Nathaniel Woodward

Arrived in Boston, Mass before 1635. Member of First Church. Had sold all his land by 1661 when he was at least 71. Perhaps moved to Taunton or to England. He had married second wife, Margaret, about 1638. She died or left Boston 1661.

Nathaniel came to Boston in 1630 and became a member of the FirstChurch in Boston that year. He brought three of his sons with him but apparently was a widower since no wife joined the church with him. He was a mathematician and surveyor sent by the King to survey the line between Massachusetts and Connecticut, employed, per Colonial Records I. 237, to run the line, 1638, between Plymouth Colony andMassachusetts Bay Colony and also the line between Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut. Afterwards he was sent to survey land north of the Merrimac, and the boundry between Charlestown and Lynn. He was trained as a carpenter (builder), but the Colony used him as a surveyor on many occasions. He led the crew that laid the border between Mass. BayColony and Plymouth Colony, the later between Mass. Bay andConnecticut.

He was admitted as a freeman (to Boston) on 17 apr 1637. The last reference to him is to be found in 1661, but last reference to his property in 1670, but he is never refered to as "The LateNathaniel Woodward". He may have gone to Taunton, where he and his son had property, or even back to England. He was by then at least 71years old.

Named in Journal of American Genealogy, it said that hecame from Warwickshire, where his family held positions in the"Magistracy" and the Courte Elite of the county. It said that a Nathaniel and a Samuel were cited by a Bishop's bench in 1630 to go to the hall of the Lord de Bermingham {Birmingham} to take an oath thatt hey would not preach their Puritanism outside their home. They instead left with two yeoman, Henry Saterlee and Richard Sumner toWhitehaven, to take passage to Boston. It also said that papers exist in the Archives at Aston Hall that prove that this Woodward line (lineal decendents of Edgebastion, Birmingham Woodward line) is'closely related' to the main Shoevington Manor and Standish Manor,Lancastershire. These papers were deposited there (Aston Hall) in1840, and were a sworn copy of another set that were in the BoroughLibrary at Birmingham, Warwickshire. A letter was found at CastleBromwich Hall to Lord de Bradford written by Nathan Woordward in 1644, bearing the postal mark of 'Roxboro', Massachusetts (Roxbury,Massachusetts?).

Source: SOME ANCESTORS OF NATHANIEL WOODWARD,MATHMETICIAN (c) 1940. The family could have come from Wiltshire, or from Lincolnshire, since his son Nathaniel married a girl from Boston(Lincolnshire). He came to Boston prior to 1633, when he joined the First Church as a member.

See also about the various Woodward families in New England: Woodward DNA Genealogy

Born in England circa 1585 M Margaret Lawrence who died in England, see Third Supplement to Torrey's New England Marriages Prior to 1700

In England he was the standard bearer and later a captain of the Warwich Yeoman Guards, and was founder, or a prominent supporter of the Standish Hall branch of these guards.

A Puritan who left England rather than take an oath to keep his teachings within his own family. He was fined for refusing to take the oath. He received a royal grant in 1637 of twenty-eight acres in Roxbury, MA, bordering the "cedar swamp" on the southwest, who is shown by the Book of Possessions to have owned a lot occupying the present northeast corner of Washington and Summer streets in Boston, where his residence probably was. See PROCEEDINGS OF THE BROOKLINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 22, 1908 BROOKLINE, MASS. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY MCMVIII.

He was a surveyor for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was in Boston by 1638/9.

M 2 Margaret, in Boston, MA, Margaret, who survived him. He died in Boston after 1661.