Susanna Symonds Ayers family

Susanna Symonds Ayers, (1617-1683) daughter of Mark Symonds (1584-1659) and Susan Edgar Symonds (1588-16179
I spoke earlier this week about her father and mother, Susan Edgar Symonds. (HERE)

Actually most of what I wrote referred to her step mother Joanna Symonds.  And I did mention that over on Ancestry, Susan Edgar Symonds had been merged with her husband's other wife, Joanna Symonds, to be Susan Joanna Edgar Symonds.  No such person! One commentator/researcher is quoted who thought that there was only one wife, but his comments referred to another generation completely.

I admit I copied information glibly from Ancestry...and used the unknown combined names at least once here on my blog.  Shame on me.  But here's a bit of an edited version of one of the old posts.

And here's a good link for Susanna Symonds Ayers husband Captain John Ayers, and Here to learn about the battle of Quaboag MA where he died.

Back to mother Susan Edgar.  She had been born in 1588 in Birch, Essex, England to Joseph Edgar (1565-1694) and his wife (maybe named Ann).  There is also a record of a Joanna Edgar, whose father was Joseph Edgar, but I'm waiting for more to say that she was Susan's sister. Apparently Susan married Mark Symonds in either 1609 in England, or 1612 in New England.  Her first child, Susan was born and died in 1610 in France or England.  Their next daughter Mary Symonds was born in Ipswich, Essex County, MA.  And their third one, Susanna was born in 1617 in Hull Yorkshire, England.  OK, there are some probable impossibilities here.

There were ships going back and forth to New England from old England regularly.  But why would Susan Edgar Symonds go back to England in 1617 when her last daughter was born?  Are the records (as few as there are) incorrect, or refer to another person entirely?

And how long did mother Susan live after the birth of my great times 8 grandmother?  We're pretty sure she died in 1619.  Her husband married his second wife, Joanna in 1620.  That meant the little girls were Mary 5 and Susanna 2 at the most when their mother died.

King Phillips War (colonials retreat after Indians burn Brookfield (Quaboag) MA (with support from French)

My great times 8 grandparents, Susanna and Captain John Ayers had 8 or 9 children before he was killed by Indians in 1675.  In her petition to courts to receive the property which had been abandoned at Quaboag, she said she had 7 sons and 1 daughter.  But other sources said she had 6 children.

Looking on my Ancestry tree, I've got John III, Thomas, Joseph, Susanna, Richard, Edward, Samuel, Mark and Nathaniel.  Richard wasn't on the list that Susanna gave the Massachusetts courts to reclaim her rightful land.  So I figure she must have knp[own who her children were! And since Richard was listed as born the same year as her son Edward, and in New London CT, rather than Ipswich, I'm pretty sure this Richard wasn't part of this Ipswich family.  Remember how John Ayers Sr. wasn't related to the Ayers family from Haverhill.

So I can change my tree on Ancestry.  It's pretty heady, taking an ancestor off.  He still exists, and is on my list of people, just doesn't show any more as child of my Ayers ancestors.

How about the other 6 children of Susanna and John? I didn't look in depth yet at their lives.  They also retreated from Quabog, and grew up in Ipswich, and were parties to the petitions their mother posed to reclaim her properties.

Oh geese, I just found a record of probate for Captain John Ayers, of Quaboag, listing an inventory of his possessions in 1676. Well, I can't read it, it's just listed at Ancestry.  I'm a bit surprised, and wish I could read it, because his tavern had been burned down by the Indians in 1675 when he was killed, and everyone in the town had fled. Perhaps it's related to how Susanna made her petition.

Print of Brookfield (Quaboag) MA being burned by Indians 1675