Edward STURGIS (1613 – 1695) was Alex’s 10th Great Grandfather two times over, once through his son Edward and his daughter Mary;  he was two of  2,048 in this generation of the Shaw line.

Edward Sturgis was christened 30 Jan 1613 in Woodnesborough (a village two miles west of Sandwich),  Kent, England. Alternatively, he was born in Hannington, Northampshire, England.  His parents were John STURGIS and Margaret AUSTIN.   He married Elizabeth HINCKLEY in 1637 in Faxton Northampton, England.  Faxton was abandoned when the last villager left in 1960.   Alternatively, they were married in 1639 in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  Edward died on 16 Oct 1695 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Mass.  and  was buried in Oct 1695 in Yarmouth, Barnstable, MA.

Faxton is an abandoned village and chapelry in the county of Northamptonshire in England. The last villager left in 1960 after the demolition of the parish church of St Denis. There is now just one house standing on this remote hilltop location, overlooking the rolling farmland.  Faxton no longer exists today was due to dwindling population but, prior to this, the village was a victim of the plague that decimated the tiny population. It is reputed that in an attempt to escape the Black Death in London, a family  relocated to Faxton with their servants. However, one of the servants was carrying the fatal disease which quickly spread and almost wiped out the village

Elizabeth Hinckley was born on 20 Sep 1617 and christened 28 Sep 1617 in Harrietsham, Kent, England.  Her parents were Thomas HINKLEY and Anna (Katherine) [__?__] Elizabeth  died on 14 Feb 1691 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Mass.

Children of Edward and Elizabeth:

	Name	Born	Married	Departed
1.	Samuel Sturgis	ca. 1640	Mary Hedge (Elisha’s sister and daughter of William HEDGE) 1667	3 Nov 1674 The inventory of his will is an interesting slice of life
2.	Edward STURGIS II	10 May 1642 Yarmouth, Mass	Temperance GORHAM 1 Mar 1663 Yarmouth	08 Dec 1678 Yarmouth
3.	Mary STURGIS	20 Apr 1648 Sandwich, Mass	Elisha HEDGE 1660 in Yarmouth Mass	5 Mar 1712/13 in Yarmouth, Mass
4.	Elizabeth Sturgis	20 Apr 1648 Sandwich	William Hedge Jr. 1669 (Elisha’s brother and son of  William Hedge)
5.	Joseph Sturgis	06 Apr 1650 Sandwich		16 Apr 1650 Sandwich
6.	Hannah Sturgis	22 Dec 1654 – Barnstable or Yarmouth Plymouth Colony	John Gray 1672 Barnstable, Mass . Jabez Gorham (Son of our ancestor John GORHAM) 1677	17 Oct 1736 – Harwich, Massachusetts Burial: in Old Burying Ground, Brewster
7	Sarah Sturgis	1656 Sandwich MA	Joseph Gorham (Son of our ancestor John GORHAM) 1678 Barnstable, Mass	Before 3 Feb 1738 Yarmouth, MA
8.	Thomas Sturgis	Dec 1659	Abigail Lothrop ca.  1681 (daughter of our ancestor Barnabas LOTHROP)	30 Jun 1708 Barnstable

Edward’s father John STURGIS was baptized on 27 Apr 1578 in Worth, Kent, England, a small village near Sandwich.  C.S. Forester’s fictional naval hero Horatio Hornblower was born in the village of Worth, He married Margaret AUSTIN on 28 Nov 1608 in Tilmanstone, Kent, England. John was buried on 23 Jan 1624/25 in Sturry, Kent, England, Great Britain.

Edward’s mother  Margaret AUSTIN was born about 1576 in , Kent, England, Great Britain. She died in 1622 in Eastry, Kent, England. She was buried on 3 Apr 1622 in Eastry, Kent, England, Great Britain.

Elizabeth’s father Thomas HINCKLEYwas christened on 28 Dec 1562 in Harrietsham, Kent, England. He married Anne (Katherine) in England. The marriage ended in divorce.

Elizabeth’s mother Anne (Katherine) was born about 1584 in Of Harrietsham, Kent, England.

The pioneers of the town were soon joined by others, and before the close of 1640 not far from twenty-five families were established here. The region around ” Stony Cove,” now the ” Mill Pond,” was occupied by Andrew Hallet, Thomas Starr, William CHASE, Gyles Hopkins, Robert Dennis and Joshua Barnes. A little farther on, to the eastward, were the lands of Nicholas Simpkins and Anthony Thacher. Still farther east was the meeting-house and the lands of the Rev. Marmaduke Matthews and Edward STURGES.

The family of Mr. Sturges is believed to have been a distinguished one in England, from whence Edward, of Yarmouth, came somewhere about the year 1634, when he was in Charlestown, and was in Yarmouth in 1641, in which year he was a Constable. He also served four years as Deputy to the Colony Court, and also on various committees of the town. He kept an ordinary, at which large quantities of liquors were sold, the accounts of which, officially published, throw much light on the drinking habits of our ancestors. His residence was not far from the old meeting-house. It was said that he had more plate in his house than all the rest of Yarmouth. He died in Sandwich, in 1695, leaving an estate appraised at ;^963. For so prominent a family as his, the account of Mr. Sturges’s descendants is unusually obscure and unsatisfactory

Among his descendants are the late President Quincy of Harvard college, John Quincy Adams, and other distinguished personages. The origin of this connection, together with a glimpse of the social status of this family, as well as of the usages of the times, was given by the late

Josiah Quincy, in a speech delivered at a meeting of the Cape Cod Association, held in Yarmouth, August 2, 1854. Some of the speakers had remarked that they regretted not to have descended from the fathers of Cape Cod. Mr. Quincy said : ” Neither am I ; but I am proud to say that I am what is a great deal better — descended from the mothers of Cape Cod. His honor the Chief Justice has raised a point of law. I have a decision of the Supreme Court — not of Massachusetts, but of the Province of Massachusetts Bay — given a hundred and thirty years ago, which proves my right to be here.

It so happened that the gentleman who held the office of Chief Justice was my great-great-grand-father. Whether he was a judge of law I know not, but he was a judge of ladies. Being Chief Justice he came down to this part of the world, and having no criminal business to do he looked after the young ladies. The result was, that when he got home to Braintree — Quincy that now is, — he called his son Josiah to him and advised him to go straightway down to Yarmouth, and to inquire for the house of one John Sturges, and to make himself as agreeable as he could to Miss Hannah Sturges, who was there. Well, my ancestor was like his descendants, a very dutiful son, particularly when his father told him to go and see the girls. So down he came to Yarmouth. Whether he succeeded in the object of his mission or not, I will not say ; but — I have the honor of addressing you at this time !”

Letters which are still preserved, show the intimacy which was preserved between the Sturges and Quincy families for several generations.

Edward Sturgis Timeline

2 Mar 1640/41  and 3 Jun 1662 -Elected as constable on 2 Mar 1640/41 in Yarmouth

7 Mar 1642/43 – He asked to be admitted as a freeman  in Yarmouth

2 Jun 1646 – A surveyor of highways in Yarmouth

7 Jul 1646 -Granted a license “to keep an ordinary and draw wyne” in Yarmouth

Bef. 14 May 1648 – Gabriel WHELDON  sold his property in Yarmouth to Edward STURGIS.  Probably about this time Gabriel moved to Malden, Massachusetts

4 Jun 1650 – Created a member of the Grand Inquest on 4 Jun 1650 in Yarmouth

8 Jun 1651 –  Admitted a freeman and created as surveyor of highways  in Yarmouth (Why the late date for freeman?)

8 Jun 1655 -Appointed as a member of the Grand Inquest  in Yarmouth

4 Oct 1655 – Edward’s servant,  David O’KELLY [Also our ancestor] was implicated in charges of fornication with his future wife Jane Powell, of Sandwich, a Welsh servant of one William Swift.

