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Thomas French (bef. 1608 - 1680)

Thomas French
Born before in Assington, Suffolk, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Husband of — married before 1632 in Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colonymap [uncertain]
Descendants descendants
Died after age 71 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Baymap
Profile last modified | Created 27 Jun 2011
This page has been accessed 6,504 times.
There are disproven, disputed, or competing theories about this person's spouse. See the text for details.
The Puritan Great Migration.
Thomas French migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).
Join: Puritan Great Migration Project
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Contents

Biography

Thomas French was baptized on November 27, 1608 in Assington, Suffolk, England, son of Thomas and Susan (Riddlesdale) French.[1]

In 1631 Thomas French and his sister Alice French emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay Colony. [2] Thomas initially settled at Boston.

"In 1630, this eldest son, then 21, sailed for New England in the Winthrop Fleet of eleven ships with about 700 colonists. In the next few years, three of his sisters, Alice, Dorcas and Susan, also immigrated to New England. In late 1636, Reverend Nathaniel Rogers, the Vicar of Assington, also immigrated to New England, where he became the pastor at Ipswich, MA, until his death in 1665. Four other Assington families also came with Rogers. Over the next year, Thomas French (the father), his wife Susan and remaining children, also crossed the Atlantic to settle in Ipswich, where he first appears on record in New England in 1638 with a grant of land."[3]

Thomas Jr. and Alice were among the earliest members of the Boston church and were followers of John Winthrop.[4]

By 1635 Thomas moved from Boston to Ipswich, Essex county, Massachusetts.

Alice French married Thomas Howlett. Dorcas French married first Christopher Peake then Griffin Crafts.

In 1633 Thomas French's two next younger sisters, Dorcas and Susan emigrated from England to Massachusetts. After 1633 their parents and younger siblings sailed for New England. [5] [6]

He was a tailor. [7]

He married by 1632 Mary _____; she died at Ipswich, Essex county, Massachusetts on May 6, 1681. (See below regarding theories regarding Mary's identity.)

He was admitted to Boston church as member #128 (no later than mid 1632).

On January 27, 1639, the Boston church dismissed Thomas French to the Ipswich church.

He served as Sergeant in the July 1636 - September 1638 Pequot War.

During the 1675 - 1676 winter campaign against the Narragansetts, Thomas French served under Major Appleton.

Commoner in 1678 and voter in 1679.

August 8, 1680 -- Thomas French died at Ipswich, Essex county, Massachusetts.

Last Will & Testament

Dated August 3, 1680; proved September 28, 1680; inventory taken August 25, 1680

  • to Mary my beloved wife...
  • to my son Thomas French...
  • to my son John French...
  • to my dau Mary Smith...
  • to my son Samuel French...
  • to my son Ephraim French

Children

Children of Thomas and Mary French:

  1. Mary, bp Boston 23 Sep 1631,[8] died young.
  2. Mary, bp Boston 2 Mar 1633/4;[9] m by 26 March 1656 Robert Smith[10]
  3. John, b abt 1635; m by 1656 Phebe Keyes, dau of Robert Keyes
  4. Thomas, b abt 1636; m Ipswich 29 Feb 1659/60 Mary Adams
  5. Sarah, b abt 1638; on 30 Sep 1656 "Hackaliah Bridges, accused by Sarah French of his getting her with child..." if she was a dau of Thomas French, she apparently died without issue prior to 1680 as she is not named in his will.
  6. Samuel, b abt 1641; convicted for fornication 26 Mar 1667; d Ipswich 1688, apparently unmarried.
  7. Ephraim, b abt 1643; d Enfield CT Sept 1716, unmarried.

