Surname Saturday ~ HARPER of Sandwich, Massachusetts

HARPER

Robert Harper (about 1630 – about 1704), my 9^th 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 8^th 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:

http://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.com/2012/06/grandparents-in-law-quaker-connection.html

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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]).