9088. Edward Converse died on 10 Aug 1663 in Woburn, Middlesex Co., MA. He married Sarah Parker.
1. DEACON EDWARD CONVERS, was one of the select company of Puritans who came from England to this country in the fleet with Winthrop, whose ship, the Arbella, preceding the other vessels of the fleet, arrived at Salem 12 June 1630, after a stormy passage of sixty-three days. With him came his wife, Sarah, and children, Josiah, James and Mary. They settled first in Charlestown, Mass. "Edward Convers and Sarah Convers, his wife," were among the first members of the church received on the Sunday following its organization in Charlestown 30 July 1630, and which included in its Congregation members on both sides of the river, the majority of whom had removed to Boston within a few months This Was the First Church of Boston, and from it Edward and Sarah Convers and thirty-three other members were dismissed 14 October 1632, to be embodied as the First Church of Charlestown, entering into mutual covenant for this purpose 2 November 1632.
The name of Edward Convers appears among those Who "desire to be made freemen" 19 October 1630, and took the oath as such 18 May 1631 these being the first to be admitted to the company in New England.
He established the first ferry between Charlestown and Boston under the vote of the General Court of 9 November 1630, and 14 June 1631 was authorized to charge, for ferrying, " two pence for every single person, and one penny apiece if there be two or more." This lease was renewed 9 November 1637, for three years, Mr. Convers agreeing to pay therefor forty pounds each year into the Colonial treasury. This ferry crossed the river where the Charlestown bridge now crosses it, and was called the "Great Ferry," to distinguish it from the ferry operated by Thomas Williams between Charlestown and Winnisimmet. Mr. Convers held the lease of the "Great Ferry" until 7 October 1640, when it was granted for the support of Harvard College. Rev. John Jay Putnam, the author of the valuable monograph entitled "Family History in the line of Joseph Convers of Bedford, Mass.," says that this surrender of the lease of the ferry for the benefit of Harvard College has been ascribed to an acquaintance with John Harvard, whose generous bequest to the college led to the adoption of his name as its title, and this is probable from the fact that they were fellow (1) townsmen, and, moreover, in 1638, Harvard owned 120 acres of land in Waterfield (Charlestown Village) not far from the location where Convers so shortly after established a home.
In the Colonial records the name of Edward Convers appears 28 September 1630 as one of a jury impanelled to inquire concerning the death of Austen Bratcher. We also learn therefrom that 7 October 1640, he was appointed, with two others, to " sett the bounds betweene Charlestown & Mr. Cradock's farme on the other side of the Mystick Ryver;" and in December 1641 it was ordered "that Lieft Sprague and Edward Convers should repair the bridge at Meadfoard over Mystick Ryver & the same to bee paid for out of the treasury."
Edward Convers served Charlestown as selectman from 1635 until his removal in 1640 to the new town, in the projection of which he was active and prominent, and which afterwards was called Woburn. It was first called Charlestown Village, and consisted of a grant by the General Court of territory two miles square on the western border of Charlestown. This was afterwards enlarged to four square miles, and included what is now Woburn, Winchester, Wilmington, and Burlington. Edward Convers was one of a small company who went in May 1640, and in September and November of the same year, to explore the new territory. On one occasion they narrowly escaped death by the fall of a large tree under which they had rested during a great storm in the night and on another were overtaken and lost in a snow storm. He was one of the committee of thirteen chosen by the town of Charlestown, 4 November 1640, to "sett the bounds betwixt Charlestown and the Village, and to appoint the place for the village." It was, however, by the instrumentality of seven commissioners appointed by the church of Charlestown that the establishment of the town and church of Woburn was effected. Sewall's History of Woburn says that the name of Edward Convers stands at the head of these seven commissioners appointed by the Church for effecting the settlement of Woburn, and that he appears to have been ever zealous and persevering in his labors for this end, and that after the incorporation of the town in 1642 he became one of its most popular and useful citizens. After the Church in Charlestown had aided as she did in the plan of establishing the new settlement as a distinct town, she became alarmed lest the project would tend to depopulate Charlestown, and interposed some opposition to the plan. But, as Sewall, in his History of Woburn, says:--"She soon found that the spirit of emigration which she herself had helped to raise and foster she could not check or put down at will. She therefore prudently yielded to circumstances; and within a fortnight from the time she began to frown upon their work, full power was given to Edward Convers and Company to go on with it anew." Many other disheartening difficulties and trials were encountered in effecting the new settlement. The History of Woburn shows the first settlers to have been a courageous, hardy, industrious, charitable, sober and pious race of men.
