Robert PEASE Sr.– Great Baddow (1565 – 1623)  was Alex’s 12th Great Grandfather;  one of 8,192 in this generation of the Miner line.

Robert Pease was born in 1565 in Great Baddow, Essex, England,.  His parents were John PEASE “The Clothier” and Margaret HYCHES.  He married Margaret KING in 1586 in Great Baddow, Essex, England.  Robert died in 1623 in Great Baddow, Essex, England and was buried on 16 Apr 1623.

Margaret King was born in 1573-1574 in Great Baddow, Essex, England.  Her parents were  Francis KING and [__?__].The widow Margaret continued to live in Great Baddow for ten years.  She immigrated to America in the years just prior to her death.  Margaret died on 1 Sep 1644 in Salem, Essex, MA at age 70.

Children of Robert and Margaret:

	Name	Born	Married	Departed
1.	Daughter Pease	bapt. 10 Dec 1587 in Great Baddow, Essex, England		Died Young
2.	Robert PEASE Jr. (Great Baddow)	bapt. 28 Oct 1589 in Great Baddow, England	Lydia WEST England. . Marie [French?] England.	7 Oct 1644 Salem, Mass.
3.	William Pease	bapt. 26 Sep 1591 Great Baddow		20 Jul 1623 in Great Baddow
4.	John Pease	bapt. 24 May 1593  Great Baddow		1600 in Great Baddow
5.	Mary Pease	bapt. 10 Jan 1600 in Great Baddow
6.	Elizabeth Pease	bapt. Sep 1602 Great Baddow	Abraham Page
7.	Susan Pease	bapt. 18 Jun 1606 in Great Baddow
8.	Richard Pease	bapt. 4 Apr 1607 in Great Baddow		Apr 1607  Great Baddow
9.	John Pease	bapt. 20 Nov 1608 in Great Baddow	Lucy Weston c. 1630	3 Jun 1689 Portsmouth, NH?

English Ancestors

Generation 1.

Robert PEASE was born Abt. 1485 in Great Baddow, Essex, England and died 1547 in Great Baddow. He married Joan [__?__] Abt. 1508 in Great Baddow. She was born Abt. 1490 in England, and died February 25, 1551/52 in Great Baddow. Robert was called “The Smythe”.

Children of Robert PEASE and Joan [__?__] :

i. John (-3) PEASE, b. 1510, Great Baddow; d. 1591, Great Baddow

ii. Joan (-3) Pease, b. Abt. 1512, Great Baddow; d. April 05, 1540, Great Baddow

iii. Margaret (-3) Pease, b. Abt. 1515, Great Baddow; d. Jan 09, 1544/45, Great Baddow.

Generation No. 2

2. John (-3) PEASE was born 1510 in Great Baddow, and died 1591 in Great Baddow. He married Ann [__?__] Abt. 1533 in Great Baddow. She was born Abt. 1515 in England, and died October 13, 1556 in Great Baddow. John was called “The Smythe”.

Children of John PEASE and Ann [__?__] :

i. Margaret (-2) Pease, b. Abt. 1534, Great Baddow; m. John Byekinir, January 23, 1563/64, Great Baddow.

ii. Robert (-2) Pease, b. Abt. 1536, Great Baddow; d. April 26, 1552, Buried – Great Baddow.

iii. Lettis (-2) Pease, b. Abt. 1538, Great Baddow; d. June 11, 1567, Great Baddow.

iv. John (-2) PEASE, b. 1540, Great Baddow; d. November 1612, Great Baddow.

v. Edward (-2) Pease, b. Abt. 1542, Great Baddow ; d. July 28, 1580, Great Baddow.

vi. Alice (-2) Pease, b. Abt. 1544, Great Baddow; m. John Taft, June 09, 1560, Great Baddow.

Generation No. 3

3. John (-2) PEASE was born 1540 in Great Baddow, and died November 1612 in Great Baddow. He married Margaret HYCKES June 23, 1560 in Great Baddow, daughter of Richard HYCKES. She was born Abt. 1540 in England, and died October 25, 1612 in Great Baddow. John was called “The Clothier”.

