Surname Saturday ~ POPE of Salem, Massachusetts

The Pope Chest, dated 1679
At the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

POPE

The English origins of Joseph Pope, my 8^th great grandfather,  are unknown, but the records in Salem are full of stories about him and his family.  He arrived in Massachusetts in 1634 aboard the ship Mary and John and settled in Salem, Massachusetts.  He joined the First Church (Puritan) in 1636, but he was also in the first group of early Quakers in Salem.  There is a long list of fines levied against him in the court records, for absence from church until they were finally excommunicated.  Many other Quakers in Salem were whipped and jailed.

The Quaker persecution in Salem ended when Samuel Shattuck went to London in 1661 to deliver a plea to King Charles II, who sent a mandamus to Massachusetts and ended the Quaker persecutions.  It is unknown whether or not Shattuck is related to Joseph Pope.  Joseph named “my bothers George and Richard and Joseph Gardner and cousin Samuell Shatok the elder to be overseers”  of his last will and testament.  All these families were Quaker.  In a TAG article in 1954 the author was unable to find a genealogical relationship between these families [The American Genealogist, Volume 30: 164-66]

Joseph Pope, Jr. is my 7^th great grandfather.  He was the constable for Salem Village (now the town of Danvers) in 1683, and was one of the more wealthy citizens according to a tax list.  He ran a saw mill with his brother, Benjamin, and brother-in-law, Joshua Buffum.  The Buffums were also a Salem Quaker family (another sister, Hannah Pope, married Joshua’s brother, Caleb Buffum).   I descend from Joshua’s sister, Deborah Buffum, who married Robert Wilson (my 9^th great grandparents) and was whipped for appearing  “naked” in the Puritan church to protest these persecutions of the Quakers (she was also probably suffering from some sort of mental illness).   Click HERE for that story.

Joseph Pope, Jr. and his bride, Bethshua Folger, were married in 1679.  This year, and their initials, was carved into a valuables chest attributed to the Symonds furniture shop of Salem.   This chest was passed on in the family as the “Franklin Chest” because Joseph and Bethshua Pope were the uncle and aunt to Benjamin Franklin (Bethshua’s sister, Abiah, was Benjamin Franklin’s mother).   When the chest was sold at a Christies Auction on 20 January 2000 it was bought by the Peabody Essex Museum for a record breaking $2,422,500.   Now it is on display as the “Pope Chest”.  To read more about this chest, click HERE. 

The Popes were witnesses against some of their Salem neighbors in the 1692 Salem witch trials.  Perhaps this was payback for  all the earlier the Quaker persecutions?  Besides being connected to the infamous Witch Hysteria, they were also related to founding father Benjamin Franklin.  Bethshua's sister, Abiah Folger, was Franklin's mother.  This branch of my family tree touches a lot of interesting American history! 

For more information on the Pope family:

The Great Migration, by Robert Charles Anderson, NEHGS, 2007, Volume V, pages 487-491.

A History of the Dorchester Pope Family, 1634 – 1888 by Charles Henry Pope, (Boston 1888) pages 299 – 301.

Also see The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts, 1629 -1736, and The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts (too many to list here, see the sketch at The Great Migration for details on the volumes and page numbers)

Also, please see last week's "Surname Saturday" post on the FOLGER family at this link:
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-folger-of-watertown.html

My POPE genealogy:

Generation 1:  Joseph Pope, born about 1606 in England, died 1667 in Salem, Massachusetts; married first to Damaris Unknown (mother of 8 children); married second to Gertrude Unknown.  She died 27 April 1667 in Salem.

Generation 2:  Joseph Pope, baptized 27 October 1650 in Salem, Massachusetts, died in February 1712 in Salem; married in 1679 in Salem Village (now Danvers), Massachusetts to Bethshua Folger, daughter of Peter Folger and Mary Merrill.  She was born about 1650 on Nantucket.  Nine children.

Generation 3:  Jerusha Pope, born 1 April 1695 in Salem, died 29 June 1781; married on 9 July 1713 to George Flint, son of George Flint and Elizabeth Putnam.  He was born on 1 April 1686 in Reading, Massachusetts. Seven children.

