Thomas Tolman ( ) of Dorchester, Massachusetts

Transcription

1 Thomas Tolman ( ) of Dorchester, Massachusetts By Richard L. Tolman, Ph. D. This work is prompted by the fact that so many histories of this man and this time period have been published that are incomplete or contain incorrect lineages with deficient or absent sources. A published genealogy without sources moves to terminate discussion and does not allow errors or discrepancies to be identified. My objective here is to document the truth as it may exist today and to identify that which can be disproven so as to provide a more complete and accurate descendency. The best of these genealogies are these (most have only a partial descendency of Thomas Tolman, b. 1608): Black, Harrison The Ancestry of Frances Maria Goodman ( ) (hereafter Goodman) 1, Mower, Lyman The Ancestry of Calvin Robinson Mower (hereafter Mower) 2, Sumner, Edith Bartlett The Ancestry of Edward Wales Blake and Clarissa Matilda Glidden (hereafter Blake-Glidden) 3, Tolman Genealogy The Register, Vol. 14 (1860), pp (poorly sourced, hereafter The Register) 4, Tolman, Gerald Lee for the Thomas Tolman Family Genealogy Center The Descendants of Thomas Tolman (1608), 2006 edition, (no primary sources, hereafter TTFGC) 5. All except TTFGC have the birthplace of Thomas Tolman b as Salcombe Regis, Devonshire and emigration from England in 1630 on the Mary and John, but both birth and emigration are unsubstantiated by primary sources. Some of the difficulties which have allowed errors to be published came from the fact that Thomas Tolman was presumed to have emigrated from England on the Mary and John in 1630, 6 but his name is not found on any extant passenger list. The Dorchester colonists in the 1 Black, Harrison M.D. The Ancestry of Frances Maria Goodman ( ) (Boston, MA: Newbury Street Press, 2001), pp Mower, Lyman The Ancestry of Calvin Robinson Mower ( ) (Salem, MA: Higginson, 2004), pp Sumner, Edith Bartlett Ancestry of Edward Wales Blake and Clarissa Matilda Glidden with Ninety Allied Families (Los Angeles, CA: E. B. Sumner, 1948), 7, 85, , Tolman Genealogy Compiled by materials furnished by members of the family, The Register, vol. 14 (1860), pp Tolman, Gerald Lee The Descendants of Thomas Tolman (1608), 2006 edition, typescript; FHL: T584t 2006 v.1 and online at FamilySearch.org. 6 Spear, Burton W. Search for the Passengers of the Mary and John 1630, vol. 9, Terry thru Wolcott (Toledo, OH: Burton Spear, 1987), pp deadpeople.com Page 1

2 Massachusetts Bay Colony signed a covenant at their church, the First Church of Dorchester in Thomas Tolman signed the covenant too (he signed it Thomas Touleman, giving rise to one of the alternate spellings common in early records). However, he signed it in the addendum in 1636, 7 which probably means he wasn t there to sign it in Hence, Robert Charles Anderson 8 and his coauthors correctly do not include Thomas Tolman in The Great Migration, Salcombe Regis in Devonshire is often published as Thomas Tolman s birthplace as many of the Mary and John emigrants came from southern England. Most notably, Captain Roger Clap, a Mary and John emigrant, and an acquaintance of Thomas Tolman who was born in Salcombe Regis [his gdau Experience Clap married Thomas Tolman s gson Samuel Tolman in 1704 and his ggniece Hannah Clap married Thomas Tolman s ggson John Tolman in 1734]. There is a much cited report by Anna Maria (Tolman) Pickford 9 that the Salcombe Regis parish registers have a Thomas Tolman b and that there is an actual record of his immigration on the Mary and John in 1635, but none of these claims have been able to be verified despite many exhaustive searches by several different researchers. Ebenezer Clap s History of the Town of Dorchester places Thomas Tolman as one of the second group of emigrants in The First Church of Dorchester was able to convince a prominent puritan minister at Toxteth Park, Liverpool, Richard Mather, to emigrate and become their new congregational leader. He arrived on the James from Bristol on 13 Aug 1635 and with him came many of his Lancashire congregation (100 passengers) 11 which presumably included Thomas Tolman and his wife Sarah. Thomas Tolman probably emigrated to Dorchester ; there is no proof that he actually came with Richard Mather on the James. Examination of the Lancaster parish registers (Toxteth Park is in the Lancaster parish) revealed a son Thomas, 12 born to Issabel Towlming and Roger Parkenson in Lancaster, 7 First Church (Dorchester, Mass.) Records of the First Church of Dorchester, (Boston: G. H. Ellis, 1891), p 4. 8 Anderson, Robert Charles The Mary and John: Developing Objective Criteria for a Synthetic Passenger List The Register, vol. 137 (1993), pp and The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England (Boston: NEHGS, 1995-). 9 Pickford, Ann Maria (Tolman) Needham Branch of the Tolman Family in Dedham Historical Register, vol. V, pp (1894); there are a number of following articles in vol. V and VI which delineate the descendants of Thomas Tolman s gson Thomas (md. Experience Clap). 10 Clap, Ebenezer History of the Town of Dorchester (Boston, MA: Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society, 1859), pp ; and online at Ancestry.com. 11 Blake, James Annals of the Town of Dorchester, Number Two (Boston: David Clap, Jr., 1846), p. 13; there came with Richard Mather a Great Number of Godly people (100 passengers). 12 Parish Registers for St. Mary s Church, Lancaster, Baptisms ; FHL British Film , item 9 29deadpeople.com Page 2

3 Lancashire on the 9 th day of the twelfth month of 1608 (Lancaster is 40 miles north of Liverpool in Lancashire). Issabel was born in 1588 in Lancaster to William and Elizabeth Towlminge. 13 All this clearly hangs together pretty well and is consistent with the known references of the period. TTFGC prefers another set of Somerset parents for Thomas, but if you can go along with Ebenezer Clap that Thomas Tolman was part of the second wave of emigrants, then it becomes an unnecessary reach to say he comes from Somerset and a Lancashire origin is much more likely. Many of the second wave who came with Mr. Mather and who married Tolmans were also from Lancashire notably the Brecks and the Blakes. Most of the difficulty with this time period comes from the fact that there are few reliable records. The early records were largely destroyed when the Thomas Millet house burned in The City of Boston records are only a transcript and have been largely reconstructed, hence there are many omissions and many errors. For example, there are 3 birth dates for Hannah Tolman, daughter of Thomas, in 1638, 1640 and One has to believe the 1638 birth as her death record in 1729 indicates her to be 91 yrs. Black presents a good argument that the 1642 birth record is actually the birth record of her brother John (christened 2 mos. later). Maybe there was another Hannah born in 1640, but why would the parents name another child Hannah if the 1638 Hannah was still alive? So I think we have to conclude the 1640 date is spurious. Generation 1 1. Thomas Touleman/Tolman was probably born 6 Dec 1608 at Lancaster, Lancashire, England. 14 He was christened 9 Dec the same year and died 18 Jun 1690 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. Thomas married (1) Sarah abt 1631 in England; she died 15 7 Nov 1677 in Dorchester. Thomas and Sarah Tolman probably had seven children The Lancashire line was first discovered and published by genealogist Loa Dawn Glade in the Thomas Tolman Family Newsletter September 1992, pp Parish Registers for St. Mary s Church, Lancaster, Baptisms ; FHL British Film , item Katherine Tolman death, 1677: --probably an error, should be Sarah. There is no mention of a Katherine Tolman, wife of Thomas except in Torrey, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004); there is no marriage record or any other record for a Katherine (Torrey only mentions the 1677 death date) and no other death date for Sarah. 16 Much of what follows is identical to that presented in TTFGC with the addition of some sources. 29deadpeople.com Page 3

4 2 i. THOMAS TOLMAN, born 1 May 1633 of Lancaster, Lancashire, England; died 12 Sep 1718 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. He married 4 Nov 1664 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts Elizabeth Johnson daughter of Richard and Alice Johnson. She was born 1638 of Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts and died 14 Dec 1726 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. (5 children) 3 ii. SARAH TOLMAN, born abt 1636 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 8 Jun 1690 at Canton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. She married 18 Mar 1858/9 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Henry Leadbetter son of Increase and Sarah (Davenport) Leadbetter. He was born in England and died 20 Apr 1722 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts; he married (2) 9 Mar 1691/2 at Dorchester Relief (Holland) (Howse) Foster as her third husband. 17 (8 children) 4 iii. HANNAH TOLMAN, born Jul 1638 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts and christened 27 Jul 1642 at Dorchester; died 4 Aug 1729 (at 91 yrs) 19 at Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. She married (1) 14 Dec 1661 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts George Lyon. He was born 2 Aug 1640 and died 6 Oct She married (2) 22 Nov 1693 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts William Blake of 17 Goodman, p and references cited therein. 18 Hannah birth 27 Jul 1640: Births, Marriages, deaths , Massachusetts, Town Clerk of Dorchester, Suffolk, FamilySearch online image 3/349 (accessed 9 Jun 2014); Hannah birth 27 May 1842: Dorchester Births, Marriages, Deaths to the end of 1825, A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1890), p A Record of Deaths in Dorchester, p. 190, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, , database-on-line at Ancestry.com (accessed 29 Apr 2014). 20 TTFGC; Cf. Blake-Glidden, p. 245 and Goodman, p. 495 (has parentage of George wrong). 29deadpeople.com Page 4

