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

Matriarchs abounding

Well, not much bounding about, but the women from whom I'm descended, who gave me some mitochondrial DNA, are many and wonderful.

Yesterday I included generation 10) Ammi Ayers, who married 10)Samuel Swasey.  Ammi Ayers mother was the branch we followed yesterday.  Her father was 11) Nathaniel Ayers and his father was 12) Capt. John Ayres who died in 1675.

I've found those little hint "leaves" have me stumped at a male ancestor, who may have married one woman, or another.  So I'm off to see which one has documentation to support her being my ancestor.

The man in question is John Ayres, Captain, who was killed in King Phillips war, by Indians.  Also he was part of colonial settlers who started a town of Brooksfield, MA, with someone having purchased it (formerly Quaboag) from the Indians.  However there were some Indians who disagreed and attacked the settlers, killing 7 men who barricaded themselves in Ayres Tavern.

But on one sheet of paper, the marriage records of New England prior to 1700, there are 10 John Ayers, or Ayres, or Ayer listed.  Only one has a death date of 1675, and he is listed as John Ayer (-1675) married to Susanna Symonds (1617-1653) c. 1644 or ca. 1642.

I am interested in this colorful ancestor, but wonder if he's really connected to me.  So again I look at his children, so I can determine that he's my ancestor for sure!

Several family trees show John Ayers dying in 1694, and looking at this list, there are 2 marriages listed for that "John Ayers, (-1694+) 1/wf Sarah Williams (-1662) on 5 May 1646, Haverhill MA."  And 4 lines down is the same "John (-1694+) 2/wf Mary Woodham in 1663 also Haverhill."  But though there are ancestry trees by other members that have the John Ayers who died in 1675 at the Tavern, killed by Indians, they are having him marry Sarah, but not Mary Woodham, and they all have him dying in yet another town.

So I'm leaning toward the original information.

OK, on October 28th, 1717.

"A Petition of Thomas Ayres, Joseph Ayres, Mark Ayres, Natt'll Ayers, & Edward Ayres, Sons & Heirs of John Ayres heretofore of Quaboag alias Brookfield, Dec'd Intestate, Shewing that in or about the Year 1669, the Petitioners Father with others bought & purchased of the Indian..."

I don't have the original, and the copy I read is cut off there.
(I'm inserting my own generational numbering, as described in yesterday's blog post)

So this 12) John Ayres, killed in Brookfield did have a son 11) Nathaniel, who was also named as a blacksmith from the source I'm reading.

See how this Ancestry stuff takes you off on tangents...
Now back to the matriarchs.

12) John Ayers' (b. 1623 or 25, d. 1675) wife was finally determined to be 12) Susanna Symonds (b. either 1617 or 1623, d.1682 or 83). The different dates do get confusing, and Ancestry usually lists only one set, but with alternates available.

12) Susanna Symonds Ayers was the source of a document about her husband and her children.
It is mentioned in an earlier genealogical document from 2003.  I'll include it because it does seem to quote an original source.  Talking about her husband 12) John Ayers, she is mentioned only as "his widow."

His widow presented an inventory of his estate, now recorded at Salem, on which she wrote, "I have seven sons and one daughter." Although the births of these children are not all recorded, I have been able to recover all their names without doubt, and I think to arrange them chronologically.

  i John2
 ii Samuel2
iii Thomas2
 iv Joseph2
v Edward2 b. 12 Feb. 1658.     
 vi Mark2 b. 14 Dec. 1661.       
       (all recorded at Ipswich)
 vii Nathaniel 2 b. 6 July, 1664.  
 viii Susanna 2 b.? ; m. (???) Day."

I don't know what the numeral "2" represents after son vii Nathaniel, b 6 July 1664. as well as his younger sister Susanna.  Since the older siblings were recorded at Ipswich, perhaps they hadn't been.

12) Susanna Symonds' parents were 13) Mark Symonds (1584-1659) and 13) Joanna (maybe Edgar) (1588-1666).  Joanna was born in Essex County, England, probably in the town called Birch.

Here's a nice replica of old town architecture from another Essex town, Wedens Ambo.  This name means there were two nearby towns called Wedens, and they combined into this new name.

Wedens Ambo, Essex, England

13) Joanna (Edgar?) Symonds (1588-1666) is the earliest matriarch I've found after all these hours beating around bushes at Ancestry.

Her death is listed in Ipswich MA in 1666, on April 29...in the following record.  The scribe for this entry has wonderfully legible handwriting.