Generation 4:  George Flint m. Hannah Phelps 

Generation 5:  Phebe Flint m. John Flint

Generation 6:  Olive Flint m. Luther Simonds Munroe

Generation 7:  Phebe Cross Munroe m. Robert Wilson Wilkinson

Generation 8: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 9: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

----------------------------------

The URL for this post is

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-pope-of-salem.html

Copyright © 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ Buffum of Salem, Massachusetts

BUFFUM

Robert Buffum was born about 1590 at Buffum, Yorkshire and was married twice in England before coming to Salem, Massachusetts.  In October 1649 he was granted 40 acres in what is now known as “Buffum’s Corner” (near Boston and Essex Streets in Salem).   The Buffums were early Quakers.  His family was fined regularly for not attending the preferred meetings of worship (they skipped Puritan services), and so they show up in court records. 

Robert Buffum’s will was witnessed by his Quaker friends and neighbors who would not “swear on the book” and so the document was refused by the court.   His wife Tamosin was administrix of his estate.   The inventory was made on 15 November 1669 and this named his children.

“On Nov 25 1668, Mary Neale testified that when her father, Robert Buffum was sick, she tended to him until he died, and heard her mother, Tamosin asked her father several times to make a will: of which he seemed to take little notice till a little before his death when he said that he would have his son Joshua have a double portion, and for the rest of the children, he would make no difference betwixt them, for, he said, that they are yours as well as mine. About the same time other testimony was taken, Gertrude Pope, widow, testified that being at the house of Robert Buffum, while he lay at his death bed, he would have me and Elizabeth Kitchen take notice of what he has said, as to his estate, he would leave to his wife, for she had helped him to get it and the children were hers. Testimony of Elizabeth Kitchen to the same effect. Petition of john Wilson, William Beanes and Jeremiah Neale, children and heirs of Robert Buffum humbly showth that 'whereas our father Robert Buffum died intestate and an inventory of his estate was brought in by relict Tomosin and she appointed administratrix, etc, who since that time has disposed of the same according to her fancy or affection led her, or else keepeth the same still in her hands; we your petitioners, being children of the deceased, humbly conceive that as children, we ought to according to the law of God and this jurisdiction each of us to have a share or portion which is our right, and therefore humbly do supplicate this honored Court as fathers of this country to our causes into your pious and Christian consideration and be fathers to us in helping us to that we who are the children may not be deprived of which we humbly conceive according to law of God and this jurisdiction is ours. We subscribe yours in all service to command.”  From One Hundred and Sixty Allied Families by John O. Austin, Salem Press, 1893.

Robert Buffum was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Peabody, but his remains were removed to Harmony Grove Cemetery near the western entrance.   In 1991 the Buffum Family Association erected a memorial stone which you can see at this link to his sketch at FindAGrave.com http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7885479

The Buffum genealogy, showing my lineage from Robert Buffum:

Generation 1:  Robert Buffum, born about 1590, son of James Bougham and Margery Raylton, died before 2 December 1669 in Salem, Massachusetts; married first to Margaret Blessing on 23 August 1613 at St. Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England (no surviving children); married second to Tamoson Ward on 11 August 1634 at the Church of St. Lawrence,  South Walasham, Norfolk, England.  She was the daughter of George Ward and Dionis Burrow, born about 1606 and died 23 March 1688 in Salem, Massachusetts.  She married first to John Thompson on 29 November 1632 at the St. Nicolas Church, Great Yarmouth, and had one child, Margaret, born about 1632. 

Children by Tamosen, born in Salem:

1.  Joshua Buffum, born 22 February 1635, married Damaris Pope

2.  Mary Buffum, born about 1637, married Jeremiah Neal

3.  Deborah Buffum, born 1639 (see below)

4. Damaris Buffum, born 30 January 1641

5.  Robert Buffum, born 30 November 1643, died June 1645

6. Lydia Buffum, born 19 February 1644, died 1718

7.  Sarah Buffum, born about 1648, married William Bean

8.  Caleb Buffum, born 29 July 1650, married Hannah Pope, sister to Damaris above.

Generation 2:  Deborah Buffum,  born 1639, died about 1668; married on 12 August 1658 in Marblehead, Massachusetts to Robert Wilson, born about 1630 and died on 18 September 1675 in Deerfield, Massachusetts at the Bloody Brook Massacre.  Two children.   You can read about the tragic story of Deborah Buffum, persecuted for showing up naked to the Salem village Puritan meeting and for being a professed Quaker, at this link:

 http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-story-too-sad-for-valentines-day.html