And att this Court, Jane Powell, seruant to William Swift, of Sandwidge, appeered, haueing been presented for fornication, whoe, being examined, saith that it was committed with one David Ogillior, and Irish man, seruant to Edward Sturgis; shee saith shee was alured thervnto by him goeing for water one euening, hopeing to haue married him, beeing shee was in a sadd and miserable condition by hard seruice, wanting clothes and liuing discontentedly; and expressing great sorrow for her euell, shee was cleared for the present, and ordered to goe home againe

5 Jun 1658 –  Appointed to represent in a dispute with the Indians in Yarmouth

An invoice of liquors brought into town during the year 1663, will give some idea of the extent of the drinking habits of the times :

” A Note of the particulars of the Liquors that have been brought into the town of Yarmouth, since May 1663, and envoiced.

Item, Mr. HEDGE a quarter cask of liquors.
Item, Samuel Sturgis 10 gallons.
Item, Edward STURGIS, Sr. 10 gallons.
Item, Edward STURGIS , Jr. 10 gallons.
Item, Elisha HEDGE, 10 gallons.
Item, Mr. Hedge, 10 gallons and 5 cases.
Item, Mr. Thacher, 3 cases.
Mr. Hedge, Edw. Sturgis, Sr. and Sam’l Sturgis, 17 gallons.
Nathaniel Covell, 10 gallons.
Teague Jones, 10 gallons envoiced, and one case forfeit to the country.
Richard Michell, 10 gallons.

Anthony Thacher,
Robert Dennis.”

Messrs. Thacher and Dennis were also inspectors of anchors, lead, powder and shot, as well as liquors. At the next term of the court [1663/64], it was voted that, “in regard of much abuse of liquors in the town of Yarmouth, this court doth call in any license formerly given to Edward Sturgis, Sr., and do require that he forbear to draw wines or liquors for the future, without further orders from the court.”

Liquor legislation was a disturbing element in Yarmouth. The court in 1663 fined Edward Sturgis for bringing liquor into town without giving seasonable notice to those appointed to invoice it, and in the 1664 Elisha Hedge, for breaking bulk before giving notice what liquors he had brought into town, was adjudged to have forfeited 16 gallons thereof

8 Jun 1664, 1666, 1667 and 1672 – Elected as a Deputy to the General Court in Yarmouth

1667 and 1670 – Selectman of Yarmouth by appointment in Yarmouth

By the burning of the house of the town clerk, Edmund HAWES, the public records up to 1674 were destroyed.  The first town-meeting of which any record is extant was held May 30, 1677.  At that meeting the license of Edward Sturgis to keep an ordinary, was recalled by the court. The growing abuse of spirituous liquors this year attracted the attention of the Court, which took measures to restrain the evil. The former regulations relating to ordinaries and ordinary keepers were reaffirmed and were accurately defined, and John HAWES  and Anthony Fray were appointed for this town to enforce the laws on the subject.

1679 – Yarmouth appointed a committee, consisting of Edward STURGIS, Joseph Howes, and John Hall, Jr., “to collect the residue of Mr. Thornton’s salary, so that he may not remain unpaid of his due, to the blemish of the town.” The disposition on the part of some of the people in all the towns to neglect the duty of supporting the ministry, was a prevailing complaint of the times, to which the judicial and legislative records bear witness. Mr. Thornton’s salary was £6o per year, payable, partly in money and partly in products of the soil. The next year the town voted, “that half the stipend be paid in species; the other part in Indian corn at 3s. per bushel., and rye the same;” or “in any other species  at the price our merchants do take at.”

Children

1. Samuel Sturgis

Samuel’s wife Mary Hedge was born 24  Feb 1648/49 in Yarmouth.  Her parents were Capt. William HEDGE  and [__?__].  After Samuel died, she married John Coggeshall Oct 1679 (As his third wife).  Mary died 22 Aug 1731 in Newport Rhode Island in her 83rd year..

The following escapade contributed to Samuel’s father losing his liquor license.  Early in the 1663 a party of residents of Yarmouth n indulged in an escapade quite in conflict with the customs of the times, and their names subsequently appeared in the court records, which inform posterity that “Josias Hallet and Thomas Starr of Yarmouth went to the house of John Doane, Jr., at Eastham, and finding no one at home, behaved themselves uncivilly therein, ransacking the house for liquors, and drinking thereof, and writing and setting up in the house a libellous and scandalous paper of verses and leaving them there. Elisha HEDGE and Samuel Sturgis were also deemed guilty, in some degree, though not so deeply as the former.” The two first were ordered to find sureties, for their good behavior until the next court and pay each a fine of fifty shillings ; the two latter to find sureties and pav each a fine of thirty shillings.  

In 1703, John Thacher, Jeremiah HOWES, Samuel Sturgis, Joseph Hall and Peter Thacher were appointed a committee to “seat persons in the meeting-house,” a matter which seemed frequently to require rectification and re-adjustment.

Will of son Samuel Sturgis – 13 Jan 1674 in Yarmouth, Plymouth Colony.  Our ancestors Edmond HAWES Mary STURGIS and John FREEMAN witnessed the will.  L100 meaning £100. Shillings are written as 10s = 10 shillings, and pence as 11d = eleven pence.     11 15 00 means 11 pounds, 15 shillings and no pence.  There are twelve pence to a shilling, twenty shillings to a pound.

THE INVENTORY OF SAMUEL STURGIS
An Inventory of the Goods Chattles and lands of Samuell Sturgis deceased the third day of Nouember 1674; exhibited to the Court held att Plymouth in October 1674 and ordered to be Recorded
To 5 Cowes 11 15 00
To 6 hoggs 06 10 00
To 6 shootes 6s a peece 01 16 00
To 3 thousand of shingle nailes 10s feathers 3s 00 13 00
To a spining wheel 4s to old Caske 5s 00 09 00
To two beds and one bolster 8li 1 Grosse of Pipes 08 04 00
To his wearing apparrell and Cash 36li 36 00 00
To a horse bridle saddle scarffe Cutlas bookes horse peece pistollsholsters Brest Gert 10 00 00
To eight paire of sheets and one odd sheet 10 11 00
To two boulsters a bed and bolster and 1 paire of sheets 6 150
To an Iron Kettle halfe a bushell of Rye and a Caske 11 14 06
To an Iron pott pothookes and a skillett 00 10 00
To a Great Brasse Kettle 28s and another Kettle 02 02 0
To a brasse skillett and a brasse Candlesticke 5s 00 05 00
To a seifting trough 2s a belmettle skillet 6s 00 08 00
To Tubbs and barrel 8s a frying pan 2s a spitt 3s 00 13 00Toa paire of Tonggs and fier shouell 4s and a warming pan 00 14 00
To 4 Chairs 9s a Cradle 2s 6d a little Table 4s 6d 00 16 00
To a Great Table 15s and 2 Cedar Chests 13s 6d 01 08 06
To two trunkes att 8s a peece and a lookeing Glasse 01 02 00
To two bookes 6s a deske 1s 6d a Cushen 1s 00 08 6
To a smoothing Iron 3s 6d and 2 basketts 1 6d 00 04 06
To a Cubbert 2 pound and a Chest 30s 03 10 0
To andjrons Gridjron and pothangers 01 02 0
To a diaper Table Cloth 12 napkins & a towell 01 15 00
To ten homade Napkins 19s and fiue Napkins 8s 01 13 00
To a pillowbeer 7s 6d by 3 fine pillow beers 15s 01 02 06
To Cradle pillowes 8s and to pillow Cases 4s 00 12 00
To a Table Cloth 3s 6d to a Rugg 15 00 18 06
To a paire of New Bilbo blanetts 01 03 00
To a blankett 9s Curtains bedsted and a Coard 4li 16s 05 0500
To a blankett and Rugg 33s bedsted and Cord 22s 02 15 00
To a paire of Curtaines 2 sheep 7s a peece 01 09 00
To pewter and tining ware 02 00 06
To two meale seiues 2s 10 trenchers 16d 00 03 4
To a trundle bedsted and Cord 5s 00 05 00
To earthen ware 1s to an axe 3 00 04 00
To a new Rugg 24s and eight yards of dowlis 03 10 00
To 2 felt hatts 13s 6d 13 06
To silke Gallone and Ribbanding 18s 00 18 00
To Cheese 10s To a Chest locke 1s 8d 00 11 06
To 3 pound of stocken yearne 6s 00 06 00
To a New bridle 4s to parte of a boate 11li 11 04 00
To about 350 posts and Railes 03 12 00
To 2324 foote of deale board 06 19 00
To housing vpland and meddow 110 00 00
To 10lb of linnine yearne 18d per pound 00 15 00
To 6 pound of Cotton yearne 18d per pound 00 09 00
_______________
265 10 03
_______________
To a pillion 5s To a sea Chest 7s 00 12 0
To 16 pound of butter att 6d per pound 00 08 00
To 19 bushells of Barly att 3s per bushell 02 17 00
To 19 yards of homade Cloth att 3s 6d per yard 03 03 06
To parte of a paire of stilliyards & Scales 00 08 00To 100 acrees of land and meddow land belonging to it beyond the herring [riuer?] 11 00 00
To Creditt to him on booke and bills 126 06 11
Creditt to him by Indian debts 18 15 07
To an heiffer and 3 sheep 02 11 00
_______________
166 05 1
_______________
wee find Samuell Sturgis Indebted att Boston 04 12 03

Taken by vs
Edmond HAWES
Iudah Thacher Mary Sturgis made oath to the truth of this Inventory the 30th of the 3th month 1675 before mee Iohn FREEMAN Assistant;
Plymouth Colony Wills, vol. III, p. 16

2. Edward Sturgis II (See his page)

3. Mary STURGIS (See Elisha HEDGE‘s page)

4. Elizabeth Sturgis

Elizabeth’s husband William Hedge Jr. was born about 1651.  His parents were Her parents were Capt. William HEDGE  and [__?__]. William died 15 Sep 1734
Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island.

In 1697 John Thacher, Thomas Sturgis, and William Hedge were granted leave to set up  a windmill on the commons, to use one acre of land, for the site, the mill not to be rated.

6. Hannah Sturgis

Hannah’s first husband John Gray was born1646 at: Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass. His parents were John Gray and Hannah Lumpkin. John died 10 Feb 1674 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

Hannah’s second husband Jabez Gorham was born 3 Aug 1656, Barnstable.  His parents were  John GORHAM and Desire HOWLAND.   Jabez died 16 Mar 1724/25, Bristol, RI.

Jabez was wounded in King Philip’s War.  His name is on a list of townsmen in Yarmouth in 1679. In 1680 he was a constable and in 1683 he took the freeman’s oath and served on the Grand Inquest of Massachusetts Colony in 1683.

The family removed from Barnstable to Bristol, Rhode Island. He was present at the first town meeting in Bristol where he was voted as an inhabitant, can be found in the 1689 Bristol Census, and on July 6, 1696, he became a member of the Congregational Church of Bristol.

At about this time Jabez settled at Papasquash Neck on one hundred acres of land granted to the estate of his father, Capt. John Gorham, for his service in King Philip’s War. The land seems to have belonged to his brother, Shubael Gorham, who sold it to Nathaiel Byfield of Bristol, Feb. 7, 1689/90 for £62. Jabez registered his earmark for cattle and swine in Bristol, June 30, 1683. He was living in Bristol in August 1691 where he was called a carpenter when he bought land.

Was on the  and probably moved to Bristol, Massachusetts soon after. He was a cordwainer by trade. He is mentioned in the Inventory of his father’s estate. Census mentions Jabez Gorham, of Bristol, in the County of Bristol, in the Province of Mass, Bay, Yeoman

Jabez Gorham’s will was dated Mar 16, 1724/25. Mentions wife, Hannah, oldest son, Jabez, of Yarmouth, sons Isaac, Joseph and Benjamin, dau. Elizabeth, wife of Shubael Baxter, and grandsons, Edward, William, and Samuel Downs. Widow Hannah and son, Benjamin were made Executors of the will. (See Bristol Probate). Son Isaac, of New Haven. Connecticut filed a receipt for his share of his father’s estate, May 18, 1725 and son Joseph, of Fairfield, Fairfield Co. Colony of Connecticut of New England, filed a similar receipt June 16, 1725.

