In my never-ending quest to explore my
ancestral roots, I recently became aware of a new book which had been
published about my mother's Pierpont genealogy. This book, written in
2007 by Helen Schatvet Ullmann, was titled “The Pierponts of
Roxbury, Massachusetts. This is very thoroughly researched book –
one indication of which is the over 1200 footnotes showing the source
of the facts contained therein.
Those of us in the Pierpont Family
Association, of which I am privileged to be the co-historian, are
often focused on two aspects of our family tree. The first aspect is
knowing the roots of the tree and being able to trace our lineage
back to the origin of the family name in Norman times, ie before
1066. The second aspect is our connections to each others, all of us
having a common ancestry in Rev. James Pierpont of New Haven, CT.
Indeed, our family reunion each year (with having met continuously
since 1924 and nearing our 100th anniversary) nearly
always takes place in southern Connecticut.
In contrast, this book covers a part of
our family tree that we often forget, ie the descendants of the first
immigrants of our family who remained in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, and who lived primarily in the community of Roxbury, MA. A
sentence from the preface of this book says it well:
“It also became
apparent that the Pierponts – very often spelled 'Pierpoint' –
who remained in Roxbury were only sketchily treated in the
genealogical literature, including some manuscript material... Hence
the present volume, which focused on the Roxbury lines. I leave it to
others to pursue and document both the English connections and the
descendants of the Reverend James Pierpont of New Haven, Connecticut.
Except for possible descendants of #42 Thomas Pierpont, an
illegitimate son who went to Illinois, and descendants of the
adoptive son, #83 Robert Pierpont (born as John Murdock), who died in
Maine, the Pierponts who remained in Roxbury have 'daughtered out.'
Nevertheless, those daughters have produced a great many descendants
and are often followed here for a generation.”
This book covers six generations of the
Pierpont family tree, with generation one being James, the father of
John and Robert who also came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. I have
not yet explored all the information in the later generations as my
first time reading the book I was looking at two aspects of the
Pierpont family.
Immigration Timeline
First, I wanted to see if there was
additional information to indicate when the Pierpont family first
immigrated. They are not listed in “The Great Migration Directory”
which catalogs all those who came between 1620 and 1640. In (*1), I
noted that James is shown as immigrating in 1646 and his sons in
1648.
This book lists a considerable number
of documents showing that both John and Robert were here in 1648 –
including property purchases and a number of other business
transactions. But the sheer number of documents seems inconsistent
with someone who had only recently arrived. It appears that they had
been living in Ipswich as several of the transactions were for their
buying property in Roxbury to support their moving from one town to
the other.
There is also a reference to The
Hammatt Papers: Early Inhabitants of Ipswich Massachusetts where
it is says “1639-40. Agreed with James Pearpoynt to keep the herd
on the South side of the river, - for himself and son.” This seems
to support the idea that the family had arrived prior to 1640. But
this is the only such reference. So, at least for now, we only know
that the arrival of the Pierpont family was no later than 1648.
Family Connections
In an earlier blog (*2), I noted that
the Pierpont family were members of the 1st Church of
Roxbury as were a number of other families who are part of my family
tree. But were there other non-church connections between these
families?
I have not been able to find out how
many people lived in Roxbury during that period of time. However, the
total number of immigrants to the Massachusetts Bay Colony between
1620 and 1640 was about 20,000. But this included
individuals/families who settled in towns up and down the coast,
including those who moved along to other places such as Rhode Island
and Connecticut. One reference put the number of people living in
Boston in 1640 as about 1200. Boston at the time was a peninsula
jutting out into the bay and Roxbury was just to the south of Boston
between it and Dorchester. So I suspect that Roxbury had a population
of about that same size, ie 1000-2000 people.
The Pierpont family were fairly
prominent, owning several pieces of property. Roxbury land records of
the time listed six separate properties, including 253 of the 4000
acres alloted to the entire town that John inherited from his
father-in-law, John Stowe. John and Robert also owned several mills
and both John and Robert were elected as selectman for several years,
so they would have interacted with most prople of significance in the
town.
Some of the names of individuals listed
in this book with whom the Pierpont had business dealings were:
William Fellows, John Ruggles, Richard Woody, Abraham Newell, John
Alcock, Isaac Morrell, John Johnson, Tobias Davis, Isaack Heath,
William Curtiss, John Eliot, William Parke, William Cheney, Hugh
Clerke, Hugh Prichard, and Martin Stebbins. I have previously
mentioned Parke, Alcock, Eliot, and Ruggles in (*2) and (*3).
This is a fascinating a fact-filled
book to read and I have only scratched the surface. And it gives a
level of insight to my Pierpont ancestors that greatly increases my
knowledge of them.
Notes:
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