Vol III File 3: The Paternal Ancestry of Homer Beers James (original) (raw)

2. Rev. John Wing, born January 15, 1584, in Banbury, co. Oxfordshire, England, was christened January 20, 1584 in St. Mary's Church in Banbury. At this time the church was no longer Catholic, and Queen Elizabeth was trying to force all to worship in the Church of England. John Wing entered Oxford School at 14 years of age. The records show: "John Winge of Oxen pleb St. Albans Hall, 15 October, 1599, age 14." On February 12, 1603, he was invested at Queens College with the degree, Bachelor of Arts. In 1609, John Wing married about 1610, in Sandwich, MA, Deborah Batchelder (Bachelor), daughter of Rev. Stephen Batchelder. See this lineage under the Bachelder Line. John was then 25 years of age and Deborah was 18 at the time of their marriage. Rev. Stephen Batchelder, Vicar of Wherwell, who refused to comply with the requirements of the Crown, was deprived of his church at Wherwell in 1603. He became a Presbyterian, and was interested in the Puritan movement, as was John Wing (Ref: "The Batchelder Genealogy," pp. 82-87). He died January 20, 1630.

Ref: See "A Historical and Genealogical Register of John Wing of Sandwich, MA, and his descendants, 1621-1888," pp. 26-36 (John Wing), (1888).

Contrary to the above information on John Wing's birth and his parents, the above cited reference states the following:

"Nothing is known of John Wing before his arrival in Boston and his residence at Saugus (Lynn), MA., except that he had married Deborah, the second daughter of Rev. Stephen Batchelder, and was one of that minister's company. Some have inferred that he had been with his father-in-law during his sojourn in Holland, and that he had some near connection with the Rev. John Wing, the pastor of an English congregation in Flushing, in the province of Zealand, in Holland. He does not appear to have been, any more than his associate, possessed of pecuniary means much beyond what were requisite for his voyage. We are told that among the original emigrants to Plymouth there were only two or three persons possessed of capital, or influence, these being altogether broken down during their previous migrations; and although those who came to Massachusetts Bay were, in numerous instances, men of property and standing, we have no reason to suppose that those who constituted the company of Mr. Batchelder were either wealthy or distinguished. They appear, however, to have been possessed of a comfortable independence, and to have effected their removals without inconvenience. Their object in leaving Saugus was, in the first place, to avoid the ecclesiastical difficulties in which they and their leader had become involved, but probably no less to find a suitable home and cheaper lands beyond the limits of the older settlements. Joh Wing was probably one of the number who performed the journey with Mr. Batchelder for the settlement of Mattacheese; and though that enterprise failed, he probably then first became acquainted with the region afterward known as the Peninsula of Cape Cod. The land there was perhaps no more inviting for agricultural purposes than that which then generally engrosses attention within the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but it had some advantages for fishing purposes, was not encumbered with heavy forests, was easy of cultivation, might be had free by all acceptable occupants, and the Indians in possession of it were remarkable for their uniform friendship for the English. It was in the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Colony, though beyond the limits of any organized town and beyond the jurisdictions of the authorities of Massachusetts Bay, with whom the entire company had come into unpleasant relations. Whatever may have been the private views of the Plymouth Pilgrims, they were in practice, at least in the earlier years, more tolerant than their northern neighbors. About ten years before (1627), a trading-house had been located at a place called Manomet, at the head of Buzzard's Bay, with the view of maintaining commerce with the southern coast and of avoiding the dangerous navigation around the Cape; but for some reason the enterprise had been abandoned, or was confined to the business of mere transportation.

The place where John Wing had his residence, and the home of the elder branch of the family for subsequent generations, was situated about a mile from the present village of Sandwich, near a stream of water between two beautiful ponds, and on a highland overlooking the lower sheet of water and the town..... The limits of the lower pond have been much increased in later years by a dam thrown across its outlet, by which power was gained for mills and other manufacturing establishments...... A number of farms are situated upon the neck of land between the two ponds (formerly known as "Wolftrap Neck"), some of which have been in the Wing family into the late 19th century".

"In 1638, almost immediately on the settlement of the town, a church was formed, and there can be no doubt that public worship was maintained there from the very first."

Very little can be learned from the meager records of the town, the church, or the general colony regarding the family history of John Wing. He appears to have been a plain man of ordinary intelligence, never aspiring to political distinction, and only ambitious to cultivate his land and decently to bring up his family. In a few instances, however, his name occurs on the records of the General Court as one well qualified for public business. In 1641 he is allowed six acres for his share of the meadow lands, held at first in common, but divided afterward annually for the use of the inhabitants in severalty.