5 Dorchester. 21 He was christened 6 Sep 1620 at Pitminster, Somerset, England and died 26 Sep 1694 at Milton, Middlesex, Massachusetts. 22 (5 children, all from George). 5 iv. MARY TOLMAN, born abt 1640 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 14 Feb 1722/3 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts. She married 4 Nov 1664 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts Henry Collins son of Henry and Ann (Riall) Collins. 23 He was born 29 Oct 1629 (and christened 4 Nov 1629) at Stepney, St. Dunstan, Middlesex, England. 24 He died 14 Oct 1722 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts. 25 (7 children) 6 v. JOHN TOLMAN, born 8 Apr 1642 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts and christened Jul 1642 at First Church of Dorchester; died 27 1 Jan 1724/5 (at 82 yrs). He married (1) 4 Nov 1664 at Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts Elizabeth Collins 28 daughter of Henry and Ann (Riall) Collins of Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. She was born abt 1648 and died at Dorchester 7 Oct He married 30 (2) 15 Jun 1692 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Mary Breck a widow and daughter of Edward and Isabel (Rigby) Breck of Dorchester. 31 She was born 1648, was christened 13 Aug 1648 at Dorchester, Suffolk Massachusetts and died there 25 Aug 21 Stott, Clifford Humphrey Blake( ) and his Descendants in New England and South Carolina: Blake, Richards, Selleck, Torrey, and Wolcott The Register, vol 163 (2009), pp and references cited therein. 22 Ibid. and Blake, p. 7 and Register, Martino, C. and Lindberg, M. Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants The Essex Genealogist, vol. 10, no. 1 (Feb. 1990), pp ; Mower, p. 647 has husband Richard Collins with different parents, but no sources. 24 Martino, C. and Lindberg, M. Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants The Essex Genealogist, vol. 10, no. 1 (Feb. 1990), pp Henry Collins death (age 92): Massachusetts Town and Vital Records , online at Ancestry.com (accessed 3 Jun 2014). 26 Records of the First Church of Dorchester (Boston, MA: G. H. Ellis, 1891), 3 and Stott, Clifford L., Humphrey Blake and his Descendants.. The Register 163 (2009), pp Dorchester Inscriptions, p. 257, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, , Vol. 5 (1851) database-on-line at Ancestry.com (accessed 1 May 2014). 28 Not to be confused with Elizabeth Collins, b. 8 Apr 1648, Salem, Mass.; dau of Francis and Hannah (Cockerill) Collins of Salem, married William Reeves of Salem (cf Bowman/Sanders Family Tree, owner: GedMatch A072539, trees.ancestry.com/tree/ (accessed 4 Jun 2014). 29 Martino, C. and Lindberg, M. Henry Collins of Lynn and his Descendants The Essex Genealogist, vol. 10, no. 1 (Feb. 1990), pp and references therein; John Tolman is listed as the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Johnson) Tolman this is the wrong Thomas the authors cite The Register, which has it correct [it should be Thomas and Sarah Tolman; the Thomas who married Elizabeth Johnson is John s brother]. 30 Dorchester births, marriages, deaths: (Twenty-first report) A Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1891), p Willcox, Doris Schreiber Edward 1 Breck s Baptismal Record and Identification of his Daughter Blake The Register 164 (2010), pp and references cited therein. 29deadpeople.com Page 5

6 1720. She married (1) 9 Jan 1666/7 Samuel Paul who died 3 Nov 1690 (age 56) at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts. 32 (9 children all by Elizabeth) 7 vi. RUTH TOLMAN, born abt 1644 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 1 May 1681 at Dorchester. She married 7 Dec 1667 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Isaac Royall/Riall of Dorchester son of William and Phebe (Green) Royall. 33 He was born abt 1640 at North Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts and died 7 Jun 1729 at Boston, Suffolk. He married (2) Waitstill Spur. 34 (5 children) 8 vii. REBEKAH TOLMAN, born 6 Apr 1647 at Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 5 Mar 1684 at Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. She married abt 1671 at Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts James Tucker son of Robert and Elizabeth (Allen) Tucker. He was born 1647 of Dorchester and died 5 Mar 1717/8 (at 71 yrs) at Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts. 35 (6 children) 32 Ibid. and Dorchester Inscriptions, p. 257, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, , Vol. 5 (1851) database-on-line at Ancestry.com (accessed 1 May 2014). 33 Cf Goodman, p. 496 and references cited therein. 34 TTFGC; and Goodman and references cited therein. 35 Ibid. 29deadpeople.com Page 6