Simon Crosby, 10th Great Grandfather

March 25, 2013 — 1 Comment

Simon Crosby signature on indenture

Simon Crosby, perhaps a brother of Thomas of Cambridge and Rowley, embarked from England in the ship “Susan and Ellen,” April 13, 1635, being then twenty-six years old, with his wife Ann, aged twenty-five, and infant son Thomas, eight weeks old. He settled in Cambridge, Mass., where he was a husbandman and was a proprietor as early as February 8, 1636. He was admitted a freeman in that year, and served as selectman in 1636 and 1638. He had several grants of land, and his estate, later known as the “Brattle place,” passed into the hands of Rev. William Brattle, his residence being at what is now the corner of Brattle street and Brattle square. He died in September, 1639, at the early age of thirty-one years, leaving sons Thomas, born in England; Simon, born in 1637, in Cambridge; and Joseph, 1639, at the same place. The widow married, in 1646, Rev. William Thompson, minister at Braintree, and became the second time a widow at his death, Dec. 10, 1666. She died Oct 8, 1676.

Simon Crosby (1608 – 1639)
is my 10th great-grandfather
Thomas Crosby (1635 – 1702)
son of Simon Crosby
Sarah Crosby (1667 – 1706)
daughter of Thomas Crosby
Sarah Sears (1697 – 1785)
daughter of Sarah Crosby
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
daughter of Sarah Sears
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Sarah Hamblin
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Ernest Howard Crosby,  In the portion of the family history taken from the October New York Genealogical and Biograpical Record, Surmises that Simon Crosby  ‘may have come to America as one of the company of the Rev. Thomas Shepard,  who crossed the ocean in that year (1635) and settled at Newtown, now Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This Mr. Shepard was preceeded or accompanied by a large number of his freinds and acquaintances.  He had taken orders in the Church of England, and had held livings in Yorkshire and Northumberland,  but he enertained conscientious scruples regarding the ceremonies of his church,  and was consequently so harassed by those in authority that he left England,  and became one of the most eminent clergymen in New England.  The Chief reason for establishing Harvard College at Cambridge is that he lived there.’

This record goes on to state that before the end of 1635 we find Simon Crosby living at Newtown (Cambridge).  He was admitted as a freeman on March 3, 1636 and chosen as a selectman in the fall of that year. In September of 1637 he was elected surveyor of highways; was selectman again in 1638, and in October of that year was elected constable.

On Dec. 5, 1636 land was granted to him and six others for pasture.  He died in Cambridge in September 1639,  at only 31 years of age. The cause of his death is not known, but we can surmise that his death may have been fairly sudden,  since he died intestate.  An addendum to Ernest Howard Crosby’s record quoted above says that the original inventory of the estate of Simon Crosby,  signed by his widow Anne, is on file in the archives of Massachusetts.