Thomas ‘John’ Granger, of Scituate

Not the same as John Granger, of Shillington

John [sic: Thomas] Granger and Grace, his wife, appear to have been at Scituate in the colony of Plymouth, as early as 1640. They had three children, born in the old country, John, Thomas, and Elizabeth. The male line is extinct.

from Sam Granger's homepage:

Thomas GRANGER, Sr. was born in England. In the Parish Records for Eastwell, Kent under "1620 Marriages" we find "Thomas Granger and Grace Hasse were married the twenty f[i]rst of Sept[ember]." According to these same Parish Records, "Grace Hasse the daughter of Steven Hasse bapti[z]ed the fifteenth day of April" in 1599. Nothing else is known about Grace's father, Steven, or the name of her mother.

Thomas and his family emigrated from Eastwell, Kent, departing from England from Sandwich on August 23, 1637 on the Hercules. The passenger list included Thomas Granger and Grace Granger, "servants" (listed together), and another Thomas Granger, "servant" (listed separately), none with any indication of relationship. Later events reveal that the second Thomas was "Jr.," son of Thomas and Grace, and that they also brought a younger son, John, and a daughter, Elizabeth, both apparently too young to be listed as servants.

Thomas died in Scituate, Massachusetts late in 1642 or early 1643, as administration on his estate was granted January 3, 1642/3 to Timothy Hatherly and Edward Eddenden "in the behalf of his wife and children" to pay debts. By this court order, Hatherly became responsible for managing the estate of the deceased Thomas Granger, the affairs of the widow Grace Granger, and the care of her two minor children, John and Elizabeth.

Thomas's widow, Grace died sometime after November 24, 1648, the date on which she wrote her will. The will names her minor son John who shall have her house when he becomes of age, and daughter Elizabeth. It was witnessed by Timothy Hatherly, John ___ (his mark) and Richard Beare (his mark).

Comments

From la societie historíque acadienne Vol 15, no. 2 et 3. Juan et Septembre 1984. Myth Busting: Episode Three https://www.sangmele.net/home/myth-busting-episode-three

So where did the “Myth” that Laurent Granger was “Métis”in origin and the grandson of Membertou originate? Well, this myth was one that originated in the 1980s to an extent. Hypotheses relating to Laurent’s origins can be found in an article found on pages 40 to 56 of the June and September 1984 issue (Volume 15, No. 3 and 3) of “Les Cahiers” of “La Société Historique Acadienne.” This article was written by René Perron and split into two parts, “Sur la trace du pionier acadien Laurent Granger” and “Annexe I: Hypothèse sur les Granger.” Mr. Perron’s article is essentially just multiple theories of Laurent’s origins, none of which suggest that he was of Indigenous descent.

The claim that Laurent Granger was Membertou’s grandson appears to stem from a hypothesis discussed in this article that suggests maybe Laurent was the son of “John Granger” of Scituate, Massachusetts, who married a woman named “Grace X.” It is in the erroneous online trees that we find the claims that “Grace X” was Membertou’s daughter.

The time frame does not add up to make it even biologically possible for this to be true and as we know, Laurent was from Plymouth, England. Once again, this is a perfect example of “wishful thinking” for Indigenous ancestry by people who descend from Laurent Granger and his wife, Marie Landry.

---

References

• Launcelot Granger of Newbury, Mass., and Suffield, Conn. : a genealogical history by Granger, James N. (James Nathaniel), 1845- (1893) Chapter ll: “The First Grangers in America” page 21. < Archive.Org > John Granger and Grace, his wife, appear to have been. at Scituate in the colony of Plymouth, as early as 1640. They had three children, born in the old country, John, Thomas, and Elizabeth. John, Sr., died at Scituate in 1640. John, Jr., whom it appears by his mother's will (1648) was not then of age, died at Marshfleld, October 4, 1655, and was buried in the adjoining town of Scituate. Thomas, the other son, became the servant of Love Brewster of Plymouth, and was hung for a ( then ) capital offense * on September 8, 1642. He was then “a youth under twenty," probably about 17. What became of Elizabeth, does not appear, but evidently the family became extinct in 1655, on the male side at least. Grace, the widow, died in 1648, and her will, dated November 24, 1648, is one of the earliest probated in the Plymouth Colony. (f)
• The crime of Thomas Granger excited greatly the go.od people of the pai-cnt colony. They were shaken from attic to cellar. The culprit was examined not only by the civil, but by tho ecclesiastical authorities. Ministerar as well as judges reviewed his case, and tlie former, who, tlirough their own kind in the land across the sea, were the guardians and sentries who watched that the Devil crept not into New England, were aghast. They were in quaking despair, that one so ungodly should have gotten in among tho saints of the colony, and at a gathering of the parsons of Plymouth, discussed the momentous question how such a thing w*as possible^ since ** Seeing it was religious men ye begane ye worke (planting the colony) and they came for religion's . sake. …
• … The execution of Thomas Granger was conducted in a strictly scriptural manner and according to the Levitican law (Leviticus xz, 15 ) and Thomas was the last part of the sacrifice.
  • (*) N.E. Gen. & His. Register, Vol. 3, Part 4, p. 397, et. seq.
  • (f) N.E. Gen. & His. Register, Vol 4., 253.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Granger Thomas Granger or Graunger (1625? – September 8, 1642) was one of the first people hanged in the Plymouth Colony (the first hanged in Plymouth or in any of the colonies of New England being John Billington) and the first known juvenile to be sentenced to death and executed in the territory of today's United States.
• http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~sam/granger.html#P1940
• The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List, Drawn from Records of the Colonies, Towns, and Churches, and Other Contemporaneous Documents. Charles Henry Pope.  Heritage Books, 1965 - History - 549 pages.  Page 196.  GRANGER
• Granger of Newbury, Mass., and Suffield, Conn.: A Genealogical History. by James Nathaniel Granger.  Published 1893.  Page 20-21.  "The first Grangers in America"
• https://www.sangmele.net/home/myth-busting-episode-three his wife was not Grace Marie Membertou
• * Launcelot Granger, of Newbury & Suffield