Mathew Ford (abt. 1661 - bef. 1697)

Born about 1661 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts Bay [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia (Griffin) Ford — married 25 Mar 1684 in Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died before 23 Sep 1697 before about age 36 in Haverhill, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony [uncertain]

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Biography

Martin/Mathew Ford was the 5th great grandfather of Grace Anna Goodhue, First Lady and wife of US President (John) Calvin Coolidge (Jr.).^[1][2]

The most extensive summary on Mathew/Martin Ford incldues an explanation of how he indeed went by both Martin and Mathew. Though he is sometimes referred to as a “Frenchman”, the author notes this was only likely because he spoke French.^[3]

He was born c. 1661, when he deposed aged about 20 years in a case for John Simmons on 25 March 1681.^[4] Thus, he is not the child of the Robert Ford and Mary Kent who married at Haverhill, Massachusetts on 20 March 1666/7.^[5]

Martin Ford married Lydia Grifen at Bradford, Massachusetts on 25 March 1684.^[6] On 11 September 1688, Mathew Ford of Bradford, husbandman, sold land in Bradford that was "formerly recovered by John Griffen" and was in the possession of Mr. Wainwright.^[7] The same parties were involved in a deed on 28 November 1677 that John Griffin of Bradford had bought at the Bradford ferry (15 acres).^[8]

The children of Mathew Ford and Lydia his wife on 23 September 1697, all under 21 years of age, are shown to be Lydia, John, Mathew and Elizabeth in a deed from their “cousin” Israel Ela. Israel committed the land into the hands of their mother Lydia, thus indicating Mathew Ford had died by then (Israel also calls him formerly of Haverhill).^[9]

Mathew Foard of Haverhill was last known to be living on 14 November 1694, when he appeared before a magistrate regarding a deed to Israel Ela, for the same property Israel gave to Mathew’s children a few years later (see above).^[10]

See also:

Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Annis Spear, 1775-1858, of Litchfield, Maine, (Portland, ME: Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1945), p. 148, available at: https://archive.org/details/ancestryofanniss00davi/page/148/mode/2up.

The Essex Institute Historical Collections, (Salem, MA: 1906), vol. 42, p. 275-276, available at: https://archive.org/details/essexinstitutehi42esseuoft/page/276/mode/2up.

Raymon Meyers Tingley, Some Ancestral Lines : Being a Record of Some of the Ancestors of Guilford Solon Tingley and his Wife, Martha Pamelia Meyers, (Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing Co., 1935), p. 193, available at: https://archive.org/details/someancestrallin00ting/page/192/mode/2up.

Sources

1. ↑ Executive Papers, The Hereditary Order of the Families of the Presidents and First Ladies of America, Issue 10, 2013, p. 17.
2. ↑ Executive Papers, The Hereditary Order of the Families of the Presidents and First Ladies of America, Issue 18, 2021, p. 78.
3. ↑ Eliakim Reed Ford, Ford Genealogy, (Oneonta, NY: 1916), p. 23-29, 43, available at: https://archive.org/details/fordgenealogybe00fordgoog/page/n34/mode/2up.
4. ↑ Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1680-1883, (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1911), vol. 8, p. 92, available at: https://archive.org/details/recordsandfiles01dowgoog/page/92/mode/2up?q=ford.
5. ↑ Vital Records of Haverhill, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849, (Topsfield, MA: Topsfield Historical Society, 1910), p. 121. See” https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L979-WQV9?i=382&cc=2061550&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQ29G-GH43.
6. ↑ NEHGR, (1854), 8:236.
7. ↑ Essex County Deed Book 8:129, available at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99ZZ-B14X?i=239&cc=2106411&cat=209907.
8. ↑ Essex County Deed Book 4:133, available at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9ZZ-BG4N?i=354&cc=2106411&cat=209907.
9. ↑ Essex County Deed Book 24:10, available at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9ZZ-BN81?i=618&cc=2106411&cat=209907. For a transcription, see: Eliakim Reed Ford, Ford Genealogy, (Oneonta, NY: 1916), p. 27-28, available at: https://archive.org/details/fordgenealogybe00fordgoog/page/n36/mode/2up.
10. ↑ Essex County Deed Book 10:92, available at: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9ZZ-B9HX?i=102&cc=2106411&cat=209907.