Children of John PEASE and Margaret HYCKES are:

i. Richard (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1562, Great Baddow; m1. [__?__] Prott, February 04, 1590/91, Great Baddow; d. February 10, 1603/04, Great Baddow; m2. Susan Wither, November 12, 1604, Great Baddow.

ii. Robert (-1) PEASE, b. 1565, Great Baddow; d. April 1623, Great Baddow.

iii. Mary (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1568, Great Baddow; m. Benjamin Carter, 1586, Great Baddow.

iv. Thomas (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1575, Great Baddow; m. SARA, Abt. 1609, Great Baddow.

v. Joan (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1580, Great Baddow.

vi. Alice (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1585, Great Baddow; m. John Clarke, April 16, 1627, Great Baddow. Perhaps their daughter was the Miss Clarke age 15 who accompanied Robert PEASE Jr. –  on the Francis in 1634.

vii. John (-1) Pease, b. Abt. 1590, Great Baddow; d. October 05, 1615, Great Baddow.

Generation 4.

Robert PEASE

Extracts from the parish registers at Great Raddow, in Essex count), show: “Robert Pease, County of Essex, locksmith, will dated May 10, 1623 mentions his wife, Margaret, their sons, Robert and John, daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Abraham Page, and brother-in-law Francis King; will proved June 12, 1623.”

From a long list of baptisms, marriages and burials dating from 1540 to 1623, the following are useful in this connection: ”

John, son of Robert Pease, baptised May 24, 1593.
John infant son of Robert Pease, buried January 10, 1599.
John, son of Robert Pease, baptised November 20, 1608.”

As there is no record of the birth of Robert the other son mentioned in the will, it is believed that he was baptized in some other parish.

Great Baddow is in what is called the Hundred of Chelmsford, about thirty miles northeast from London, on the thoorughfare to Ipswich, the most convenient point of embarkation from that neighborhood and old Norfolk and Essex, in this country were settled chiefly by people from counties of the same name in England.

Great Baddow is an urban village in the Chelmsford borough of Essex, England. It is close to the county town, Chelmsford and, with a population of over 13,000, is one of the largest villages in the country.

Great Baddow (Baddow meaning ‘bad water’) was named after the River Baddow (now known as the River Chelmer)  which runs a mile or so east of the village. The centre of Great Baddow is now a Conservation Area and contains over 30 listed buildings.

In Saxon times the Manor of Great Baddow was held by the Earls of Mercia, and in the 13th century by Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale whose widow launched a legal challenge over its ownership on his death in March 1295. After passing to the Crown, Henry VIII later granted it to Catherine of Aragon. During the reign of Edward VI it was held by the Paschals, before being sold to J.A. Houblon in 1736.

According to information in the local church of St Mary, the rebel leader Jack Straw led an ill-fated crowd (the “men of Essex”) from the churchyard to London, in one of the risings in the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt.

Children

6. Elizabeth Pease

Elizabeth’s husband Abraham Page was born 1590 in Great Baddow, Essex, England.   His parents were Isaac Page and Sarah Vincent.  Abraham died in 1628 in Chelmsford, Essex, England

A son of Elizabeth and Abraham came to Salem, Massachusetts.

9. John Pease

John’s first wife Lucy Weston  was born 1610 in England.  She was the daughter of Margaret, and step daughter of Margaret’s second husband, Francis Weston, who d. Jun 05, 1645 in Dorchester, MA.  Lucy died Oct 1643 in Salem, Essex, Mass..

John’s second wife Mary Browning was born in 1625 in England. Her parents were Malachi Browning (1600 – 1653) and Mary Collier (1604 – 1672). Malachai was the owner of a large book shop in Boston.  After John died, she married Jun 03, 1689, as his second wife, Thomas Creber; d. 1695. On the day of her marriage, Mary disposed of her interests in the estate of John Pease, and moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Thomas was master of the ketch John and Mary, engaged in the coastwise trade. Mary died in 1695 in Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire.

Francis Weston was an early leader of the colony that came to America with the Winthrop fleet.  Francis Weston was in Plymouth only a short time before he moved to Salem.  He became a freeman of Salem on November 5, 1633. He was a deputy of the court, and owned 125 acres of land “in the direction of West Peabody.”

Weston’s religious beliefs along with Roger Williams, had them banished from Salem to Rhode Island on Mar 12, 1638. He was a proprietor of Providence, Rhode Island, in 1638, and removed to Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1642.

On Mar 03, 1643, Francis was brought back, and confined to a jail in Dorchester for heresy. Weston was a follower of religious radical Samuel Gorton, and in 1643 was held in Dorchester,“to be set on work, & wear such bolts or irons as may hinder his escape.” He died there after being confined for two years.

Samuel Gorton (1593–1677), was an early settler and civic leader of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and President of the towns of Providence and Warwick for one term. Having strong religious beliefs that were contrary to the established Puritan dogma and being very outspoken, he was frequently in trouble with the civil and church authorities in the New England colonies.

Gorton was a man of intense individualism who, according to Bicknell, recognized three pillars of power: “God, the Supreme One; the King, his vicegerent, and himself, the individual man. Between these he recognized no medium of interposition. The freedom of the individual was only limited by the express will of God or the King.”  In this context, his actions can be better understood. He was never punished for anything other than his opinions.  He and his followers held that “by union with Christ believers partook of the perfection of God, that Christ is both human and divine, and that Heaven and Hell exist only in the mind.”

Groton emigrated from England, settling first in Plymouth Colony where he was soon ousted for his religious opinions and his demeanor towards the magistrates and ministers. Settling next in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, he met with a similar fate, being whipped for his insubordination towards the magistrates. He next went to Providence, where he once again met with adverse circumstances until he and a group of others purchased land of the Indians, settling south of the Pawtuxet River in an area they called Shawomet, later named Warwick. Refusing to answer a summons following the complaints of two Indian sachems about being unfairly treated in a land transaction, Gorton and several of his followers were forcefully taken away to Massachusetts. Being tried for his beliefs and writings, rather than the original supposed infraction, Gorton was sentenced to prison in Charlestown, though all but three of the presideing magistrates voted to give him a death sentence.

The turbulence of his earlier history was the result of a disregard for existing law, because it was not based upon what he held to be the only legitimate source of power–the assent of the supreme authority in England. He denied the right of a people to self-government, and contended for his views with the vigor of an unrivalled intellect and the strength of an ungoverned passion.

He soon had differences of opinion on religion with his landlord, and in December 1638 he was summoned to court based on the latter’s complaints. In court Gorton “carried himself so mutinously and seditiously” towards both magistrates and ministers that he was sentenced to find sureties for his good behavior during the remainder of his tenure in Plymouth, and given 14 days to be gone from the colony. He left Plymouth shortly, and was in Portsmouth on Aquidneck Island (later named Rhode Island) where on the last day of April 1639 he and 28 others signed a compact calling themselves subjects of King Charles and forming a “civil body politick.”

Things did not go any better for Gorton in Portsmouth than they had in Plymouth. In 1640 his servant maid assaulted a woman whose cow had trespassed on his land, and this servant was ordered to court. Gorton refused to allow her to appear, and he went in her place. With his hostile attitude towards the judges, he was indicted on 14 counts, some of which were calling the magistrates “Just Asses,” calling a freeman in open court “saucy boy and Jack-an-Apes,” and when Governor Coddington said, “all you that own the King take away Gorton and carry him to prison” Gorton replied, “all you that own the King take away Coddington and carry him to prison.” Since he had previously been imprisoned, he was sentenced to be whipped, and soon left Portsmouth for Providence.

After a few months Gorton was released from confinement, but banished from Massachusetts and his home settlement of Shawomet, which was claimed by Massachusetts. He and several of his followers soon sailed to England where he spent four years, writing and publishing a book about his Shawomet experience, but more importantly obtaining an official order of protection for his colony from the Earl of Warwick. Once back in New England, with his settlement of Shawomet (now called Warwick) secure, Gorton became a part of the civil authority that he had previously rejected, serving as assistant to the president, commissioner, deputy, and president of the two towns of Providence and Warwick. He served in civic roles over a period of 20 years until he was in his late 70s.

Mrs. Margaret Weston, in Jun 1637, was sued with her husband by William Pester for defamation. She accused the pastors of the church of hypocrisy, and was in turn accused of disorderly carriage by the church. On Jun 05, 1638, she was sentenced by the General Court to be set in the bilboes, two hours in Boston, and two hours in Salem upon a lecture day. She was also a follower of Samuel Gorton, whose religious beliefs differed with those of the authorities, and was also banished to Rhode Island. She later became “of hopelessly unsound mind.”

