John Marchant

• Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via daughter Elizabeth Ripley (born Marchant) by SmartCopy: Feb 2 2015, 5:18:51 UTC

https://www.geni.com/projects/Husbandman/28017

JOHN (GUERNSEY) MARCHANT, born 1679-1680, resided in Edgartown MA and was a husbandman. He married (1) Hepsibah Huxford about 1706 who was born about 1688 and died about 1721 and (2) Elizabeth Daggett about 1721 who was born 1692 and died 1764. John and his first wife, Hepsibah, had the following children: John born 1707; Elizabeth born 1708 who married (1) Abraham Ripley and (2) Enoch Norton; Gamaliel born about 1710; Huxford born 1712; Naomi born 1714 who married Seth Dunham; Thankful born 1716 who married Nicholas Butler; Ebenezer born about 1718; and Cornelius born 1720. John and his second wife, Elizabeth, had the following children: Benjamin born about 1721; Silas born 1723; Ruth born about 1727 and married Thomas White; Martha born 1732 and married Prince Pease; Mary born 1735 who married Thomas Rand; and Abishai born 1738.

The following is from "The History of Martha's Vinyard", Volume 2, by Charles Edward Banks (Published in 1911):

JOHN MARCHANT

The first of this well-known family to acquire proprietary interest here [in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts] was John Marchant, who had a grant of ten acres "on the right hand of Sanchacantucket cart path, near the cart path that goes to Mortall's Neck." He had been before that time a resident of Yarmouth, Cape Cod, where his father, also named John, had settled between 1645 and 1648.

Marchant, as a family name, is probably of French origin, derived from "marchand," a trader or merchant, from which our English word is obtained. The name is not of very frequent occurrence in England. Thomas Marchaunt of Colchester, Essex, 1392 to 1436,3 temp. Richard II and Henry VI, is the earliest recorded instance known to the author, and a pedigree of one family living in Sussex has been published.4 The author found also in Wiltshire, the wills of various persons of the name from 1592 to 1674, recorded in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury,5 while scattering references occur in other counties about the period of the early emigration to New England.6

The first of the name on this side of the water are two planters at Barbadoes, in 1635, William and Silas Marchant, and as the name Silas occurs quite early (1722), in our island family, the origin of the Vineyard Marchants might be looked for at that source.1 The first one found in New England is John Marchant, who was admitted an inhabitant of Newport, R. I., June 2, 1638, but did not remain long there as he is found next year at Mount Wollaston, Braintree, where on February 24, 1638-9, he was granted eight acres for two heads, that is himself and another male.2 He had brought with him a wife Sarah and a son to the new settlement, and shortly after, on Dec. 3, 1638, his wife died.

Contemporaneously a William Marchant is found at Watertown in 1641,3 and thither our John probably removed as early as 1642, and in 1645 he is mentioned as of that place.4 Once more he removed, this time to Yarmouth, some time before 1648, as on June 7th that year he was chosen as constable for the town, an office that presupposes a residence of some duration. How long he resided there or when he died is unknown. He appears in court twice, once as plaintiff and once as defendant, and probably he was dead prior to 1670, when his son John, who by this time had married, was promoted from ensign to be lieutenant in the militia, and is called "Senior."5

The second John continued to reside in Yarmouth with his family, and is frequently mentioned on the records usually by his military title.6 He was "rated" in the town in 1676, for "the late war" (King Phillip's), and was in the list of townsmen in 1679.7 It is not known whom he married, nor the christian name of his wife, but he had taken a wife before 1648, when children are recorded to him in the Yarmouth town records beginning that date. In 1682, as above stated, he received his grant of land in this town, but whether he came here to reside is uncertain.8 It is the author's belief that he came here to live, as the grant would have been forfeited for non-residence, while it was retained as belonging to him and his estate for ten years.1 His daughter was already living here, and three of his sons were here at this time.2 When he died is not known, but some time before 1693 is the probable date.

The next of the name who is certainly known to have made a permanent settlement in this town is John4, who was, in all probability, the son of Abisha of Yarmouth, though proof is lacking.3 This John is the definite head of the Marchant family of Edgartown, and he acquired his first property here by purchase, April 8, 1707, when he bought a harbor lot, just south of Burial Hill, of Joseph Ripley.4 He was then a young man of twenty-seven years, and had just married his first wife. In 1711, he bought the so-called "ministerial lot," and both of these were retained by him for over half a century, and descended to his sons Silas and Abisha. His life was uneventful, if we may judge from the entire absence of his name from the records, law, probate and court. Beyond serving as juror in 1722, 1730 to 1734, he attended strictly to his private affairs, and died February, 1767, at the ripe old age of 87 years.

