Fellow geneablogger Amy Johnson Crow of No Story Too Small has issued the
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge. Basically, we have to post something every
week on a different ancestor, whether a story, picture, or research problem. For
this prompt I've tried to concentrate on ancestors I haven't researched as much
as I have others in my family tree, This week I'm writing about my 10 x great grandfather
Thomas Harris.
Thomas is one of my immigrant English ancestors who settled in Charlestown near
Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. My connection with him is through his
daughter Ann/Anna who married my ancestor Elias Maverick. I found the following
information about him in a Harris family genealogy written by William Samuel Harris:
Thomas Harris and his wife Elizabeth were among the early emigrants from England to Massachusetts. Thev were in Charlestown, Mass., in 1630. After the death of Thomas his widow married, 2, Dea. William Stilson, of Charlestown, and died Feb. 16, 1670. In 1680 Dea. Stilson testified that Thomas Harris kept the ferry from Boston to Winnisimet (now Chelsea) and Charlestown, 49 years before, and that he (Dea. S.) married the widow of Thomas Harris and continued the ferry. This is the oldest ferry in the United States-Thomas and Elizabeth Harris had sons Anthony and William, and Anthony in his will, in 1651, mentions brothers Daniel and Thomas, and brother-in-law Elias Maverick, who married his sister Ann.
John, Thomas, and William Harris were among the first settlers of Rowley, Essex Co., Mass., in 1644, and Daniel came soon after; each had a two-acre house-lot laid out to him. The lots being of two acres each, shows that they were all men of property and importance. These four house-lots were all adjoining each other, which would indicate that they may have been brothers: and Daniel and William were certainly brothers.
It is very probable that all the following early settlers of New England were Thomas and Elizabeth Harris's
CHILDREN. BORN IN ENGLAND.
1. Anthony, of Boston, Mass.. was son of Thomas and Elizabeth; belonged Ui the artillery company,1644; was in Ipswich. 1648: died in Chelsea. Mass.. 1651: mentions no children in his will.
2. Daniel, of Rowley. Mass.. about 1645, is supposed to have been the brother of Anthony. About 1652 he removed to Middletown. Conn., and died 1701. lie had ten children, the oldest born in 1651.
3. John, of Rowlev. Mass.. in 1644; may have come from London in 1635. aged 28. He is supposed to have been brother of Anthony. He had six children [see page 18, foot-note]: died in Rowley. 1695.
4. Thomas, of Ipswich. Mass.. in is supposed to have been the brother of Anthony, Hie married, 1647. Martha Lake: died 1687. He was the ancestor of the Harrises mentioned in this book. See Chapter II.
5. William, of Charlestown. Mass.. in 1642, was the brother of Anthony and Daniel, and was probably brought in youth to Massachusetts by his parents,He had five daughters, the second born in 1646, he afterwards removed to Middletown. Conn., and died in 1717.
6. Ann. the sister of Anthony, married Elias Maverick before 1651.
-pp7-8 The Harris Family: Thomas Harris in Ipswich, Mass, in 1636, and Some of His Descendents, Through Seven Generations, to 1883 (Google eBook) Barker & Bean,
Nashua N.H. 1883
An entry for John Maverick on page 1242 of The Great Migration Begins says Elias
Maverick, John Maverick's son, married Anna Harris, daughter of Thomas Harris of
Charlestown sometime before 1635.
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