Alexander Wignall  (c. 1575 – c. 1640) was Alex’s 11th Great Grandfather; one of 4,096 in this generation of the Miller line.

Alexander Wignall Coat of Arms

The family of Alexander Wignall is speculative.  His sketch in The Great Migration Begins contains no reference to other family members.

The Great Migration Begins includes more than one thousand, one hundred sketches, each dedicated to a single immigrant or an immigrant family, arriving in New England between 1620 and 1633.  Each sketch contains information on the immigrant’s migration dates and patterns, on various biographical matters (including occupation, church membership, education, offices, and land holding), and on genealogical details (birth, death, marriages, children, and other associations by blood or marriage), along with detailed comments and discussion, and bibliographic information on the family.

Children of Alexander and [__?__]:

From Great Migration Begins:

1. Alexander came to Watertown, Massachusetts about 1628.

2. On October 19, 1630 Alexander asked for and on May 18, 1631 took the oath of Freeman of Massachusetts. In both lists his name has the prefix of “Mr.” showing respect. He was a either a scholar or property owner with his name next above Captain William Jennison who may have been associated with Alexander.

3. “The Great Migration Begins” doubts Alexander was the father of Elizab eth and considers him to be the same “Jno. Wignall a 1630 list of Charlest own inhabitants as included in the following:

“Jno. Wignall” is included in 1630 Charlestown list of inhabitan ts as one of four who “went & built in the main on the northeast side of the northwest creek of this town” [ ChTR 5]. In ne xt list, also for 1630, is Walter Pope, who “bought Jno. Wignall’s house & land” [ ChTR 6].

3 May 1631: “Alex: Wignall” on jury for Dexter vs. Endicott [ MBCR 1: 86].

18 May 1631: “Mr. Alex: Wignall” admitted as a freeman [ MBCR 1:366 ].

16 August 1631: “Mr. Alex: Wignall” fined five marks for drunkenness [ MBCR 1:91].

6 Sept. 1631: “Mr. Alex: Wignall is fined 40sh., bound to his good be havior, & enjoined to remove his dwelling to some settled plantation before the last of May next, for drunkenness & much misdeameanor by him committed at the plantation where he now dwelleth” [ MBCR 1:91].

2 July 1633: “Mr. Woolridge & Mr. Gibbons are appointed to join wi th Mr. Graves & Mr. Geneson to inventory the goods & chattels of Alex: Wignall” [ MBCR 1:106].

COMMENT: In the Charlestown records are two references to John Wignal l, and in the Colony records are five entries for Alexander Wignall, and nowhere else do we see this surname at this ea rly date. John Wignall is said to have “built on the main” with three others, WALTER NORTON, EDWARD GIBBONS and WILLIAM JENNINGS [i.e, JENNISON]. Alexander Wignall is seen in the Colony records interacting with this same group, especial ly at the time of the inventory of his estate. Note that the inventory record does not describe him as deceased as it does with ot hers, so he may simply have abandoned his land and goods, realizing that the Puritan commonwealth was not for him. (S ee GMN 2:3, 5-6, 5:32 for further discussion on these points.)

We conclude that all these records refer to one man, and that the Chr istian name given in the Colony records is to be preferred over that in the town records.

In 1935 Raymon Meyers Tingley published an undocumented account of Al exander Wignall, giving him two children – a son John (based on the records discussed above) and a daughter Elizabeth who m arried Richard Ingraham [ Tingley-Meyers 441]. Nothing is known about the wife of Richard Ingraham, and this whole construct ion apparently derived from Tingley’s imagination.

Children

1. Judith WIGNOL (See Reginald FOSTER‘s page)

2. Elizabeth Wignal

Elizabeth’s husband Richard Ingraham was born about 1600 in Barrowby, England. His parents were Arthur Ingraham (1576 – 1655) and Jane Mallory (1580 – ). After Elizabeth died, he married Joan Rockwell in 1668.  Richard died in August 1683 in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Sources: