Christopher Wadsworth (abt. 1609 - aft. 1677)

Born about 1609 in England [uncertain]

Descendants

Died after 31 Jul 1677 after about age 68 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony

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Christopher Wadsworth migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 1888) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Unknown Origins

This profile originally asserted (along with now-severed parents) a christening of 1 Dec 1609 at Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England. Possibly that location was picked because of an imagined but unsupported relation to William Wadsworth of that location. He is believed to have married by 1634 so assuming he was 25 at first known marriage, that puts his birth at about 1609 and presumably in England.

Biography

Marriage

Christopher married Grace Unknown, estimated by about 1634 (Anderson)^[1]. While a specific date of 1 July 1630 is seen in the "International Genealogical Index", this is a notoriously inaccurate auto-aggregated database of data which includes unsourced user submissions to genealogical websites and in no way can be relied upon without knowing the actual source of data. The same proviso applies to unsourced user trees on sites such as myheritage, familysearch and ancestry.

Various sources also assert a surname of Cole ("250 years of Wadsworth" under See Also, NEHGR 52:20 article "Henry Andrews of Taunton" etc) but none provide a source. An article in Volume 45 of the "Connecticut Nutmegger" by Frances Holst^[2] makes the interesting point that a map of Duxbury shows the property of a Nathaniel Cole next to that of Christopher Wadsworth,^[3] raising the possibility that Grace was a daughter of Nathaniel Cole but that there is no proof of this. Anderson does not list a primary immigrant Nathaniel Cole in his "Great Migration" series although in the entry for John Moody (Great Migration Begins Vol. 2 p. 1274) he does note a Nathaniel Cole of Hartford, Connecticut who had sold property to Moddy by 1640. There was also Nathaniel Coles son of Robert Coles of Rhode Island born about 1648 so of the wrong generation. Was this Nathaniel Cole of Hartford the known brother of early immigrant Job Cole both of whom were named in the 1630 will of their brother Zaccheus Cole, grocer of London (per Anderson)? Uncertain at this point; Nathaniel has not been researched on WikiTree.

Colonial Life

^[1]

"Christopher Wadsworth led a long, blameless and uneventful life." So Robert Charles Anderson sums up the three and a half pages he devotes to Christopher Wadsworth in The Pilgrim Migration.

He arrived in Plymouth in 1632^[4] where he was made a freeman on 1 Jan 1632/33 and then moved to Duxbury. He may have returned to England in 1636 to bring back Ralph Patridge as a minister for Duxbury, which may give a hint of his English connections.

He was a delegate to the Plymouth Colony committee to revise the laws in 1636, served many times on juries, was a constable in Duxbury, and surveyor of highways.

Death & Estate

His will dated July 31, 1677 and proved 27 Oct 1680^[1] left land to his "eldest son Joseph", to his wife Grace and to his son John. Other bequests were to his daughter Mary Andrews, to the children of his son Samuel Wadsworth, deceased, to his grandson John Wadsworth and to granddaughters Mary and Abigail Wadsworth.^[5]

Anderson in "Great Migration Begins" notes that the date sometimes seen of 18 April 1676 (Pope and others) is actually the date of the death of Wadsworth's son Samuel.

Disputed arrival and disproved kinship with William Wadsworth

Several sources suggest that Christopher arrived in Boston aboard the Lyon on 16 September 1632.^[6][7][8] However, Christopher's name does not appear on the Oath of Allegience signed by heads of families about to embark on the Lyon, nor does his name appear in the list of passengers of that voyage given by Banks.

The only documentation for Christopher's claimed arrival on this voyage is a family bible currently in the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library. It still remains for some researcher to examine the bible and report its precise contents online. Some information was reported about it in an article entitled "An Old Bible" that appeared in the Hartford Courant on 1 March 1883. The bible had apparently left the Wadsworth family and had been in the possession of the Rev. John Pierce of Brookline, Mass. and his son John T. Pierce of Geneseo, Illinois. It is reported that the bible contains the names of "Christopher and Thomas Wadsworth, with a record that they landed in Boston by ye ship Lion, 16 September, 1632, 'together in ye ship'." It reports additionally that the name William Wadsworth is written in the margin.

