Edward Jr Raynor

http://longislandgenealogy.com/Surname_Pages/raynor.htm

  Freeport's founder was an orphan when he crossed the Atlantic with his uncle Thurston Raynor.  That fact has always been suspected but has been a source of contention until research finally bore fruit at the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum in Riverhead, on Long Island.

   Thompson, in his famous Long island History called Edward and Thurston brothers - Pelletreau's "American Families of Historical Lineage" contended that Edward probably was Thurston's son when they sailed together from Ipswich, England in 1634.

   Now, like a breeze dispelling fog, comes a pair of letters found at the Riverhead Museum.  The letters from George W. Matthews of Cutchogue (formerly a Rockville Centre resident) said that he had a copy of the will of Edward Raynor - the Freeport founder's grandfather - which was probated in Elmset, England on July 7, 1621.

  ''' After mentioning his "son Thurston" three times in the will, Mr. Raynor bequested sums of money to others, including "Ann, Marie, John, Edward and Robert, sons and daughters of my late son Edward Raynor, deceased."'''

   Mr. Matthews kindly shared a copy of the will.  He also shared a copy of a will written by an earlier ancestor, Robert Reynere of Wickham Market, County of Suffolk, England, on October 4, 1571.

   Robert Reynere's great-grandson Edward sailed to massachusetts with his uncle Thurston.  The boy's mother had died in England before his father.  Orphaned, Edward joined the children of his uncle Thurston and aunt Elizabeth on their voyage to the "new world."  Thurston ultimately settled in Southampton.

   Mr. Matthews quotes Donald Linus Jacobus, editor-in-chief for many years of the American Genealogist, on the origin of the Raynor family in England. Jacobus' statement, summarized briefly follows:  The Raynors derived from Robert Reynere of Wickham Market, Suffolk, who died testate between October 4 and December 5, 1571.  His son Edward Raynor of Elmsett in the same county, made a will on March 22, 1620, proved July 7, 1621, which names his sons Edward, Richard, John, Samuel, Thurston and Robert, and daughter Anne, wife of Robert Lewes of Great Bricet, Suffolk, as well as a son-in-law Henryn Pinson until the grand-children's 18th birthday.

   Clifford Roe Raynor of Manorville gave copies of both wills to Mr. Matthews.

   The other discovery sheds light - or at least presents an ingeniopus theory on the name of Edward raynor's wife.  A quest in the Genealogy Room of the New York Public Library uncovered a 1946 survey, entitled "Edward Raynor of Hempstead, Long Island and some of his descendants," by Henry Alanson Tredwell.  Edward's wife was probably named Deborah Partridge before her marriage.

   From her husband's will, plus the wills of Elizabeth Partridge of Flushing dated 1696, and Thomas Partridge of the same place, dated 1696, Mr. Treadwell believes that Mrs. Raynor may have been the Deborah Raynor listed as a Hempstead Town resident in 1698.