Saturday, July 14, 2018

Surname Saturday ~ HARPER of Sandwich, Massachusetts


HARPER

Robert Harper (about 1630 – about 1704), my 9th great grandfather, was an early Quaker.  His name can be found in the Falmouth, Massachusetts Friend’s Monthly Meeting records.   Because of his faith (not attending church), and he refused to take the oath of Fidelity, he lost much of his personal property and was heavily fined. Perhaps that’s why he left no will or tombstone (Quakers were buried together in unmarked graves). 

As a Quaker, in 1660 Robert Harper was sentenced to be whipped, and he and his wife, Deborah, were sent to the prison in Boston.   In 1661 Harper “stood under the scaffold and caught in his arms the body of his friend William Leddra, the martyr preacher” on Boston Common.  For this act of kindness, Harper and his wife were banished again.

I descend from Robert Harper and his second wife, Prudence Butler, through their daughter Hannah (b. 1670) who married Isaac Robinson.  She is my 8th great grandmother. Isaac was another Quaker who was heavily prosecuted by the Puritan authorities. They had ten children. Isaac Robinson was a great grandson of the Reverend John Robinson, pastor to the Pilgrims.

Some HARPER resources:

MacLean W. McLean, "Robert Harper of Sandwich, Mass., and his Son Stephen of Falmouth." The American Genealogist, Volume 48, page 215, October 1972

History of Cape Cod by Frederick Freeman, 1862

Sandwich and Bourne Town Records

The Genealogical Dictionary of New England, by Savage

The History of the Society of Friends in America, Volume 1

My HARPER genealogy:

Generation 1:  Robert Harper, born about 1630 in England, died about 1704 in Sandwich, Massachusetts; married first to Deborah Perry May 1654; married second to Prudence Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler, 22 June 1666 in Sandwich.  Four children.

Generation 2:  Hannah Harper, born May 1670 in Sandwich; married 1 March 1690 in Barnstable to Isaac Robinson, great grandson of Rev. John Robinson, pastor to the Pilgrims, son of John Robinson and Elizabeth Weeks.  Ten children.

Generation 3:  Peter Robinson m. Martha Green
Generation 4:  Jabez Robinson m. Tabitha Green
Generation 5: Elizabeth Robinson m. Ebenezer Crosby
Generation 6:  Rebecca Crosby m. Comfort Haley
Generation 7:  Joseph Edwin Healy m. Matilda Weston
Generation 8:  Mary Etta Healey m. Peter Hoogerzeil
Generation 9:  Florence Etta Hoogerzeil m. Arthur Treadwell Hitchings
Generation 10:  Gertrude Matilda Hitchings m. Stanley Elmer Allen (my grandparents)

See this interesting blog post by Christy K. Robinson about Robert Harper:

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, “Surname Saturday ~ HARPER of Sandwich, Massachusetts”, Nutfield Genealogy, posted July 14, 2018, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2018/07/surname-saturday-harper-of-sandwich.html:  accessed [access date]). 

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting the link to my article on Robert Harper. He's my 9th great-grand (same as William and Mary Dyer).
    Robert Harper, Deborah Perry
    Experience Harper, Joseph Hull
    Tristram Hull, Elizabeth Dyer (granddaughter of William and Mary Dyer), and so on.

    ALSO, I'm descended from Rev. John Robinson and his son Isaac in my paternal line, which is why my surname is Robinson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Christy, I remember you commenting another time about Robinson. We are cousins on a few different surnames.

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