Peter Noyes (bef. 1590 - 1657)

Born before 30 Aug 1590 in Charlton, Hampshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Smith) Noyes — married 18 Nov 1622 in Chieveley, Berkshire, England

Descendants

Died 23 Sep 1657 after age 67 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Peter Noyes migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 243) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Noyes family

For background information about Peter’s Noyes's family, click here.

For information on another Noyes family of the area, click here.

Biography

Peter Noyes was baptized 30 Aug 1590 in the Parish of Andover, Charlton, Hampshire, England, the youngest of five known children and the younger of two sons of Thomas Noyes and Dorothy UNKNOWN.^[1]

Marriage and family

On 18 November 1622, in Chieveley, Berkshire (about 22 miles from Weyhill) when he was in his later twenties, he married Elizabeth Smith.^[2][3] Elizabeth was buried at Weyhill 13 Feb. 1635/6. Children bpt at Weyhill:^[1]

1. Thomas Noyes, bpt 17 Nov 1623
2. Elizabeth Noyes Haynes], born 19 Apr 1625
3. Dorothy Noyes, bpt 23 April 1627
4. Abigail Noyes bp 4 Feb 1628/9 m. Plympton
5. Peter Noyes bpt 18 Jan 1630/1
6. Joseph Noyes bpt 13 Jun 1633.

Nicholas Noyes was not a son of Peter. In 1652 Nicholas Noyes of Newbury testified that it was he who sailed on the Jonathan with Peter, not a mythical son Nicholas.^[1]

Migration to Massachusetts Bay Colony

By 1637 Peter Noyes had heard news about New England. But however impressed, Peter displayed the shrewdness which characterized many of his later actions.

Peter Noyes chose this role deliberately. He was not 'harried out of the land.' Far from it. He took his steps cautiously but firmly; he had courage, and he had vision. He could have easily have remained with other members of his own family.

During the year 1637-38, he rented two of his four properties in Weyhill to his sister Dorothy, wife of John Waterman in Tangleu, Southampton, probably to gain money for his passage and expenses. Then taking 80 pounds from a Mrs. Agnes Bent in Weyhill, who wished to accompany him in due time, Peter sailed from Southampton on the ship Confidence, taking three servants, his eldest son and daughter, and his neighbor, John Bent. Noyes had not forgotten, however, to retain property near Andover, which paid him a yearly rent of about 20 pounds.

On the twenty-sixth of March, 1638, Peter Noyes, yeoman of the parish of Weyhill, Hampshire County, England, gave his land back to the Lord of the Manor. No longer would he help his Hampshire neighbors erect fences around the common fields in the spring or watch the plow teams turn furrows in the rich loam. Noyes had decided. He was taking his eldest son to visit New England in the expectation of moving his family from Weyhill forever.

Arrival

Note: The dates are confused. Noyes said to have arrived two weeks before he departed, embarking Southhampton 24 April 1638, and arriving Massachusetts 11 April. See below:

• Peter arrived in Massachusetts on 11 April 1638.

Peter Noyce, Penton, Co. of Southn, Yeoman, age 47

Thomas Noyce, his sonne, age 15

Elizabeth Noyce, his daughter, no age given

Robert Davis, his servant, age 30

John Rutter, his servant, age 22

Margaret Davis, his servant, age 26.^[4]

• Peter Noyes, came in the Confidence, 1638, from Southampton, the latter part of April, aged 47, with son Thomas, 15; daughter Eliz. and three servants.

• “Peter Noyce of Penton, Hants.," aged 47, embarked from Southampton on the Confidence on 24 April 1638, with his son, Thomas, 15 daughter, Elizabeth, and three servants. His servant Robert Davis, came in 1638, aged 30, in the Confidence of Southampton.^[5]

Note: He is called 'yeoman' in the ship's passenger list, but is repeatedly mentioned in the records of this country as 'gentleman;' and the term 'Mr.' is often applied.

On arrival in Watertown in 1638, Noyes was granted plow land, meadow, upland, and an outlying of seventy acres. Impressed by the possibilities of the area, Noyes returned to Weyhill to dispose of all business.

He went home after a short visit or exploration in New England, well pleased with what he saw at Watertown. Noyes did not rush away impetuously. The next year he gathered his family, old Mrs. Bent, and a few others, then headed back to New England (Weyhill Rectory MMS. Indenture of P. Noyes, 1652; Middlesex County Court, Registry of Deeds, III 292-293; Middlesex County Probate Records, VIII, 425.)^[6] in the Jonathan, with several friends, and Nicholas, Dorothy, Abigail, and Peter, all probably his children, and a distant cousin, Nicholas Noyes beside John Waterman, Richard Barnes, William Street, Agnes Bent, Eliz. Plimpton, and Agnes Blanchard, which I judge to be his servants as he paid for their passages; but such was not Agnes Bent, for she paid for herself, for daughter Agnes, Thomas Blanchard's w. with her h. and Richard Barnes, s. of said Blanchard's w. and prob. Eliz. Plimpton. Blanchard's w. with inf. d. on the passage, 15 days out, and Barnes's gr. mo. d. this side of the Banks.^[7]

From the town records, there is a list of the early grantees or settlers, who went to the Sudbury Plantation about 1638 or 1639, including Mr. Peter Noyse ^[8]

Note: The Court having granted the request for a plantation at Sudbury, allowed the petitioners to go on with their work, and appointed a committee to establish the bounds and make an allotment of land, as set forth by the following record:

"At Gennall Court held at Boston the 6th Day of the 7th Month, a 1638 [Sept. 6, 1638].

"The petitioners Mr Pendleton, Mr Noyse, Mr Brown, and Company, are allowed to go on in their plantation, and such as are associated to them and Lift. Willard, Thomas Bro [Brown] and Mr John Oliver are to set out the bounds of the said plantation and they are alowed 4s a day, each of them and Mr John Oliver 5 shs a day, to bee borne by the new plantation. And the petitioners are to take care that in their alotments of land they have respect as well to men's estates and abilities to improve their lands, as to their number of persons; and if any difference fall out the Court or the counsell shall order it." (Colony Records, Vol. I, p.238)

Note: William, came in the Jonathan, 1639, and exc. that Peter Noyes of Sudbury paid for his pass. whereby it might be judg. that he brot. him as a serv. no more is known.^[9]

Note: John Waterman, a passenger in the Jonathan, arrived at Boston 1639, of wh. I kn. no more but that his pass. was paid by Peter Noyes of Sudbury, and therefore we may suppose him a serv.^[10]

Chronology

Note: The officials known as "highway surveyors" had charge of repairs on town roads. This term was early applied, and has continued in use until now. As early in the records as 1639, Peter Noyes and John Parmenter are mentioned as surveyors for Sudbury, Middlesex Co., MA.^[11]

On 4 September 1639 in Sudbury, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts, the early land divisions were made, on permission of the Colonial Court, by such commissioners as the town or court might apoint.e.g., "A Generall Court, holden at Boston the 4th Day of the 7th month 1639.4 Sep 1639.

"The order of the Court, upon the petition of the inhabitants of Sudbury, is, that Peter Noyes, Bryan Pendleton, J [John] Parmm, [Parmenter], Edmond B [Brown], Walter Hayne, George Moning, and Edmond Rise have comission to lay out lands to the p'sent inhabitants, according to their estates and persons and that Capt Jeanison, Mr Mayhewe, Mr Flint, Mr Samuel Sheopard, and John Bridge, or any 3 of them, shall, in convenient time, repaire to the said towne and set out such land and accommodations, both for house-lots and otherwise, both for Mr Pelham and Mr Walgrave, as they shall think suitable to their estates, to bee reserved for them if they shall come to inhabite them in convenient time, as the Court shall think [fit]."^[12]

Nearly fifteen years later, a dispute concerning money left in Peter Noyes's hands at the time of his embarkation brought forth a dozen depositions describing his actions, and those of his neighbors, in England. Peter himself testified, as did others who had lived in the vicinity of Andover and Penton Grafton, Hampshire.

Mr. Noyes was a freeman May 13, 1640, a selectman eighteen years, and represented the town at the General Court in 1640, '41 and '50.

Noyes was destined to be a founder of a New England town, a leader of men in every sense of the word. As such, he was to be responsible for over six hundred and fifty separate 'orders,' carrying the weight of law and often of power of life and death over his townsmen. For a yeoman from a small West Country village, this was an awesome challenge.