Generation 3:  Robert Wilson married Elizabeth Cook

Generation 4: Isaac Wilson married Mary Stone

Generation 5: Robert Wilson married Elizabeth Southwick

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)

For more information:

Buffum Family History, compiled by Owen A. Perkins, Fort Worth, TX,  1975  (two volumes)

Buffum Family Association

2945 Peppertree Drive

Lexington, KY  40513

859-219-8632

http://buffumfamilyassociation.com/   email buffumfamily@yahoo.com

Buffum Family Museum

8335 Boston Colden Road

Colden, NY 114033

There is a sketch in Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis, by Walter Goodwin Davis, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co, 1996, Volume III, pages 405-8. 

------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ Buffum of Salem, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 21, 2012, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/01/surname-saturday-buffum-of-salem.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday - Wilson of Salem and Danvers, Massachusetts

WILSON

Robert Wilson was born about 1630, and lived in Salem, Massachusetts.  It is unknown where he came from before he arrived in New England, and it is unknown when he arrived.  However, he left some very interesting, yet sad and sorrowful, records during his life. 

His first wife was Deborah Buffum, daughter of Robert Buffum and Tamosen Ward.  In 1662, as the mother of two infant children she professed to being a Quaker, which was dangerous in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts.  Not only that, she went naked to the Puritan meetinghouse to protest the “spiritual nakedness”.  She was sentenced to be tied to a cart and whipped until she came to her own house.  Daniel Rumball, the constable “was loathe to do it, but was ordered to do his duty.  Robert Wilson (it may be presumed in collusion with Rumball, though neither was a Quaker) followed after, clapping his hat sometimes between the whip and his wife’s back.”   (from the book The Peabody Story by John A. Wells, 1973, Essex Institute, Salem, MA, pages 136 -7)

Although kindhearted Robert Wilson helped his wife, she died soon after in 1668.  Robert remarried to Anna Trask, the widow of Joseph Perry Foster, in 1674. They had one child together before he was called to join the Essex County militia with Captain Thomas Lothrop to protect Deerfield, Massachusetts.  Seventy men, along with Robert Wilson, were killed at in a massacre at a brook near Deerfield on 18 September 1675.  Only seven or eight men escaped this massacre.  The brook was renamed “Bloody Brook”.

From the Essex Quarterly Court Records, volume 6, leaf 19

Administration upon the estate of Robert Wilson, intestate, was granted 28, 4m, 1681 unto Ann, the relict, who brought in an inventory amounting to about 150 pounds, and whereas there is some legacy or something of an estate of Tamosen Buffum's which of right is to belong to Robert and Deborah, children of the deceased, the court ordered that Ann should pay out of this estate into the inventory, to Robert the eldest son 14 pounds, and to Deborah aforesaid, children by his first wife, and to Anna, John, Mary and Elizabeth children by Ann, 7 pounds each, at age or marriage, the house and land to stand bound by security.

If you look at the genealogy below, you will notice a lot of Robert Wilsons, and the Essex County records are full of even more Robert Wilsons.  How did I manage to figure out which Roberts belonged to what lines?  Not without help! I was at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library one day, and when I had trouble finding a book on the shelves the librarian, David Dearborn, asked me which surname I was researching.  When he heard I was looking for Salem, Massachusetts Wilsons he introduced me to a series of books written by researcher Ken Stevens of Walpole, New Hampshire.  Ken Stevens wrote all his books about Wilsons from all over New England.  I wrote to Mr. Stevens (it was before email) and he sent me all his research notes on the Salem Wilsons.  He had not included these particular Wilsons in a book yet.   He confirmed my line, too!   The NEHGS library has his papers on Wilson research in their manuscript collection.  Kenneth C. Stevens passed away in 2010.

My Wilson lineage (note the five Robert Wilsons and one Robert Wilson Wilkinson in the first eight generations!):

Generation 1:  Robert Wilson, born about 1630, died on 18 September 1675 in Deerfield, Massachusetts at the Bloody Brook Massacre; married first to Deborah Buffum, daughter of Robert Buffum and Tamosen Ward, on 12 August 1658 in Marblehead, Massachusetts.  She was born about 1639 and died about 1668 and had two children including Robert Wilson, Jr. (see below).  He married second to Anna Trask, daughter of Henry Trask and Mary Southwick, widow of Joseph Perry Foster, and had one child.

