John Bland Sr. (abt. 1579 - 1668)

Born about 1579 in Colchester, Essex, England

Husband of Isabella (Drake) Smith — married before 1612 in England

Husband of Joanna (Unknown) Bland — married after 1640 in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 6 Jan 1668 at about age 89 in Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts

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John Bland Sr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 6, p. 291) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Bland or Smith?

In a deposition of 16 April 1691, Nathaniel and Abraham Drake, elderly residents of Hampton, New Hampshire, stated that they knew John Bland when they had all lived in Colchester, co. Essex, England, and indicated that he was sometimes called John Smith, "but his name, and his ancestors name, was called Bland."^[1]

Anderson goes on to describe additional records involving John Bland/Smith's daughters, their spouses, and various property locations that confirm that John Smith of Watertown was the same man as John Bland , later of Martha's Vineyard.

See the WikiTree page The John Smiths of Early New England for excerpts from Anderson's article seeking to distinguish the various John Smiths of early New England.

Disputed Origins

An online tree John Bland Smith [Note: site is no longer active but exists in archive from 2014] perpetuates claims that John was the son of Anthony Bland and Adrean _____, that Anthony died and Adrean m2 James Smith who adopted John; and that Adrean then m3 Jeremiah Norcross.

From a previous version of this profile, this note: "Carlisle, thanks to Al Hunter’s fine index, shows four entries for Anthony Bland, which demand further research."^[2]

In 1985, Robert Charles Anderson concluded that John Bland alias Smith was about the same age as Adrean, wife of Jeremiah Norcross, possibly even a bit older, and so could not have been her son. In doing so, he corrected an idea that seems to have started with a mistake by Charles E. Banks in his three-volume History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Mass 1925.^[3]

Biography

John Bland alias Smith

Birth: "of" Colchester, Essex, England

Death: Jan 6 1668 - Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts

Parents: Not known; some say he was the son of Anthony Bland.

Wives: Isabella Drake, Joanna Unknown

Born 1579 Colchester, Essex, England. ^[4]

Isabella Drake (first wife) was born about 1579 probably in Halstead, Essex, England. She had a son born supposedly in 1600. She was the daughter of William John Drake and Joan Merrylis both of Halstead, England.

When John and Isabella came to America is unknown but in the History of Martha’s Vineyard, it says he was found at Watertown in 1630 with wife Isabel.

There was a passenger John Bland on the "Globe" in 1635.^{[citation needed]}

He was proprietor of Watertown, Massachusetts, 1636 and a freeman there December 6, 1636. In 1645, he owned land adjacent to that of John Benjamin.

Isabel Smith died in Watertown in 1639; she was buried 12 July 1639, age 60.^[5][6]

John Bland Smith then married Joanna______.^[7] They removed to Martha's Vineyard by the mid 1640s, after which John went by the name John Bland.

John made his will in 1663, naming “wife Joanna and two daughters Annabella and Isabel, who are all the children that are alive whom I own.”

Children

1. Annabella Bland (C1613-1683) who married William Barsham.
2. Isabel Bland (C1615-1698/9), who married (1) Francis Austin and (2) Thomas Lovett.

These are the only two documented children of John Bland alias Smith. Additional children have been associated with him, but Anderson's 1985 TAG article disproves these:

• Thomas Band/Smith (C1619-1693) who married Mary Knapp
• Francis Bland/Smith (C1620- )
• John Bland/Smith Jr. (January 5, 1621/2- February 4, 1670), who married Deborah Parkhurst of Nantucket Massachusetts, June 10, 1643
• Daniel Bland/Smith, (C1623- )

That said, John Bland's will does have a phrase that suggests he might have had additional children. As stated above, his will makes bequests to two daughters Annabella and Isabel, "who are all the children that are alive whom I own'.”

Banks, in his History of Martha's Vineyard, suggests that this means he had other children who he dis-owned. But Anderson found no evidence of other children.

That John Bland alias Smith was the father of the following other Smiths who may have lived in Watertown was suggested by Bond in 1855:^[8]

• John Smith Jr (either the John Smith who went from Watertown first to Hampton, NH then to Martha's Vineyard in the mid 1650s; or the John Smith who may first have been in Watertown, and then went to Sudbury, then Lancaster). In a 1985 article, Robert Charles Anderson discussed several John Smiths of early Massachusetts,and showed that John Smith of Lancaster was not the same person as John (Bland) Smith, was not another son of John (Bland) Smith's mother Adrian (unknown birth names; married names Bland, Smith, and Norcross), and was not the husband of Alice Smith who arrived in New England on the Planter in 1635. ^[9]
• Thomas Smith
• Francis Smith

See Distinguishing the John Smiths of Early New England

A previous version of this profile claimed, without source, that he was also the father of

• Abraham Bland
• Francis Bland
• John Bland Jr
• Thomas Bland

Sources

1. ↑ Robert Charles Anderson, "John Smith of Watertown, Massachusetts," in The American Genealogist, 61 (1985), pages 18-31, p 20, citing Dukes Land Records 1:82; Banks 2:42; NEHGR 21:316; 52:28
2. ↑ Paula P. Mortensen to Charles bland, May 7, 1990. Al S. Hunter, Index of Nicholas Carlisle, Collections for a History of the Ancient Family of Bland.
3. ↑ A manuscript genealogy of this family by Joel W. Norcross, in the library of the NEHGS, furnished many corroborative facts in the Bland-Smith search. This gen. gives no authority for date of second marriage)...
4. ↑ Unidentified pedigree charts and family group sheets cited in an Ancestry.com index collection.
5. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 2, page 1394: SMITH, John & Isabelle _____ (-1639, ae. 60; in Eng., by 1605; Watertown (Watertown 433; Fallass 106; Sv. 4:118; Stone-Evans 88; NYGBR 30:201; Warner-Harrington 580; LBDF&P 13:26).
6. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 1, page 160: BLAND, John (alias SMITH) (-1667±) & 1/wf Isabel ____ {Reg. 21:316; Warner-Harrington 64}.
7. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 1, page 160: BLAND, John (alias SMITH) (-1667+) & 2/wf? Joanna ____, in Eng, by 1628; Edgartown {Martha's Vineyard 2:41-45; Seeley-Vail 10; Sv. 1:197; GDMNH 96; Reg. 21:316, 52:28; Warner-Harrington 64}.
8. ↑ Henry Bond, Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Mass., Boston (1855), p. 433
9. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. "John Smith of Watertown, Massachusetts." The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .)(subscription), Vol. 61 (1985): pages 18-31.

• Great Migration 1634-1635, R-S. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S, pp 391 - 394; by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009. Featured Name: John Smith alias Bland.subscription site

See also:

• Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Vol. 2, pp. 95-96. Incorrectly assigns Adrian (Chadwick?) (Smith) Norcross as his mother.
• Richard Marston, profile of John Bland alias Smith, Hampton Area Genealogy Database (Worldconnect), Lane Memorial Library - Hampton, Rockingham Co, New Hampshire. Last updated 6 Oct 2015.
• Colket, Jr., Meredith B. 1912-. Founders of Early American Families: Emigrants From Europe, 1607-1657, Revised Edition. Cleveland: General Court of the Order of Founders and Patriots of America : distributed by Founders Project, 1985. Text located at the New England Historical and Genealogical Society library. Page 288.
• The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts: Town annals By Charles Edward Banks, Page 42 discusses title "Mr."
• The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts: Town annals by Charles Edward Banks. Pages 41-46; transcription of his will on page 43.
• History of the town of Stonington, New London, Connecticut by Richard Anson Wheeler; Page: 570
• History of the town of Rindge, New Hampshire] by Ezra Scollay Stearns. Page: 697
• Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, MA Vol I by Henry Bond, & Horatio Gates Jones; Page: 433
• Pioneers of Massachusetts, by Charles Henry Pope, page 422 (listed under Smith)
• N.H. Gen by E.S. Stearns pg 1871, Vol 14 New Eng Reg Vol 27 pg 364; Mr H.L. Mecham Rt 1 Firth, ID
• [http://history.vineyard.net//dukes/bnk2e_9.htm Annals of Edgartown the History of Martha's Vineyard Volume II by Dr. Charles E. Banks (originally published 1911.) "The identity of the passengers who came in that first shallop to Great Harbor in 1642 as companions of young Mayhew is yet an unsolved problem. We only know he came "with some other persons" and that there were "divers families," including "some of Watertown," and the records lend us no aid in the solution. Speculation may be indulged in to the extent of supposing that some of the original grantees of Watertown came to look over their deed of gift, but we know that of these only John Daggett remained to become a settler, and he may be included with the first contingent. To these we may add John Folder, John Smith (John Bland), possibly Edward Sales of Rehoboth, and their families, and- here we stop, lest speculation carry us too far."
• http://www.cstoyle.tribalpages.com/tribe/browse?userid=cstoyle&view=0&pid=134&ver=108
• http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.counties.dukes/909/mb.ashx
• "John Bland" in Austin Families Association of America Database (registration required)

Research Notes

Chisholme, NEHGR, 1867, Vol. 21, pg 316:

It is a matter of surprise that so few Americans are able to state with certainty the place where their emigrant ancestors resided in England before their emigration; hence, when any document is discovered revealing the locality of any family there before its emigration, it is viewed with delight by every well informed descendant of such family; even as an oasis in a desert.

The following Depositon explains itself. It shows the locality whence the Drakes (and perhaps Levitts) of Hampton, New Hampshire, and a family of Blands.

Deposition.---"Hampton in New Hampshire, in New England. The https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Special:MergePerson&user1_name=Bland-59&user2_name=Bland-57&action=comparedeposition of Nathaniell Drake, aged about seventie-eight year, and Abram Drake, aged about seventie year, who saith that they have know Mr. John Bland, sometime a liver upon the lland, commonly called Matthew's Vinyard, formerly a liver at Colchester, in England; we have also known Isabell Bland, now the wife of Thomas Levitt of Hampton, in New Hampsheir; we have known them boThever since wee were children,and the said Isabell Bland, now wife of Thomas Levitt, was always accounted to be the daughter of the above said John Bland; and wee have heard the abovesaid John Bland to own the above said Isabell to be his daughter, and never heard nothing to the contrarie, never since wee can remember; and the above said John Bland was sometimes called, by some persons, John Smith, but his name, and his ancestors name, was called Bland.

"Nathaniel Drake and Abraham Drake appeared 27th of April, 1691 and made oath the the truth of all above written.

"Before me, Hennery Green, Justice of Peace."

Dukes County Records, Vol. I., page 282.---Transcripts, Vol. B, p. 216. January 18, 1867. By me Richard L. Pease, Clerk of Courts. "Edgartown, Massachusetts, January 18, 1867."