John Macomber (1585 - 1650)

Born 1585 in Bridport, Dorset, England

Husband of Edith (Locke) Macomber — married 8 Jun 1607 in Bridport, Dorset, England

Descendants

Died 6 Jul 1650 at about age 65 in Bridport, Dorset, England

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Biography

John Macomber was born in 1585, most likely in Dorset, England. His parents were Thomas Macomber (1560-1623) and Thomasine Staplehill Macomber (1565-1585).

Edith Locke was born about 1587-90 at St. Mary in Bridport, Dorset, England. Her parents were William Locke, born about 1559 in Dorset and Elizabeth, born about 1565.^[1]

On 8 Jun 1607, Edith Locke and John Macomber married in the Anglican Church of St. Mary in Bridport.^[1][2][3]

First name(s) Edith

Last name Locke

Marriage year 1607

Marriage date 08 Jun 1607

Place Bridport

Spouse's first name(s) John

Spouse's last name Macomber

Groom's first name(s) John

Groom's last name Macomber

Bride's first names(s) Edith

Bride's last name Locke

County Dorset

Country England

Record set Dorset Marriages

Category Birth, Marriage & Death (Parish Registers)

Subcategory Parish Marriages

Collections from England, Great Britain

John and Edith were the parents of 11 children, including William Macomber (1610-1670) and John Macomber (1613-1688). John and Edith were members of the Anglican Church of England as shown by church records. John's trade is noted as a mercer, which is a dealer of silk, velvet and fine cloth.^[3]

John died on 6 Jul 1650 and was buried in the cemetery of the Anglican Church of St. Mary in Bridport, Dorset, England near his wife, Edith, who died in Bridport in 1636.^[3]

The Macombers in Plymouth Colony

The evidence is convincing that William and John Macomber came from Devonshire, England, or vicinity, along with the other settlers of Plymouth and Bristol Counties, Massachusetts. The emigrants brought with them the very names of the towns from which they came, Plymouth, Taunton, Tiverton, Dartmouth, Falmouth, Barnstable, Truro, Weymouth, Plympton, Bridgewater, Dorchester, all found in the southwestern part of England.

The old tradition concerning "three brothers" who came to America on the ship Anne in 1638 seems to be verified in the case of the Macombers, for William Macomber, born in 1610, was in Duxbury, a settlement about five miles north of Plymouth, in 1638; Thomas Macomber in Plymouth in 1643; and John Macomber, born in 1613, in Taunton by 1643. William married Ursilla in 1633 and they had a son named Thomas, born in 1635, who made the voyage to New England with them. No descendants of brother Thomas have been found. Those of William are numerous. The descendants of John and William are traced in the Everett S. Stackpole book.^[4]

There is no mention of William or John Macomber in the records of St. Mary Bridport, Dorset after 1638 as they had left England to travel to America.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Locke Family Genealogy : accessed 12 Feb 2018 & 13 Feb 2021
2. ↑ Find My Past : Dorset Marriages Edith Locke and John Macomber : accessed 13 Feb 2021, $Subscription site.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} William Macomber (1610-1670) — (Bygone Days Volume 1.313.00). Fiske, Jane Fletcher. (1981). The English Origins of the Macomber Family. In The Genealogist, volume 2, number 2, pages 170-171. (New York, Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy). Jane visited the Church of England archives located in Dorchester, Dorset, England and noticed that there were numerous entries of the Macomber surname in the records of the Anglican Church of Saint Mary located in Bridport, Dorset, England. She had previously noticed that the Macomber surname was prevalent in early Plymouth Colony records; therefore, Jane copied all of the Macomber entries noted in the church of Saint Mary’s record, and her findings were subsequently published in The Genealogist in 1981.
4. ↑ Stackpole, Everett Schermerhorn, 1850-1927. “Macomber genealogy.” Lewiston, Me., Press of the Journal Company, (1908?). : accessed 12 Feb 2018.

Acknowledgements

• Sara V Mosher 12 Feb 2018 & 13 Feb 2021