John Emerson I (1625 - 1700)

Born 26 Feb 1625 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Ruth (Symonds) Emerson — married 1660 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 2 Dec 1700 at age 75 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts

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John Emerson I migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Caution - Disambiguation

There are two John Emersons: John Emerson was a planter in Scituate and was married to Rev. John Lathrop's daughter Barbara.^[1]

Biography

The exact date of birth is not well sourced; Babson indicates that he was the son of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich and that he was 75 years of age at death, suggesting he was born about 1625.^[2]

The Reverend John Emerson died December 2, 1700 in Gloucester.^[3] Babson indicates that he was the son of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich and that he was 75 years of age at death, suggesting he was born about 1625.

Ruth Emerson, the widow of John Emerson, died before December 23,1701-2 in Gloucester.^[4]

Children of the union between John Emerson and Ruth Symonds were:

1. Ruth Emerson, the daughter of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on August 26, 1660.^[5] Ruth, born in 1660, married, first, John Newman, Esq., Dec. 1, 1683^[6], and next, probably, Samuel Sargent;
2. Martha Emerson (Marthaye Emarson), the daughter of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on November 28,1662.^[7] Martha, 1662, married William Cogswell* of Ipswich;
3. Mary Emarsonne (Emerson), the daughter of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on March 7, 1664^[8] Mary married Samuel Phillips of Salem, May 26, 1687^[9], and died Oct. 4, 1703 ;
4. Elezabath Emerson, the daughter of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on August 25, 1667.^[10] - died in 1683 ;
5. John Emerson, the son of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on March 14, 1670.^[11]
6. Dorothy Emerson, the daughter of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on July 6, 1675. ^[12] Dorothy, 1675, married a Henchman; and
7. Samuell Emorson ( Emerson), the son of John and Ruth, was born in Gloucester on November 20, 1678.^[13] Samuel died in 1687.

Babson's History of Gloucester mentions the Reverend John Emerson extensively^[14]:

"... the town had voted unanimously " to seek out in convenient time for a meete person to come and preach the word of God," and had also voted to raise fifty pounds a year for the maintenance of a minister or elder. From the allusion to Mr. Emerson in the court order, it is reasonable to conclude that the committee, composed of Mr. Stevens and Mr. Bartholomew, who were appointed to seek a minister, had already given him an invitation to settle here. A committee was chosen, in 1659, to treat with him; but it does not appear from any action of the town that he commenced his labors here before 1661. In July of that year, his salary was fixed at sixty pounds per annum as long as he should continue in the ministry ; and he was to receive it in Indian com, pease, barley, fish, mackerel, beef, or pork. From this time, therefore. Rev. John Emerson may be considered the "settled pastor" of the church.

"Mr. Emerson was son of Thomas Emerson of Ipswich. He graduated at Harvard College in 1656; and was ordained as pastor of our church, Oct. 6, 1663. Rev. Mr. Higginson of Salem, with Messrs. Lothrop and Allen of his church, attended the ordination.

"In 1672, the town voted that Mr. Emerson should have one- eighth of his salary in money ; and afterwards, for several successive years, by a similar vote, he received one-fourth of it in money. In 1679, an addition of eight pounds was made to his salary, to provide him firewood ; for which he was to preach a lecture every three weeks, from March to September. He had similar grants in after years, with like conditions annexed. It is not improbable that disputes sometimes arose in regard to the articles in which he received the largest part of his salary: so much, at least, may be inferred from a vote of the town, passed in 1684, appointing John Fitch, Thomas Judkin, and Joseph Allen, " to judge of any pay brought to Mr. Emerson for his salary, whether it be merchantable, and fit to pass from man to man." In 1673, the town voted that he should have eighty pounds to provide himself a house to dwell in. The place of his residence was on the. south side of the highway leading from the Meeting-house Green to Fox Hill. He had thirty acres of land about his homestead, and thirty acres near the burying- place, besides other smaller lots. He was not indifferent to the secular concerns of life ; for he became the sole or chief owner of the three principal mills in town : and, though not favorably located for the accumulation of property, he died possessed of a considerable estate. In addition to his property in Gloucester, he owned farms in Ipswich, which probably came to him by inheritance from his father. From the various sources of his worldly prosperity, he derived the pecuniary ability to settle one hundred pounds on his daughter Mary on the day of her marriage.

"Mr. Emerson died Dec. 2, 1700, aged seventy-five. No information has come down to us concerning the rank he held among the ministers of his time; but, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, it may be taken for granted that his character was such as to secure him a large place in the affections of the little flock, whom, to use the language of one of his successors, " he served more than forty years in the gospel of God's dear Son." But one article from his pen is known to be extant, — the account furnished by him, in a letter to Rev. Cotton Mather, of the strange and wonderful occurrences here in 1692. If we call to mind the witchcraft delusion of that year, by which a neighboring town was made the theatre of the most awful tragedy ever enacted in New England, we shall indulge in no astonishment that Mr. Emerson ascribed the cause of the excitement here to diabolical agency.

Research notes

Ralph Waldo Emerson is the third great grandnephew of John Emerson. The Emerson inn in Rockport, Massachusetts (formerly Sandy Bay, Gloucester) is named after the Emersons and Ralph Waldo Emerson is said to have stayed there.

Sources

1. ↑ Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2005. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) By Subscription $. Page 439.
2. ↑ See Babson quote below.
3. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: John, Rev., Dec. 2, 1700. Gloucester - Deaths Image of page 129
4. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Ruth, w. John, before Dec. 23, 1701-2. Gloucester - Deaths Image of page 129
5. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Ruth, d. John and Ruth, Aug. 26, 1660. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
6. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Ruth, d. John, and John Newman, Dec. 13, 1683. Gloucester - Marriages Image of page 203
7. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Marthaye, d. John and Ruth, Nov. 28, 1662. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
8. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Mary, d. John and Ruth, Mar. 7, 1664 Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
9. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Samuel, and Mary Emerson, May 26, 1687. Salem - Marriages -- Image of page 187
10. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Elezabath, d. John and Ruth, Aug. 25, 1667. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
11. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: John, s. John and Ruth, 14: 3m: 1670. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
12. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Dorothy, d. John and Ruth, July 6, 1675. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
13. ↑ Early Vital Records of Massachusetts From 1600 to 1850: Samuell, s. John and Ruth, Nov. 20, 1678. Gloucester - Births Image of page 250
14. ↑ A Secondary Source: History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann: Including the Town of Rockport By John James Babson; Gloucester; 1860 Pages 196-199

See Also:

• Holt, Helen. Exiled, The Story Of John Lathrop, page 296
• A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family (1884) Page 37-38
• Sibley, John Langdon. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University (Cambridge: Charles William Sever, 1873) Page 485
• Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, Volumes 1-4, (Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1910). Published online by Google Books, 2006. http://books.google.com/books?id=kmujIJi3_FkC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Trostel, Helen Cogswell. Cogswell-Haldeman: The Ancestors and Descendants of Asa Ferris Cogswell and Arobine Haldeman Cogswell (Big Mountain Press, Denver, CO, 1966)
• http://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aDeathsE.shtml
  • page 129
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-WWG : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for Ruth Emerson, 26 Aug 1660; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-WWR : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for Martha Emerson, 28 Nov 1662; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-WWB : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for Mary Emerson, 07 Mar 1664; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-W4G : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for John Emerson, 14 May 1670; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-W24 : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for Dorithy Emerson, 06 Jul 1675; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHLB-WLB : 10 February 2018), John Emerson in entry for Samuell Emerson, 20 Nov 1678; citing Gloster, Essex, Massachusetts, ; FHL microfilm 877,468.
• Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 20 March 2019), memorial page for Rev John Emerson (Feb 1625–2 Dec 1700), Find A Grave: Memorial #86348942, ; Maintained by Fran Chancellor (contributor 47703451) Unknown.