Research Notes

Possible spouses: Anderson does not provide the maiden name of Thomas's wife. A few possibilities have appeared in print, but none at this point is proven:

Sources

  1. Walter Goodwin Davies, The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes ... (Portland, Me. : Anthoensen Press, 1959}, p 64; digital image, Hathi Trust.
  2. Immigrant Ancestors A List, page 32.
  3. French Family Association
  4. Walter Goodwin Davies, The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes ... (Portland, Me. : Anthoensen Press, 1959}, p 63-4; digital images, Hathi Trust.
  5. See also HISTORY of THE COLONY OF NEW HAVEN To its absorption into CONNECTICUT: GUILFORD - PERSONAL SKETCHES by Edward E. Atwater with Supplementary History and Personnel of the Towns of Branford, Guilford, Milford, Stratford, Norwalk, Southold, etc. compiled by Robert Atwater Smith assisted by Bessie E. Beach and Lucy M. Hewitt. Meriden, Conn. The Journal Publishing Company. 1902. [Transcribed by Coralynn Brown], 2014-05-24,
  6. HISTORY of THE COLONY OF NEW HAVEN To its absorption into CONNECTICUT: EARLY PLANTERS by Edward E. Atwater. 2014-05-24, amb
  7. Winthrop's Papers 3:157
  8. Records of the First Church in Boston P.278. Anderson says 23 Sep 1632 with the note "corrected from 1631." His source is the published church records. Neither they nor a transcription at the Colonial Society of Massachusetts website have any reference to a correction, just the 1631 date. The baptism entries are chronological, so no obvious mistake was made in the original register. (Robert C. Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III." "Thomas French" Featured Name. (Vol 1-3, Page 705) AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010).
  9. Records of the First Church in Boston P.278.
  10. Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts , vol. 1 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1911), 139 [1]. On this date she testified in a court case as the wife of Robert.
  11. Warren Skidmore, "Mary Scudamore (ca. 1598-1681), wife of Thomas French of Ipswich, Massachusetts. An Old Debate newly Resolved," in Occasional Papers, no. 25, undated. Accessed 24 May 2014.
  12. Melinde Lutz Byrne and John Edward Hardy, "Three French Daughters and Their Husbands: Three Unrecorded Marriages from Early Ipswich, Massachusetts, Amy (French) Gage, Susan (French) Kingsbury, and Anne (French) Hardy," in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 125 (Spring 2021): 104-119 at 118. American Ancestors (subscription)
See also--
  • Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols. (Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), pp 703-705; digital image by subscription, AmericanAncestors..
  • Byrne, Melinde Lutz & Hardy, John Edward. Three French Daughters and Their Husbands, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2021) Vol. 175, Page 106-7.
  • John William Linzee, The History of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles ... (Boston, Mass.: Priv. Print. [S. Usher], 1913), 412-419; digital image, Hathi Trust. [Notes -- This is an exceptional source, with references to primary sources throughout, and narrative showing conclusions from the sources. It includes other persons of the same name and explains with primary sources why they are not the same as the ancestor.]
  • Waters, Thomas Franklin, Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony The Ipswich Historical Society, Ipswich, Mass. 1905. The Salem Press Co., Salem, Mass. pp. 83, 91-93, 101, 196, 200, and 222 www.archive.org - Ipswich in the MA Bay Colony
  • Immigrant Ancestors -- A List of 2,500 Immigrants to America before 1750. Extracted from Volume VII Compendium of American Genealogy. Chicago, 1942. Edited by Frederick Adams Virkus. Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland. 1970. Thomas French, page 32.




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Comments: 7

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I've looked all over and don't see anything that shows Thomas's wife's name before he wrote his will, yet Mary is assumed to have been the mother of all his children. This includes Anderson's GMB entry for him. Am I missing something? It's an important point, given how much research energy had been spent trying to determine her birth family based on this assumption (if it is one).
posted by Doug Sinclair
There is a better url for the below source

↑ Warren Skidmore, "Mary Scudamore (ca. 1598-1681), wife of Thomas French of Ipswich, Massachusetts. An Old Debate newly Resolved," in Occasional Papers, no. 25, undated. Accessed 24 May 2014.--------------- http://www.skidmorefamilyhistory.com/OP25%20Mary%20Scudamore%20French.pdf

posted by Katherine Cappon
Thanks, Katherine, I updated the link.
posted by M Cole
Narrative relies on Frederick Adams Virkus (1942) for immigration. Shouldn't this be updated to reflect the findings in Anderson, 1995?
posted by GeneJ X
Note comment inserted in Biography; differentiation of subject Thomas French should be sought.
posted by John French Ph.D.
There are footnotes in here that appear to be referencing a Thomas French of Connecticut -- an entirely different man!
posted by Jillaine Smith
French-53 and French-1689 do not represent the same person because: my mistake