(References from page 77)

3Records, Borough of Colchester, 29, 39, 43. 4Sussex Archieological Collections, XXV, 199. 5These were all original wills on file in the Bishop's Consistory Court, Sarum, at Somerset House. The testators were John, of Marlborough, March 28, 1592; John, of Tilsed, March 16, 1604; John, of East Knoyle, June 17, 1625; Thomas of Westbury Leigh, July 9, 1647; and Tristram, of Warminster, Sept. 18, 1674. A correspondent recently informed the author that there were many Marchant wills recorded at Wells, co. Somerset. 6There was a John Marchant of Georgeham, Devon, in 1620 (P. C. C. Soame, 45), and.Walter Marchant, haberdasher, of Bristol, Gloucestershire, in 1640. (Lechford, Note Book, 209.)
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(References from page 78)

1The Barbadoes and other West India islands were frequent stepping stones for immigrants to New England. (Hotten, Lists of Passengers, &c.) 2Boston Town Records, I, 39. 3Savage, III, 197. 4Pope, Pioneers of Mass.; N. E. Gen. Register, VIII, 56. William Marchant may be the Barbadoes planter. He removed to Ipswich, where he died, Sept. 4, 1668, and is the ancestor of the Marchant family of Gloucester and other towns in Essex County. It is significant that one of the Yarmouth family went to Gloucester for a wife in 1719. 5Plymouth Col. Records, VII, 60; III, 36. In the natural order the elder John would not begin a military career in 1664 and be promoted in 1670, hence the belief that the first John died before the last named date. 6He had been made freeman June 3, 1652, and ensign in 1664. 7Yarmouth Town Records. 8There is a singular absence of records connected with this family which makes so much conjecture necessary. Taken in connection with the loss of the Barnstable County Land records, by fire, Oct. 22, 1827, when 93 volumes of deeds and three volumes of wills were destroyed, the task of piecing out the pedigree is difficult.
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(References from page 79)

1It was sold by his son Abisha Dec. 6, 1693. (Dukes Deeds I, 393). 2Joseph in 1682, Christopher in 1685, and Abisha in 1693. Joseph bought five acres of William Vincent, near the cemetery, in 1698, and sold it back in 1707. (Deeds I, 140, 146.) 3This is the natural inference. The only other tenable hypothesis is that he was a son of the second John by an assumed second marriage. 4Dukes Deeds, III, 438.

• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Jun 13 2018, 16:35:55 UTC

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https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Marchant-218

John Marchant was born in1679 in Yarmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay to Abishai Marchant and Mary (Taylor) Marchant. He is the bother of William Marchant, Elizabeth (Merchant) Wheldon, Samuel Merchant and Jabez (Marchant) Merchant.

Husband of Hepsibah (Huxford) Marchant — married about 1706 (to about 1721)

Husband of Elizabeth (Daggett) Marchant — married 1721

He is the father of John Marchant, Elizabeth (Marchant) Ripley, Naomi (Marchant) Dunham, Thankful (Marchant) Butler, Sarah (Merchant) Gilbert, Martha (Marchant) Pease and Mary (Marchant) Rand. John died on 1 Feb 1767 in Edgartown, Dukes, Massachusetts Bay

Profile last modified 20 May 2018 | Created 16 Jan 2013

Biography

John was the son of Abishai Marchant and Mary Taylor[1]

John MARCHANT was born calculated 1680 [2]

John Merchant - he married Hepzibah Huxford about 1706 in MA Bay

Their children were John, Elizabeth, Gamaliel, Huxford, Thankful, Ebenezer, Cornelius & Naomi

After the death of Hepzibah he married Elizabeth Daggett about 1721 in Edgartown, Dukes, MA Bay and had additional children: Benjamin, Silas, Ruth, Martha, Mary & Abishai

Sources

Pierce, R. Andrew. "Joseph Daggett of Martha's Vineyard, His Native American Wife, and Their Descendants." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register Jan. 2007:5-21

Merchant/Marchant Family http://anns52.tripod.com/Coleman%20Family/Merchant.htm

Footnotes

↑ Entered by Kerry Fisher, Jan 16, 2013 ↑ Rev. Hollis A. Campbell, William C. Sharpe and Frank G. Bassett, Seymour Past and Present (Seymour, Connecticut, W. C. Sharpe, 1902), p. 459.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Kerry Fisher for starting this profile.