William Barsham - A member of the Artillery Company of Mass.?

Hello --

I'm researching my ancestors to find those who were members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. William Barsham was one of my 9th great-grandfathers. In searching the list of original members of the Artillery Company ( http://wdahac.org/ ), I found mention of one William Barsham, but it says "see 'Burcham'." Under William Burcham, it says "BURCHAM (Barsham), William 1644".

I looked in the standard history of the Artillery Company, "The History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts" (Vol. 1) by Oliver Ayer Roberts, and in the biographical section on members, the listing for William Burcham simply states "William Burcham (1644)". (Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=VycMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA187&lpg=... )

The convention the book uses is to list the date in which members were "proved" (officially joined). Our Wm. Barsham's dates of 1610-1684 fit very nicely with that time-frame; he would've been 34 in 1644, which is certainly a likely age to be a man at arms of the time.

Interestingly, an on-line genealogy of "The Ancestry of Edmund Everett Flood" says this under the listing for John Capen: "born on 21 Oct 1639 at Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Source: http://home.comcast.net/~davidwilma/family/flood0009.htm ) Capen married Susanna Barsham, daughter of William Barsham and Annabella, on 19 Nov 1662 at Watertown, Massachusetts." This John Capen, another 8th great-grandfather of mine, was a confirmed member of the Company, so our William Barsham was the son-in-law of a member of the Company. That's suggestive, if not definitive, that our William was also a member.

Can anyone shed any light upon whether or not our William Barsham is the same "William Burcham (AKA Barsham)" recorded in the Company's rolls? Any help would be appreciated.

--Robert Haines