Rev. Leander Thompson in his sketch of Edward Convers referred to below, says that "to the persistent energy of Edward Convers more than to any other one man, the success of the seven commissioners seems to have been due." Also, "outstripping all others in his zeal" he built the first house in Woburn previous to 4 January 1641, which was at the mill once called by his name in the South Village, now Winchester. He also built this first mill there,-a corn mill. Of the first bridge built in Woburn (10 February 1640-1) and the first house built there, Sewall says, in History of Woburn : "This bridge, the first that was built in Woburn they called Cold Bridge. It was in after times better known as the `Convers Bridge' from the name of the proprietor of the adjacent mill, and, as it is said in the records to have been laid `over against EDWARD CONVARS' hows,' it is inferred that that house, which continued many years in the occupation of that distinguished family, and the site of which is still well remembered, was either already standing when the bridge was built, or that it was erected immediately after, and before the entry just quoted from the records was made, and that it was the first built dwelling house in Woburn."
In the back of this book will be found an Historical Sketch of Winchester, Mass., which contains a picture of this house, and many references to Deacon Edward Convers. The Winchester Record, of October 1885, contains a picture of the site of Deacon Edward's house.
Upon the organization of the town of Woburn, 13 April 1644, Edward Convers was chosen one of the seven selectmen, he being named second in the record; and he continued to serve the town as selectman until his death in 1663. On 3 March 1649, he was one of four selectmen appointed to negotiate with the town of Charlestown the matter of the disputed boundary between the two towns.
From 1649 to 1660 he was one of the three commissioners for the trial of small causes. Of these officers Sewall's History of Woburn says:- "The appointment of these commissioners was sanctioned by law in all towns where there was no magistrate, and they constituted an inferior Court of Justice, having the power of magistrates (except that of committing to prison) to hear and determine according to their own best judgment all causes in which one of the parties belonged to the town in which they presided, and in which the debt, trespass, or damage did not exceed forty shillings. In Woburn Records they appear to have been elected by the people with other town officers, but the law required them to be licensed by the County Court, or by the Board of Assistants. They continued to be appointed in this town, though not uniformly every year, till 1674; were frequently the same persons as three of the Selectmen; and were always men of great weight of character, and of principal influence in the town."
In 1660 Edward Convers was Deputy to the General Court.
He was one of the first two deacons chosen by the Church in Woburn, and continued in that office until his death.
He was also one of the tithing men, who, Sewall says, were wont to be men of the first respectability in the town.
In May 1663, Isaac Cole, Constable, and Edward Convers, one of Captain Johnson's associates in the board of selectmen at Woburn were arraigned; the former for refusing to tale and publish the King's letter, and the latter for having spoken of it as Popery. The Court, after a hearing, discharged Convers, on the ground that his language did not reflect on his Majesty's letter.
An evidence of Deacon Edward Convers' high sense of justice and honor has come down to us in the record of his satisfactory settlement of a difference with a neighbor, Robert Hale, because of the overflow of the latter's adjacent meadow in 1649, in consequence of Deacon Convers' erection and operation of his mill oil the Abajona River.
Deacon Edward Convers was known as a man of influence, energy, strength of character and of substantial estate. The Following is from a sketch of his life written by Rev. Leander Thompson of Woburn, and published in the Winchester Record in October 1885:- "Among the first settlers of Woburn Edward Convers has always been regarded as a pioneer and leader . . . A man of more than usual enterprise, we find him from the very outset ever restlessly pushing forward some new work . . . . It is hardly too much to say that he was on every committee and had a part in every movement that had the new settlement in view.
Six of the seven commissioners were on the town committee of thirteen, and to these six men, with Edward Convers at the head; was due the success of the enterprise they had in view . . . . From the time of the organization of the town of Woburn until his death he appeared, as ever before, to have been a foremost man in all public business . . . . As a member of the Church he was ever prominent . . . . From all that has been ascertained respecting his religious character we readily infer that he was a man of strongly marked idiosyncrasies. Prompt, clear headed, devout, conscientious, outspoken, and unflinching, yet prudent, self contained, and uniform are the adjectives that best describe his whole career."
This sketch of Deacon Edward Convers is taken principally, by permission of Mr. Wm. G. Hill of 84 Converse Avenue, Malden, Mass., from " Family Records of Deacons James W. Converse and Elisha S. Converse," edited by Mr. Hill, and privately printed in 1887. From that book, also by Mr. Hill's permission, comes much of the record herein of Deacon Edward Convers' descendants in the line of his grandson, Samuel, Jr.,3 down to the fourth generation inclusive.
Mr. Hill, in his book, gives an account of what he states he had proof was the English ancestry of Deacon Edward Convers, the place of his residence in England as Wakerly, County of Northampton, the date of his birth as 30 January 1590, and his first wife as Jane Clarke, who died probably before 1617 and was the daughter of William Clarke of Theckenham , Worcestershire, England. Mrs. Sarah Convers died 14 January 1661-62, and Deacon Edward again married, 9 September 1662, Joanna Sprague, the widow of Ralph Sprague of Charlestown, Mass.. the last two dates being from Woburn Records.
Richard Frothingharn, in his History of Charlestown, Mass., says: "She (Joanna) may have been Edward Convers' third wife." She bore no children to him, and she died 24 February 1679-80.
Deacon Edward Convers died in Woburn 10 August 1663. His will was dated August 1659, and recorded 7 October 1663. His estate was valued at £827. In his will he mentions his wife, Sarah; his sons, Josiah, James, and Samuel; Edward, the son of James; his daughter Mary and her children by her first marriage; his "kinsman, Allen Convers;" "his kinsman," John Parker; and his " kinswoman" Sarah Smith. Mr. Eben Putnam suggests that Sarah Smith may be the Sarah Converse named in the will of Samuel Fuller of Plymouth, the good physician who relieved the sick at Salem and Charlestown, dated and probated in 1633. The reference is as follows: "whereas there is a childe comitted to my charge called Sarah Converse, my wife dying as afore I desire my Brother Wright may have the bringing up of her. And if he refuse then I comend her to my loving neighbor and brother in Christ Thomas Prence* . . . to performe the duty of a step Father unto her and bring her up in the Fear of God as their owne which was a charge laid upon me by her sick Father when he freely bestowed her upon me." Nothing has thus far been discovered to show the relationship between Allen Convers and Deacon Edward Convers other than that the latter mentions Allen Convers in his will as a "kinsman," and made him an overseer of his will. Allen Convers was first in Salem. Land was granted him there in 1639. He was in Woburn in 1642, taxed there in 1645, made freeman in 1644, appointed Commissioner of the Rate in Woburn in 1666, taught school there in 1676, and died 19 April 1679 (Sewall's Woburn). His widow, Elizabeth, died 9 August 1691. Rev. Mr. Putnam, in " Family History in line of Joseph Convers of Bedford, Mass.," says that the children of Allen Convers and wife, Sarah, were Zechariah (born 11 October 1642), Elizabeth, Sarah, Joseph, Mary, Theophilus, Samuel, Mary again, and Hannah. Judge Parker L. Converse (born Woburn 14 February 1822, died there, 21 April 1899), author of "Legends of Woburn," was a descendant of Allen Convers. A genealogy of this family will be found in the New England Historical Genealogical Register, Vol. 50. A brief genealogy of the immediate descendants of Edward Convers, especially connected with Woburn will be found in "Woburn Marriages," pp. 325-331, published by the town and compiled by Alfred C. Vinton. (p. 1 - 6, Genealogy of The Converse Family and Allied Families, Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Convers, Jr. and Major James Converse, Charles Allen Converse, 1905)
1632, Aug 14, dismissed from the Boston Church and entered into the covenant of the First Church of Charleston. Record book of the First Church of Charleston. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 23:190, 1869.
9134. Reginald Foster was born about 1595 in Brunton, England. He died about 1681. He married Judith [---].
1. Name also mentioned as Forster or Forester.
2. "He brought with him his wife Judith, five sons and two daughters, and settled in Ipswich, Essex Co., Massachusetts, about the year 1638, and was one of the earliest inhabitants of that town. He lived near the "East Bridge", which stood where the stone bridge is now. it is supposed that the remains of what is known as the "old Foster house", may have been the site of his residence. This seems probable, for 6 April, 1641, there was "granted Reginald Foster, eight acres of meadow in the west meadow, if any remain there ungranted, in consideration of a little hovel that stood at the new bridge, which was taken away for the accomodating of the passage there", and "4th 11 mo., 1646", he with others "promise carting voluntary toward the East Bridge beside the rate a day work a piece." (genealogy of the Fo(r)ster family, Forster, 1876)
3. 1661; He was a surveyor of highways.
4. 1663; He was an appraiser of the estate of Robert Roberts.
9135. Judith [---] died 1 in Oct 1664 in Ipswich, Essex Co., MA.
11060. Giambattista Forconi was born on 3 Nov 1598 in San Costanzo, Pesaro e Urbino, IT. He married Bernardina Mariotti on 5 May 1627 in San Costanzo, Pesaro e Urbino, IT.
11061. Bernardina Mariotti was born on 20 May 1598 in San Costanzo, Pesaro e Urbino, IT.