John Oliver

Thomas and his wife Mary sailed on the Mary Anne of Yarmouth from Ipswitch England in May and arrived in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony on 20 June, 1637. Thomas was listed on the ship's manifest as age 36 of Norwich, Norfolk, England, bound for Salem. Accompanying him on the Mary Ann were his wife Mary Oliver, aged 34, their two children, Thomas Oliver, Jr. and John Oliver; a servant Thomas Doged, aged 30, and girl named Mary Sape, presumed to be a servant in spite of her listed age as 12.

Nothing is known of what became of Thomas Oliver's sons Thomas Jr. and John ... (John is possibly the father of Ellen Oliver, mother of Ellen Jones). It was surmised in scholarly 19th century examinations of Court records that that Bridget Bishop's claims on Thomas Oliver's estate were posited as the real reason for her being charged of witchcraft.

Sources

1. Greene, David L. Salem Witches I: Bridget Bishop. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Jul 1981), 57:129.
2. http://lucite.org/lucite/archive/history_-_salem_witches/rootsweb_s...

Links

• http://leewiegand.com/familytree/Marriages/1050/1050OliverLeman.html
• http://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:John_Oliver_%2865%29_