Gov. Thomas Mayhew

AKA Mahieu (French)

"The Mayhew Family Of Martha's Vineyard" Charles Banks vol. III pp. 298 - 3:

12. THOMAS MAYHEW (Matthew4), bapt. 1 Apr. 1593 at Tisbury, Eng., is the Governor, first of the name in this country, whose personal history has been sufficiently detailed in the two preceding volumes. The name of his first wife is not known nor has any clue to the date and place of the marriage been found. Neither is it known when or where she died. [Iris Gardner <iris.gardner@worldnet.att.net> writes, "1st wife of Thomas Paine Mayhew was Martha Parkhurst b. 1595, d. 1635. Their son was Thomas Mayhew Jr., who married Jane Gallion."] He m. (2) Mrs. JANE (Gallion?)* PAINE, wid. of Mr. Thomas Paine, a London merchant, abt. 1634 (Vol. II, p. 90, Annals of E.). [*The name Gallion, if it be correctly given, is very rare in England. Galland is found in Green's Norton where the Paines owned property, and Gallyon in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire.] She was living 15 May 1666, but died before her husband. In London the compiler found references to a Gallion family, to which she may have belonged, and he has many other English notes relative to the Mayhews which he hopes to follow up in the future.

Some interesting additional facts have also been discovered by the compiler respecting the early life of Gov. Mayhew. It will be recalled (Vol. I, p. 114) that a contemporary writer states that the Governor was "a merchant bred in England, as I take it, at Southampton."

During a recent visit of the compiler to England confirmation of this was obtained which shows that this statement is correct. The following is verbatim copy of a record in the "Book of Free Commoners" belonging to the corporation of Southampton:

"Nono die ffebr' 1620 (i.e. 1621) Thomas Mayhew late servant and apprntiee unto Richard Masey of the Towne and countie of Southampton mrcer havinge well and truely served his spprntiship with his said mr whoe beinge prsent testified to the same And he the said Thomas Mayhewe (desieringe to be admitted a free commoner of the said Towne to use his trade of a mrcer in this said Towne and his said mr likewise desieringe the same) was therefore this prsent daie admitted and sworren a free commoner accordingly."

An interesting and important statement is therein found which recalls the statement of Thomas Macey of Nantucket (who is said to have emigrated from Chilmark, co. Wilts), that Governor Thomas Mayhew was his "honored cousin" (N. Y. Col. Mss., Vol. 25) and here is found documentary evidence that Thomas Mayhew was an apprentice of Richard Macey, a Southampton merchant. Richard Macey, his master, was a native of Chilmark and in his will of 20 Nov. 1633 he provided for his burial in that parish (Arch. Sarum X. 30). Undoubtededly further search would reveal the exact relationship of this Richard to Thomas Macey, the emigrant, and thus show the kinship between the families of Mayhew and Macey.

Governor Mayhew had the following named children:

By First Wife:

20. THOMAS, b. (1620&SHY;1).

By Second Wife:

21. HANNAH, b.15 June 1635; m. (1) THOMAS DAGGETT (3); (2) SAMUEL SMITH. 22. BETHIAH, b.6 Dec. 1636; m. (l) THOMAS HARLOCK; (2) RICHARD WAY 1675. [Iris Gardner <iris.gardner@worldnet.att.net> writes, "Mary E. Way did a study of the Way Family of Nantucket, and wrote a book as well, titled The Way Family. My connection is with Bethiah Mayhew, who married Richard Way. She was the daughter of Thomas Paine Mayhew and Jane Gallion. Simon Mayhew was my 13th Great Grandfather.] 23. MARY, b.14 Jan. 1639&SHY;40; Prob. d.y. 24. MARTHA, b. (1642); m. THOMAS TUPPER 27 Dec. 1661. [*From this marriage was descendant the late Sir Charles Tupper, prime minister of Canada.] '

The following was obtained from a Mayhew Family Tree, published in 1855, covering all generations from 1631 to 1855:

Governor of Martha's Vineyard

"Thomas Mayhew, Governor and Patentee of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Elizabeth Isles. Removed from Watertown, MA and commenced a settlement at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard in the year 1642. He gave his son much assistance in the benevolent work of converting the heathen. After the death of his son, he being acquainted with the Indian language and seeing no prospect of procuring a Pastor for them he began himself to preach to the natives as well as the English at seventy years of age preached 23 years and died at the advanced age of 93 years. His last and dying words were, "I have lived by faith and have found God in my son, and there I find him now, therefore, if you would find God, look for him in your son, there he is to be found and nowhere else"."

Thomas Mayhew, bapt. 1 April 1593 in Tisbury, as "Thomas, son of Mathew Maho" (3). Some information on Thomas is provided by (1), citing a variety of sources ((3), (5), (6), (7), and (8)). His father died when he was about 21 and he apparently became a merchant apprentice of Richard Macey (or Masey) of Southampton before emigrating in 1631. It is also stated that he came to Medford, MA in 1635; he seems to have lived at both Watertown and Medford. He was a prominent member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co.