On Nov. 13, 1644, in Concord, Middlesex Co., MA, Herbert Pelham, Esq., of Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Fling and Lt. Simon Willard of Concord, and Mr. Peter Noyes of Sudbury, were appointed commissioners "to set some order which may conduce to the better surveying, improving, and draining of the meadows, and saving and preserving of the bay there gotten, either by draining the same, or otherwise, and to proportion the charges layed out about it as equally and justly (only upon them quarter-clerk) are the only ones now extant.^[13]

In 1648 in Sudbury, Middlesex Co., Mass, Peter Noyes was "to see people ioyne in mariage in Sudbury." (Colonial Records, p.97.)^[14]

In 1655 in Sudbury, Middlesex Co., Maass, the pastor and Mr. Noyes were empowered "to appoint a man to remove the pulpit and the deacons' seat out of the old meeting house into the new meeting house."^[15]

Ensign Peter Noyes, of Sudbury, was then engaged by the grantees and he began the survey but his death, on September 23, 1657, delayed the speedy accomplishment of the work. It is known that there was some trouble in the early settlement of the place, growing out of the question of lands, but its exact character is not recorded; perhaps it was owing to the delay which now occurred. Ensign Noyes was a noted surveyor, but not so famous as Capt. Jonathan Danforth-29 (1628-1712), whose name is often mentioned in the General Court records, in connection with the laying out of lands and towns, and many of whose plans are still preserved among the Archives in the State House. Danforth was the man wanted at first for the undertaking; and after Noye's death he took charge of it. ^[16]

On 23 September 1657, when he was in his mid-sixties, Peter died of unknown causes in Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[16][1] Three years before his death he gave his estate in England to his son Thomas. The day before his death he made a will in which he made his son Thomas his executor, and named the following other children: Peter, Joseph, Elizabeth (wife of Josiah Haynes), Dorothy (wife of John Haynes), Abigail (wife of Thomas Plympton), his daughter-in-law Mary (wife of his son Thomas), and his kinsman Shadrach Hapgood.^[17] The Noyeses have lived in various parts of the town. The mill on the west side was built by them (see period 1650-75) Prominent members of the family are buried in the Old Burying Ground, Wayland.'^[18]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Reed, Paul C. and Smith, Dean Crawford. "The English Ancestry of Peter¹ Noyes. New England Historical and Genealogical RegisterVol 152: 259-285. Peter pp 283, 284. Link at AmericanAncestors ($)
2. ↑ The American Genealogist, vol. 90 no. 1 (January 2018): 24-34. "The Ancestry of Elizabeth (Smith) Noyes, wife of Peter1 Noyes of Sudbury Massachusetts," by Leslie Mahler and Nathan W. Murphy.
3. ↑ "England Marriages, 1538–1973 ," database, FamilySearch [1] : 10 February 2018), Petrus Noyse and Elisabetha Smith, 18 Nov 1622; citing Chieveley,Berkshire,England, reference , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 254,496.
4. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), p28. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.
5. ↑ Savage, Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. (Broderbund, 1994) v.4 p. 21
6. ↑ Powell, Sumner. Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town. Chilton Publication: 1963. pp. 1-3
7. ↑ Savage, Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. (Broderbund, 1994) v.3, p.228.
8. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), p26. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.
9. ↑ Savage, Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. (Broderbund, 1994) v.4 p. 223.
10. ↑ Savage, Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. (Broderbund, 1994) v.4 p. 431
11. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), p89. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.
12. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), p 105. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.
13. ↑ A History of the Town of Concord MA. Shattuck, Lemuel. Publication: Russell, Odiorne, & Co., Concord, MA, 1835. Family History Library, 35 W Temple City: Salt Lake City, Utah, pp. 15-16
14. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), p90. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.
15. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana. p.190
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} Bay State Monthly, A Massachusetts Magazine.'’ John N. McClintock and Co, Boston, 1884-1885. Volume 1, 1884; "The Boundary LInes of Old Groton" by the Hon. Samuel Abbott Green, MD; pgs 278-284; pgs. 337-344. Hathitrust
17. ↑ “Probate records v. 1-3 1654-1673”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9D5-B31F : 5 May 2023) or (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99D5-BPG6  : Transcribed), FHL microfilm 007554513, image 68-70, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Vol 1, 1654-1661.
18. ↑ Hudson, Alfred Sereno.The History of Sudbury, Massachusetts. 1638-1889. (Boston: R.H. Blodgett, 1889), pp31-32. Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, Indiana.

See Also.

• Bay State Monthly, A Massachusetts Magazine.'’ John N. McClintock and Co, Boston, 1884-1885. URL: HathiTrust
• Reed, Paul C., and Dean Crawford Smith. URL: [2] Dorothy ______, the Key in Our Search for Shadrack Hapgood]. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, v. 150 (1996), pp. 141-156.
• Shattuck, Lemuel. A History of the Town of Concord MA. (Concord, MA: Russell, Odiorne, & Co., 1835). Family History Library, 35 W Temple City: Salt Lake City, Utah.