Thomas Redding, 9th Great Grandfather

September 26, 2013 — ancestry, King Philip's War, Phymouth

Pequot War 1637-1638

Thomas Redding was an early settler of Maine.  He and his wife left a five year old child in the care of another man and never returned for him. The court awarded custody of the boy to the guardian since the promised upkeep for the child was never paid.

RESIDENCE: 1644: Scituate, Ma [BRLp10, quoting Plymouth Colony Court Records relating to their leaving their 5y old son in the care of Mr Gowan White, & failing to return to pay for his keep. The court awarded custody of the child to Mr White, unless the parents returned and paid for arrears in support]
1653: Took oath of allegiance to Massachusettes at Wells, Me as being of Saco, Me. and relocated at Three Islands, Cape Porpoise Harbor, Me (being as “Thomas Redding who hailed from New Plymouth”); he lived on the Great Island (which was known as “Redding Island” into the 1800’s) and managed the fishing Trade there until he returned to Saco about 1653/7. [BRLp11, quoting, Wilbur D. Spencer’s 1930 “Pioneers on Maine Rivers”].
1665: rem. Westcustego (the Indian name for what we call Yarmouth) [BRLp11, quoting, Wilbur D. Spencer’s 1930 “Pioneers on Maine Rivers”].
NOTE: Cape Porpoise River is now [ca.1920] known as Mousam River.
1666: “Living near the Lane family … who were living on the ‘Cousin’s Place'” [by this do we infer what is today known as “Cousin’s Island”?]

BIOGRAPHY:
Quoted from: “The Redding Family and Its Relatives” by Billie Redding Lewis, Donated by the author April 1983 to (and on file at) the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Library, Plymouth, Mass.:
“No evidence has been found to connect Thomas Redding, the progenitor of the author’s family to the Thaddeus Riddan with whom Thomas is often confused. Most researchers believe all early Reddings, regardless of spelling, both in New England and the Virginia colonies, to be related.
“Banks [17] has Thomas Redding entering New England about 1635 but unfortunately, has found no ship nor English origin listed.
“One researching descendant states that Thomas came from Barbados to New England as did “John and James Saunders, Thomas Lane, John Spencer, John Manwaring, John and Thomas Hill, and others, who are found as Mr. Redding’s neighbors in what is now the state of Maine.” [18].
“Thomas Redding’s name does appear on a list of those who in 1635-8 [19] owned ten or more acres in Barbados but there is no documented proof that the Thomas Redding of Barbados is the same Thomas Redding of New England. It is quite probable, on the other hand, since Thomas, in 1639, married the sister of William Pennoyer, a wealthy London merchant, who was not only a cloth merchant but also a prosperous sea-merchant owning a number of vessels and some sugar planatations in Barbados.
“In 1637, Thomas Redding is found in “New Plymouth” as a fisherman and a volunteer for service in the Pequot War [20].
“On 20 July, 1639, Thomas Redding married Ellinor Pennoyer, who is recorded in Plymouth Colony records as Elinor “Penny”. Thomas’s name is not found again in Plymouth records until 1644 when he and Ellinor are in Scituate, Mass. where it is thought they lived less than a year & left their five year old son to be cared for by Gowan White. On 4 June, 1 645, the Plymouth Court Records state. [23]

” ‘Whereas Thomas Riddings, about ayear since, came to Scituate and depted (departed) thence, leaueing a man child about fiv yeares of age with Gowen White, pmiseing him to pay xviij d p weeke for his keepeing & dyetting of him, but hath hitherto payd him nothing; and the said Gowen White hath since found him meate, drinke, and cloathes at his own charge; the court doth order and appoynt that the said shalbe wth the said Gowen White vntill he shall accomplish the age tweny and foure yeares; but if his father shall come and desire to take him away before the end of the said terme, that then he shall pay he said Gowen White for the keeping of him for such tyme as he shall haue beene wth him; and so also if bee shalbe placed wth another man.’.

“Thomas’s leaving his son is still puzzling to genealogists. The child was probably Thomas and Ellinor’s first-born since he was five years old at the time, making him born in 1640, a year after their marriage. Why was he left? Did the parents go to Barbados but did not want to change the child’s environment, or is this the period of time in which they moved to Maine and possibly did not want to subject their son to the lifestyle that would be rougher than that in Plymouth County? If they moved to Maine, why then was there no contact with Gowen White? True, travelling was not easy in those days, but the pioneers did not seem to allow obstacles to impede them completely.
“This writer could find no record of Thomas between the time he left his son in 1645 and when he took his Oath of Allegiance to Massachusetts Colony in what is now Maine, on 5 July, 1653. [25]”
[17] Charles Edward Banks, “Tophgraphical Dictionary of 2885 Emigrants”, p.234 … Baltimore.
[18] Fred E. Crowell, “Redding -Miller”, Boston “Transcript”, 1929
[19] NHGS Register, Vol. 39, taken from “Memoirs of the First Settlers of the Island of Barbados” …
[20] Winslow’s “Journal”, and Plymouth Colony Records
[23] Plymouth Colony Records; Book 2, Page 86 [25] James Savage, “A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England”, Vol. 4, Boston,

Thomas Redding (1607 – 1673)
is my 9th great grandfather
Martha Redding (1633 – 1702)
daughter of Thomas Redding
Abigail Taylor (1663 – 1730)
daughter of Martha Redding
Martha Goodwin (1693 – 1769)
daughter of Abigail Taylor
Grace Raiford (1725 – 1778)
daughter of Martha Goodwin
Sarah Hirons (1751 – 1817)
daughter of Grace Raiford
John Nimrod Taylor (1770 – 1816)
son of Sarah Hirons
John Samuel Taylor (1798 – 1873)
son of John Nimrod Taylor
William Ellison Taylor (1839 – 1918)
son of John Samuel Taylor
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of William Ellison Taylor
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor