Husband Thomas Ford
Born: 1589 at: Bridport, Dorset, England 1
Christened: at:
Died: November 28, 1676 at: Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts 2
Buried: at:
Father: John Ford (Est 1557- )
Mother:
Married: Place:
Other Spouse: Joan Waye Date:
Other Spouse: Elizabeth Charde (1589-1643) Date: June 19, 1616, Bridport, Dorset, England 1
Events
1. Immigration 1 3, May 30, 1630, Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England
2. Freeman 4, May 18, 1631, Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts
3. Removed 4, Abt 1635, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut
4. Removed 4, Abt 1672, Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts
Wife Mrs. Ann Scott (details suppressed for this living person)
Born: at:
Christened: at:
Died: at:
Buried: at:
Children
1 F Ann Ford
Born: Abt 1657 2 at:
Christened: at:
Died: January 6, 1689/90 at: Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts
Buried: at:
Husband's Notes
The Mary and John On the twentieth of March, 1630, a group of men and women, one hundred and forty in number, set sail from Plymouth, England, in the good ship, the "Mary and John." The company had been selected and assembled largely through the efforts of the Reverend John White of Dorchester, England; with whom they spent the day before sailing, "fasting, preaching, and praying." These people had come from the Western Counties of England, mostly from Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somerset. They had chosen two ministers to accompany them: "men who were interested in the idea of bringing Indians to the knowledge of the Gospel." The Reverand John Maverick was an elderly man from Devon, a minister of the Established church. Reverand John Warham was also an ordained minister of the Church of England, in Exeter, eminent as a preacher. There is some evidence that both of these men were in some difficulties with the church on account of their sympathies with the Puritans. Edward Rossiter and Roger Ludlow, two men who were members of the government in England were also chosen; and several gentlemen, middleaged, with adult families were next joined to the association. Among them were Henry Wolcott, Thomas Ford, George Dyer, William Gaylord, William Rockwell, and William Phelps. But a large portion of the company were young men, eager for adventure, such as Israel Stroughton, Roger Clap, George Minot, Richard Collicot, and Nathaniel Duncan. So we came writes Roger Clap in his Memoirs, by the good hand of the Lord, through the deep comfortably; having preached or expounding of the Word of God every day for ten weeks together by our ministers. When we came to Nantasket, Capt. Squeb, who was captain of that great ship of four hundred tons, put us on shore and our goods on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forelorn place in this wilderness. It had been the original intent to land in the Charles River, but a dispute with Captain Squeb, the commander of the vessel, caused the whole company, on May 30, 1630, to be put ashore at Nantasket. The "Mary and John" was the first of the fleet of 1630 to arrive in the bay. At that time there could not have been pilots, or charts of the channel, and it does not seem unreasonable that the captain refused to undertake the passage, but Roger Clap has sent Captain Squeb down to posterity as a merciless man. According to tradition they landed upon the south side of Dorchester Neck, or South Boston, in Old Harbor. Ten of the men under command of Captain Southcote, found a small boat, and went up the river to Charleston Neck, where they found an old planter, probably Thomas Walfourd, who fed them "a dinner of fish without bread." Later they continued their journey up the Charles River, as far as what is now Watertown, returning several days later to the company who had found pasture for their cattle at Mattapan. The settlement was later called Dorchester, in honor of the Reverand John White, of Dorchester, England. Roger Clap tells of the hardships that followed. They had little food, and were forced to live on clams and fish. They built small boats, and the Indians came later with baskets of corn. "The place was a wilderness," writes Roger Clap. "Fish was agood help to me and the others. Bread was so scarce that I thought the very crusts from my fathers table would have been sweet; and when I could have meal and salt and water boiled together, I asked, 'who could have asked for better?'" Here they lived for five or six years. Other boats arrived and other towns were settled. But the life at Dorchester was not entirely congenial to the lovers of liberty of the "Mary and John." The group of settlements around Massachusetts Bay was dominated by clergymen and officials of aristocratic tendencies meadows of the Connecticut Valley. Copied from "The Mary and John a story of the Founding of Dorchester Massachusetts, 1630" by Maude Pinney Kuhns pages 1-3.
1 Burton W. Spear, Search For The Passengers of The Mary & John Volume 4, (The Mary & John Clearing House).
2 Robert Charles Anderson, Immigrants To New England 1620-1633 Volume 1, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1995).
3 Charles Edward Banks, Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants To New England 1620-1650, (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1963), From the library of john D. Warren.
4 Charles Henry Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts, (Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1998), The Library of John D. Warren. Page 172.
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