Edward Wilder, of Hingham

links

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wilder-96
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73351660
• FamilySearch AFN: 785F-L6

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• http://ralphinla.rootsweb.ancestry.com/wildrich.htm#i1790

content to clean up

Edward Wilder was born in 1619 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire England to Thomas Wilder and Martha (Higgs) Wilder. He is the brother of Alice Wilder, John Wilder, Elizabeth (Wilder) Ensign, Mary (Wilder) Underwood, Isaac Wilder, Matthew Wilder and Abraham Wilder. He married Elizabeth (Eames) Wilder on 1 Apr 1651 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts. He is the father of Elizabeth (Wilder) Fearing, John Wilder, Ephriam Wilder, Isaac Wilder, Jabez W. Wilder, Abia Wilder, Mehitabel Wilder, Abigail Wilder, Anna Wilder, Hannah Wilder and Mary (Wilder) LeBaron. Edward died on18 Oct 1680 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts orspool) Poole edited the Biography for Edward Wilder (1619-1680). [Thank Roger for this]

Biography

Edward Wilder was born about 1619 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire, England, to parents Thomas Wilder and Martha (Higgs) Wilder.[1]

8 Oct 1637 received land grant of ten acres in Hingham, Mass.[1] Became Freeman 29 May 1644.[1] Married 01 Apr 1651 to Elizabeth (Eames) Wilder[1] in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 01 Dec 1675 was one of sixteen Hingham soldiers impressed into service in King Phillip's War.[1] Became Selectman in 1677.[1] He died intestate on 18th Oct 1680 from a malignant fever.[1]

His children, probably all born in Hingham, were Elizabeth, John, Ephraim, Isaac, Jabez, Abia, Mehitable, Abigail, Anna, Hannah, Mary.[1]

Sources

Donald F. Hansen and Michael F. Hansen, "DNA Solves A Wilder Ancestral Enigma," at http://www.americanancestors.org/dna-solves-a-wilder-ancestral-enigma/. Underwood, Lucien Marcus. The Underwood Families of America (New Era, Lancaster, PA, 1913) Vol. 1, Page 4 http://www.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files/FordingtonAnthonyEa....

Date of birth has also been (erroneously?) reported to be January 1, 1623.

Place of birth has also been (erroneously?) reported to be Sulham, Berkshire, England.

youngest child

After the death of his father, Thomas of Shiplake, he, his mother and siblings (except for John) came to Hingham Massachusetts Colony on either the ship Increase on 4/12/1635 or the good ship Confidence in 1638.

He came to Hingham MA with his brother Thomas and sister Elizabeth, where he received a grant of land Oct 8, 1637. Afterwards, he had other grants there.

He was admitted a freeman 5-29-1644, and was selectman in 1867. He served in King Phillip's War.

Edward is the ancestor of all who have borne this surname in Hing. and vicinity, had his first grant of land here, containing ten acres, the 8th of Oct. 1637, "in a place as convenient as can be discovered." He subsequently received other grants from the town, including a track situated next to that given to his mother, the wid. Martha Wilder, in 1638, which was located at or near the junction of main and Pleasant Sts., and inc. the est. now owned by heirs of Fearing Loring, deceased. He also owned all the land between Tower's Bridge and Wilder's Bridge, and, without doubt, was one of the earlier planters of this locality.

His w., whom he prob. m. ab. 1650, was Elizabeth, dau. of Anthony Eames, Senr, of Mf'd. She outlived him, and d. 9 June, 1692. He d. intestate 18 Oct. 1690, having been stricken suddenly with malignant fever. Elizabeth, his wid., and s. Jabez were appointed adm's. "Farmer." Freeman 29 May, 1644, and in 1667 selectman. Dec. 1, 1675, he was one of the sixteen "Hingham soldiers impressed into the country service." at the outbreak of Philip's War. He resided on Main, between High and Friend Sts., on the est. purchased of Samuel Ward.

Date of marriage might be April 1, 1651.

In his will of 26 March, 1687, proved 30 Apr. 1692, gives "to brother-in-law Israel Fearing the horse which I use to ride. To my brother John Wilder, and to my six sisters, all my lands and rights int he township of Mendon, to be equally divided between them. And as to my part of that land at Monument lying betwixt Israel Fearing, Isaac Wilder, Jabez Wilder, and myself, I give to my beloved brothers Isaac, Israel, and Jabez, to be equally divided between them. I give to my brother Jabez all my lands and rights in Hingham and Scituate, as also that part of my land at Accord Pond.". Est. appraised at £429 8s.

Date and place of death have also been (erroneously?) reported to be October 18, 1690 at Hingham, Plymouth County, Massachusetts Bay Colony (now Massachusetts).

DNA Solves A Wilder Ancestral Enigma

Donald F. Hansen and Michael F. Hansen

View an expanded version of this article

Between 1638 and 1640 five persons named Wilder settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Genealogies by Wilder descendants claim these five were all of one family — based partly on fact and partly on tradition. DNA techniques have tested that tradition and allowed Wilder genealogists finally to reach some definitive conclusions.

The earliest Wilder genealogist, Rev. Moses Hale Wilder, claimed a supposed descent from Nicholas Wilder to son John and grandson Thomas Wilder (d. 1634) of Sulham, Berkshire, England.[1] This Thomas had married a Martha, heiress to property in Shiplake, Oxfordshire, after which he was known as Thomas of Shiplake. Thomas and Martha had five children — John, Thomas, Elizabeth, Edward, and Mary.

After Thomas of Shiplake’s death, Martha was thought to have sold the Shiplake property to her eldest son, John. After disposing of her effects, Martha and her youngest daughter, Mary, left Southampton in 1638 and sailed to New England on the Confidence.[2] According to family tradition, Martha’s two younger sons, Thomas and Edward, and her daughter Elizabeth had previously sailed for either the Massachusetts Bay Colony or Plymouth Colony earlier in 1638. No existing record identifies the ship, date of departure, or destination.

Martha and Mary settled in Hingham, where they were reunited with Elizabeth and Edward. Hingham granted land to Martha and Edward. Martha remained a widow and died in 1652. Elizabeth married Thomas Ensign in Hingham. Mary’s subsequent history was unknown to Reverend Wilder, but later sources proved that Mary married Joseph Underwood, settled in Watertown, and left children. Edward married Elizabeth Eames, daughter of Anthony Eames, about 1650; the couple had four sons and seven daughters. Edward lived in Hingham until he died on October 18, 1690.

Martha’s supposed son Thomas1 Wilder never appears in any Hingham town record, and no document connects Thomas “the immigrant” with these Wilders of Hingham. Instead, Thomas Wilder settled by about 1638 in Charlestown, where he was received into the church on March 30, 1640, and made a freeman in 1641. He married an Anna or Hannah ____,[3] and had four sons and two daughters. In 1659, Thomas and his family moved forty miles inland to Nashawena, now Lancaster, Massachusetts, where he died in 1667.

Rev. Wilder wrote, “It is on all hands conceded that they were all of one family,” reflecting the tradition that Thomas was Martha’s son.[4] But buried in the reverend’s own history of the Wilders is a letter written by a great-grandson of Edward1 Wilder of Hingham. This letter asserts, “My grandfather Jabez’s sons were Jabez, Edward, and Theophilus Wilder, and from the above spring all the Wilders that ever lived in this town, or any part of the State, except from what originated from a family of Wilders which was settled at Lancaster some years after, and we do not know of any relations between us and them; and they are numerous as well as ourselves.” The letter directly contradicts the tradition reported by Rev. Wilder that Thomas1 Wilder of Charlestown was a son of Martha and brother of Edward, Elizabeth, and Mary Wilder of Hingham.

