John Furman, of Watertown

From Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 26 2017, 1:11:07 UTC

John Furman (or Firmin) was born abt. 1588 in England and died by May 10, 1642 on [Long Island, NY] He resided in America from 1633 to 1642. He was married to Susan widow Warren as his second wife. They were married June 30, 1618 at Nayland, Suffolk, England.

Children by his 1st wife:

• Elizabeth bapt. April 27, 1615
• John (twin) bapt. Feb. 10, 1617/18
• Judith (twin) bapt. Feb. 10, 1617/18

Children by his 2nd wife (susan Warren):

• Mary bapt. June 30, 1619
• Josias (or Josiah) bapt. April 22, 1621
• Benjamin bapt. Feb. 23, 1622/23
• Martha bapt. May 30, 1624
• John bapt. July 14, 1626
• Catherine bapt. Dec. 14, 1628

Source:

• Great Migration Beginns, pp. 675-678. [see attached documents]
• John Hart by Hammond, p. 253.
• Gumption by Furman, p. 75-15, & 47.
• Twenty Long Island Families by Loveless, p. 4.
• Southern New York by Reynolds, p. 620.

Origins

• Anderson’s Great Migration Project has no parents for him
• parents seen as Josias Firman & Joanna 'Anne' Firman
• parents also seen as Giles Firmin & Katherine Ive

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John Firman from "Great Migration Begins" Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633

• JOHN FIRMIN
• ORIGIN: Nayland, Suffolk
• MIGRATION: 1630
• FIRST RESIDENCE: Watertown
• RETURN TRIPS: Return to England in 1633, and back to New England in 1634
• CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: (Bond claimed that John Firmin was deacon at Watertown, and Savage followed him in this. No record has been found to support this claim, and there may be some confusion with GILES FIRMIN, who was made deacon at Boston in 1633.)
• FREEMAN: 18 May 1631 [ MBCR 1:366].
• OFFICES: Chosen Watertown selectman, 30 December 1637 [ WaTR 1:3].
• ESTATE: 10 November 1630: "[blank] Firmin, of Watertown, had his wigwam burnt" [ WJ 1:45].
• Granted sixty acres in the Great Dividend in Watertown, 25 July 1636 [ WaBOP 4]; granted nine acres in the Beaverbrook Plowlands, 28 February 1636/7 [WaBOP 7]; granted nine acres in the Remote Meadows, 26 June 1637 [WaBOP 8]; granted six acres at the Town Plot, 9 April 1638 [WaBOP 11]; in the list of farm grants, dated 10 May 1642, the last entry is for "[blank] Furman," for 121 acres [WaBOP 14].
• In the Watertown Inventory of Grants, John Firmin was assigned eight parcels of land: six acre homestall; six acres of marsh; sixteen acres of upland; nine acres plowland in the Farther Plain [Beaverbrook Plowlands]; nine acres in Remote Meadows; sixty acres upland in Great Dividend; six acres upland [at Town Plot]; and seven acre homestall [WaBOP 104]. In the Composite Inventory he had six parcels: six acre homestall; six acres of marsh; sixteen acres of upland; nine acres plowland in the Farther Plain; nine acres Remote Meadows; and sixty acres upland in Great Dividend [WaBOP 55]. Joseph Bemis had acquired the six acres at the Town Plot [WaBOP 58, 140 (half of parcel #1)], and Henry Bright Jr. had acquired the seven acre homestall [WaBOP 32].
• 16 January 1649/50: "Ordered that John Firman's heirs have a just right to a farm as other townsmen have" [WaTR 1:17]. (This entry explains why this man appears as the last entry in the list of farm grants, with his name given as "[blank] Furman," and why no farm grant appears in his Composite Inventory.)
• On 25 January 1652[/3?] Barnebas Far (or Fawer) of Boston and Grace his wife sold to Richard Beers of Watertown a messuage in Watertown "containing a homestall of six acres ... together with such edifices and buildings as are upon the said parcel," also six acres of marsh land, thirteen acres of upland, nine acres of plowland in the Further Plain, nine acres of meadow in the Remote Meadow, and sixty acres of upland in the Great Dividend, "all which lands was by the townsmen of Watertowne granted to John Firman deceased and by heirs sold unto Barnebas Far together with all other dues or rights of division of land to the said premises belonging and now by the said Barnebas Far and Grace Fawer his wife sold to Richard Beers" [ MLR 1:70].
• BIRTH: About 1588 (aged 46 in 1634 [ Hotten 281]).
• DEATH: Probably by 10 May 1642, when he was not included in the grants of farms at Watertown.
• MARRIAGE: (1) By 1615 _____ _____; she was buried at Nayland, Suffolk, 24 February 1617/8. (2) Nayland, Suffolk, 30 June 1618 Susan Warren, widow; not seen in any New England record (unless she is implied in the grants of Beaverbrook Plowlands and Remote Meadows).
• CHILDREN (all baptized Nayland, Suffolk):

with first wife

• i ELIZABETH, bp. 27 April 1615; possibly m. by 1639 Richard Beers of Watertown (but see COMMENTS below).
• ii JOHN (twin), bp. 10 February 1617/8; bur. 18 May 1625.
• iii JUDITH (twin), bp. 10 February 1617/8; no further record.