The information reported here perhaps smacks of revisionist history. It has long been suggested that Christopher was brother to William Wadsworth, both men having first appeared in New England records at about the same time. William did arrive in Boston on the Lyon in 1632, so the arrival of Christopher on the same voyage would provide considerable support for the kinship of the two men, a kinship which is otherwise unsupported by any other early New England documents, nor by family names appearing in the early generations.

However, Y-DNA testing has confirmed that Christopher and William were not related -- see below. It is unlikely then that Christopher came on the Lyon as head of his own household without appearing in the lists. This doubt cast on the bible record is amplified by the apparent naming of "Thomas Wadsworth" as arriving in Boston with Christopher. No Thomas Wadsworth appears in the colony records in the 1630's, and Christopher had no son named Thomas.

Unless further evidence arises, this profile should follow Robert Charles Anderson in placing Christopher's arrival in 1632, but the exact date, ship, and place of origin remain unknown.

DNA

The Wadsworth surname project at FTDNA records data that indicates William and Christopher were unrelated. ^[9] As of the writing of this section, there are five kits grouped as confirmed or expected descendants of William and three kits as confirmed or expected descendants of Christopher. While none of the latter has tested SNPs, the inferred haplotype for all three is R1b. A confirmed descendant of William on the other hand has haplogroup GHIJK. Comparison of STR markers confirms that it is almost certain these two groups of men share no common paternal ancestor in this time-frame. This proof is contingent on the validity of the family lines traced by these DNA testers.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2010), (Originally Published as: New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995). p. 1888 entry for Christopher Wadsworth
2. ↑ Holst, Frances Bartlett. Martha Wadsworth Brewster, Poet of Colonial Connecticut, Connecticut Nutmegger (Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Glastonbury, Conn., 2012) Vol 45 Page 23
3. ↑ Duxbury, Massachusetts, ancient and modern : a sketch, with map and key by Fish, Henry A Publication date 1924 pp. 11-19
4. ↑ Anderson, Pilgrim Migration p. 473.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3ZD : 14 March 2023), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 513 of 616; State Archives, Boston.
6. ↑ Olney, Sandra Sutphin "Passengers On The Lion From England To Boston 1632 part 1" Heritage Books, Maryland, 1992 page 545
7. ↑ Gocher, William Henry. Wadsworth or the Charter Oak, self-published, Hartford, Conn., 1904. page 56
8. ↑ Bacchus, Dr. William. "The early life of Hartford "founder" William Wadsworth" in The Connecticut Nutmegger Vol 30 Vol 30 page 198
9. ↑ FTDNA, Wadsworth Surname Project, DNA results; accessed 1/8/2019

See Also:

• Two Hundred and Fifty Years of the Wadsworth Family in America: Containing an Acount of the Family Reunion, at Duxbury, Mass., September 13, 1882, and a Genealogical Register by Horace Andrew Wadsworth, Printed at the Eagle steam job printing rooms, 1883 p. 33 although note that the book makes many assertions without sources
• Colonial families of America, Vol. 7. National Americana Society. New York. 1930 Page 323. which does not provide sources.
• Jordan, Wilfred. Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania; Genealogical and Personal Memoirs. Lewis Historical Pub. Co. New York, NY. 1932. Page 420.
• Little, George Thomas. Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, Vol. 3. Lewis Historical Pub. Co. New York, NY. 1909 Page 1105.
• Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts, Vol. 3. Lewis Historical Pub. Co. New York, NY. 1910. Page 1396.
• New England Marriages Prior to 1700, by Clarence Almon Torrey (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society) Vol. III, p. 1575. WADSWORTH, Christopher (-1687) & Grace [COLE?] (-1688), by 1636; Duxbury.
• History of the town of Duxbury Massachusetts with Genealogical Register by Justin Winson: printed Boson 1849 p. 328
• Find A Grave: Memorial #34720669