Robert Cross Sr. (abt. 1612 - bef. 1695)

Born about 1612 in England

Husband of Anna (Jordan) Cross — married 20 Aug 1635 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died before 3 Jun 1695 before about age 83 in Ipswich, Essex, Province of Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message], Jay Byrne [send private message], and John Putnam [send private message]

Robert Cross Sr. migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 2, p. 240) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed Origins

• There were many persons named Robert Cross baptized in England during the right time frame. There is no evidence to point to any one place, and no proof that any one of the currently indexed Robert's was him.
• He is not known to be related to any of the other men named Cross who immigrated to New England in it's early days.
• A date of 26 June 1613 in Charlinch, Somerset, England, to Thomas and Rachel (Dising) Cross has been suggested. This baptism was actually in Suffolk, across the country from the supposed ancestral home of the Crosses at Charlinge (Charlinch)
• Anderson's Great Migration article points out that in 1999 extensive research^[1] was done into the English origin of Robert, without conclusive results.^[2]
• Disputed Children: Nathaniel previously attached was by his death date and place the son of William Cross of Connecticut. John Cross and George Cross are believed to be brothers by an old family tradition and by that same tradition sons of Robert.^[3] However there is no proof of this so they were not listed by either Anderson or Walter Goodwin Davis^[4] in more recent treatments. Dean Crawford Smith in the Ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, states: "Certainly there are several gaps between his known children which might accommodate one or two more sons, but since all other evidence is lacking and there was such ample opportunity in the court records to provide such evidence, they are not assigned to Robert here.^[5]

Biography

This profile is part of the Chebacco Parish, Massachusetts One Place Study.

Born: Robert Cross was born in England, about 1612. According to Anderson's Great Migration Begins, Robert is of unknown origins. In depositions he gave the following ages: 1668, age 55; 1675, age 63; In 1682, he gave a deposition stating his age to be 70, making him born about 1612.^[2]

Immigration: Robert immigrated by August 1635, when he married in Massachusetts. He settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts.^[2]

Married:
(1) Robert Cross married Anna Jordan 20 AUG 1635 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts.^[6]
(2) Mary _____ by 1685, when she was mentioned as his wife in the testamentary deed to his sons. She was still alive on 16 July 1694.^[2]

Robert Crose, yeoman, took the freeman's oath 30 Mar 1658.^[7]

Robert fought in the Pequot War and was granted 6 acres of marsh in 1639 for this service. In addition to this he was granted an original six acre town grant from Ipswich. He sold this and the house he built on it to Daniel Ringe on 7 Apr 1679. Another grant was given 27 Feb 1644/5 of 20 acres of upland and ten acres of marsh at Chebacco.^[2]

In 1654 he purchased of Nicholas Marble, land (80 acres), a farm and a house and an island, which had originally been granted to John Perkins. He subsequently sold the upland ground at Hogg island and the six acres granted on the south side of the Chebaco River.^[2]

Robert also gave lands to his sons Robert and Stephen. In 1685 the sons and Robert made an agreement, which provided money for his wife Mary Cross and daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Hannah & Sary, and also a grand daughter Elizabeth Nellson in exchange for the boys dividing equally the entire estate of Robert.^[2]

There is also in the records, a series of depositions and pleadings over some land whose ownership was contested.^[2]

Died: He died in Ipswich (presumably). Anderson gives dates after Apr 1695, when Robert Sr. appealed a court decision, but perhaps before 3 Jun 1695, when his son sold part of his patrimony which was held in reversion.^[2] Dean Crawford Smith (citing Essex Common Pleas v. 8) mentions that "Mr. Robert Cross Sr." was in court 30 April 1697 to acknowledge a judgment payable to Col. John Wainwright.^[5]

Anderson's account of Robert Cross, is set in his usual mold. Read also Robert Goodwin Davis' account of Robert and his family in The Ancestry of Phoebe Tilton, 1775-1847, wife of Capt. Abel Lunt of Newburyport, Massachusetts,^[4] and the account Cross section in the Ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, by Dean Crawford Smith.^[5]

Davis mentions the following all of which can be located in the Essex Quarterly Court Records:

• Many suits were made by him and against him, besides the long standing boundary dispute over a piece of marsh land.
• His daughter, Martha, chose someone considered unacceptable, causing bad feelings on both sides, tears, heartbreak, suits by father against future son-in-law and a suit by the future son-in-law against Robert. Eventually the couple were married.
• Richard had a servant, Nicholas Vauden/Vanden, who besides running away several times, was a thief. He was eventually branded with an R on his forehead besides, being whipped and fined £40 (a huge sum). *Another servant Lawrence Clinton, claimed to have rich and prominent relatives in England. He courted Rachel Halfield, an aging spinster, who paid off his time £21 for three and a half years. Rachel's family sued Cross for colluding to defraud the family of it's money. Cross eventually won the case. Rachel was deserted by Clinton and "ended her days as a poor old woman in a hut on an Ipswich Island."
• Robert had trouble with the court magistrates especially Major Denison, believing that he was particularly unfair to Robert.
• Robert's sons, Stephen and Robert, were thrown in jail for misbehavior.

