave site has none, nor will its profile manager accept any email correspondence.  I found no references to any Edward Small or Smalley etc. in the Wikipedia article you mention either or any mention of Sir Walter Raleigh having any illegitimate children born in 1589 (before he married Elizabeth Throckmorton in 1591) or in 1599, which is the more-accepted birth date for Edward Small) and of course, nothing for John Small or Smalley, who was born in 1613 in Devon when Sir Walter Raleigh was in London and his wife was in Cornwall at their estate there.  So, the connections you mention are NOT proven and simply too tenuous to be accepted on WikiTree.  John Smalley, who married Ann Walden (aka Wallen), was born in 1613 in Bideford, Co. Devon, England, and died in Piscataway, Middlesex Co., East New Jersey colony.  We do not know who his parents were.  Without better sources, that is as much as we can say but thank you for your interest in this family, my direct ancestors.