James Penniman, of Chipping Ongar

James Penniman was the father of James Penniman, the emigrant ancestor of the Penniman family in America, who was one of the settlers of the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, having gone there from Boston where he at first lived. He came over in the ship Lion in 1631 with his wife Lydia Eliot (sister of John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians), and having as fellow passengers, John Winthrop, Jr. (son of the Governor of Massachusetts Bay, and himself first Governor of Connecticut), John Eliot and his brother Jacob Eliot.

The Eliots came from Naseing, Essex, while the seat of the Penniman family was probably in Yorkshire, where the English Pennyman family still live at Marske, in Ormesby Hall (see Pennyman Records). The connection between the English and the American famihes has never been satisfactorily estabHshed. The statement sometimes made that James, the emigrant was a brother of Sir Wilham Pennyman, the distinguished Royalist is not substantiated by any known record, though it is not impossible that it may be true. As James was a Puritan it has been suggested that his Royalist relations kept no record of him or that the records were destroyed.

(For James, the Emigrant, see Town Records of Braintree, Massachusetts. For Lydia, his wife, see Town Records of Medfield, Massachusetts where her second marriage as widow of James, is mentioned and she is stated to have been the sister of John Eliot, the Apostle. For Penniman see the Pennyman Records, York 1904, Appendix N, American Pennimans.)

James Penniman, b. in England, came in the Lion, 1631, with John Winthrop,

Jr.; admitted as Freeman 6th March, 1631-1632; of Boston at first; of Braintree,

1639; wife, Lydia Eliot; he d. 26th December, 1664. Lydia m. (secondly) 7th De-

cember, 1665, Thomas Wright, of Medfield (Medfield Records).

James Penniman's will is dated i8th December, 1664; proved 31st January, 1664-1665; recorded

Suff. Prob., 1 : 443. Mentions his oldest son James, son Joseph, youngest son Sam-

uel. He says, "God hath blessed me with many children." His son James "had

been educated into such a way of living, as he is having already had a portion."

Most of the children, he says, were young. Inventory, 31st January, 1664-1665,

including dwelling house, £45; barn and stable, old house and orchard, £70; thirty

acres of land near the Mill-Pond, £70; fifteen acres near Knight's Neck, (Quincy),

£30; eighteen acres "nigh Weymouth ffery," £55, etc. Total, £505, 3s. Sworn to

in court by Lydia Penniman, widow of James. (Suff. Prob., 4: 207.)

I. James, bapt. 26th March, 1633; m. loth May, 1659, Mary Cross.

II. Lydia, bapt. 2 2d February, 1634-163 5.

III. John, bapt. 15th January, 1636-1637; m. 24th February, 1664-1665, Han-

nah Billings.

IV. Joseph, b. ist August, 1639; m. (firstly) Waiting Robinson; m. (secondly)

widow Sarah (Bass) Stone.

V. Sarai (Sarah), b. 6th May, 1641.

VI. Samuel, b. 14th November, 1645; of whom later,

vii. Hannah, b. 26th May, 1648.

viii. Abigail, 6. 27th December, 1651; m. i8th April, 1678, Samuel Neale,

son of Henry Neale.

IX. Mary, b. 29th September, 1653; w. 4th April, 1678, Samuel Paine.

• http://capecodgenes.com/web%20cards/ps46/ps46_396.html
• * The English Origins of James Penniman of Boston & Braintree, MA, TAG, Vol. 71 Clifford L. Stott Jan. 1996 pg. 14