Neither Davis or Anderson mentions one other interesting item. Robert Cross and his brother-in-law John Andrews had their step mother-in-law Susanna Jordan arrested. Stephen Jordan, Annes's father, made a will leaving £15 to each of his daughters, the house and land to his wife's use and then to grandson Steven Cross (he to pay Jordan's granddaughter Elizabeth Andrews a portion). Half the movable estate to be his wife's. Half the movable estate to Cross and Andrews. The Ipswich court had allowed the estate to remain in her hands for her use. Cross and Andrews sued to get their half of the movables and costs they had incurred, including 20 cows, during Jordan's last days. Verdict was found in their favor.^[8]

Children:^[2]

1. Elizabeth b. Ipswich 4 Aug 1636 m. William Nelson
2. Mary b. Ipswich 14 Jun 1640; m. Ephraim Herrick
3. Robert b. about 1642; m. Martha Treadwell
4. Martha b. Ipswich 15 Mar 1643/4 m William Dirkye
5. Stephen b. about 1647; m. Elizabeth Cheney
6. Anna b. say 1655; m. (1) Thomas Marshall Jr. ; m. (2) Ephraim Fellows
7. Sarah b. say 1657; m. Lt. William Butler.
8. Ralph b. Ipswich 15 Jan 1658/9; he was on a list of persons at Salem court 24 Nov 1685; no further record.

Children not listed in the testamentary agreement above. Ralph is listed by Anderson.

Anderson says that John is possibly a relation. He does not list George or Nathaniel.

Sources

1. ↑ Spear, Burton W. Search for the Passengers of the Mary & John 1630. Volu 27 New Ancestral Discoveries Part 3. (Toledo, Ohi. Burton W Spear 1999) pp 15-19. Family Tradition places his bpt 26 June 1613 in Charlinch, Somerset. Parish Registers and Bishop's Transcripts do not exist for between 1608 and 1617. Searches of nearby parishes and probate records were made without finding anything that could be the immigrant.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Anderson, Robert Charles. "Robert Cross." The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633. Volumes I-III, 3 vols. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995..
3. ↑ Cross, (Rev.) Roselle Theodore. My children's ancestors; data concerning about four hundred New England ancestors of the children of Roselle Theodore Cross and his wife Emma Asenath (Bridgman) Cross; also names of many ancestors in England, and descendants of Mr. and Mrs. Cross's grandparents, Theodore and Susannah (Jackson) Cross, Samuel and Lois (Temple) Murdock, Noah and Asenath (Judd) Bridgman, Jacob and Lydia (Slack) Daggett; Twinsburg, Ohio: by Roselle Theodore Cross, 1913. p. 176-179
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Davis, Walter Goodwin, 1885-1966. The Ancestry of Phoebe Tilton, 1775-1847, Wife of Capt. Abel Lunt of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Portland, Me.: Anthoensen Press, 1947. pp 1[ borrow at Archive]29-139
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} Smith, Dean Crawford; Sanborn, Melinde Lutz. The ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, 1844-1916 ... Boston : New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1990
6. ↑ The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Volume 68 pp 201,202 Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-
7. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Vol 2 p 67 Edited by George Francis Dow. Transcribed and Abstracted from the Original Manuscript by Harriet S. Tapley. Published and Copyrighted by the Essex Institute
8. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Edited by George Francis Dow. Transcribed and Abstracted from the Original Manuscript by Harriet S. Tapley Published and Copyrighted by the Essex Institute. Vol. IV pp 247-8, 334-5. Read also the footnotes.

• Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37542300/robert-cross NOTE: No headstone, no sources

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Cross-871 created through the import of Putnam2-1_2010-01-02_2011-02-16_2011-10-11.ged on Oct 12, 2011 by John Putnam. No primary sources given.
• Jay Byrne. No primary sources given.
• WikiTree profile Cross-882 created through the import of EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING.ged on Oct 14, 2011 by April Mavros. See the Changes page for the details of edits by April and others.
• WikiTree profile created through the import of Weaver.ged on 03 January 2011. No primary sources given.