With second wife

• iv MARY, bp. 30 June 1619; no further record.
• v JOSIAS, bp. 22 April 1621; probably a servant to Governor John Winthrop in the 1630s, and then moved to Hempstead, Long Island.
• vi BENJAMIN, bp. 23 February 1622/3; bur. 28 February 1622/3.
• vii MARTHA, bp. 30 May 1624; no further record.
• viii JOHN, bp. 14 July 1626; no further record.
• ix CATHERINE, bp. 14 December 1628; no further record.
• ASSOCIATIONS: In three letters to John Winthrop Jr., Henry Jacie indicated that he was well acquainted with John Firmin, and in each case Firmin was connected with EPHRAIM CHILD. In a letter of 9 January 1631/2 Jacie stated that he had written also to "g[oodman] Firmin, and g[oodman] Child" [ WP 3:58]. On 12 June 1633 he asked to be remembered to several persons in New England, including "Ephr. Child, John Firmin" [WP 3:128]. On 17 December 1633 Jacie reported that he had received a letter from Ephraim Child, and goes on to say that of "[o]ur estate here in particular in general you may better hear from the honest bearer John Firmin, than by my letter" [WP 3:142].
• This last letter indicates that in June of 1633 Jacie thought that Firmin was still in New England; by December Firmin was in England, but already preparing to return to New England. This meshes with the passenger list of the Elizabeth, sailing from Ipswich, Suffolk, on 30 April 1634, which included John Firmin, aged 46 [Hotten 281].
• COMMENTS: John Firmin poses several interesting genealogical questions. Was he identical with the John Firmin of Nayland, Suffolk, whose records we have quoted above? Who were his heirs?
• There are first a number of pieces of evidence which point to the Nayland man. When the Bishop's Visitation of 1629 in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury reached Nayland, five men were presented for refusing to kneel at communion: John Warren, John Firmyn, Christopher Scarlett, John Kent and Gregory Stone [ Gregory Stone Gen 43]. JOHN WARREN also came to Watertown in 1630, and Gregory Stone came in 1635. John Firmin's second wife, widow Susan Warren, had presumably first been the wife of some close relation of this John Warren.
• Based on the parish register entries cited above, and assuming no more children were born to this couple in New England and that all those not buried in Nayland came to New England, the family in 1637 would have consisted of John Firmin, his wife and seven children. This is consistent with the grants of Beaverbrook Plowlands and Remote Meadows, which were for nine acres.
• In the mid-1630s a "Josias Firmin" was servant to Governor JOHN WINTHROP [WP 3:219-20]. On 6 June 1640 "Josiah Ferman servant to our brother Mr. John Winthroppe" was admitted to Boston church [ BChR 30], and on 2 June 1641 "Josias Firman" was admitted as a freeman [MBCR 1:379]. This sequence of events would be appropriate for the Josias Firmin baptized to John Firmin in Nayland.
• There are, however, some arguments against the identification. The Firmin name was common in the west Suffolk area near Groton, and there was more than one John Firmin in Nayland itself. There is no record explicitly connecting John Firmin of Nayland with the man of Watertown. The records relating to the estate of John Firmin in New England speak only of "the heirs of John Firmin," without telling us just who they might be. The nine-acre grants could just as well have been for some combination of persons and livestock, so there may be no connection between the size of the families of John Firmin of Nayland and John Firmin of Watertown.
• One of the heirs, as noted, may be the Josiah Firmin who spent some time in the Winthrop household, who is presumably the man of that name who went on to Hempstead on Long Island. Another possible heir is Elizabeth, the wife of Richard Beers of Watertown. In the Boston News-letter for 24 June 1706 is the notice of death in Watertown on 16 June of that year of "Mrs. Elizabeth Beers (widow of Capt. John [recte Richard] Beers ...) in the 92 year of her age.... She came to New England in June 1630 being then sixteen year old, and lived in New England 76 years." This would be the right age for the Elizabeth who was baptized to John Firmin in Nayland, and her husband did acquire the estate of John Firmin. He acquired it, however, from a person who had purchased the land from the heirs of John Firmin, and we would have to assume that Richard Beers and his wife had been parties to the sale to Barnabas Fawer, and had then turned around and repurchased the land from him.

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Contradictory record from FindAGrave below. Please follow "The Great Migration" Project documents attached!

From Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Apr 25 2017, 23:06:38 UTC

John Firmin was born about 1588 (aged 46 in 1634). Came from Nayland, Suffolk to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 & settled in Watertown. Returned to England in 1633, & back to New England in 1634. Probably died by 10 May 1642, when he was not included in the grants of farms at Watertown.

Married:

• (1) By an unknown date Ann _____; she was buried at Nayland, Suffolk, 24 February 1617/8.
• (2) Stoke by Nayland, Suffolk, 14 June 1620 Martha (Doggett Flack, daughter of John Doggett of Groton, Suffolk & widow of William Flack of Chattisham, Suffolk; not seen in any New England record Neither of these marriages produced any known children.

There are hints that there were two adult John Firmins in Nayland, Suffolk in the 1610s & 1620s, because much of the English documentation cited in The Great Migration Begins, does not fit with this John Firmin, unless "Ann, wife of John Firmin," buried at Nayland on 22 Nov 1619, is the same person as "Susan Warrik, widow," who married John Firmin on 30 June 1618 & our John Firmin therefore had 3 wives in Nayland.

Source: Anderson's Winthrop Fleet.

• https://familysearch.org/tree/person/LXWH-Y8D/details?cid=partner-3...
• https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/8790496
• https://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=michaels...
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Firmyn-5