Breaking Ties and Making Waves
When I was growing up in suburban New York City in the seventies and eighties, I was envious of so many of my friends who were first generation Americans, or even better, were immigrants themselves. They had a culture and another language that they could speak or at least understand. Their lives had dimension, or so it seemed to me. When asked where their families were from, as the kids often asked, my friends could reply Greece, Italy, Jordan, China, or Poland; they knew exactly who from their families had immigrated and when they had arrived. When I was asked where my family was from, all I had was “Massachusetts and Ohio.” “But what nationality are you?” my friends would ask. I could answer with a vague, “I think I am English, Swiss, and a little Irish.” But I had no idea who came from those countries or when, even though I knew generations of my family history. The last known immigrant in my family, in fact, arrived in 1744, and the earliest in 1620 on the Mayflower. I have always taken the Puritan background of my maternal line for granted. The Puritans have been so well documented, but they have also been depicted in ways that don’t reflect reality. As I have gotten older, it has been fascinating to uncover the truth of their situations and appreciate the various dimensions of Puritan culture.
Nearly all of my maternal line came over in the Great Migration of the 1630s, with a smattering arriving in the late 1600s. Because they came over so early in the history of colonial America, many of the lines were already well documented, and in many cases the information is overwhelming and can be conflicting, with lots of false “facts” out there. Recently I have been focusing efforts on the Severance family, original settlers of Salisbury, Massachusetts. Martin Severance of Deerfield, Mass (1718-1810) has mythical standing in my family and also in the town of Shelburne Falls, which he founded. But it was Martin’s great-parents John Severance (circa 1609-1682) and Abigail Kimball (1617-1658) who established the family in North America.
The idea of what they must have faced at home in England to propel them on a two or three month journey to a barely inhabited world is mind boggling to my twentieth century mind. Were they Puritans? Separatists or non separatists? While the original influx of English immigrants to New England in the 1620s were mostly separatist Puritans (those who wanted to separate from the Church of England—considered a treasonous act), those who were non separatists tended to stay in England to try to change the church from within. By the time just prior to the English Civil War in the late 1830s, the crown started to come down on non separatists as well, which prompted thousands to flee for the New World. There were some, too, who also came for business ventures, but they were looked down upon by the communities established on religious principles. Why John Severance came is not known, but as a freeman he would have been required to be a member of the church and he would have owned land.
As many of the early settlers did, John Severance moved around. He shows up in Boston, as discussed earlier, then appears later to be living briefly in Ipswich, Massachusetts on the north shore, then between 1836 and 1840 he moved to Salisbury (near Ipswich) as one of the original settlers. John is known to have been a planter, a vintner, and a victualer—an innkeeper who also sold food. As an innkeeper, John was certainly a central part of the community and likely had more money than most. In fact, he seems to have been focused on his business success and making sure he achieved the income he deserved. There are several records indicating involvement in court proceedings as a plaintiff, as a defendant, and as a juror. In one case, “Severans sued one Henry Green for breach of contract. Green had apparently reneged on a promise to craft a malt-grinding mill for the tavern.” There is also evidence that shows John Severance regularly had to take delinquent customers to court for overdue tabs.
Life in Puritan New England certainly was not easy. It sounds, from John Severance’s story, to have been much like a game of Survivor, with someone being pushed out to ensure the success of another. It must have been a hard life, but one with a lot of color and interesting occurrences. Many stories and conversations passed through the inn that John Severance ran; it would have been fascinating to have heard them. In thinking about my background, I do have a decidedly rich and multidimensional family culture afterall. We were the strong ones, who not only physically survived the hard voyage to 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, but also the ones who stood up to authority for what we believed in, and prospered financially in carving a life in the new settlement. So when I am asked where my family is from, I can say with pride that we come from New England, a region rich in history and culture.
Abigail arrived in Massachusetts Bay with her parents on the ship Elizabeth in 1634, settling first in Boston. John Severance also likely arrived in Boston about the same time, although I have not found a definitive record of his arrival. (Some claim he came on the Elizabeth with the Kimball family, but he is not listed among the known passengers.) John and Abigail married in 1635 or 1636 as there is a baptism record for their son Samuel dated July 19, 1637. John Severance appears living in Salisbury, Massachusetts by 1636, so it is likely he met Abigail after they had both arrived in Massachusetts. On May 17, 1637 in Boston, John Severance was made a freeman and was acknowledged as a member of the “Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company,” according to an 1897 publication about the Kimball family.
The idea of what they must have faced at home in England to propel them on a two or three month journey to a barely inhabited world is mind boggling to my twentieth century mind. Were they Puritans? Separatists or non separatists? While the original influx of English immigrants to New England in the 1620s were mostly separatist Puritans (those who wanted to separate from the Church of England—considered a treasonous act), those who were non separatists tended to stay in England to try to change the church from within. By the time just prior to the English Civil War in the late 1830s, the crown started to come down on non separatists as well, which prompted thousands to flee for the New World. There were some, too, who also came for business ventures, but they were looked down upon by the communities established on religious principles. Why John Severance came is not known, but as a freeman he would have been required to be a member of the church and he would have owned land.
As many of the early settlers did, John Severance moved around. He shows up in Boston, as discussed earlier, then appears later to be living briefly in Ipswich, Massachusetts on the north shore, then between 1836 and 1840 he moved to Salisbury (near Ipswich) as one of the original settlers. John is known to have been a planter, a vintner, and a victualer—an innkeeper who also sold food. As an innkeeper, John was certainly a central part of the community and likely had more money than most. In fact, he seems to have been focused on his business success and making sure he achieved the income he deserved. There are several records indicating involvement in court proceedings as a plaintiff, as a defendant, and as a juror. In one case, “Severans sued one Henry Green for breach of contract. Green had apparently reneged on a promise to craft a malt-grinding mill for the tavern.” There is also evidence that shows John Severance regularly had to take delinquent customers to court for overdue tabs.In March of 1648 or 1649, John Severance “mortgaged his dwelling house + houselot + a little piece of upland” + 4 acres of meadow before his house.” Then, in 1654 he bought an additional six acres of meadow in Salisbury. The most fascinating part of the drama that seems to have surrounded John Severance I actually learned through a story about Thomas Macy, Severance’s immediate neighbor in Salisbury. Macy moved from Salisbury to Nantucket (and was the original settler of that island.) Macy was also my husband’s direct ancestor, which makes this history so much more interesting and relevant to our family. Macy apparently had a dispute with “a neighbor” and so decided to leave Salisbury. There is no proof that the neighbor in question was John Severance, but it is amusing to think it could have been. Severance is known to have had an issue with a different neighbor, Emmanuell Hill, who had taken John Severance to court for ‘the molestation [of] plaintiff’s peaceable enjoyment of a parcell of meadow he bought of defendant.’ John Severance apparently harvested the hay from the land he had sold Hill after he sold it. Based on this evidence, it is quite plausible to think that my family could have run my husband’s family out of town!
Life in Puritan New England certainly was not easy. It sounds, from John Severance’s story, to have been much like a game of Survivor, with someone being pushed out to ensure the success of another. It must have been a hard life, but one with a lot of color and interesting occurrences. Many stories and conversations passed through the inn that John Severance ran; it would have been fascinating to have heard them. In thinking about my background, I do have a decidedly rich and multidimensional family culture afterall. We were the strong ones, who not only physically survived the hard voyage to 17th century Massachusetts Bay Colony, but also the ones who stood up to authority for what we believed in, and prospered financially in carving a life in the new settlement. So when I am asked where my family is from, I can say with pride that we come from New England, a region rich in history and culture.
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