Thomas SEARLE (1572 – 1631) was Alex’s 12th Great Grandfather;  one of 8,192 in this generation of the Miner line.

Thomas Searle Coat of Arms

Thomas Searle was born in 1572 Ottery St Mary, Devon, England.  His parents were Thomas SEARLE and [__?__].  He married Agnes [__?__].  Thomas died 18 Jul 1631 Ottery, Devon, England.

Agnes [__?__] was born 1576 in Ottery St Mary, Devon, England. Agnes died 19 May 1630 in Oltery St Mary, Devon, England

Children of Thomas and Agnes:

xxx

Children

Joanna, John, Andrew and Edward Searle are believed to have come from Co.Warwick, and arrived in New England in 1634

1. Joanna SEARLE (See William WARRINER‘s page)

(There is no Joanna Scant, it’s Searle. The name was misread by early researchers and recognized as such by Savage as early as 1847 in the Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England.)

2. John Searle

The best evidence that Joanna’s maiden name was Searle, is that her husband, William, was given a legacy in the will (21 Dec 1641 at Springfield, Hampden Co., Mass.) of her brother, John Searle.

“First I give to my brother-in-law William Warriner my best coate & my cullord hatt: & whereas in some reckinges betwixt him and me he owes me betwixt three and fower poundes: if he pays fortie shillinges thereof I am content that all the rest shall be remitted.”

John wife Sarah Baldwin was born 1621 in England. Her parents were Richard Baldwin and Isabell Harding.  She had come from Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire, with her brothers to settle in Milford, Connecticut. John and Sarah’s marriage was the first marriage entry in the Springfield Records. After John died, she married 28 April 1642 in Springfield, Hampden, Mass. to  Alexander Edwards (___ – 1690)  Sarah died 3 Oct 1690 in Northampton, Hampshire, Mass.

The earliest New World record of John Searle is in the Town Records of Springfield, Mass., but the date of his arrival there is not certain He was not one of the eight signatories to the agreement to found the settlement in May 1636, nor did he sign the agreement with the Indians for the purchase of the land. John Searle was, however, the small town’s first constable.

20 Mar 1637 – John Searle and Richard Everitt were ordered to measure out 54 acres of ground for Mr William Pymcheon, and on September 3rd 1638 the inhabitants granted a house lot to John Searle himself. This lot was where the Union Depot is now.

William Pynchon was was an English colonist in North America best known as the founder of Springfield, Massachusetts was also a colonial treasurer, original patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the iconoclastic author of the New World’s first banned book. An original settler of Roxbury, Massachusetts, Pynchon became dissatisfied with that town’s notoriously rocky soil and in 1635, led the initial settlement expedition to Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, where he found exceptionally fertile soil and a fine spot for conducting trade. In 1636, he returned to officially purchase its land, then known as “Agawam.” In 1640, Springfield was officially renamed after Pynchon’s home village, now a suburb of Chelmsford in Essex, England — due to Pynchon’s grace following a dispute with Hartford, Connecticut‘s Captain John MASON over, essentially, whether to treat local natives as friends or enemies. (Pynchon was a man of peace and also very business-minded — thus he advocated for friendship with the region’s natives.) Pynchon’s stance led to Springfield aligning with the faraway government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony rather than the more geographically and ideologically compatible Connecticut Colony.

John and Sarah had only one child, John Searle Jr. John Searle Sr. died in 1641, and Sarah Baldwin then married Alexander Edwards.

Here is part of the will of John Searle Sr:

I John Searles being very sicke in body doe make my last will & testament in manner & fourme followings. First I give to my brother-in-law William Warriner my best coate & my cullord hatt: & whereas in some reckinges betwixt him and me he owes me betwixt three and fower poundes: if he pays fortie shillinges thereof I am content that all the rest shall be remitted: the rest of my estate I divide betwixt my wife (Sarah) & my child (John) equally: & I doe appoint that my wife shall have for use till my child come of the age of 20 yeares that portion belonging to my Sonn John Searle in consideration of his maintenance & education. Provided that before she marry again she shall give or in her behalf cause to be given sufficient security for the payment of my childes portion wch security shall be given to Mr. Moxon, my brother Tymothy Baldwin and Samuel Wright whom I doe intreat to be overseers for the performance of this my last will.”

Witnesses: Henry Smyth & Elitzur Holioake [Elizer Holyoke Wikipedia]

There was in this Will a clause to allow John’s widow, Sarah, to have use of his son’s portion until the latter reached the age of 20. However, she was required to give security if she married again, which she did in April 1642. In the marriage agreement, drawn up by Sarah and her new husband, Alexander Edwards, she gave security of £50 and he of £100 in the event of her early death.

Alexander Edwards came from a border town in Wales to Newtowne (Cambridge), MA about 1630. From Newtowne he came with the Rev. Thomas Hooker party in 1636 to the Connecticut river country and settled in what is now downtown Springfield, MA, his home lot being on the west side of Main street below State street.

The records indicate that in 1651 Alexander gave evidence in the witchcraft trial of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Parsons. (See John BLISS’ page for the story of the Parsons’ trial)

Alexander and Sarah came to Northampton, MA in 1655 and were among the original settlers there. They became prominent members of that community. The house and home lot of Alexander was the westerly one of two located on Main street between Pleasant and Hawley streets. The house was of logs. Here he lived for five or six years when he sold out and moved to the present [1910] site of Plymouth Inn.

Here he opened a street now called Green street to and beyond Mill river which was crossed by fording for many years. Today Green Street is within the boundaries of Smith College. By vote of the town he was allowed to maintain a gate at the entrance to the road so that he may cultivate his land. The ford and later a bridge were called “Welch End” since the Edwards family were all living in that vicinity and were Welchmen originally. The laying out of this street is the first recorded layout in the town and upon it was maintanined a grist mill.

Alexander was part owner of the mill and an old record indicates that in 1662 he contributed eight pounds of flax to Harvard College.

Alexander died September 4, 1690 along with 48 other members of the town in the epidemic of “Agues and Fevers” during the winter of 1690-91. Sarah died on October 3, 1690.

Sarah had eight children by Alexander Edwards; in 1655 the family, including John Searle junior, now aged 14, moved to Northampton, Mass.

It is not until John(2) reached adulthood that he appears in the records. He was made a Freeman in Northampton in 1668, and took the Oath of Allegiance there in 1678. In 1667 he married Ruth Janes, and they had four children, only one of whom survived, and Ruth also died in the fourth child’s birth. Of the surviving children, John(3) more follows later, but first, more is known of John(2).

After Ruth’s death in 1672, John(2) married Mary North (in 1675). They had seven children: James, Mary, Ebenezer, Ruth, Sarah, Nathaniel, and Lydia. The three sons all had issue, 5, 7, and 12 children respectively, spreading the Searle population of the Colony. In 1700, John(2) moved his family to Pascommuck, Mass., a place which was shortly to have painful memories for him. He made his Will in 1712, leaving property to James and Nathaniel, and £5 to the latter, “providing he don’t marry with Priscilla Webb”. Less than a year later, Nathaniel married Priscilla, and John(2) came to an agreement about his estate. He died in 1718.

Amongst the first settlers in Pascommuck (now Easthampton), were John(2) Searle and his second wife, Mary, with their large family. The only surviving son of his first marriage, John(3), was now thirty, married to Abigail (Pomeroy), and had a family.

At daybreak on the 13th May, 1704, a combined attack was made on Pascommuck by the French and their Indian allies. There was no watch at the garrison, and although the house of Benoni Jones was fortified, the Indians were able to creep up, put their guns through the port-holes, and fire on the sleeping inhabitants. In the ensuing massacre, John(3) Searle and three of his four children (Abigail, 6; John, 4; and Caleb, 18 months) were killed. John’s wife, Abigail was dragged off, but when the Indians discovered that she was pregnant, and would not survive the journey to Canada, they knocked her on the head, and left her for dead. Fortunately, she was not scalped (as was another survivor!) but was rescued and four months later gave birth to John’s fifth child, a girl named Submit.

