John 'The Salem Planter' Woodbury

Probably not the same as John Woodbury

John 'the Salem Planter" Woodbury was born Abt 1583 in Somerset, England and died 3 Dec 1641 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts; his will was proved 27 Apr 1643 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts. He was the son of John Woodbury. He married 1) Joan Bishop (perhaps Humphrey) 2) Ann / Annis / Agnes Napper?.

Family

A Joan Woodbury married a John Woodbury in 1601. There is no supporting evidence that they were the same man, or if they had children.

May have been married next Joan Bishop, with children of John and Joan (Bishop) Woodbury (this John may be Planter John of Salem):

• Joan, bap. 23 March 1607/08(24), West Coker, Somerset, England
• Humphrey, born about 1608, bap. 25 July 1611(25), West Coker, Somerset, England. Married Elizabeth Hunter.

Regarding Humphrey Woodbury, son of John of Somerset, immigrants to New England: court records in New England that give his approximate age do so variously, placing his birth between 1604-1609. Such records are notoriously unreliable. It is within reason to think his mother was Joan Bishop, but it is for the time being speculation.

John's first wife had died before about 1628-29, when his son John was born. The mother of his children born between then and 1640 (who could not have had Humphrey around 1610) was probably Annis, also called Ann in some records. She is named (first name only) in church and probate records and her own death record.

children of John and Ann/Annis (Napper?) Woodbury:

1. John, b. abt. 1629. Married Elizabeth.
2. Hannah, bap. 25 December 1636(26), Salem, Essex Co., MA. Married Cornelius Baker.
3. Abigail, bap. 12 November 1637(27), Salem, Essex Co., MA. Married John Hill.
4. Peter, bap. 19 September 1640(28), Salem, Essex Co., MA. m. Abigail Batchelder and then Sarah Dodge 7 5 1704

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:John_Woodbury_%282%29

Birth place also seen as Burlescombe, Devonshire, England (United Kingdom)

Came to America in 1624 or 25, first settled in Gloucester, then to Salem and then to Beverly as one of 1st planters 1641.

founded first church of Salem in 1629. founded first church I Beverly. Brought first cows to US, 3 heffers and a bull.

Date and place of birth have also been (erroneously?) reported to be circa 1579 in Somerset, England.

John Woodbury was one of the original members of the 1st Church, Salem, at its formation in 1629. He became a freeman in 1630 and established the Salem Police department, being appointed constable in the same year. One of the original five farms of two hundred acres each, "by the great pond side," was voted to John Woodbury by the colony in 1635. In 1635 John Woodbury was appointed one of the overseers and Layers out of the Lots of ground for the city. In 1637 he was chosen one of the selectmen, which office he filled till his decease, being present at every meeting of the board, the last one being December 3, 1641.

Date of death has also been (erroneously?) reported to be circa December 3, 1642.

biography

The Old Planters

The earliest history of Salem refers to 4 families as the most prominent in establishing the groundwork for the city. The heads of these families are known as the "Old Planters" and they are generally accepted as the "founders" of the City of Salem. A Company of immigrants sailed from Dorchester County in Somersetshire, England. The group was known as The Dorchester Company. They first arrived in the New World in 1624; only 4 years after the pilgrims landed at Plymouth. . The group spent 2 years with the Pilgrims at the Massachusetts Bay Colony before establishing the City of Salem at the port of Cape Ann in 1626. The city later became famous for the Salem witch trails wherein about 20 people were executed in 1692. The author, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born there in the 17th Century and the city is also the location of the literary "House of Seven Gables".

When the company first arrived an individual known as Roger Conant was the first leader. The first year was beset with difficulties and the project did not produce profits to the investors who had financed the expedition of The Dorchester Company. Most of the company was considering abandoning the settlement to look for gold or join with the Virginia colony to the south where the weather was said to be more favorable. Mr. Conant determined to stay even if all others deserted him. Word came back from the investors in England and requested a commitment from some of the others to stay with the settlement. Four individuals Roger Conant, John Woodbury, Peter Palfry and John Balch, were described as ‘honest men" and of "good character". The investors committed to continue to support the enterprise on the condition that these four men would agree to stay and develop the Salem site. A pact was made and these four men became known as the "four planters" who established the ancient site of Salem Massachusetts.

