Saturday, December 22, 2012

Surname Saturday ~ Blodgett of Cambridge and Woburn, Massachusetts


BLOGGETT

Thomas Blogget was born about 1605 in England and arrived in Massachusetts in 1635 on board the ship “Increase” with his wife Susanna and two of his children; Daniel age 4 and Samuel, age 1.   He had been a glover in England.  He was made a freeman and admitted to the church in Cambridge on 3 March 1635/6.   He owned many parcels of land before his death in 1641.  His house is believed to have been located between Massachusetts Avenue and Oxford Street, near Wendell, which is now located exactly where I went to school at Lesley College (My senior year dorm was one block over on the corner of Oxford and Mellen).

His wife remarried to James Thompson on 15 February 1643/4 and resettled in Woburn with her children.  Thomas had six children, one daughter, Susanna, married her stepbrother, Jonathan Thomson, and one of their descendants was Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson (1753 – 1814).   Another Blodgett descendant is President Calvin Coolidge.

In his will, dated 10 August 1641 and probated in 1643, he left all his estate to his wife.  The phrase “father-in-law” in the will refers to a possible future stepfather.

      "I, Thomas Bloggett, being at this time in my right mind, give to my wife Susan my whole estate after my decease as well within as without. She to bring up my Children in such learning and other things as is meet for them and pay to oldest son Daniel 15 pounds, when one and twenty or in one month after decease. To second son Samuel 15 pounds as above. To daughter Susanna 15 pounds. Should they have a father-in-law how does not treat them well, my will is that the Deacons and our brother Fessington and our brother Edward Winship they or either of them shall have power to see unto it and reforme it by one means or other.
      Written this 10th day of the 9th month, 1641.
                                          Thomas Blogget
      In presence of us,
            Thomas Harris
            John Meena"

You can read a sketch of Thomas Blodgett in The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, by Robert Charles Anderson, George Sanborn and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, Volume 1,  pages  324 – 325, 2001.  There is also a six volume set of books with an index called Blodget-Blodgett Descendants of Thomas of Cambridge, by Bradley DeForest Thompson and Franklin Condit Thompson, 1954.  If you are lucky, you might find your Blodgett line in the papers of Isaac Dimond Blodgett which are stored in the manuscript collection at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.  Isaac Blodgett was born in 1828, elected a member of NEHGS in 1903 and died in 1916. 

My lineage from Thomas Blodgett:

Generation 1: Thomas Blodgett, born about 1605, died between 10 August 1641 (date of will) and 10 December 1642 (date of his inventory); married Susanna Unknown

Generation 2: Samuel Blodgett, born 12 July 1633 in England, died 3 July 1687 in Woburn, Massachusetts; married on 13 December 1655 to Ruth Eggleton, daughter of Stephen Eggleton and Elizabeth.  She was baptized on 8 November 1632 at All Saint’s, Biddendon, Kent, England and died 14 October 1703 in Woburn.

Generation 3:  Susanna Blodgett born 17 February 1663 in Woburn, died 9 February 1715 in Woburn; married on 29 December 1685 in Woburn to James Simonds, son of William Simonds and Judith Phippen.  He was born 1 November 1658 in Woburn, and died on 15 September 1717 in Woburn.

Generation 4: James Simonds m. Mary Fowle
Generation 5: Caleb Simonds m. Susanna Converse
Generation 6: Ruth Simonds m. Andrew Munroe
Generation 7: Luther Simonds Munroe m. Olive Flint
Generation 8: Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson
Generation 9: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill
Generation 10: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

4 comments:

  1. This surname brings back a lot of memories, when I was young we always shopped at Blodgett's grocery store. They also had a hardware store that took about a third of the building. I am not related to the Blodgett's but thanks for the memories.

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  2. Hello again cousin! I am descended from Thomas Blodgett, my 9th great-grandfather, through his son Daniel. As I always tell people, if you can trace your ancestry to colonial New England, you are likely related to anyone else who can trace their ancestry to colonial New England!

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  3. Thomas is my 9th great grandfather, through Martin Blodgett, my 2nd great grandfather via his daughter, Annie Laurie Blodgett, of Salisbury, Connecticut, and her daughter Marion Hayes, my Grandmother. My father, E.W. Ljongquist, son of swedish immigrants to Connecticut around 1895, married Marion's daughter Martha Downs, my mother.So, that's our branch of the Blodgett tree in a nutshell.

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  4. My husband was Ronald L Blodgett and I do have the above info

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