He was first married (in England) to Abigail Parkus (or Parkhurst) in about 1619. His second marriage in about 1634 (presumably in MA?) was to Jane Gallyon, b. 1612, died after 1666. "The name Gallyon (Gallion) was very uncommon in England and may be Scotch. Jane married first to Thomas Payne, probably a London merchant, who predeceased her. She is said to have returned to England to fight a court case for a large sum of money for her children by him" (3). One of her children by this first marriage to Payne would later marry the son of Thomas by his first marriage. Thomas had one son by his first marriage and four daughters by his second marriage (see next section).

Purchase of Islands: Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, & Elizabeth Islands

Then a settler at Watertown, MA (near Boston), Thomas must have been by then a very successful merchant as he purchased in October 1641, from Lord Stirling and Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the islands of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands. Thomas would have been about 48 at that time. The now Governor Mayhew sent his son Thomas that same year to settle with a few families and to be a missionary to the Indians.The following year in 1642, the Governor himself came to the island with other settlers and new supplies. Among the ten or so families that were there in 1650, we find the name Folger (a link with my Mayflower line?).

After his son's untimely loss at sea at age 37, the Governor, succeeded him as missionary pastor and "preached to them one day every week as long as he lived. Sparing no pains or fatigue, sometimes walking twenty miles through the woods to Gay Head, to carry on the noble work commenced by his son" (9). Thomas was settled at Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard by 1658-81 (or permanently alone from 1674?). There is a deed in the Edgartown records (9) wherein the Governor attests: "I do sell the island of Nantucket for thitty pounds Stirling and two beaver hats, one for my wife, and one for myself".

(For more on that sale, read the profile of Tristram Coffin, Sr. )

He lived to be about 90, dying 25 March 1681 at Edgartown, MA. His wife was living 15 May 1666 but predeceased her husband

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Thomas Mayhew (governor) is on wikipedia

He was born in Tisbury, County Wiltshire, in England. He married Anna (also called Hanna and Abigail) Parkhurst, born about 1600, in Hampshire, England, daughter of Matthew Parkhurst. In 1621 they had a son, Thomas, Jr., in Hanna's home town of Southampton, co. Two years later they had another child, Robert Parkhurst Mayhew, in Tisbury, County Wilts, England.

The family left England in 1631 during the Great Migration that brought 20,000 persons to Massachusetts in thirteen years. Thomas had been accepted with the agency of Matthew Cradock of London to manage properties in Medford, Massachusetts, and to engage in trade and shipbuilding. In or around 1633, Anna Parkhurst died. In about 1634, Thomas returned to England for a business meeting with Cradock. While in England, he married Jane Gallion (1602-1666), and brought her back to New England with him. Hannah Mayhew was born in 1635. Three more children - Mary Mayhew(1639), Martha Mayhew (1642), and Bethiah Mayhew - followed.

In 1641, Thomas secured Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, the Elizabeth Islands, and other islands as a proprietorship from Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Lord Sterling. This enabled him to transfer his business operations there. With the help of son Thomas, a settlement was established. Farming and whaling enterprises began. In 1657, Thomas Jr. was drowned when a ship he was riding was lost at sea on a voyage to England. His grandson Matthew and other relatives assisted him in running his business and government.

The Mayhews had great success in regard to Indian policy. Because of the fair treatment of the Indians there, the colony was protected from the bloodshed that occurred elsewhere, in King Phillip's War.

When the venerable Governor Mayhew became ill one Sunday evening in 1682, he calmly informed his friends and relatives that "his Sickness would now be to Death, and he was well contented therewith, being full of Days, and satisfied with Life". His great-grandson, Experience Mayhew, Jonathan's father, was only eight at the time, but he clearly remembered being led to the bedside to receive from the dying man a blessing "in the Name of the Lord." Family leadership then passed to the three grandsons, two of whom deserted the mission, leaving John, the youngest grandson and grandfather of Jonathan, to care for Indian souls.

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Arrived in the Winthrop fleet in 1630

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Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mayhew_(governor)

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THOMAS MAYHEWORIGIN: Tisbury, WiltshireMIGRATION: 1632FIRST RESIDENCE: MedfordREMOVES: Watertown by 1634, Martha's Vineyard by 1647OCCUPATION: Steward. Magistrate.CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Watertown church prior to 14 May 1634 implied by freemanship.FREEMAN: 14 May 1634 (as "Mr. Tho[mas] Mahewe") [MBCR 1:369].EDUCATION: His letters to the Winthrops were direct and full of practical business matters [WP 3:169, 6:136]OFFICES: Watertown selectman, 10 October 1636, 30 December 1637, 10 December 1638, 6 December 1639, 29 December 1640, 21 November 1642 [WaTR 2, 3, 5, 6, 8]. Assessor, 20 December 1642 [WaVR 9]. Arbiter, 30 June 1648 [Aspinwall 135]. Appraiser of land, 10 September 1643 [Aspinwall 136]. (Further details of his life and offices, which are, as Banks said, "interwoven with the political and social conditions of the Island," may be found in Martha's Vineyard Hist 1:104-26, 2:30, 3:299-301].)ESTATE: Granted Great Dividend of eighty acres at Watertown, 25 July 1636 [WaBOP 4]. Granted Beaverbrook Plowlands of thirty acres, 28 February 1636/7 [WaBOP 7]. Granted Remote Meadows of thirty acres, 26 June 1637 [WaBOP 10]. In the Watertown Inventory of Grants "Thomas Maihue" held five parcels: "ten acres of upland ... with a pond in it"; thirty acres of plowland in the Further Plain; eighty acres of upland being a Great Dividend; thirty acres in the Remote Meadows; and thirty-one acres and a half beyond the Further Plain [WaBOP 73]. In the Composite Inventory "Thomas Maihew" held six parcels, being the five in the Inventory of Grants, to which is added "a farm of two hundred and fifty acres" [WaBOP 19]. On 8 May 1653 in the first division of common land at Edgartown, Mr. Mayhew received lot number 14 [Martha's Vineyard Hist 2:26]. Following this, he received his proportion in all subsequent divisions. In his will, dated 16 June 1681 and proved 28 March 1682, "Thomas Mayhew of Edgartown upon the Vineyard in this ninetieth year of my age" divided his extensive lands on Martha's Vineyard and elsewhere among "Matthew Mayhew, my grandson" (with conditional provisions for "Thomas and John Mayhew, Jerusha and Jedidah"), "my daughter Hannah" and "her sons Samuel, John and Joshua Daggett," "my daughter Martha," "Thomas and John Harlock, and their sister at Boston," naming also to "my son Daggett" and "my son Tupper" [DukesLR A:326-32].BIRTH: Baptized 1 April 1593 at Tisbury, Wiltshire, son of Matthew and Alice (Barter) Mayhew [Gen Adv 4:1-8].DEATH: Martha's Vineyard 25 March 1682 [Gen Adv 4:4].MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1620 _____ _____; she died before 1635. (2) Jane (Gallion) Paine, widow of Thomas Paine, London merchant [TAG 61:256; Lechford 184-86, 240; Aspinwall 14, 35, 111; Martha's Vineyard Hist 300]. She died after 1666 but before her husband.CHILDREN: With first wife i THOMAS, b. say 1620; m. by about 1648 Jane _____ [Martha's Vineyard Hist 3:301-02; see COMMENTS below]. With second wife ii HANNAH, b. 15 June 1635 [WaVR 4]; m. by about 1652 Thomas Doggett, son of JOHN DOGGETT. iii BETHIAH, b. 6 December 1636 [WaVR 4]; m. (1) by 1658 Thomas Harlock [Martha's Vineyard Hist 2:72]; m. (2) by 1677 as his second wife Richard Way (child b. Boston 13 July 1677 [BVR 143]); she d. by 1678 [TAG 61:256]. iv MARY, b. 14 January 1639[/40] [WaVR 7]; no further record (unless she is the same as Martha below). v MARTHA, b. say 1641; m. Sandwich 27 December 1661 Thomas Tupper [MD 14:69].ASSOCIATIONS: Thomas Macey of Nantucket called Thomas Mayhew his "honored cousin" [Martha's Vineyard Hist 3:301]. A Thomas Mayhew of Southampton was apprenticed to Richard Masey, merchant, and was admitted a free commoner of that town on 9 February 1620[/1] [Martha's Vineyard Hist 300].COMMENTS: The first documented appearance of Thomas Mayhew in New England was on 7 November 1632, under the disguise of "Mr. Mavericke Junior" [MBCR 1:101]. On that date, he, Mr. Alcocke and Mr. Turner were commissioned by the General Court to settle a boundary dispute between Cambridge and Charlestown. When they completed their duties, they reported back to the Court, and their report was recorded in two separate places in the records, in slightly different form. The first time it is entered on its own leaf, and out of chronological sequence [MBCR 1:94-95]; on this occasion the signatures of the members of the committee are appended: "Tho: Mayhewe, Nath: Turner, George Alcocke." The second version is shorter, but in the right place chronologically [MBCR 1:102]. Redating the earlier version of this document removes the presumed evidence for Mayhew's arrival in 1631, the date stated by both Savage and Pope. The likelihood that Thomas Mayhew came to New England in 1632 raises an interesting possibility, based on an Admiralty suit of that year. In the case of Mason v. Gibbs, two sailors testified that the Lyon's Whelp sailed from England in January 1631/2 and arrived at the Isles of Shoals in May 1632, and carried as its only passengers "a man and his wife, their two daughters and their man," and one of the sailors added that this nameless family "were embarked for New England on behalf of Matthew Craddock" [English Adventurers 37-38]. Thomas Mayhew is known to have come to New England as Matthew Craddock's steward [Martha's Vineyard Hist 1:117-26]. About 1640 Mr. Valentine Hill of Boston, merchant, and Mr. Thomas Mayhew of Watertown, gentleman, agreed to an arbitration of their troubles [Lechford 350]. On 10 March 1649[/50] Mr. Bruen informed his friend Mr. John Birke that Mr. Thomas Mayhew was in his debt for twenty thousand of pipe staves [Aspinwall 244-45]. In 1901 Charles Edward Banks published the English ancestry of Gov. Thomas Mayhew [Gen Adv 4:1-8]. Lechford records several documents in which Thomas Mayhew and his wife Jane Mayhew, formerly the wife of Thomas Paine of London, act as guardians for Thomas Paine, Jane's son with her first husband [Lechford 184-86, 240]. Savage introduced confusion by stating that the widow Paine bore the Christian name "Grace" rather than Jane [Savage 3:185]. It may be this confusion that led him to state that the wife of the younger Thomas Mayhew was Jane Paine, allegedly daughter of this non-existent Grace, and therefore his stepsister. Edward Everett Hale Jr., Lechford's editor, showed that Grace did not exist, and also that, based on the documents in Lechford, there is no evidence that the younger Thomas married a stepsister named Jane Paine [Lechford 184].The Great Migration BeginsSketchesPRESERVED PURITAN

RUNYANGWEN57added this on 26 Nov 2009

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Thomas Mayhew Sr. presents a rather different outlook on Indian conversion in the New World. Born in 1593 in England, Mayhew emigrated to Massachusetts and settled in Medford before buying the islands of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands in 1641. He became magistrate of the land soon after and helped his son, Thomas Mayhew Jr., with missionary work to the Indians of the Islands. Mayhew Jr. is probably a more recognized missionary than his father as he was the first Englishman to conduct missionary work to the native Indians, three years before John Eliot. Like Eliot, he learned the language of the natives as his first step to creating ties with the Indians and first began his preaching to the Hiacoomes in 1643. In 1653, he opened a school for reading to aid the Indians and he also worked with Eliot on a number of different manuscripts published in London.

         Unfortunately, the younger Mayhew was lost at sea during a voyage back to England but the missionary cause was upheld by his father.  Large numbers of Indians were converted during Mayhew Sr.’s time as Governor and the Indians gained the reputation as being the most civilized and christianized in America, with the first church being made in 1670.  Even during King Philip’s War, they remained entirely loyal to the English cause.  Mayhew would die on Martha’s Vineyard in 1682 but began a five generation line of Mayhew’s on the islands, all of which continued the missionary work. 

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http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db...

ID: I115406 Name: Thomas Mayhew Given Name: Thomas Surname: Mayhew Prefix: Governor 1 Sex: M Birth: 1592 2 Death: 25 Mar 1682 in Martha's Vineyard MA 3 Immigration: 1631 Massachusetts Note: Came from England to America with his son Thomas. 2

HintsAncestry Hints for Thomas Mayhew

   8 possible matches found on Ancestry.com	Ancestry.com

Marriage 1 Jane Gallion Married: Children Has Children Hannah Mayhew b: 15 Jun 1635 in Medford MA Has Children Martha Mayhew b: 1638 Has Children Thomas Mayhew b: 1642

Sources: Media: Book Title: Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family Author: John Bearse Newcomb Publication: Elgin Illinois, 1874 Media: Book Title: Immigrant Ancestors: A List of 2500 Immigrants to America before 1750 Author: Frederick Adams Virkus Publication: Excerpted and reprinted from The Compendium of American Genealogy, Volume VII, Chicago 1942, Reprinted: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore 1963, 1972, 1976, 1978, 1980, 19086, 1998, Copyright © 1942, Copyright © renewed 1970, Library of Congress card catalog numbert64-1935, ISBN 0-8063-0513-4 Media: Website Title: Presidential Candidates Ancestry Homepage Author: William Addams Reitwiesner Publication: http://members.aol.com/wreitwiesn/candidates2000/

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Thomas Mayhew was founder and governor of Martha's Vineyard as a European settlement.

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• Martha's Vineyard was not transferred from New York to Massachusetts until 1691.
  • read about this in https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=y6sBAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA176&h... page 177
    • Gov. Anros of NY bought it c. 1677
• Thomas served as the first governor of Martha's Vineyard. He had emigrated in 1632, settling first in Medford, but then relocated to Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1634, and to Martha's Vineyard by 1647. He served as a steward and a magistrate.