Elizabeth Skerry

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Marriage 1.2 Children 1.3 Death 2 Sources

Biography

Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Moulton and Mary Smythe, was born about 1610 in Scratby, Norfolk, England. She was baptized on 22 July 1610 at Ormesby Saint Margaret, Norfolk, England.^[1][2] Evidence of the location of the family's residence at the time of Elizabeth's birth was found in a 1606 deposition made by her father, Robert:

Listed as a husbandman, he [Robert] stated at that time he was 41 years old, that he had lived in Scratby for approximately ten years and prior to that in Ormesby where he was born. ^[2]

Elizabeth (presumably unmarried at the time) was listed in her father's will of 8 October 1633:

Item I give unto Elizabeth my daughter five and fforty pounds of good and lawfull money of England to be paid by my executers, conditionally that she loaneth her sowe, but otherwise if she taketh her sowe then she is to have but forty pounds the one halfe to be paid at the feast of the Purification of our Lady Mary next followinge, and the other halfe at or upon the five and twenty daye of december Anno Dei 1634.^[3]

Sometime around 1633, Elizabeth married Henry Skerry and had one son in England. On 11 April 1637, the family was examined in preparation for their journey to New England and the following details were recorded:

The examinaction of Henry Skerry, of great Yarmouth in the county of Norff/Cordwynar/ ageed/ 31 years and Elizabeth, his Wife/ ageed/ 25 years/ with one Child Henry; and/ one Apprentices/ Edmund Towne: aged/ 18 years/ ar desirous to oppose for New England to inhabit.//^[4][5][6].

The family sailed on the ship "Rose" of Yarmouth or on the "John and Dorethey" of Ipswich since the ships traveled together. Also traveling on one of those ships were Elizabeth's brother, John Moulton and his family and Elizabeth's sisters Miriam and Ruth.^[4] They arrived in Boston on June 8, 1637. Elizabeth's brothers, James (and his family) and Thomas, are presumed to also have been on one of these ships or a third ship that left Yarmouth around the same time.

Elizabeth and Henry and their family settled in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. Arriving in Salem about the same time was Elizabeth's brother James Moulton and his family. Henry's brother, Francis Skerry, and Reverend George Burdett, the minister from Great Yarmouth who married Elizabeth and Henry, had previously moved to Salem.

Henry Skerry's Lot 67

Shortly after their arrival in Salem, at a town meeting on 12 July 1637, Henry Skerry had ten acres of planting ground granted to him. ^[7] Soon after, on 14 August 1637, Henry and Elizabeth were granted a quarter of an acre of land near Estyes.^[8] On 25 December 1637, Henry and Elizabeth were one of many families among whom the "marsh and meadow were ordered to be assigned and laid out to the families..." Their share was three acres, having at that time a "family of five persons."^[9] It is important to point out the discrepancy between the immigration information where only Henry Sr., Elizabeth and Henry Jr. "family of three" immigrated and the Salem town record where in the same year the were described as a "family of five." It may be that the apprentice(s) were included in the family count.

Marriage

Married: Elizabeth was married to Henry Skerry "in or about" 1633 at one of the Ormesby churches by [[Burdett-859|Reverend George Burdett.] Robert Charles Anderson, in an article in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, cites a 1633 Bishop's Visitation record that reads:^[10]

He: Scurry de Yar:

Eliz: Moulton of Ormesby

a license granted by Dr. Bing [decanatus?]

to Hemsby these parties married by Mr.

Burdett in Ormesby church without license

Mr. Tilney refused to [send?] the license

Anderson interprets the above entry as: "Andrew Bing, at that time Archdeacon of Norwich, had issued a license for their marriage by Nathaniel Tilney, vicar of Hemsby (1642-42)...for some reason, it would seem, the couple decided they would rather be married by Burdett, but when Tilney refused to transfer the license, they proceeded anyway."^[10] The fact that Henry and Elizabeth Skerry sailed with John, Miriam and Ruth Moulton who were children of Robert Moulton and Robert Moulton also had a daughter, Elizabeth of the same age, Anderson concludes this Elizabeth Moulton is "an excellent candidate for the wife of Henry Skerry".^[10]

Children

Children: The following are the known children of Elizabeth and Henry. The last four were baptized at the First Church in Salem.

1. Henry, baptised 18 March 1635 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England.^[11]
2. Eliza, baptized 4 March 1638 (4:1:1638) in Salem.^[12]
3. Mary, baptized 8 September 1640 (8:7:1640) in Salem. ^[13] Married ______Nelson.
4. Ephraim, baptized 26 March 1643 (26:1:1642) in Salem.^[13]
5. John, baptized 3 June 1649 (3:4:1649) in Salem.^[14]

Death

Died: Elizabeth, wid. Henry, sr., Mar. 6, 1692-3.^[15]

Sources

1. ↑ Norfolk : Ormesby St Margaret : St Margaret : Register of unspecified type : "Parish Register" database, FreeREG.: viewed 18 Sep 2023. Baptism Record
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Moulton, Joy Wade. "Some doubts about the English Background of the Moulton Family." New England Hist. and Gen. Register. 144: 260 AmAncestors($)
3. ↑ Church of England, Archdeaconry of Norwich Court, Wills and Administrations, 1469-1857. Regd. copy wills, v. 44, 1632-1634. Robert's Will.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Hotten, John Camden, The Original Lists of Persons of Quality page 291
5. ↑ Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012. Annotation: From documents in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Public Record Office, London. Passengers to New England on the John and Dorothy and the Rose, pp. 21-23; passengers to New England on the Marey Anne, pp. 29-30; passengers to Holland not indexed. Full
6. ↑ Jewson, Charles Boardman. Transcript of Three Registers of Passengers from Great Yarmouth to Holland and New England, 1637-1639. (Norfolk Record Society Publications, 25.) Norwich: Norfolk Record Society, 1954. 98p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1964.
7. ↑ Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, Mass., 1924-28, Page 434.
8. ↑ Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, Mass., 1924-28, Page 443.
9. ↑ Perley, Sidney. The History of Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, Mass., 1924-28, Page 462.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Anderson, Robert Charles, "Elizabeth Moulton, Wife of Henry Skerry of Salem", Vol. 147, p. 146, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018); Page 146-147 (AmAncestors($)
11. ↑ Ancestry.com. Norfolk, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1535-1812 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. Henry's Baptism
12. ↑ Pierce, Richard D. ed., The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629-1736) Page 16-17
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Pierce, Richard D. ed., The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629-1736) Page 18-19
14. ↑ Pierce, Richard D., ed., The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629-1736) Page 22
15. ↑ Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620-1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2016). Death Record(AmAncestors($)