William Learned, Patrimony and Patriarchy of the Puritans

December 6, 2012 — 2 Comments

signatures on marriage contract

We know a lot about the life of my 12th great grandfather who arrived in Boston harbor to begin his new Puritan life in 1630.  He was censured by the Puritans for defending a woman who held Bible studies in her home for both men and women.  He had to retract his support for Anne Hutchinson under threat of having his gun taken from him. His brief touch with feminist sentiments and freewheeling seditious non conformity  and Antinomianism were censured by his Puritan piers. The crazy religious infighting that created Rhode Island and Maine is not a well known part of the story of our founding fathers. Here is the story of one of my ancestors who arrived very early on the shores of North America:

BIRTH     William was born circa 1581 in Bermondsey, Surrey, England[1], as based upon his date of marriage. DEATH & BURIAL     He died in Woburn, Middlesex co., MA on 1 March 1645/6; he was 64[2,3]. MIGRATION & RESIDENCE     William and his family migrated to New England by 1630[1], where he was admitted as an inhabitant of Charlestown, Suffolk co., MA that year[3,6,7]. “William Learned and Goodith his wife” were admitted to the church at Charlestown, Suffolk co., MA on 6d:10m(December):1632[1,6]. He made Freeman there on 14 May 1634[1,4]. William and his family remained in Charlestown for roughly a decade — he is on the lists of Charlestown residents of 9 January 1633/4 and January 1635/6[3,8]. Then, they removed to Woburn, Middlesex co., MA in 1640[1]. In Charlestown, William acquired and divested a great deal of real estate. In 1635, he was allotted two shares of hayground, which was subsequently increased to three[1,12], and he surrendered 5 acres on the Mystic Side[1,11]. On 13 January 1636/7 the Charlestown selectmen “agreed to allow Goodman Learned a portion of marsh by his house agreed upon by Goodman Richeson & Goodman W[illia]m Baker for his haylot by Mr. Gibbon’s which he yieldeth up to the town”[1,17]. In 1637, he had a 10-acre lot (number 7 on the Mystic Side)[6], and another 5 acres of land on the Mystic Side[1,13]. In addition, “W[illia]m Lernett” had 3.75 cow commons that year[1,14]. In the Mystic Side allotments of 23 April 1638 he received portions of 15, 40 and 5 acres[1,15]. Thus, in the 1638 Charlestown Book Of Possessions, “William Lernett” had 7 parcels of land: three acres of arable land and meadow, along with a dwelling house next to the “Olde Meeting House”; four acres arable land in the East Field; 3.75 cow commons; two acres of meadow in the Mystic Marshes; five acres of woods in the Mystic Field; fifteen acres of woods in the Mystic Field next to the Common; and forty acres of land in the Rock Field[6,9,10]. The 3.75 cow commons were further noted in an inventory of 20 December 1638[1,16]. TOWN SERVICE & EDUCATION     William signed the petition on 10 February 1634/5 which established the office of the Selectman in Charlestown, Suffolk co., MA[3,20]. He himself served as Selectman in 1636[1,19]. On 26 April 1638, William was named to the Charlestown committee “to consider of some things tending towards a body of laws &c”. Anderson uses this as evidence of his higher education level[1,18]. LEGAL MENTION     On 16 November 1637 “Will[iam] Larnet acknowledged his fault in subscribing the seditious writing [in favor of Rev. John Wheelwright], & desiring his name to [be] crossed out, it was yielded his, & crossed”[3,5]. The case of the Reverend John Wheelwright involved the Antinomian movement of the 1630s in the Boston Area. Bucking church authority was a part of Wheelwright’s nature, it would seem. Whilst a preacher in England, he was censured for non-conformity for his embrasure of Puritan sentiments. After arriving in Boston, Suffolk co., MA in 1636, he was soon suspected of following the Antinomian tenets proposed by his sister-in-law, Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. Thus, he was censured again, this time by the Puritan government under Governor John Winthrop after delivering a sermon at Mount Wollaston (now Quincy), Norfolk co., MA, disfranchised and banished. Unlike most Antinomian banishees, he went north to Maine instead of south to Rhode Island. Ever the contrarian… Wheelwright was forgiven in the 1650s when the hysteria over Antinomianism wore off. MARRIAGE #1     On 22 April 1606 when William was 25, he first married Goodith GILMAN, in St. Olave, Southwark, Surrey, England[2,3,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. Goodith died sometime after 1632 in Charlestown, Suffolk co., MA[3]. It is worth noting that “Goodith” is neither a corruption of “Goodwife” nor “Judith”, as has been proposed in several books, but her given name in its own right[3]. MARRIAGE #2     After 1632 when William was 51, he second married Jane [surname not known], in Charlestown, Suffolk co., MA[2,22,37,38]. This marriage is also in the Malden, Middlesex co., MA vital records (they lived in the section of that town which later became Woburn, Middlesex co., MA) with the bride’s name given as “Sarah”. This name change stayed with her, either as a chronic mistake or as a preferred name of hers, for when Jane died on 24 January 1660/1 in Woburn, Middlesex co., MA[3,39,40] she was listed as “Sarah [sic] Learned widow”. In March of 1660/1, the “inventory of the estate of the widow Jane Learned deceased in Malden” was taken. Administration was granted to Ralph Shepard on 2 April 1661[3,39,40].

This is how I am related to him:
William Learned (1590 – 1645)
is my 12th great grandfather
Sarah Learned (1604 – 1652)
Daughter of William
Mary Ewer (1637 – 1693)
Daughter of Sarah
Mehitable Jenkins (1655 – 1684)
Daughter of Mary
Isaac Hamblin (1676 – 1710)
Son of Mehitable
Eleazer Hamblin (1699 – 1771)
Son of Isaac
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
Daughter of Eleazer
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
Daughter of Sarah
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
Daughter of Mercy
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
Son of Martha
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
Son of Abner
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
Son of Daniel Rowland
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
Son of Jason A
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
Son of Ernest Abner
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden