Thomas Flagg (c 1621-1698) Additional Materials

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Watertown, Massachusetts, United States
Surnames/tags: Flagg PGM

Additional information on Thomas Flagg of Watertown

Flagg, Ernest, Genealogical Notes on the Founding of New England: My Ancestors Part in that Undertaking, Pub 1926. Pp 437-440 is available at Family Search. Suggests various theories regarding Thomas Flagg and his origins. Should be read together with additional notes immediately below:

Reader June Braman of Corvallis, Oregon, whose ancestry is through Sarah Bigelow (Asa 4 , Lt. John 3 , Joshua 2 , John 1 ), last summer [Dates Unknown] attended a week-long seminar in genealogy, sponsored by New England Historical and Genealogical Society. She had the use of their excellent library, and while researching, used the copy-machine to send us a forty-page extract from Genealogical Notes on the Founding of New England, by Ernest Flagg, 1926. These pages (pp. 401-440) thoroughly disprove the statement of the Flagg genealogies that Thomas Flegg was baptised in Whinbergh, Norfolk in 1615, son of Bartholomew and Alicia Flegg. Please note that the following contains speculation absent documentation.

Concerning Bartholomew Flegg, the author states: "He was born about 1585 and resided in Whinbergh until 1619 when he moved to the adjoining parish of Shipdham...and continued there ten years until his death; and was buried there 7 March 1628/9. He left no will nor was there any administration of his estate." Therefore there is no list of heirs. He had five children baptised in Shipdham after 1619. Since Whinbergh parish registers prior to 1703 are lost, we have no way of knowing if there were any children, specifically Thomas Flegg, born there prior to 1619. Ernest Flagg continues: "For half a century it has been claimed in America that the emigrant Thomas Flegg was baptised _ Whinbergh or Shipdham in 1615." No such record exists.

The author does find proof that a Thomas Flegg was baptised in Hardingham, Norfolk, on 6 May 1621, and proceeds in the next few pages to establish that this child is the man who came to New England. He establishes the lineage for several generations.

Thomas Flegg (baptised 1621) was the youngest of the four sons of Allen and Nazareth - (Devoroys) Flegg. He was seven years old at his father's death and came under the control of his oldest brother Henry, with whom he probably lived during the next few years.

Here Ernest Flagg digresses to give us this historical background " In 1633 William Laud became archbishop of Canterbury.. and started to enforce conformity upon the Puritans... Matthew Wren became bishop of Norfolk in 1635, and his active persecutions of the Puritans caused a large migration of them to New England during the next two years. At the same time there was great economic and industrial depression in England and...young men joined this migration, not on account of religious motives, but with the object of bettering their material condition.

"In this category belonged Thomas Flegg, who lived in New England fifty years before... he became a member of the Puritan church in 1690. Among the emigrants to New England in 1637 were 25 families...whose records have been preserved, because the law required that lists be made of all persons leaving England."

Though many of the lists are lost, the Public Records Office in London has a list of 115 Norfolk residents licensed to pass to New England in April 1637 on either the ship John and Dorothy or the Rose. The family of Richard Carver of Scratby is named, and included three servants, one being "Thomas Flege age 21 years".

If Thomas were baptised in 1621, how could he be "21 years" in 1637? Flagg continues "It was customary for young unmarried men to engage themselves for two or three years as an employee of an older planter who would pay their passage to the New World...Thomas Flegg's age was probably deliberately over-stated to make him appear to be of legal age." In this way he would avoid detention, for the law was quite strict about minors trying to leave the country. "If Thomas Flegg were a large and mature-appearing youth of 16, he could have made a bluff as being of age." Ernest Flagg states that while Carver came from a parish five miles from Flegg's home parish, there is no other Thomas Flegg of the area who could have been the emigrant. Carver died in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1640, and the following year Thomas Flegg, having served out his term of indebtedness begins to appear on Watertown records. He did so until his death in 1698.

"This extraordinary combination of names whereby Thomas Flegg of Watertown named his children for himself, his wife his father, two of three brothers, his only paternal uncle, his two paternal grandparents, and a cousin, cannot be coincidence...and together with eliminating any other Flegg, seems to establish beyond reasonable doubt that the emigrant Thomas Flegg was the same"Thomas, son of Allen 16 (John 15, Richard 14, John 13, James 12, William 11, John 10, John 9, William 8, Philip 7, Philip 6, Philip 5, Sir John 4, Sir John 3, Henry 2, Alger 1 ) and Nazareth (Devoroys) Flegg. Ernest Flagg cautiously adds that beyond Thomas' grandfather, he has certain doubts as to the linage but the entire Forty pages make fascinating reading.

Other records of interest concerning Thomas Flegg are that he owned a homestall of six acres, and a lot of twenty acres. He served as selectman eight times between 1671 and 1685, and as late as 10 July 1693, was chosen to serve on the grand jury. In 1659 he lost an eye by a gunshot accident. He made his will in 1697. From the third volume of published Watertown records, this last entry: "Thomas Flege an old man diceaced feb:6: 1697:8." Indeed he was an old man, a good seventy-six years old at the time of his death.

His widow Mary made her will on 30 December 1702, which was attested 21 April 1703, and inventory for distribution taken 25 May 1703. Her husband having previously bequeathed most of his property to their sons, Mary divided her movables and remaining property "equally among my daughter Mary Biglo, my daughter Elizabeth Biglo, and my daughter Rebecca Gook...the executor to have 3L 12s of my son Benjamin Flegg which is remaining to be paid me by my husband's will.' The executor was Samuel Biglo, the witnesses were Nathaniel Wilder, Ephraim Wilder, and John Warren. This brings to mind the questions was Mary the wife of Thomas Flegg a Wilder daughter?