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Henry Herrick (1688 - 1755) Abbott Street Burial Ground (Ancient Burial Ground), Beverly, Massachusetts |
HERRICK
There are lots of myths about Henry Herrick's origins. He was not a Virginia planter, and he was not the son of an upper class gentleman in Leicester, England. He was of humble origins, and a literate freeman in Salem, Massachusetts. The Henry Herrick of Massachusetts and the Henry Herrick of Virginia may be related, but the kinship has not been established.
Henry Herrick, my 11th great grandfather, was part of the original Puritan settlement of
Salem, Massachusetts that arrived with Reverend Higginson, and Reverend Skelton
in 1629. It is thought that perhaps he
arrived on the ship Lyon’s Whelp. He applied for freeman in 1630 and was sworn
as a freeman in 1631. He was recorded as
a member of the Salem First Church in 1636, along with his wife, Editha.
Henry Herrick lived near the Bass River in Ryal Side in what
is now the city of Beverly, Massachusetts, and in 1655 he witnessed the will of
John Friend (my 10th great grandfather), and he conducted the
inventory of the estate of Agnes [Annis] Balch (my 9th great
grandmother) the same year. These
families all lived near the Bass River, which separates Salem and Beverly. Henry Herrick’s will, proved on 28 March
1671, describes his land in Ryal Side.
"Henry Herrick
owned all the land from what is now the intersection of Beckford and Cabot
Streets, northwest, to a point about what is now Mason Street, thence westerly
to the river, taking in the land west of Edmund Grover to the land where the
drop-forge plant now stands. That portion of his land which was his 'english
field' is now traversed by Grant, Simon, and Ropes Streets." [from
Calvin P. Pierce, Ryal Side from Early Days of Salem Colony, (Beverly Historical
Society, Cambridge, MA, 1931), pg. 87.]
If you look below, you will see that in the sixth
generation, the great great great grandson of the original settler Henry
Herrick, Humphrey Bray (b. 1756), married a young woman named Molly Herrick
according to the Gloucester, Massachusetts Vital Records. Who was Molly HERRICK? Is this a possible cousin connection? I have a lot of Beverly ancestors, and many
HERRICK marriages in my family tree, right down to my mother’s first cousin, a
HERRICK who still lives near the Bass River near the Danvers/Beverly town line.
For more information:
Herrick Genealogical Register: A
Genealogical Register of the Name and Family of Herrick from the Settlement of
Henerie Hericke in Salem, Massachusetts, by Richard Leon Herrick, 2008,
3rd edition in four volumes.
Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620 – 1633,
by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume II, pages 910 – 914 for a lengthy sketch on
Henry Herrick.
Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American
Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes, by Mary Walton Ferris, Volume II, pages 420 -424
The Herrick Family Association http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~herrick/index.html
The Herrick Family Association on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/herrickfamilyassociation
My HERRICK genealogy:
Generation 1: Henry
Herrick, born about 1598 in England, died between 24 November 1670 and 15 March
1670/1671 in Beverly, Massachusetts; married about 1630 to Editha Laskin,
daughter of Hugh Laskin and Alice Unknown.
She was born about 1613 in Weymouth, Dorset, England and died in 1677 in
Beverly. Nine children.
Generation 2: Henry Herrick, baptized on 16 January 1640 in
Salem, Massachusetts, and died 20 June 1702 in Beverly, Massachusetts; married
about 1660 to Lydia Unknown, mother of five children. Married second on 25 May 1690 to Sarah
Alcock, widow of John Giddings, and daughter of John Alcock of York, Maine. No children.
Generation 3: Samuel Herrick, born 6 December 1668 in Beverly;
married on 25 May 1691 in Salem to Sarah Leach, daughter of John Leach and
Elizabeth Flint. Three children.
Generation 4: Abigail Herrick, born 13 November 1699 in
Beverly, died 2 October 1754 in Beverly; married on 11 October 1722 to Isaac
Woodbury, son of Robert Woodbury and Mary West.
He was born 18 June 1701 in Beverly and died 31 October 1775 in
Beverly. Four children.
Generation 5: Lydia Woodbury m. Humphrey Bray
Generation 6: Humphrey Bray m. Molly HERRICK [possible cousin connection!]
Generation 7: Polly Bray m. Asa Burnham
Generation 8: Lydia
W. Burnham m. Samuel Mears
Generation 9: Samuel Mears m. Sarah Ann Burnham
Generation 10: Sarah Burnham Mears m. Joseph Gilman Allen
Generation 11: Joseph
Elmer Allen m. Carrie Maud Batchelder
Generation 12: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda
Hitchings
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Henry Herrick is my 8th g grandfather, through his daughter Elizabeth, through Fowler, then Treadwell, Parrott and Miller. Thanks for sharing this information.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Jane! I have TREADWELL ancestors, too http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/02/surname-saturday-treadwell-of-ipswich.html
ReplyDeleteMy paternal Wood ancestors in Beverly have occasional brushes with the Herricks and Woodburys - a few marriages here and there, I think! I've always appreciated all the documentation that exists for Beverly and Salem families. It's fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHi: I have news for you: Henry Herrick is my 11th GGF and I am, at the moment, deeply researching him. You are a bit erroneous when you state Henry Herrick's "humble" origins. He derives from a generally rather wealthy family basically of Leicester, Leicestershire, England and has many illustrious forbears. I have a very strong indication that he descends directly and ultimately ultimately from Eric the Forester, brother of Eric the Red who tried to establish a very early Norse colony in the to be America. Our roots, via Herrick et al. may well go directly back to as early as the 800s and include a number of kings of England, Norway and Denmark. In fact, "Eric" is the root name of "Herrick" Lots more to do but I am persevering.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting news, rtm. Is your work published somewhere?
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