Surname Saturday ~ GOODSPEED of England and Barnstable, Massachusetts

Cape Cod, Massachusetts

GOODSPEED

In England, Robert Goodspeed wrote a will in 1658 which named his sons Roger, Bennet and Thomas.  They had all gone to the New World, but he left them 6 pounds, 13 shillings and 4 pence each y if they returned within ten years of his death.  I don’t know if any of the sons ever collected their portion.

The son, Roger Goodspeed is an early Cape Cod settler who came to Barnstable, Massachusetts in the spring of 1639.  He married Alice Layton on 1 December 1641.  Roger was admitted to the Barnstable church in 1644, and in 1651 he was made a freeman.   By 1653 he left Goodspeed’s Hill in Barnstable and removed to the village of Mistick, which is now known as Marston’s Mills, where he had a six acre house lot and 16 acres to plant.  He bought more land in 1659 and in 1665, and in 1667 the town granted him another 16 acres.

On 6 April 1678 Roger Goodspeed signed a document, with his mark, conveying all his land to his sons John and Ebenezer, except for six acres, on the condition that they support him and Alice for the remainder of their lives.  Alice wrote a will in 1689, which named her children:

"To my son Ebenezer Goodspeed what is due to me from my son, John Goodspeed, for my ox with my half cow my son John Goodspeed owes to me, also my dwellin ghouse with all my other estate whatsoever except my wearing clothes and one colt, one gowne to my daughter-in-law Lydia Goodspeed and to my Granson Benjamin Goodspeed, son of Ebenezer, one colt.  Son Ebenezer to be executor, and loving friends James Hamlin and Job Crocker to be my over Seers."

Charles Eliot Goodspeed (1867 – 1950), founder of Goodspeed’s Book Shop in Boston in 1898, was a descendant of Roger Goodspeed.   Goodspeed’s Book Shop was a venerable used book seller on Beacon Street, seller of manuscripts, genealogies, first editions and other valuable books, which closed in 1993. Goodspeed’s Books is still warmly remembered in Boston, and if you Google the name you will still find catalogs, memorabilia and other items for sale from this book shop.  Charles Eliot Goodspeed was also an early member of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. 

Roger Goodspeed is not listed in Martin Hollick’s New Englanders in the 1600s, nor is he listed in the Great Migration series of books.   The English origins of Roger Goodspeed were described in an article by G. Andrews Moriarty in the October 1928 NEHGS Register.   There is an older compiled genealogy book, History of the Goodspeed Family, by Weston Arthur Goodspeed, Volumes I and II, Chicago, 1907, available online to read at this link: 

http://archive.org/stream/historyofgoodspe01ingood/historyofgoodspe01ingood_djvu.txt

There is a sketch of Roger Goodspeed and his descendants at the database called “New Englanders in Nova Scotia” at the NEHGS website.  This database names more than 650 New England families who settled in Nova Scotia beginning in 1759.  It is a series of articles written by Fred E. Crowell in the 1920s and 1930s for the Yarmouth Herald.  There is a complete name index for these articles. You can find this database at the website www.americanancestors.org 

My Goodspeed genealogy:

Generation 1:  Nicholas Goodspeed, died between 21 July 1557 and 24 September 1558.

Generation 2:  Robert Goodspeed, born about 1532, died before 8 November 1600 in Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, England; married on 30 October 1552 in Wingrave to Isabell Allen.  She died in Wingrave before 9 March 1584.

Generation 3: Robert Goodspeed; married Alice Harris

Generation 4: Roger Goodspeed, born about 1615 in Wingrave, died 1665 in Barnstable, Massachusetts; married on 1 December 1641 in Barnstable to Alice Layton.  She died 10 January 1689 in Barnstable. Seven children.

Generation 5: Ruth Goodspeed, born 10 April 1652 at Misteake, now Marston’s Mills, Massachusetts, died in 1691; married on 2 February 1675 in Barnstable to John Davis, son of John Davis and Hannah Linnell.  He was born 6 January 1650 in Barnstable, and died 1729 in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Five children.

Generation 6:  Benjamin Davis m. Mary Robinson

Generation 7: Ruth Davis m. John Mayhew

Generation 8: Mary Mayhew m. Caleb Rand

Generation 9: Mary Rand m. Asahel Bill

Generation 10: Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill m. Isabella Lyons

Generation 11: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 12: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 13: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Surname Saturday ~ Davis of Cambridge, Concord and Barnstable, Massachusetts

DAVIS

Our wedding, First Congregational Church,
Holden, Massachusetts, founded by the
Reverend Joseph Davis (1720 - 1799)
My second cousin, 8 generations removed. 

I’m intrigued with the unusual name Dolor Davis, my 10^th great grandfather.  I've seen it spelled many ways: Dollar, Daller, Dollard, etc.  His name comes from the Latin root word for “sorrow”, hence the popular Spanish name Dolores for girls.  I've only seen it in this particular family, not in any other New England family. He passed the name Dolor on to one of his grandsons.

Dolor Davis first appears in the Cambridge, Massachusetts records in 1634 when he obtained a grant of land, along with Simon Wilard, his brother-in-law.   On 17 April 1635 his family arrived from England aboard the ship Elizabeth  which listed “Margaret Davies, aged 32; John Davies, 9; Marie Davies, 4, and Elizabeth Davies, 1”.  In August 1635 both Simon Willard and Dolor Davis sold their land in Cambridge and went to Concord, where his first wife, Margerie, sister to Simon Willard, died in 1656.  He later removed to Barnstable where he married again after 1660 to Joanna Hull, who is mentioned in his will.  Dolor Davis died in Barnstable in 1673.  He had six children, five who married and left descendants in Massachusetts.

What is interesting to me is that when I was growing up in Holden, Massachusetts, we lived on Davis Hill.  It wasn't until a few years ago that I discovered one of Dolor Davis’s descendants was the Reverend Joseph Davis (1720 - 1799), my second cousin, 8 generations removed.  He was the first minister in Holden, founder of the First Congregational Church where I was married, and where my father had his funeral.  The Davis homestead is now known as The Starbard Building, and is town offices near to the historic old Town Hall in Holden.  His farm and land were on Davis Hill, within walking distance of the church.  It is a small world indeed!

My cousin moved to Northborough, Massachusetts (not far from Holden) in the 1980s and lived on a street called Davis Road. I just recently learned that another early branch of Dolor Davis’s descendants removed to Northborough, and lived on this road in the 1700s. This branch was headed by the Deacon Isaac Davis (1749 – 1826), who was also a member of the Congregational Church.  Isaac Davis is more distantly related, being a third cousin ten generations removed.  There has been much serendipity with my immediate family and our distant Davis cousins!

Some Davis sources:

Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634 – 1635, by Richard Charles Anderson, Volume II, page 292 – 297.

“The First Settlers of Barnstable”, copied by David Hamblen, New England Historic Genealogical Register, Volume II, January 1848, page 64.

Dolor Davis, A Sketch of his Life with a Record of His Earliest Descendants, by Horace Davis, 1881

The First Congregational Church, Holden, Massachusetts, history page http://www.fccholden.org/history.html

A chart of three generations of Northborough, Massachusetts Davises http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~northboro/three_generations.htm

My Davis genealogy:

Generation 1:  Dolor Davis, son of Ichabod Davis, born about 1593 in Kent, England, died on 2 June 1673 in Barnstable, Massachusetts; married first to Margery Willard, daughter of Richard Willard and Margerie Humphrie, on 29 March 1624 in East Farleigh, Kent, England.  She was born on 6 November 1602 in Horsmonden, Kent, England, and died about 1656 in Concord, Massachusetts.  Dolor Davis married second to Joanna Hull, after 1660, in Barnstable.  She was the widow of John Bursley and the daughter of the Reverend Joseph Hull, my 9^th great grandfather in another lineage.

Generation 2: John Davis, son of Dolor Davis and Margery Willard, born about 1626, died in January 1703 in Barnstable; married on 15 March 1649 in Barnstable to Hannah Linnell, daughter of Robert Linnell and Pinninah House.  Eleven children.

Generation 3: John Davis, born 6 January 1650 in Barnstable, died 1729 in Falmouth; married first on 2 February 1675 in Barnstable to Ruth Goodspeed, daughter of Roger Goodspeed and Alice Layton.  She was born 10 April 1652 at Misteake (now Marston’s Mills), Massachusetts, and she died in 1691.  John Davis married second to Mary Hamblin on 22 February 1692 in Barnstable.  He married third on 8 May 1699 in Falmouth to Hannah Lombard.  He had five children with Ruth, three children with Mary, and 1 with Hannah.

Generation 4: Benjamin Davis, born 8 September 1670 in Barnstable, died 1754; married first on 22 November 1704 in Falmouth to Mary Robinson, daughter of John Robinson and Elizabeth Weeks.  She was born 12 December 1683 in Falmouth, and died in November 1721.  He married second on 27 April 1726 in Falmouth to Mary Dimmock, daughter of John Dimmock and Elizabeth Lumbert.  He had nine children with his first wife and three children with his second wife.

Generation 5: Ruth Davis, born 5 July 1705 in Falmouth, died 16 January 1790 in Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard; she married on 29 October 1730 at Falmouth to John Mayhew, son of John Mayhew and Mehitable Higgins.  He was born in 1701 and died on 16 January 1790.  Five children.

Generation 6:  Mary Mayhew m. Caleb Rand

Generation 7: Mary Rand m. Asahel Bill

Generation 8:  Reverend Ingraham Ebenezer Bill m. Isabella Lyons

Generation 9: Caleb Rand Bill m. Ann Margaret Bollman

Generation 10: Isabella Lyons Bill m. Albert Munroe Wilkinson

Generation 11: Donald Munroe Wilkinson m. Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo