Captain John Ayres of Ipswich and Brookfield was not the son of John Ayres of Haverhill. I have carefully examined the deeds of Salem, and have careful copies of the town records of Ipswich and Haverhill, and these show that the mistake had been made by confounding two persons of the same name”. And so we are left without any definite leads as to the place of origin of the family prior to the immigration to New England. The first concrete fact we were able to associate with the family, is the appearance of the name of John Ayres in the early records of Ipswich. This appears in the year 1643, which indicates the approximate date of coming to Ipswich, but not necessarily exactly, since grants were frequently recorded sometime after they had been made. He was also listed as an inhabitant of Ipswich in 1648, and married Susanna, daughter of Mark Symonds of who’s (Mark Symonds) estate he was appointed administrator. In such capacity, on November 24, 1659, he sold a house and a three acre lot to another son-in-law of the deceased, Edward Chapman (Ipswich Deed 3:351). He was allowed the privilege of commonage in February 1667, and admitted a commoner at Ipswich in March of the same year. Captain John, as he was known at Ipswich, came to Quaboag Plantation before May 1667.
Source:West Brookfield Historical Commission: Meet the Planters - AYRES http://westbrookfield.org/historical-sites/quaboag-plantation/qp-ayres-john-12-49-37-am-2/ Researcher: Terry Owens
Continuing to look at the Susanna and Captain John Ayers children:
1) John Ayers III
2) Thomas Ayers,
3) Joseph
4) Susanna
5) Edward
6) Samuel
7) Mark
9) Nathaniel, my 7 times great grandfather
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| Modern day photo of site of Captain John Ayers' tavern, Quaboag (Brookfield) MA where the Indians burned the town |
OK, he did remarry and have children of his own, at appropriate ages!
First wife was Abigail Hovey Ayers, who died at 27 years and is buried in Boston, in the Ayers family plot. John and Abigail Ayers may have sheltered his younger siblings after fleeing the burned town of Quaboag, but who knows why they are still listed as his own!
His second wife was Mary Woodham Ayers (1648-1711) and they had 2 sons and 2 daughters. One daughter died the same year as her birth. Again there are records that confuse my genealogy, because there were other John Ayers in the line from Haverhill as well, where the one I am descended from didn't have clear lineage beyond his arrival at Ipswich, MA.
2.) Thomas Ayers (1652-1722) He married Hannah Errington in 1677, and they had 7 children of the records I've checked quickly, 5 girls and 2 boys. When I say I checked records quickly, I mean I noticed two were born in the same year, and only one of those had an exact date, so at this point I've not included the other one. I also see that most of them only have a birth date, and no death date given.
3.) Joseph John Ayers (1655-1740) He died in Brookfield (formerly Quaboag) MA, which tells us that he must have succeeded in reclaiming his father's land. He married Sarah Caldwell Ayers in 1677, she was one of 9 children. They had 6 children. When his wife died in 1710 he remarried to Hannah Lovell Ayers.
4) Susanna Ayers Waite (1656-1683) born and died in Ipswich. The only daughter of Captain John and Susanna, she died in her 20s, close to the same time her mother died. Actually one record gives her marriage the year after she died. (Here goes my hair again, tear tear tear) At least I found a hand written record of her marriage "Thomas Waite in 1677 to Susan Ayers in Ipswich." I do note that Susan isn't the same as Susanna, but so many women's names got garbled by scribes. Her husband pre-deceased her. We have no information about him, and there don't appear to have been any children, at least no records of any.
5.) Edward Ayers (1657- 1717 [or after 1720 and before 1723]) He also died in Portsmouth, NH, where his older brother, Thomas had died as well. The probate documents in 1723 indicate he was also a blacksmith (same as my ancestor, his youngest brother, Nathaniel). Edward's sons, John Ayers and John Cutt provided the inventory of his estate for the probate. However, the date of his death might have been closer to the probate documents. There's also a marriage in 1720 that might indicate he was still alive!
His first wife was Alice Elise Shapleigh Ayers. They may have had 8 children (as listed among duplicates on Ancestry). Alice may have been just 15 to his 20 years when they married. This is rather different than his older brothers who waited until they were in their mid 20s to marry. But the times may have been such that 1677 was a good year to marry. Alice did die in 1717, and there is a headstone in Point of Graves, Portsmouth, NH, and a broken one beside hers that is assumed to be Edward's. His second wife was Margaret Williams Ayers, who lived till 1734 and died in Ipswich.
6.) Samuel Ayers (1658-1713) I've noticed as I do this research that the birthdates seem pretty flexible for many of these cousins. So I'm not sure who was older than whom. When I originally started, both Edward and Samuel were listed as being born in 1658, but nothing indicated they were twins. And since then, a source gave me a birthdate for Edward in 1657. But I also now have Samuel noted as being born in 1657. Oh dear.
Samuel married also in 1677, to Abigail Fellows Ayers (1644-1714) who was quite a bit older than Samuel, if her birthdate is correct. One record gives her death date as 1723 rather than 1714. No one has been able to locate a grave for Samuel.
How many children they had is really debatable, and not something I'm willing to invest my time in today. It looks as if the first birth was twins, which included the only girl. Then there were 8 more possible births, according to Ancestry. Samuel's death was in Rowley, Essex County, MA, and his probate was in Nov. of 1713, so his death was sometime just before that.
7.) Mark Ayers (1661-1727 Mark married either in 1684 or 86 to Sarah Williams Ayers (1666-1728). They had a son named Mark Jr. born in 1682, then 3 more sons. No information came up on the first son, but the other 3 were born in Portsmouth, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. In 1689 Mark Sr. was listed as a Petitioner for Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I'm not really sure what that meant, but Ancestry lists it as a census data. Sarah lived a year after Mark, both of them also dying in Portsmouth. At least 2 of their sons were living beyond them.
8). Nathaniel Ayers (1664-1731) I already posted about Nathaniel and his wife, Amy Cowell Ferber Ayers (1657-1736) HERE.
There are quite a few Ayers graves here.
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Again there was a son born (Capt. Edward Ayers, 1685-1745) before the record of the marriage in 1686. Their second child (no others are listed at Ancestry) was Ami (Annie) Ayers Swasey born in 1687 (or perhaps 1683 or 1685)..who married Samuel Swasey.
This family also resided in Portsmouth NH, but Nathaniel was buried in Boston as the headstone attests, in Copp's Hill Burying Ground.
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