Dr. Edwin Milton Wilder updated Rev. Wilder’s book in the 1960s[5] and repeated the tradition of kinship between the Hingham and Lancaster families, claiming the evidence was based on additional research in English archives and elsewhere. Dr. Wilder stated that Thomas Wilder of Shiplake, a grandson of Nicholas of Nunhide, Berkshire, England, married Martha, the eventual immigrant, and that John, Thomas, Edward, Elizabeth, and Mary were their children.

Dr. Wilder added the caveat that “the data on this early period is still incomplete and inadequate” but also stated that “personally we believe that Thomas and Edward were brothers, both because of the evidence from the English records and from Massachusetts traditions persistent from those early years but also because individuals from the Thomas and Edward line, supposedly separated by over 300 years from blood relationship frequently show resemblances and similarities of face, skull formation, character and conduct.” Dr. Wilder offered no documentary evidence to support his conclusion.

The authors of this article (Don and Mike Hansen) are eighth and ninth great-grandsons of Thomas1 Wilder of Charlestown. Shortly after beginning their genealogical research, they learned of the controversy over possible kinship between Edward Wilder and Thomas Wilder. They then realized DNA could solve this long-standing mystery. A consultant, Charles Kerchner of GenealogyByDNA.com, was engaged, as technological guide. Mr. Kerchner recommended that three descendants each of Thomas and Edward should be tested; ideally, the three sons of Thomas and the three sons of Edward would each be represented by a participant.

The Y-Chromosome DNA (hereafter Y-DNA) of six descendants — from three sons of Thomas1 Wilder and two (of the three) sons of Edward1 Wilder (see chart) — were tested to sixty-seven markers by FamilyTreeDNA. Y-DNA results for the six participants are shown in Table 1.

The Thomas Wilder group has the following genetic distances (GD). A GD=2 between Frederick and Raymond (single mutations at markers 34 and 44), another GD=2 between Frederick and Justin (a two-step jump mutation at marker 34), and a third GD=2 between Raymond and Justin (again, single mutations at markers 34 and 44).

The same analysis of the Edward Wilder group finds that the haplotypes of James and Jason are a perfect match (GD=0). This result is expected as both men descend from John Wilder, son of Edward (the immigrant). Both James’s and Jason’s haplotypes differ from Calvin’s haplotype by a GD=3 (single mutations at markers 13, 27, and 30).

Given the known pedigrees of the six Wilder participants outlined in Figures 1 and 2, and applying the above genetic distance interpretations, we can conclude that Thomas1 Wilder is the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of Frederick, Raymond, and Justin Wilder. The MRCA of James, Jason, and Calvin Wilder is Edward1 Wilder.

Most significantly, we also learned the Deduced Ancestral Haplotypes of the three descendants of Thomas and three descendants of Edward (as shown in Table 1), which settled the question of whether Thomas1 and Edward1 were brothers. The genetic distance between the two ancestral haplotypes is so great that the descendants of Thomas and Edward Wilder were not patrilineally related within the last 1,000 to 2,000 years. Not only were Thomas and Edward not brothers, their kinship is too distant to calculate in any genealogical timeframe. We also discovered that the haplotypes of the Edward Wilder descendants are quite common and the haplotypes of the Thomas Wilder descendants are rare. This difference further confirms our conclusion that Thomas1 Wilder and Edward1 Wilder were not brothers.

That Thomas1 Wilder of Charlestown and Lancaster and Edward1 Wilder of Hingham were not related was a disappointment to the authors, as it will presumably be to many descendants of both immigrants. However, for the descendants of Thomas, another important genealogical question arises. If the Hingham Wilders were from Shiplake, what were the origins of Thomas1 Wilder of Charlestown and Lancaster?

Notes

1 Moses Hale Wilder, Book of the Wilders (New York, 1878).

2 Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth (Boston, 1930), 195, 197.

3 Mary Lovering Holman, Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and His Wife Frances Helen Miller (Concord, N.H., 1948–52), 1:43–44.

4 Book of the Wilders, 10–11.

5 Edwin M. Wilder and Harold K. Wilder, “A Further Contribution to the History of That Branch of the Wilders Who Immigrated to Massachusetts about 1638 by Enlargement, Extension and Correction of Book of the Wilders,” photocopy of a typescript, 1961–1969, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, NEHGS.

6 C. F. Kerchner, “Triangulation Method for Deducing the Ancestral Haplotype in Y-DNA Surname Projects,” www.kerchner.com/triangulation.htm, 2004.

Donald F. Hansen is a retired physicist living in Needham, Massachusetts. He is a member of NEHGS and has been researching his family genealogies for the past twelve years. He may be reached at dhansenhss@aol.com.

Michael F. Hansen is an NEHGS member living in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He is CEO of J&E Companies of Lakeville, Minn., and has been collaborating on family genealogies with his father, Donald Hansen.

Came, tradition says, from Lancashire, 1638 with his mother Martha, a widow who died] 20 Apr 1652. He was a freeman, 1644. Gen Dict names only four sons, John, Ephraim, Isaac and Jabez, with four ds.He was in Hingham Massachusetts Bay in November 1638 on the arrival of his mother from England in the ship Confidence from the port of Southhampton. He remainded in Hingham and was made a freeman in 1645.

The "History of Hingham" says: Widow Martha Wilder, mother of Edward, probably came from Shiplake, Oxfordshire England. Edward Wilder was a soldier in the war against King Phillip (I think this was an indian chief - not the king of France)

Edward Wilder, the son of the widow, Martha Wilder, was an immigrant in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638. Edward, with his mother, received grants of land from the town of Hingham 1638 and in 1646 and 1647. Edward was made a freeman in 1645.

Edward married Elizabeth Eames, the daughter of Anthny Eames ofHingham and Marshfield. Edward Wilder, farmer, Freeman May 29, 1644. Selectman 1667. Soldier, King Phillip's War 1675.

Edward, the ancestor of all who have borne this surname in HIng. and vicinity, had his first grant of land here, containing ten acres, the 8th of Oct. 1637, 'in a place as convenient as can be discovered.' He subsequently received other grants from the town, including a track situated next to that given to his mother, the wid. Martha Wilder, in 1638, which was located at or near the junction of Main and Pleasant Sts., and inc. the est. now [1893] owned by heirs of Fearing Loring, deceased. He also owned all the land between Tower's Bridge and Wilder's Bridge, and without doubt, was one of the earlier planters of this locality."

Edward was in Hingham, MA, in 1637. He was given a grant of ten acres in Hingham in 1637. After 1642 he purchased te property of Samuel Ward on Main Street, between Hign and Friend Sts., which became his residence. Hingham's roots go back to the earliest days of European settlement in the new world. The first Europeans arrived in 1633, calling the area Bare Cove. Here they found the Massachusetts Indians, a tribal branch of the Algonquin Nation. Relations between the indigenous people and the settlers were friendly with the Native Americans providing food and teaching the settlers how to grow corn. The first significant European settlement was established in 1635 when the Rev. Peter Hobart arrived with his followers from Hingham, England. In that same year, they renamed the town, Hingham, and it was incorporated as the 12th town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. By 1665, the Massachusetts Indians, weakened by plague and attacks by the Abanaki Tribe, granted the land "from the beginning of the world" to the settlers. This deed, bearing the mark of the Sachem Wompatuck, hangs in the Hingham Town Hall today.1. Edward(1), the ancestor of all who have borne this surname in Hing. and vicinity, had his first grant of land here, containing ten acres, the 8th of Oct. 1637, "in a place as convenient as can be discovered." He subsequently received other grants from the town, including a track situated next to that given to his mother, the wid. Martha Wilder,* in 1638, which was located at or near the junction of main and Pleasant Sts., and inc. the est. now owned by heirs of Fearing Loring, deceased. He also owned all the land between Tower's Bridge and Wilder's Bridge, and, without doubt, was one of the earlier planters of this locality. His w., whom he prob. m. ab. 1650, was Elizabeth, dau. of Anthony Eames, Senr, of Mf'd. She outlived him, and d. 9 June, 1692. He d. intestate 18 Oct. 1690, having been stricken suddenly with malignant fever. Eliza

sources

1. Title: Stoner Brethren by Richard Weber; Lara Croteau
2. The Parish Family by Susanna Parrish Warton
3. Title: Wilder Family Tree Anc.com

