Surname Saturday ~ SHATSWELL of Ipswich, Massachusetts

SHATSWELL, SITCHELL, SHOTSWELL, SATCHELL, SATCHELLS

A widow named Judith Shatswell (my 11^th great grandmother), with five children under the age of 21, died in Sibbertoft, Northampton, England around 1616.   Four of these five children all removed later to the New World.  The name of Judith’s husband is unknown.   Her sons, John and Theophilus, removed to Ipswich, Massachusetts.  A daughter, Margaret, married Mathias Corwin in 1620 and removed to Southold, Long Island.  Mary, born about 1605, the youngest, married John Webster in England about 1630, and they removed to Ipswich, too. 

A long article in the NEHGS Register describes the will and the court records dated as late as 1627 in which Judith’s estate was still being investigated in the chancery court.  It describes how she died intestate, but an extensive inventory was taken by relatives and neighbors.  These court records give an account of the extended family.  Matthew Curwen and his wife, Margaret Shatswell, and her three siblings Theophilus, Sibyl and Mary,  filed a complaint that a man named Smith had with held their portions of Judith’s estate.  Curwen vs. Smith helps with the ages of the Shatswell siblings, and states that Judith died eleven years earlier.

There was a William Shatswell (relationship unknown) who came to Ipswich with four of the siblings named above around 1633.  He could be one of the mysterious, unnamed uncles in the chancery case Curwen vs. Smith.   Mary, my 10^th great grandmother, had married John Webster and they had eight children, including Stephen Webster (about 1636 – 1694), my 9^th great grandfather.  John Webster died in 1646 and Mary remarried to John Emery as his second wife, and had two more children.

It is interesting to note that Sarah Platts (1735 – about 1803), my 5^th great grandmother, who was the wife of George Southwick (about 1726 – before 1808), my 5^th great grandfather, was previously married to Francis Shatswell (1731 – before 1760), the  great great grandson of John Shatswell, the brother to Mary (Shatswell) Webster. 

More SHATSWELL resources:

“A New Look at the Corwin and Shatswell Families”, by David A. MacDonald, New England Historic Genealogical Register, April 1996, Volume 150, page 180 -189.

Genealogy WEBSTER Revised, Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, page 152

There is a sketch of the immigrant John Shatswell in the Great Migration Begins, which outlines his siblings, too.

UPDATE - A post by Gordon Harris "Early Homes of the SHATSWELLs" in the Stories from Ipswich blog:  https://storiesfromipswich.org/2016/08/31/the-early-homes-of-the-shatswells/

My SHATSWELL genealogy:

Generation 1:  Unknown Shatswell, born about 1574 in Sibbertoft, Northampton, England, died about 1606 in Sibbertoft; married about 1595 to Judith Unknown, born about 1578 and died about 1616 in Sibbertoft.  Five children.

Generation 2:  Mary Shatswell, born about 1605 in England and died 28 April 1694 in Newbury, Massachusetts; married about 1630 in England to John Webster.  He was born about 1606 and died before 29 September 1646 in Ipswich, Massachusetts.  Eight children.

Generation 3: Stephen Webster m. Hannah Ayer

Generation 4: Abigail Webster m. Samuel Berry

Generation 5: Jotham Berry m. Mary Bates

Generation 6: Rachel Berry m. Ithamar Mace

Generation 7: Abigail Mace m. Simon Locke

Generation 8: Richard Locke m. Margaret Welch

Generation 9: Abigail M. Locke m. George E. Batchelder

Generation 10:  George E. Batchelder m. Mary Katharine Emerson

Generation 11:  Carrie Maude Batchdelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen

Generation 12: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ SHATSWELL of Ipswich, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 9, 2016.  ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/07/surname-saturday-shatswell-of-ipswich.html: accessed [access date]).