John Woodbury, The Old Planter

John Woodbury is often referred to as "The old Planter" in city records. He is spoken of with a certain kindly reverence not often to be looked for in official records, as "brother Woodbry" and as "father Woodbry," though by no means an elder in years. In 1627 he returned to England to report on the progress and brought new immigrants with him, including his brother William and his family as well as his son Nicolas.

John Woodbury was one of the original members of the 1st Church, Salem, at its formation in 1629. He became a freeman in 1630 and established the Salem Police department, being appointed constable in the same year. One of the original five farms of two hundred acres each, "by the great pond side," was voted to John Woodbury by the colony in 1635. In 1635 John Woodbury was appointed one of the overseers and Layers out of the Lots of ground for the city. In 1637 he was chosen one of the selectmen, which office he filled till his decease, being present at every meeting of the board, the last one being December 3, 1641.

John Woodbury was described as one who "did what one resolute man could do to defeat the ambition of Richelieu and to give us a New England instead of a New France between the Hudson and the Bay of Fundy and, having accomplished this, died full of honors if not of years in 1641."

John was a resident of Somerset, England, when he became involved with the Dorchester Co. (Dorchester, Dorset, Eng.), with interests in establishing a settlement in what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They sailed on the ship Zouch Phenix, which is said to have arrived in Salem in the Spring of 1624.(1) John's son Humphrey made the following deposition in 1680:

I understood that my...father came to new England by order of a company caled Dorchester company (among whome mr. white of Dorchester in England was an active Instrument) & that my father and the company with him brought cattle & other things to Cape Ann for plantation work & there built an house & kept theire cattell & sett up fishing & afterwards some of them removed to a neck of land since called Salem: After about 3 yeares absence my said father returned to England & made us acquainted with what settlement they had made in new England & that he was sent back by some that Intended to setle a plantation about 3 leagues west of Cape Ann. to further this designe after about half a years stay in England, my father returned to new England & brought me with him: wee arrived at the place now caled Salem in or about the month of June 1628 [in the ship Abigail]: where wee found severall persons that said they were servants to the Dorchester company & had built another house for them at Salem, besides that at Cape Ann. The latter end of that sumer, 1628: John Endecott Esq: came over governor, declaring his power from a company of pattentees, in or about London; & that they had bought the houses boates & servants which belonged to the Dorchester company & that he sd Endecott had power to receive them which accordingly he did take possession of: when wee settled the Indians never then molested us in our improvemts or sitting downe either on Salem or Beverly side of the ferry, but shewed themselves very glad of our company & came & planted by us & oftentimes came to us for shelter saying they were afraid of their enemy Indians up in the country: & wee did shelter them when they fled to us. & wee had theire free leave to build & plant where wee have taken up lands; the same yeare or the next after wee came to Salem wee cutt hay for the cattell wee brought over on that side of the ferry now caled Beverly: & have kept our possession there ever since by cutting hay or thatch or timber & boards & by laying out lotts for tillage : & sometime after building & dwelling heere, where I with others have lived about 40 yeares.(2)

A tradition handed down says that when Gov. Endicott arrived in Massachusetts, the ship caught on a sand bar near the shore. John and another man, who must have gone out to the ship, carried Endicott to the shore on their shoulders to spare him the embarassment of arriving in the colony in a bedraggled state.(3)

John's first wife had died before about 1628-29, when his son John was born. The mother of his children born between then and 1640 (who could not have had Humphrey around 1610) was probably Annis, also called Ann in some records. She is named (first name only) in church and probate records and her own death record.(4) The name is widely thought of as Agnes based on the first list of members of the church at Salem.(5) This was very likely a misunderstanding by the minister or a clerk of the name Annis, or an error in modern transcription. The original record hasn't been seen by the author. There is no evidence found that she came with John, Sr., and Humphrey.(6) A town record that includes the number of people in each household in Salem credibly dated to 1637 says that John had six.(7) This indicates that his daughters Abigail and Hannah, baptized in 1635 and 1636 respectively,(8) were the next children born after John, unless there was an infant death.

Given all this, it is reasonable to think that the John Woodbury who married Ann/Annis Napper in 1628 in England is John the Salem "Planter." Only their license has been found, but John was from Dorchester (note that Humphrey's above account says that he accompanied his father as far as Dorchester in John's trip to New England in 1624) and Ann/Annis lived near the concentration of Woodburys in Somersetshire who are supposed to have gone to Salem. The license was issued on 19 March 1628(9) and John returned to Massachusetts about three months later. In this scenario, it appears that Ann/Annis was pregnant by the time he left. This may have been a good reason to stay behind. She would have had the child, John, Jr., later that year or early in 1629 and come with the child to Massachusetts (perhaps with William Woodbury, her presumed brother-in-law, and his family) no later than early 1636, given John's daughter's baptism in December of that year. It is technically possible that Ann/Annis was not the mother of these later children but rather the Agnes of the Salem church list. The administration of John's estate was given to "Ann" early in 1642, about 1 1/2 years after the birth of John's last child Peter, so the latter thought is not very credible.

As for John's first wife, she may have been Joanna Humphrey, who apparently died in 1601. There is a John Woodbury who married Joan Bishop on 3 May 1607 in West Coker, Somersetshire, near South Petherton, apparent home of Salem settler and John's supposed brother William Woodbury.(10) John and Joan (Bishop) had a son Humphrey baptized in West Coker on 25 July 1611.(11) More records in England may be found to further fill the gaps in our knowledge of John's years there.

John was at the forefront of the steady development of Salem, established nearby in place of the failed effort at Cape Ann. In 1630 hundreds of settlers came in the Winthrop Fleet to the area, which saw other villages settled around Salem. Many necessities of a budding town become apparent when reading the early Salem town records. John was among the men chosen to oversee the division of land at Salem in 1635 and for the effort was paid 4 shillings per acre of his share of "small lots" and 10 shillings per acre of his share of "great lots."(12) He spent a lot of time at this in the coming years as people arrived in town. Settlers were encouraged to expand beyond the tiny village and set up farms. He and others were granted farms of 200 acres at the head of Bass River (now part of Beverly) on 25 January 1635/36.(13) He was granted 5 acres of meadow in 1638.(14) Salem was considered for the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in these earlier years, and there was a brief thought to establish a college on land that is now in Manchester. John was on the committee to examine the land for that purpose in 1636.(15)

Single women without familial attachment were unusual in these early days of the American colonies (such a thing was socially discouraged, in any case), save the occasional widow who found herself in such a circumstance, but Deborah Holmes, a "maid," wished to settle in Salem. She refused a grant of land, with the record noting that "it would be a bad precendent to keep house alone." Instead she was given what seems an unbalanced compensation of four bushels of corn, one of them to be provided by John Woodbury.(16)

For years John had served as an overseer of town affairs with Roger Conant, John Trask, John Balch and several others. On 31 December 1638 the elected position of selectman was established at Salem when "there were chosen seven men for the managing of the affaires of the towne for a twelve moneths, viz. Mr. Endecott, Mr. Hathorne, Mr. Conant, John Woodbury, Lawrence Leech, Jeffry Massy and John Balch."(17) John Woodbury and apparently John Balch were never given the distinction of being called "Mr." as the others consistently were, which held social currency at the time. This surely reflected their positions in English society before they immigrated. At the same meeting the contemporarily important business of constructing a meeting house was brought up. The church had been organized by this time and the first list of members of the church, apparently from 1636, include the names John and "Agnes" Woodbury (husbands and wives are dispersed among single people, making it uncertain that Agnes was Mrs. John).

On 26 February 1639 John was elected to represent the town at the General Court (the colony legislature) in March,(18) for which he was paid 1 lb. for expenses.(19) From when the court was established in 1636 to the time of his death, John was a frequent juryman and occasional foreman at the Quarterly Court in Salem. He was considered an arbitrator on his own, being chosen to settle a dispute in 1639.(20) John was elected to "see to ye order about swine" from 3 January 1639/40 to 31 October 1640. This town office was known as a hogreeve or hog warden.(21) John continued as a selectman of Salem to his death. The last town meeting he attended was on 3 December 1641. The Salem Quarterly Court records that he was absent from the grand jury and "now dead" on 25 January 1641/42.(22) There is no death record and the death date found for him in some places on the internet appears not to be based on documentation. He wrote a will that was proved on 27 June 1643 but never recorded.(23) His son Humphrey's will followed similar circumstances, although a copy of his will still exists. Administration of his estate was given to his widow "Ann," who was ordered to bring in an inventory of his estate to the court. This was also not recorded.