Generation 2: Robert Wilson, born about 1662, and died before 17 January 1717; married about 1685 to Elizabeth Cook, daughter of Isaac Cook and Elizabeth Buxton. Four children.  He is listed in his grandmother’s will (Tamosine Buffum, Essex County Probate #30139).  He was the first Wilson to own property near the Wilson Square area of what is now Peabody, Massachusetts.

Generation 3: Isaac Wilson, born about 1691; married Mary Stone, daughter of Samuel Stone and Mary Treadwell, on 9 January 1718 in Salem, Massachusetts. Six children. He was a carpenter.

Generation 4: Robert Wilson, born about 1724, died before 10 July 1782 in Danvers, Massachusetts (now Peabody); married to Elizabeth Southwick, daughter of John Southwick and Mary Trask on 26 May 1744 in Salem, Massachusetts. Four children.  He was a prominent potter who lived where Route 114 now crosses Route 128 in Peabody.  The Wilson family burial ground still exists there behind the Kappy’s Liquor Store.  The Wilsons were known for black pottery that can be seen on exhibit at the Peabody Historical Society.

Generation 5: Robert Wilson born about 1746 and died 4 June 1797 in Danvers (now Peabody); married on 23 March 1775 in Danvers to Sarah Felton, daughter of Malachi Felton and Abigail Jacobs.  Nine children.  He is buried at the Wilson burial ground, and Sarah was buried in 1836, forty years later, across the street at the Felton burial ground.

Generation 6: Robert Wilson, born 5 September 1776 in Danvers, died on 9 November 1803 in Danvers; married on 8 May 1800 to Mary Southwick, daughter of George Southwick and Sarah Platts.   Two children. Robert and Mary Wilson are buried at the Wilson burial ground.

Generation 7: Mercy F. Wilson, born 17 June 1803 in Peabody, died on 9 October 1883 in Peabody; married on 23 June 1829 in Danvers to Aaron Wilkinson, son of William Wilkinson and Mercy Nason, born in South Berwick, Maine on 22 February 1802, and died on 25 November 1879 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Eleven children.

Generation 8: Robert Wilson Wilkinson m. Phebe Cross Munroe

Generation 9: Albert Munroe Wilkinson m. Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 10:  Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

--------------------

This Wilson family has not been written up in any compiled genealogy or articles in any genealogical journals.  Ken Stevens had notes on this lineage, but had not finished his research on the other lines of the Salem/Danvers/Peabody Wilsons for a book or article.   Most of what I put together here was gleaned from vital records and probate.  There is a bit of information on the Wilson potters to be found in books on the subject, such as this excerpt from Early New England Potters and Their Wares by Lura Woodside Watkins, Harvard University Press, 1950, pages 65-66.

"The Wilsons were a prominent family of artisans.  Their homestead included the land near 141 Andover Street and eastward where 128 now crosses it.  The first two potting Wilsons were sons of Robert, a farmer.  They were Robert, known as Robert, Jr. who remained in Danvers, and Joseph, who went to Dedham and thence to Providence, Rhode Island.  When Robert, Jr., died in 1782, he left property worth 627 pounds, including six lots of land, his house, barn, potter's shop, and cornhouse, a riding chair, and a large personal estate.  He seems to have done well in his trade.  His son Robert, known as Robert 2d, and a younger son Job were potters.  By an order of the court, Robert 3d, as administrator of his father's estate, was obliged to sell a large part of the elder Robert's property to pay certain debts.  This was not done until April 9, 1793, when two thirds of the land and buildings, and an interest in the business was aquired by Isaac Wilson 3d.  He, too, was a craftsman in clay.  The three Wilsons ran the shop together for a time, but Robert 3d, and Job both passed away before 1800, while Robert's son Robert, who had worked but a short time as a potter, died three years later at the age of twenty-seven.  Upon Isaac's decease in 1809, this early pottery must have come to an end."

For more information on Robert Wilson’s wife, Deborah, and her “Naked Protest” see my blog post about this story at this link:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-story-too-sad-for-valentines-day.html

For more information on the Wilson Burial Ground in Peabody, see this link:

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/buried-at-mall.html

---------------------

Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

A Love Story Too Sad for Valentine’s Day

Deborah Wilson, a Quaker in very Puritan Salem Village



Deborah Buffum was born in 1639 in Salem, Massachusetts. Her family was the Quaker Buffum family, headed by her father Robert, who was regularly fined for non-attendance at the Puritan meetings. She married Robert Wilson in Marblehead in 1658, and had at least two children, a Deborah and a Robert.

The records describe Deborah as a Quaker like her parents, and the town History “The Peabody Story” describes her as very young, modest and retiring. One day in June 1662 she walked towards the meeting house stark naked in order to “call attention to the bareness of the religion of the accepted church which all were compelled to attend.”

Deborah was arrested before she got to the meeting house, and the court records say that for “barbarous and unhuman going naked through the town, is sentenced to be tied at a cart tail with her body naked downward to her waist, and whipped…till she come to her own house, not exceeding thirty stripes, and her mother Buffum and her sister Smith, that were abetted to her, etc, to be tied on either side of her at the cart tail naked to their shifts to the waist and accompany her…”

Her husband, Robert Wilson, was not a Quaker, but he obviously loved his wife. He walked beside the cart, putting his hat between the whip and his wife. I imagine it was one of those large brimmed, black Puritan style hats. Perhaps it was a hat like you see in Pilgrim cartoons. One of those hats would have made some sort of cushion from the whip.

According to the “Annals of Salem,” the constable sentenced to execute the punishment was Daniel Rumdel, who had “bowels of compassion” for his victim. He “on purpose” made his whippings miss or land lightly. Some accounts of this story have the constable sparing her with his own hat, and one account I read imagined a love story between the constable and the Quaker wife. However, the town histories state that the husband, Robert Wilson, put his own hand and hat between the whip and his wife. I’m sure that this kind hearted constable allowed the husband to walk there, and looked the other way at the “clapping [of] his hat sometimes between the whip and her back.”

After this Deborah was fined for non-attendance at the meeting house, until the court was informed she was “distempered in the head.” I suppose she was suffering from some sort of mental illness that perhaps began before the whipping incident. There are no more records on Deborah. She died in 1668, at about 30 years old.

Robert Wilson, her husband, remarried to Anna Trask. They had one child, Anna, born in 1674. Only one year later Robert was killed by the Indians at a massacre in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on 18 September 1675. Sixty four men from Essex County died in the attack, and were buried in one mass grave. Robert Wilson was about 45 years old. Cotton Mather wrote “In this black and fatal day… six and twenty children made orphans, all in one little plantation.” The site of the massacre was renamed “Bloody Brook.”

Deborah and Robert Wilson were my 9x great grandparents. For a family tree, please see my posting on September 21, 2009 at http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/buried-at-mall.html

For more information:

“Annals of Salem, Massachusetts” by Joseph B. Felt, 1827

“The Peabody Story” by John A. Wells, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts, 1973, pages 136-7.

---------------

To Cite/Link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Love Story Too Sad for Valentine's Day", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 11, 2010, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-story-too-sad-for-valentines-day.html: accessed [access date]). 

Buried at a Mall?

The sign behind the liquor store,

leading to the Wilson Family Burial Plot in Danvers, Massachusetts

Robert Wilson, died June 4, 1797 in Danvers (now Peabody)

Buried at a Mall?

Robert Wilson, 3rd died in 1797 in what was then part of Danvers, Massachusetts, at a farm which no longer exists, and the family plot is now located in Peabody, behind the Kappy’s Liquor Store. The Wilson family wouldn’t recognize this land. Where the farm stood is now the cloverleaf intersection of routes 114 and 128, and the North Shore Mall.

Robert Wilson served in the Revolutionary War as a private in Captain Samuel Epe’s Company, under Colonel Pickering’s regiment of Danvers. He marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775 to Lexington for a service of two days. He was a potter of some renown, being from a family of potters who produced an unusual black glaze. He died fairly young (aged 50), and his wife, Sarah (Felton) Wilson, isn’t buried with him, but across the street at the Felton Family plot. She died in 1836, surviving him by about forty years, but never remarrying.

The attempt to find the Wilson Family Cemetery was not easy. I was told to park at Kappy’s Liquor Store to find it, but I didn’t know that I would have to park BEHIND the story, near the dumptsters, where there was a very steep drop covered with weeds. The Peabody Historical Society has placed a very nice sign here, but it isn’t visible from the road. Neither is the cemetery visible from the road. Only after climbing down the steep embankment can you see the stone wall and the gravestones. Down there, in the deep chasm behind Kappy’s and the embankments of Rt. 128, you can see nothing but trees and gravestones. It is how it must have appeared before modern times, and before backhoes changed the landscape.

The Wilson Homestead stood near 141 Andover Street (Rt. 114), and it no longer exists. Actually, the street is just a conglomeration of strip malls, chain restaurants, stores and parking lots. Nothing older than about 1950 seems to exist.

The first potting Wilsons were Robert, Jr. and his brother Joseph, who went to Dedham (also famous for its pottery) and to Providence, Rhode Island. Robert Wilson 3rd and his brother Job were potters, too. Robert 3rd served as administrator to his father’s will in 1793, when two- thirds of the Wilson land and the potting business was sold to Isaac Wilson 3rd, another brother. The three Wilsons ran the business together, but both Robert and Job died before 1800. Isaac died in 1809 and the Wilson black glazed pottery business ended.

I imagine that the black glazed pottery must have contained lead or some other poison, to kill all the Wilsons so early, but the death records at the time do not list a cause. I’m descended of Robert’s son, another Robert Wilson, who died in 1803 at the very young age of 27! Again, the records, and the gravestones give no cause of death, so I’m free to let my imagination run wild.

In the next generation, Mercy Wilson, born in 1803 just a few months before her father’s death, lived to the ripe age of 80, dying in 1883. Phew! It couldn’t have been something genetic killing the Wilsons, it must have been the pottery! At least that is my theory… and I’m sticking to it!

And so, I photographed all the Wilsons in the quiet little cemetery in the gully in Peabody. Quiet because the trees, embankments and steep inclines muffled the traffic of routes 114 and 128, even though a large cloverleaf interchange was located just yards away. All those generations of Robert Wilsons were found, recorded and digitally saved.

However, one more Wilson mystery remains. Across the street, behind the North Shore Mall, lies the grave of Jonathan Wilson, undisturbed by the back door of Macy’s. He has another historical marker located near his grave, and the flag carefully placed there by the local DAR chapter, because this Jonathan Wilson was also a veteran of the Revolution. I haven’t been able to place him among the branches of the Wilson Family Tree, but I’m working on it!

The Wilson Family Tree

Gen. 1. Robert Wilson b. about 1630 in England, died 18 sep 1675 in Deerfield, Massachusetts at the Bloody Brook Massacre, m. 1. Deborah Buffum 12 Aug 1658 in Marblehead, Massachusetts and m. 2. Anna Trask about 1674.

Gen. 2. Robert Wilson b. about 1663 in Salem, d. before 17 Jan 1716/7 in Salem, m. Elizabeth Cook about 1685.
Gen. 3. Isaac Wilson b. about 1691 in Salem m. Mary Stone on 9 Jan. 1717/8 in Salem

Gen. 4. Robert Wilson b. about 1724 in Salem, d. before 10 July 1782 in Danvers, m. Elizabeth Southwick on 26 May 1744, in Salem. This Robert Wilson was a farmer.

Gen. 5. Robert Wilson, b. about 1746, d. 4 Jun 1797 in Danvers, m. Sarah Felton on 23 Mar. 1775 in Danvers. This Robert Wilson was a potter.

Gen. 6. Robert Wilson, b. 5 Sep. 1776 in Danvers, d. 9 Nov. 1803 in Danvers, m. Mary Southwick on 8 May 1800 in Danvers.
Gen. 7. Mercy F. Wilson b. 17 Jun 1803 in Peabody, d. 9 Oct 1883 in Peabody, m. Aaron Wilkinson on 23 Jun 1829 in Danvers. This is the end of my Wilson line. Phew! Too many Robert Wilsons! Mercy (Wilson) and Aaron Wilkinson were my 3x great grandparents.  I descend for their son named (what else!) Robert Wilson Wilkinson!

UPDATE -  After recent renovations and additions to the North Shore mall, the Wilson graves near the Macy's entrance were relocated to a nearby Revolutionary War monument on the corner of Washington and Sewall Streets.

------------------------

To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Buried at a Mall?", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 21, 2009, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/buried-at-mall.html: accessed [access date]).