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Thomas Wilder and Martha Higgs are his parents,born in Shiplake(Shiplock) Oxfordshire,England,Cristianed in St. George,Fordingham,Dorset,England. He married Elizabeth Eames of Fordingham in Hingham,Plymouth,MA.in 1650. They are the parents of eleven children:

Elizabeth,John,Ephraim,Isaac,Jabez,Abiah, Mehitable,Abigail,Anna,Hannah,Mary.

Thomas Wilder and Martha Higgs are his parents,born in Shiplake(Shiplock) Oxfordshire,England,Cristianed in St. George,Fordingham,Dorset,England. He married Elizabeth Eames of Fordingham in Hingham,Plymouth,MA.in 1650. They are the parents of eleven children:

Elizabeth,John,Ephraim,Isaac,Jabez,Abiah, Mehitable,Abigail,Anna,Hannah,Mary.

Edward Wilder was born about 1619 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire, England, to parents Thomas Wilder and Martha (Higgs) Wilder.[1]

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wilder-96. Profile last modified 26 Feb 2020 | Created 11 Sep 2010 | Last significant change: 26 Feb 2020

Edward Wilder

Born 1619 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire England

Son of Thomas Wilder and Martha (Higgs) Wilder

Brother of Alice Wilder, John Wilder, Elizabeth (Wilder) Ensign, Mary (Wilder) Underwood, Isaac Wilder, Matthew Wilder and Abraham Wilder

Husband of Elizabeth (Eames) Wilder — married 1 Apr 1651 in Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Father of Elizabeth (Wilder) Fearing, John Wilder, Ephriam Wilder, Isaac Wilder, Jabez W. Wilder, Abia Wilder, Mehitabel Wilder, Abigail Wilder, Anna Wilder, Hannah Wilder and Mary (Wilder) LeBaron

Died 18 Oct 1680 in Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Profile last modified 26 Feb 2020 | Created 11 Sep 2010 | Last significant change: 26 Feb 2020

11:19: Roger (Horspool) Poole edited the Biography for Edward Wilder (1619-1680). [Thank Roger for this] This page has been accessed 1,539 times. Biography

Edward Wilder was born about 1619 in Shiplake, Oxfordshire, England, to parents Thomas Wilder and Martha (Higgs) Wilder.[1]

8 Oct 1637 received land grant of ten acres in Hingham, Mass.[1] Became Freeman 29 May 1644.[1] Married 01 Apr 1651 to Elizabeth (Eames) Wilder[1] in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 01 Dec 1675 was one of sixteen Hingham soldiers impressed into service in King Phillip's War.[1] Became Selectman in 1677.[1] He died intestate on 18th Oct 1680 from a malignant fever.[1]

His children, probably all born in Hingham, were Elizabeth, John, Ephraim, Isaac, Jabez, Abia, Mehitable, Abigail, Anna, Hannah, Mary.[1]

Sources

Donald F. Hansen and Michael F. Hansen, "DNA Solves A Wilder Ancestral Enigma," at http://www.americanancestors.org/dna-solves-a-wilder-ancestral-enigma/. Underwood, Lucien Marcus. The Underwood Families of America (New Era, Lancaster, PA, 1913) Vol. 1, Page 4 http://www.opcdorset.org/fordingtondorset/Files/FordingtonAnthonyEa....

GEDCOM Note

Made a Freeman when he was 21 years old, hence the birth year of 1623

Received another grant of land in Hingham, Massachusetts where he built his home which still stands although it was remodeled

Edward was one of the first 16 soldiers impressed at the beginning of the war in 1675