Surname Saturday ~ Black of Salem, Massachusetts

BLACK

John Black and his wife, Susanna, arrived in Salem, Massachusetts on board the ship “Talbot” in 1629.  We don’t know his origins or birth date, but it is set at about 1591 because in 1645 the court exempted him from militia training “John Black being poor & aged 54” [ Essex Quarterly Court 1:84]  In 1636 he was granted 30 acres at Jeffrey’s Creek, near Salem.  On 13 May 1640, John Black and sixteen other Salem men wrote a petition “to erect a village there” at Jeffrey’s Creek.  [Essex Quarterly Court 7: 201-2]

John Black died in 1675, but on 20 April 1670 he sold “to my son John Black of the same” his house lot in Beverly for 8 pounds “except two acres of land out the said lot, which I do give and set over unto my son-in-law Isaack Davis, they to pay rent to John Sr.”  [Essex County Deeds 3: 140].  John had seven known children, but only four lived to adulthood.

Jeffry’s Creek settlement was part of Salem set off to become the smaller town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts in 1645. According to the “Manchester Cricket” newspaper, which has been printed since 1888, the original village was called Creekites, and the name stuck for many years.  After the name became Manchester, the inhabitants were called “crickets”.  This name was still being used in 1888 when the local paper was established. [see http://www.themanchestercricket.com/history.php]

The Black genealogy:

Generation 1: John Black, born about 1591 in England, died 1 March 1675 in Beverly, Massachusetts, married Susanna Unknown. Seven children:

1. Unknown Black, born about 1629, died on board the “Talbot” 24 June 1629

2. Elizabeth Black, born about 1632; married first Humphrey Gilbert about 1655, married second William Raynor 24 September 1658, married third Henry Kimball about 1675, and married third Daniel Kilham about 1678.

3. Persis Black, see below

4. Lydia Black, baptized 25 December 1636, died young

5. Lydia Black,  baptized 3 June 1638; married Isaac Davis

6. Daughter Black, baptized 27 November 1640, died young

7. John Black, born about 1642, married first Freeborn Wolfe, widow of Robert Sallowes, married second Deborah Unknown.

Generation 2.  Persis Black born about 1633, died before 1704 in Salem; married on 29 November 1655 in Salem to Robert Follet, son of John Follett.  He was born 1625 in England and died 1708 in Salem: Ten children.

Generation 3. Hannah Follett married John Southwick

Generation 4. John Southwick married Mary Trask

Generation 5. Elizabeth Southwick married Robert Wilson

Generation 6. Robert Wilson married Sarah Felton

Generation 7. Robert Wilson married Mary Southwick

Generation 8. Mercy F. Wilson married Aaron Wilkinson

Generation 9. Robert Wilson Wilkinson married Phebe Cross Munroe

Generation 10. Albert Munroe Wilkinson married Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 11. Donald Munroe Wilkinson married Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

Sources:

Great Migration Begins,  by Robert Charles Anderson, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995,  Volume 1, pages 175 – 177.

The Essex Genealogist, Volume 14, pages 110 – 111.

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo