| Notes |
- Edward came to New England as a man-servant and in 1634 became a
member of the church in Roxbury. He was a freeman 13 May 1640 and
married 20 Aug 1640 Ann Parke, she died 10 September the following
year having borne a daughter, Mary, eight days before. He married
less than a year later to Mary Elliot, with her he had ten children.
The names, Payson and Eliot, are in the records of the Parish Church
of Nazing, a rural village in Essex County, England, in the northwest
corner of Waltham Half-hundred on the Lee River twenty miles east of
London.
Speculation concerning the parents of Edward Payson and his brother
Giles have not provided any conclusive evidence. The records of
baptisms, marriages, and burials in the parish records of Nazeing give
the baptism of Giles as 14 May 1609, and of Edward on 30 October 1613,
but unfortunately, those records do not mention who their parents
were. However, Michael Roos, local historian for Nazeing and a member
of the Nazeing History Workshop, reports on a book by John Gervis that
states, "Prominent among these non-conformists were John Eliot and the
Payson brothers, all of whom were Cambridge graduates and had probabl
come under the influence of Thomas Hooker, a fellow of Emmanuel
College and an inspiring member of this sect. Lawrence Payson married
Joanne Webb in 1605. They were the parents of Giles and Edward Payson
and possibly resident at Nazeing Bury."
Mary Eliot's parents died when she was a baby. Mary was 11 years old
when she came to America in the company of her three older brothers,
Philip, John, and Jacob. They came aboard the ship Lyon, William
Pierce, master, in 1631 when the ship left England with the first
group of Nazing Pilgrims on board. Later, in 1635, a large number of
"Nazing Christians" came to America in the ship Hopewell. Giles Payson
is listed as a passenger on this ship but it has not been determined
when or on which ship Edward Payson arrived in the Colonies.
These Nazing Pilgrims were among the first-comers to Roxbury, MA, and
settled chiefly in the easterly part of town next to Boston, MA. The
first mention of the town as one of the plantations on which a part of
the general tax of 50 pounds was levied is in the records of the Third
Court of Assistants, held on 28 September 1630. Roxbury was the sixth
town incorporated in Massachusetts.
Both Edward and Giles Payson are listed in the Record of Homes and
Lands in Roxbury (MA) in 1654 as among the "dwellers in this quarter
at that time."
In the town of Roxbury, MA, Edward Payson was a proprietor, was made
"freeman" on 13 May 1640, and was a member of the church as early as
1634. His will was proved 3 September 1691.
|
1613 - 1691 (77 years)