The remaining child of John(3) and Abigail, nine-year-old Elisha, also survived the Massacre, but was captured by the Indians. Seeing that the Indians were systematically murdering the children, Elisha grabbed a pack, and ran off. At this, the Indians decided he might be useful, and recaptured him and took him off to Canada, where he was adopted by a French family, and brought up as a Catholic.

Benoni Jones, [who had been indentured as a young man to our ancestor  Lt. William CLARK ] and his two youngest children were also killed.

Years later Elisha Searle returned to Pascommuck to claim his inheritance but not intending to stay. With him came an Indian guide, but the local people persuaded Elisha to remain in Pascommuck, and after some months the Indian returned to Canada alone. Elisha married a local girl, Rebecca Danks, and had six children, one of whom he called Catherine, in remembrance of a French girl, his “Katreen”, who he had left behind in Canada.

1704 Pascommuck Monument

In Easthampton, Mass. (formerly Pascommuck), there stands a boulder  recording the 1704 Massacre, in which 19 of the 33 people there were killed. From this account it must be assumed that John (2) Searle, and the rest of his family escaped the attack, or were outside the area chosen by the attackers.

3. Andrew Searle

Andrew Searle had grant of land in Kittery Maine in 1665. He is frequently mentioned till 1687. His son John married Mary, dau. of John and Julian Green before 1675 and lived in the southern part of Berwick. They had a son John who was of Portsmouth, N. H., in 1707 and seems to have been of Townshend, Mass., in 1736, for July 8th of that year he sold to Bial Hamilton all right to a grant made to his grandfather. Andrew Searle, in Rerwick, in 1665.

Court records show: Mr. Andrew Searle witnessed with Sarah (daughter of Walter) Abbot in 1662, and against her in Feb 1663/64, at which time he gave his age as 50.  He was witness for Captain Thomas Harvey in 1663 and again in 1670.  In 1667, he was a surety for Francis Morgan and foreman of grand jury.  He gave testimony in a court case in 1671, and was often a witness or appraiser of estates up to 1687.

Land records show he witnessed a Spencer family deed in 1662 in Kittery, and had a land grant there in 1685 – ‘either 50 acres beneath Quamhegan, if to be found, or 70 acres above Salmon Falls.’  Part of this he sold to Zachariah Nock, Jr., and Searle and Neale descendants sold more to the Hamilton and Sullivan families.

Probate records show: In 1667 he witnessed Humphrey Chadbourne’s will; in 166 the inventory of John Lovering’s estate was taken by John Wincoll, Roger Plaisted, and Mr. Andrew Searle; in 1674 he witnessed Abraham Conley’s will; and he administered John Green’s estate 1681-2, with his son John Searle as bondsman.  These were autograph signatures.

He was an educated man, and was chosen clerk of the writs in 1668.  He was accountant at the Isle of Shoals in 1670 for Richard Endle.  In 1668, he signed Major Shapleigh’s petition, read in the Council of London in 1680.  He also signed the petition of Maine men, about 1679, for direct government, complaining that Massachusetts suppressed freedom of religion.”

4. Edward Searle

Perhaps Edward married Margaret or Joan, not both.

Edward’s first wife Margaret Doe was born 12 Nov 1615 in Cranfield, Shitlington, England. Margaret died 13 Jul 1664 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.

Edward’s second wife Joan Calverly was born 1625 in Warwick, Warwickshire, England

20 Jul 1671 – Edmund Calverly deeded 50 acres in Mashantatack for “love and affection to my brother-in-law, Edward Searle, late of Warwick, but now of Mashantatuck, as also for love and affection, I have his wife, Joan Searle, now in Old England, at present.”  He provided that Edward Searle and his wife should jointly enjoy estate for life, and at death to descend to Edward Searle’s younger son Edward, and to John White, son of the said Joan Searle, now in England with his mother.  If Joan Searle and her son by 1st husband, refused to accept their part, it was to go at decease of Edward Searle, the elder, to his son Edward, and Ann, the wife of the latter and their heirs.

Sources:

http://josfamilyhistory.com/htm/nickel/griffin/sheldon/noble/noble-warriner.htm#wm-3

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=33430308&st=1