After the death of Jabez, Hannah returned to Cape Cod and on September 12, 1723, the following deed was recorded in the Bristol Co. District Land Records, Vol 21, p. 262, “Hannah Gorham of Yarmouth, in the county of Barnstable, seamstress, quitclaimed to Benjamin Gorham [her son] of Bristol, tanner, all her interest in five acres of land in Bristol”.

7. Sarah Sturgis

Sarah’s husband Joseph Gorham was born 16 FEB 1652/53 in Yarmouth, Mass.  His parents were John GORHAM and Desire HOWLAND.  Joseph died 9 Jul 1726
Yarmouth.

Joseph was a shoemaker in Yarmouth. In the division of his father’s estate in 1675, he was given forty acres of land and 4 acres of meadow next to land owned by his brother-in-law, Joseph Hallet. Edward Sturgis, in his verbal will probated at Plymouth, MA 3 June 1679, gave Joseph 5 pounds in silver. Joseph was one of the witnesses to the will.

Joseph served as an ensign in the militia before 1682. In Mar 1683/84, after his mother’s death, Joseph and his brothers and sisters agreed that the children of his deceased sister, Elizabeth Hallett, ‘should have an equal part that did belong to their mother.’ In his will dated 27 July 1723, proved 20 July 1726, Joseph Gorham named his wife Sarah, his sons Joseph and Josiah Gorham, his daughter Desire Baxter, his granddaughter Sarah Sears, daughter of his deceased daughter Sarah Howe, and Sarah’s other children, Thomas, Ebenezer and Elizabeth Howes. His wife Sarah and son Josiah were named executors. Witneses were Peter Thacher, Thankful Thacher and Ann Lothrop.

8. Thomas Sturgis

Thomas’ wife Abigail Lothrop was born 18 Dec 1660 Barnstable, Mass.  Her parents were Barnabas LOTHROP and Susanna CLARK.  Abigail died Oct 1723 in Barnstable.

In 1697 John Thacher, Thomas Sturgis, and William Hedge were granted leave to set up a windmill on the commons, to use one acre of land, for the site, the mill not to be rated.

In 1702, a gratuity of £6 was granted to Thomas Sturgis and others, the owners of the windmill, for repairs, they agreeing to grind for a toll of two quarts per bushel, for the term of three years.

1698 – Difficulty was experienced in getting the proper persons to take the office of Representative to the General Court. Mr. Thomas STURGIS, Sergeant Rider, Mr. John Howes and Mr. Jeremiah Howes, were each chosen and declined. The meetings were so thinly attended that it was found necessary to impose a fine of 1s. on every legal voter absent.

Children of Thomas and Abigail:

i. Susanna Sturgis b. 1683 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.; d. 13 Oct 1768 in Bristol, Rhode Island; m. 20 May 1701 to Seth Taylor (b. 5 Sep 1677 in Barnstable – d. 17 Dec 1721 in Yarmouth) Seth’s parents were Jasper TAYLOR and Hannah FITZ RANDOLF.

ii. Edward Sturgis b. 10 Dec 1684 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

iii. Thomas Sturgis b. 4 Apr 1686 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

iv. Hannah Sturgis b. 18 Sep 1687 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

v. John Sturgis b. 2 Dec 1690 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

vi. Elizabeth Sturgis b. 25 Dec 1692 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

vii. Abigail Sturgis b. 28 Oct 1694 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

viii. Thankful Sturgis b. 18 Mar 1697 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

ix. Jacob Sturgis b. 14 Jan 1700 Yarmouth, Barnstable, Mass.

Sources:

http://capecodhistory.us/genealogy/wellfleet/Names389.htm#STURGIS

http://donahoe.org/donahoege/donahoege/pafg43.htm#4445

History of old Yarmouth. Comprising the present towns of Yarmouth and Dennis. From the settlement to the division in 1794 with the history of both towns to these times (1884) Author: Swift, Charles Francis

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=7818580&st=1