The number of children had by John Wing and Deborah Bachiler remains a matter of some uncertainty. There is no evidence that he had any daughters, and very little to suspect that he had more than three sons. A vague tradition relates that one son, Matthew, came with the family to America, but returned and died in England. See the above reference for details on his life. All the reliable sources, however, speak only of Daniel, John, and Stephen, who came with him in the same vessel, and accompanied him until his settlement in Sandwich. In 1643 the three sons, Daniel, John, and Stephen, were all enrolled among those able to bear arms, so the youngest of these three had to born before 1628.

4. Stephen Wing, the youngest son of John and Deborah Batchelder Wing, resided in Sandwich. See op. cit., pp. 53-56. It is contended by some that he continued to live with his father even after his marriage. Tradition, however, with considerable confidence and probability, fixes his precise location on a farm not far from Spring Hill, in the possession of a descendant in the late 1800's. A part of the house which he built in 1644 is said to have still been in existence at the time "The Batchelder Genealogy" was written. From his business as a town official we conclude that for a time at least he must have lived at the central village of Sandwich. In 1646 -1647 he was married Oseah Dillingham, daughter of Edward Dillingham, one of the nine associates to whom the town had been granted April 3, 1637. In accordance with the rigid laws of that period, and which were enforced against all, however high their positions in society, some objections were made against him and a fine was laid upon him by the court at Plymouth, March 2, 1646-47, for the too early birth of his first child after marriage. He appears, however, to have been an earnest advocate of Religion and of morality, for he was a strenuous supporter of religious meetings and of public order, yet he, with many others of that period, came in conflict with the exclusiveness and intolerance to which both church and state were then committed. From the first the whole family of his father and his mother's father were inclined to a greater freedom in worship and life than the customs and laws of the colonies permitted. In this they had the sympathies of what seems to have been for many years a majority of the inhabitants of Sandwich. The religious difficulties of the town by no means originated, as has been supposed, with the advent of the Quakers. Land complaints were made respecting those who resisted the severe and arbitrary laws of the colony long before any meetings forbidden by law were set up, or the name of Quakers was even known. And yet the prevalence of such a spirit and sentiment prepared the people of Sandwich to decline enforcing and even to resist the cruel laws against the Quakers when these people made their appearance. In 1657, when Nicholas Upsall visited Sandwich, there was a great commotion. Public proclamation was made that for every hour's entertainment of him " a severe fine was to be extracted." In spite of such a law, several families at that time not only inclined to Quakerism, not only received him in their homes, but allowed him and others to hold meetings and attend upon them. Stephen, when his broth Daniel began first with contending for tolerance, and soon their sympathy with suffering exchanged for conversion to the faith of the sufferers. Severe fines were imposed upon him, imprisonment was threatened if not absolutely inflicted upon him, and even the town privileges of a freeman were withdrawn from him and his friends because he declined for a time to take the oath of fidelity which bound him to assist in the execution of such laws.

He had been admitted a freeman and enrolled among those liable to bear arms in 1643, and had been assigned his proper proportion and boundary of land in 1658. So large however, was the number of converts to the Friends, and so general the disposition to tolerate them among the people of Sandwich, that the laws against them could not be enforced, and if any punishments were inflicted it had to be done out of town.

Stephen and his family became permanently connected with the Society of Friends, and his posterity up to the mid-1800s had continued in this tradition. In 1667 he, with William Griffith, presented to probate the will of his father-in-law, Edward Dillingham, and in 1669 he was chosen town clerk. In 1675 the town voted to record his name with many others as having a just right to the privileges of the town. In 1678 he seems to have overcome his scruples about taking an oath of fidelity, for his name that year appears among those on the list of receivers. On April 9, 1653 or 1654, his wife, Oseah Dillingham, died; and on November 7, of the same year he married (2) Sarah Briggs, daughter of John Briggs, who came to America in 1635, at the age of twenty. She died March 26, 1689; but the period of his own death is uncertain. One account gives it as February 24, 1710. The will of one named Stephen Wing is given in the records, dated December 2, 1700, and probated July 13, 1710; and it mentions sons Nathaniel, Elisha, and John, and daughters Sarah Gifford and Abigail Wing, and a grandson, Jeremiah Gifford. Ebenezer Wing and Matthew Wing, sons of the deceased, were appointed by the judge to be executors of the will. From this date we infer that Stephen continued to live through the first decade of the 1700's, although he must then have been not less than eighty-eight years of age. He and his first wife had the following children: