Sideroads: The Remarkable Ripley's, Generation 3/4

As mentioned, I've been digging into two lines of John Ripley, the son and co-immigrant of his father, William Ripley. To catch up, go here.

Hezekiah was the second son of John II. He and his wife Sarah Garnet lived in Hingham, Massachussetts for their entire lives, They had at least nine children, but for this tale, we're following his third son, John.

John's father died at the age of 43, in June of 1736, and his mother Sarah, remarried to John Pratt, in September of 1737. John was only 16 years old at the time and it's possible that he did not get along with his new stepfather. In any case, young John set out to find his own way in life, probably between 1737 and 1739, and headed for the land of new religous freedom, Rhode Island.  John most probably traveled by ship on this journey, possibly working on the ship to pay his way, as it is doubtful that he had any money at the age of 16.

From the birth of John's first child, we know that he must have arrived in Rhode Island by at least April of 1739, nine months before his first child's birth. He married Meribeth Lee (sources also reference Meribah Messenger as his wife - I would be eternally grateful to have this sorted out by someone) who was born in Rhode Island in 1718. All 10 of John's children were born in Kent County, Rhode Island.

John later moved to New York State, probably between June 1775 when his daughter Jane was married in Warwick, Rhode Island and before 1777 when his son Asa became a militia volunteer in the Revolutionary War, from New Canaan in 1777.  

http://www.ripleygenealogy.com/Page_95.html

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Joshua II Ripley the fourth child of Joshua and Hannah Bradford Ripley, was born 13 May 1688 in Windham, Connecticut. He married Mary Backus on 03 Dec 1712 in Windham. They made their home in Willimantic where for some brief time (mostly likely thanks to his father's connections), he was a proprietor of the Willimantic Iron Works. The iron works was never very successful, thanks in part to frequent ownership changes, but did employ a number of people over its years of operations. Eventually, it was abandoned and was swept away in a flood. Joshua and Mary had at least 13 children and both died in Windham County.

Joshua Ripley Jr (or III, depending on source),  was the sixth child of  Joshua II and Mary Backus. He was born 30 Oct 1726. He married Elizabeth Lothrop. the daughter of  Benjamin Lothrop and Mercy Baker, born 09 Mar 1730/1 at Barnstable, Massachusetts, on 26 Mar 1748 in Windham, Connecticut. Of this Joshua little is known other than he was both born and died in Windham and had at least 10 children, including his 8th, Nathaniel, who is up next.

Sideroads: The Remarkable Ripley's, Generation 1

William Ripley was born in Ripon, North Yorkshire, England, not far from the Ripley Castle on 14 May 1598. He had three wives in short order while living in England and several children with each wife. While living in England, he supported the family as a "glover."

In 1638, William, his third (of four) wife Susannah, daughters Mary and Sarah and sons John and Abraham, boarded the Diligent in Ipswich and headed to the New World, arriving, according to village records, in Boston on 10 Aug 1638. The ship held 133 souls. The Ripley's set out on foot, going 13 miles, to Hingham (along with many of his fellow travelers) where they stayed. (One theory espoused by a Ripley researcher is their trip did not occur until most likely 1640 or 1641, but I'm for the time being going with the records of the Hingham Town Clerk). The Ripley's settled in Hingham which had been founded in about 1633, not far from where the original Mayflower residents disembarked at Plymouth Rock only a few years previously. Others of his brood also made their way to America, but I'm going to focus on son John. William  was granted land in 1638 on Main St. by the training field in Hingham Centre. His house remained in the Ripley family for 300 years before it was torn down in 1940 and replaced by a fire house. While living in Hingham, he was a weaver. He became a Freeman May 18 1642, married his fourth and final wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Partridge) Thaxter in 1654, and died soon after in  July 1656.

Hingham Hingham is one of the oldest towns in Massachusetts. There were settlers here as early as 1633. Its first name was Bearcove or Barecove, believed to be most likely Barecove because of its exposure of  nearly all the harbor at low tide. 

"The number of persons who came over in the ship Diligent, of Ipswich, in the year 1638, and settled in Hingham, was one hundred and thirty three. All that came before were forty-two, making in all one hundred and seventy-five. The whole number that came out of Norfolk (chiefly from Hingham, and its vicinity) from 1633 to 1639, and settled in this Hingham, was two hundred and six. This statement, on the authority of the third town clerk of Hingham, must be reconciled with the fact that there was a much larger number of settlers herein 1639 than would appear from his estimate. They undoubtedly came in from other places, and I am inclined to believe that there may be some omissions in Mr. Cushing's list."

"In these first settlements the ministers were the leaders. Their influence was supreme. They gave tone to the time, and color to history ; and the communities which they largely moulded seem, as we look back upon them, to be toned by the ecclesiastical atmosphere which the clergy gave to them. But with all this there was still all the time an immense deal of human nature. The picture of the early time, if it could be reproduced, would present a body of men and women engaged in the ordinary activities of life, cultivating the farms, ploughing the seas, trading with foreign lands and among themselves, engaged in near and remote fisheries, maintaining the school, the train-band, and the church, holding their town-meetings, — a people not without humor, not altogether innocent of a modicum of quarrel and greed and heart-burning, yet warm with the kind and neighborly spirit of a common and interdependent fellowship." 

"Their early records deal with every-day details of farm and lot, of domestic affairs, of straying cattle and swine, of runaway apprentices and scolding wives, of barter with the Indians, of whippings and stocks and fines for all sorts of naughtinesses, of boundaries and suits, of debt and legal process and probate, of elections and petty offices civil and military, and now and then the alarum of war and the inevitable assessment of taxes. They smack very much more of the concerns, and the common concerns, of this world than of concern for the next." ~  History of the town of Hingham, Massachusetts, by Bouve, Thomas, Bouve, Edward Tracy; Long, John Davis; Bouve, Walter Lincoln; Lincoln, Francis H; Lincoln, George; Hersey, Edmund; Burr, Fearing; Seymour, Charles. 1893.

Son John married Elizabeth Hobart, daughter of Rev Peter Hobart & Elizabeth Brook in about 1654 in Hingham. They had seven children: John, Joshua, Josiah, Lt Jeremiah, Peter, Rebecca, and Hezekiah. Rebecca died in infancy and Hezekiah as a young man drowned at age 20 while attempting to ford the Shetucket River.

The next few posts will be following through the generations of John and Joshua. Each took completely different routes - one being the progenitor of some of the most notable families in American and one the father of a line of farmers that eventually landed in Iowa.