John's family name is spelled variously depending on the document. He signed "Woodbery," as did his son Humphrey. Nicholas (son of William, the "Planter") signed his name "Woodberry" but the carver of his gravestone used "Woodbury." William, the "Planter" and his son Hugh also signed "Woodberry." The name surely derives from an English geographic description of a wooded place (wood "bury") and "Woodbury" is a common spelling in this family, although more so in later generations. In written records such as town minutes and birth records, spelling was at the discretion of the clerk. Family intent is best found in the signatures, but many people learned to sign their name without otherwise being able to write or spell well, or at all. Some relied on phonetics. Since even the Woodburys themselves in these early generations aren't known to have been literate, the spelling "Woodbury" is used for these articles.

From the 18 th Edition, Vol. 2 of Burke's Landed Gentry (Pgs. 651-2):

"Lineage -- A pedigree of this family, of descent, in the male line, from John Woodberye (1579-1641), was recorded at the College of Arms 1953. The family Wills at the Exeter Probate Registry were destroyed during World War II but descent can be presumed from James Woodbarye, named in the Lay Subsidy of Burlescombe, Devon 1523-4, where the Woodbury family had been freeholders since the close of the 14 th century, when the overlordship of the deClaville family ended."

"John Woodberye, "junior", of Burlescombe, lived at East Coker, Somerset after 1605 and was sent to Cape Ann, Massachusetts Bay by the Dorchester Co..." It may be important to note that the Coker's are just north of Dorchester which is just north of Weymouth a sailing port.

Some of John's data was taken from a "Sketch of John Page Woodbury" by Charles Jeptha Hall Woodbury. John requested to become a Freeman on 19 Oct 1630 and took the Oath of Freemen on 18 May 1631, C.R., Vol. I. pp. 73, 74. See: N.E.H.G. Register, Book #3, Pg. 90.

John first came over in 1624 on the "Zouch Phenix." According to "The Planters of the Commonwealth," by Charles Edward Banks (Boston, 1930), p. 58:

"She was consort of the 'Unity,' or arrived with her in the spring of this year. It is believed she sailed from Weymouth, and brought the following passengers, who settled at Cape Anne"* (*Banks MSS).

Representative of Salem in General Court between 1635 and 1639. Selectman and Surveyor. Returned to England in 1627 as Agent for the Dorchester Co., (Burke's American Families Pg. #2983).

See: Frederick Virkus's Compendium, Pg. #634...

On Pages #2054 to 2057 of "The Great Migration Begins" there is a piece about John Woodbury:

"John Woodberye" was on a list of Salem church members that was compiled in 1636, a later notation "dead" appears [SChR5].

Among the founders and settlers of the first Puritan settlement, Cape Ann and Naumkeag, 1623-1627:

Allen, Balch, Conant, Cushman, Gardner, Gray, Jeffrey, Knight, Lyford, Norman, Oldham, Palfrey, Patch, Pickryn, Winslow, Woodbury

John is frequently mentioned in the genealogies of other early settlers to New England.

On Sept. 24, 1639, John Woodbury, Peter Palfrey, and John Balch, [3 of the original "Planters"], three of the Salem selectmen, brought civil suit against Isabel Babson. There is no specific charges mentioned, but cases like this frequently involved land disputes. (See: The Babson Genealogy 1637-1977).

John spent six months in England and, soon after the issuance of the grant for their lands on March 19, 1627-8, he sailed for New England bringing with him son, Humphrey. They arrived in Salem on the June 28, following. See: Gates and Allied Families pp. 823-828.

John first came over in 1624 on the "Zouch Phenix." According to "The Planters of the Commonwealth," by Charles Edward Banks (Boston, 1930), p. 58:

John Woodbury, Capt Trask, Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey, and John Balch were each granted 200 acres of land at the head of Bass River in what is now Beverly, on 25 Jan 1635 or 6. The houses of John Balch and Roger Conant are still to be seen in 2000. Plaques mark the head of Bass River and the supposed location of John's grant.

http://www.woodbury-ober.com/d2.html#c22302

LDS record illegible for birthdate, etc.

Links

• http://dougsinclairsarchives.com/woodbury/johnwoodbury1.htm
• http://uvol.com/www1st/columnists/01bladh.html
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~saustin/genealogyreports/w...
• http://www.stayfamily.org/biographies/jeremiah1st.html
• http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db...