Weathervane Wednesday ~ Weathervanes in Boston, England

I posted a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday for the last several years.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  This is the last weathervane post of the series!  I hope you've enjoyed these Weathervane Wednesday posts. 

Today's weather vanes were photographed in England.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #400?  Scroll down to find the answer.

These weathervanes were photographed on the tower above the "Boston Stump" or St. Botolph's church,  in Boston, Lincolnshire, England.  The name of the town "Boston" is thought to derive from "St. Botolph's town".  We were visiting Boston during our tour of England and Holland with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Historic Sites Tour last year.

There appear to be eight weathervanes on the octagonal tower above the church.  Each is a gilded banner, and very shiny in the sunlight.  However, the tower is extremely tall at 272 feet height, and we could only see these weathervanes using the zoom lens on the camera.  You can see the sunlight glinting off the banners from a great distance.  This tower is so tall, sailors at sea use it as a landmark!

There is a "Puritan Path" of markers outside the
church, memorializing the Puritans who left
Lincolnshire for Boston, Massachusetts

"1630 John Cotton bids farewell to his parishoners on the the Arbella"

This church is very important in New England history.  The Puritan leader Rev. John Cotton was a vicar at St. Botolphs in the 17th century.  He encouraged a large number of his congregation, on board the ship Arbella and other ships in the Winthrop Fleet, to leave for New England in 1630.  By 1633 Rev. Cotton also left, and he founded and named Boston, Massachusetts.  There is a Cotton Chapel inside St. Botolph's church now, as well as a model of the Mayflower (the Pilgrim Fathers were imprisoned in Boston for trying to escape to Holland).   I had several ancestors believed to have been on board the Arbella, including Samuel and William Chesebrough, William Beamsley, Edward Converse, Mattias Irons, Edmund Lockwood, Thomas Mayhew, and Ezekiel Richardson.

Five men from Boston, England became Governors of Massachusetts - Richard Bellingham, Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, John Leverett and Francis Bernard.

I think that this church and it's weathervanes are a nice way to wrap up this series of 400 weathervane posts for "Weathervane Wednesday".  I can't think of a town or church in England that influenced migration and family history as much as the "Boston Stump".

I hope you enjoyed this series!

Click here to read about our day in Boston, Lincolnshire, England:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/along-pilgrim-trail-boston-lincolnshire.html

Click here to see the entire collection of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ Weathervanes in Boston, England", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 30, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/weathervane-wednesday-weathervanes-in_23.html: accessed [access date]). 

Surname Saturday ~ IRONS of Boston, Massachusetts

IRONS / INES / IANS / IYANS / JYANS / IANSE

Matthew Irons’ origins are unknown.  It is difficult to trace him in the records because of the many inventive spellings of his surname.  However, when I pronounce IRONS with my Yankee New England accent, it becomes easy to figure out why his name was spelled so many ways.  Just drop the “R”.  

Matthew arrived as a servant to William Colbron, and  was made a freeman in Boston in 1636 as “IVES”.   He was an innkeeper in Boston, and granted eight acres at Muddy River (what is now the Fenway and Brookline).  He left a will on 30 January 1661/2 that named some of his children, and an inventory was taken on 16 April 1661.  He had eleven children in the Boston vital records and church records (baptisms) with his wife, Anne, who was probably the sister to Watertown settlers Edmund and Abraham Browne.  [Great Migration Begins, volume II, page 1059].

I descend from the eldest daughter, Elizabeth who married Richard Randall.  They settled on Cape Porpoise in what is now Saco, Maine.  One of her daughters, Sarah also married a Saco settler, Joseph Cole. Sarah Cole and her three daughters were captured by Indians on 20 August 1703 and taken to Montreal.  The children remained in Canada and were baptized by the Catholic Church. Sarah returned to Beverly, Massachusetts with her sister, Priscilla and they lived together as widows. 

  

I descend from Priscilla Randall, sister to the captive Sarah Randall Cole, who married William Preston. They had nine children, and I descend from two sons, Nehemiah and Randall Preston.  Both lived in Beverly, Massachusetts, the town where I was born on this date (Yes, today is my birthday!) 

For more information:

Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to the New World 1620 - 1633, by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume II, pages 1057 - 1059.

My Surname Saturday blog post on RANDALL  http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/surname-saturday-randall-of-saco-maine.html

My Surname Saturday blog post on PRESTON

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/11/surname-saturday-presburypresbyterpresb.html

My Surname Saturday blog post on ALLEN

http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/09/surname-saturday-allen-of-manchester.html

My Irons genealogy:

Generation 1:   Matthew Irons, born about 1613 probably in England, died before 16 April 1661 (the date of the inventory of his estate); married by about 1638 to Anne (probably Anne Browne, sister to Edmund and Abraham Browne, brothers who settled in Watertown, Massachusetts).  Eleven children.

Generation 2: Elizabeth Irons, born 15 April 1641 in Boston, baptized 18 April 1641 in Boston, died 1701 in Saco, Maine;  married to Richard Randall.  He was born about 1633 in England and died after 1713 in Saco.  Three children.

Generation 3: Priscilla Randall m. William Preston

Lineage A:

Generation 4: Nehemiah Preston m. Abigail Allen

Generation 5: Hannah Preston m. Robert Woodbury

Generation 6: Molly Woodbury m. Westley Burnham

Generation 7: Henry Burnham m. Sally Poland

Generation 8:  Sarah Ann Burnham m. Samuel Mears

Generation 9: Sarah Burnham Mears m. Joseph Gilman Allen

Generation 10: Joseph Elmer Allen m. Carrie Maude Batchelder

Generation 11: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda Hitchings (my grandparents)

Lineage B:

Generation 4: Randall Preston m. Susanna Stone

Generation 5: William Preston m. Abigail Sargent

Generation 6: Lucy Presson m. James Andrews

Generation 7: Orpha Andrews m. Joseph Allen

Generation 8: Joseph Gilman Allen m. Sarah Burnham Mears (see above)

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Surname Saturday ~ IRONS  of Boston, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted October 24, 2015 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/10/surname-saturday-irons-of-boston.html : accessed [access date]).