John lived a troubled life. Emmigrating to Salem at the age of 27, he married into the Weston family, which was embroiled with the local authorities over theology. His father in law was banished and later died in prison for his heretical teachings. His mother in law went mad and his wife, faced with arrest, was forced to recant shortly before she died.

In 1644, the year his father-in-law was banished, his mother and brother died and John Pease sold his property in Salem and ‘fled’ to Martha’s Vineyard, becoming one of the original settlers. There he remarried and peaceably raised a second family until he joined in the rebellion against the autocratic rule of Governor Thomas Mayhew in 1673.

When the Dutch temporarily recaptured New York in 1673, open rebellion broke out and lasted until the English re-won New York and restored the authority of the Mayhews on the island. The old patriarch died in 1682 at eight-nine. Nine years later the political rule of the family ended when Martha’s Vineyard was annexed by Massachusetts after the Glorious Revolution in England, but the problem of manorial tenancy remained. Some of the Mayhews clung to the “pleasant fiction” of their manorial rights almost until the American Revolution and received token quit rents as late as 1732. Feudalism lingered on Martha’s Vineyard much longer than the rest of the colonies.

In the wake of reprisals by the Governor following his reestablishment of authority, John Pease left Martha’s Vineyard for the mainland, probably for Portsmouth, NH, although it is not known for sure when or where he died.

There is a traditional story with variations of John Pease as follows: About seven to ten years before the 1641 purchase of the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket by Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, MA, a vessel from England on the way to Carolina landed on the island. (Another account was that the boat was headed for Port Penn in the Delaware). The boat anchored at what is now known as Starbuck’s Neck near the present site of Edgartown. John Pease, a passenger of the vessel, was in the British Military, and was wearing his uniform which consisted of the traditional red coat. A band of Indians greeted the landing party, and Pease, as a sign of peace, offered the Chief, his coat. The Sachem was so grateful, he offered the new arrivals, a large section of land which now includes Edgartown. While the rest of the passengers continued south, John Pease, William Vinson, Thomas Trapp and Malachi Browning decided to settle on Martha’s Vineyard, and built caves for the first winter in a place called Green Hollow. As the settlement grew, and more settlers arrived, John Pease kept all transactions, including the original gift of the land in a book, known as the “Black Book” because of the color of it’s cover. When John died, two men went into his house, and stole the book, never to be seen again. The present day town records of Edgartown in preserved books contain dates before the record keeper transcribed them. It is supposed that some of these events were copied from the “Black Book” before it was destroyed. Without the records in the book, the Pease family lost the titles to their land. In 1853, George Cleveland, a farmer was tilling his land, and came upon the ruins of three separate underground rooms that were large enough for living quarters. The ruins were a short distance from the center of Edgartown, and near a road which is now called Pease’s Point Way. These sites were supposedly the caves that those mentioned above spent the first winter in.

The legend can almost certainly be proven not true because of the dates of the “landing party”. Port Penn did not come into existence until after 1682; the early Pease family did not dispute any land claims with any other settler of the island; John Pease himself was in Salem from 1634 until at least 1644, although he may have visited the island after settling in Salem; and there is no evidence that he was in the British military. The earliest settlers of most areas probably did spend at least their first few months in caves or crude shelters, as building lumber was not an available commodity. There were pageants on Martha’s Vineyard with scenes of early settler stories put on display by contemporary actors. The “Red Coat” story was one of more popular acts.

Timeline

3 Nov 1635, Salem court record: “Ordered that John Pease shalbe whipt and bound to his good behaviour for strikeing his mother [in law] Mrs. Weston & deryding of her & for dyvers other misdemeanors & other evell carriages” (Mass. Col. Records, I, 155) Weston’s fanatic beliefs, and carrying on must have been too much for her son-in-law, as it appears he took matters into his own hands

1637, Salem: mentioned as having land in the early Salem Town Record. “Robert Pease and his brother”

23 April 1638, Salem: granted “five acres of land next adjoining to Samuell Cominge neer unto the watermill”

18 June 1644, Salem: sold his house and 75 acres of land to his neighbor, Richard Ingersoll. //His father in law being arrested in 1643, his wife arrested and/or recanting her ‘heretical views’, his mother and brother dying in 1644, all make his removal to Martha’s Vineyard in 1645 understandable

23 March 1646/47 –  Edgartown: sold ten acres of land at Mattakeeset to John Bland. On Martha’s Vineyard, John owned a house lot of ten acres of upland and two acres of meadow at the north end of the town of Great Harbor. When the home lots were distributed, he drew the first in present day Edgartown at a place now known as Pease’s Point, and a street to the south of this land is Pease Point Way.

After the sale of his Mattakeeset property in 1647 to John Bland, he moved to Norwich, CT, where he purchased land that he retained until his death, bequeathing it to John Junior. His home lot was bequeathed to son Thomas.  John was one of the founders of Norwich.

NORWICH, MASSACHUSETTS
Norwich was settled in 1660. Most of these original proprietors of Norwich came from Saybrook, and East Saybrook (now Lyme). The 35 original proprietors of that town were:

Reverend James FITCH, the first minister
Major John MASON, afterwards Lieut. Gov. of Connecticut
Lieut. Thomas Leflingwell
Lieut. Thomas Tracy and
his eldest son John Tracy
Deacon Thomas Adgate
Christopher Huntington and
his brother, Deacon Simon Huntington
Ensign Thomas Waterman
William Hyde and
his son Samuel Hyde, and
his son-in-law John Post
Thomas Post
Lieut. William Backus and
his brother Stephen Backus
Deacon Hugh Calkins (from New London, CT, and
his son John Calkins (from New London, CT) and
his son-in-law Jonathan Royce (from New London, CT)
John REYNOLDS
Thomas Bliss
Francis Griswold
John Birchard
Robert Wade
Morgan Bowers
John Gager (from New London, CT)
Thomas Howard
Dr. John Olmstead
Nehemiah SMITH (from New London, CT)
Richard Edgerton
John Elderkin
John Bradford (from Marshfield, MA)
Thomas Bingham
Robert Allen (from New London, CT)
John Baldwin
John Pease (Son of  Robert PEASE Sr.) (from New London, CT and Edgartown)
Thomas Smith (from Marshfield, MA)

1650, New London, CT – Evidently involved in land transactions here. Probable that in these years he was involved in some land transactions in Connecticut before returning to the Vineyard.  John Senior returned to the island before Mar 05, 1653 when he was involved in a land suit. On Nov 07, 1653, he was elected constable, and served on a jury Sep 25, 1677.  Little record of him in the next twenty years, although he acquired a good deal of land and scattered lots on the Vineyard. Evidently lived first at Mattakeeset and then on the first lot of the Five and Twenty, situated at the north end of town at the place ever since known as Pease’s Point (land which eventually was sold to Hannah Mayhew Daggett in 1692)

4 March 1674: will (Dukes Deeds, I, 340) Evidently left the island following the dispute with Governor Mayhew. Not known when or where he died, but it is highly likely it was at Portsmouth, NH, as that is where his widow remarried. He died sometime between Sept. 1677 and June 3, 1689, when his widow disposed of her interests in his estate.

His will is dated Mar 04, 1674. Excerpts: “…me John Peas, husbandman and inhabitant uppon Martins Vineyard…being now in some measure in good health…am stricken in years and Crasy in respect of what formerly … give to my Eldest Son James Peas twelve pence…my second son John Peas…all that was given to me at Mohegin, with that frame of a house…(to the rest of the children)…all my landes and houseing that I have upon this land Martins Vineyard to be either equally devided or valued or sold or exchanged and the price thereof Equally devided to everyone of them…my now living wife Mary shall see meet whome I make my full and whole Executrix… and I give unto Mary Peas my wife all my cattle of every sort with all my household goodes whatsoever… in witness hereunto my hand and seal. ” The will was witnessed by Thomas Birchard, Kathrin Birchard, and Thomas Trappe.

Sources: Ancestry.com http://www.spicerweb.org/genealogy/pease/peaseregisterlegacy.aspx#c6002 Genealogical and family history of southern New York and the Hudson River Valley : a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the building of a nation (1914) By: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934

A genealogical and historical record of the descendants of John Pease, Senior  by Rev. David Pease and Austin Pease 1869

http://peasesawyer.com/Pease/PeaseDescendants.html

http://history.vineyard.net/pease.htm