Capt. John Gerrish

"CAPT. JOHN GERRISH, eldest of the eleven children of Judge John and Elizabeth (Waldron) Gerrish of Dover, N.H., was born at Dover 21 Aug. 1668, "a bought 4 of ye Clocke in ye afternoone," and in early life entered on a mercantile career in Boston. He married first, in Boston, 19 Apr. 1692, Gov. Simon Bradstreet officiating, LYDIA WATTS, probably a daughter of John and Lydia. John and Lydia Watts had a son John, born 22 Jan. 1668/9, and a daughter Rebecca, born 22 Feb. 1670/1. The exact date of Lydia (Watts) Gerrish's birth is unknown, but she died 8 Jan. 1697/8, and was buried in Copp's Hill Burying-Ground. Her epitaph reads: " Here lyeth buried ye Body of Lydia Garish ye wife of John Garish, aged about 27 years; decd January ye 8th 1697-8." (Copp's Hill Epitaphs, p. 30.) Another epitaph in Copp's Hill Burying-Ground is the following, which is probably that of Lydia (Watts) Gerrish's mother: "Here lyeth buried ye Body of Lydia Watts, aged 55 years, decd September ye 29, 1700." Capt. John Gerrish married secondly, on or before 28 Apr. 1699, SARAH HOBBES, third child of Richard and Elizabeth (Page or Paige), who was baptized in St. Bartholomew's Parish, Crewkerne, co. Somerset, England, but came to live in Boston with her uncle Nicholas Page or Paige and his wife Anna, who were residents of Rumney Marsh, then belonging to Boston, but later part of Chelsea. Richard Hobbes and Elizabeth "Pagge" were married at Crewkerne 13 June 1671, and the baptisms of the following children born to them are recorded there: John, 16 July 1673; Margaret, 20 Oct. 1674; Sarah, 14 Nov. 1676; Elizabeth, 4 Oct. 1678. Mrs. Nathaniel Oliver of Boston, whose Christian name was Martha, was a niece of Nicholas Paige and probably a sister of Sarah (Hobbes) Gerrish. (Somerset Parish Registers, vol. 5, p. 40, and information obtained from Crewkerne by Prof. Barrett Wendell; Chamberlain's History of Chelsea, vol. 1, pp. 659-660, vol. 2, p. 75.)[1]