Samuel Nickerson

Samuel married Mary Bell about 1660. Mary (daughter of John Bell) died after 17 Aug 1719. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"William Nickerson was a man of intelligence and of great energy and strength of will, which degenerated into obstinancy. He could not brook opposition nor readily accomodate himself to his neighbors. He was litigious, insisting upon the letter of what he thought his rights. He was no doubt a religious man, and at Monomoy acted as a religious teacher to the infant settlement, but he could not agree with his Yarmouth brethren and had at least one of his children baptized in Barnstable. His purchase of land at Monomoy was doubtless in part dictated by a desire of independence and his intention to found a settlement of which he should be the head. After his removal to Monomoy he resisted the authority both of Yarmouth and Eastham, which the colony court successively extended over the place. His purchase at Monomoy was contrary to a salutary law of the colony of which he could not have been unaware, although when confronted with its penalty, he claimed ignorance. He more than once expressed regret that he had violated the law but at no time did he alter his course. His persistence in the end, it is true, brought him substantial victory, but his unaccommodating spirit made many years of his life a series of conflicts with the colonial authorities and others, in which he was almost uniformly worsted. As has been seen, he disposed of all his property before his death and therefore his name does not appear on the probate records. This action on his part was perhaps due to distrust of the public authorities, produced by his years of conflict with them." [James W. Hawes, "William Nickerson", in Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy (vol 1-105). Yarmouthport, Mass.: C. W. Swift, 1912-23.]

William married Anne Busby in 1627. Anne (daughter of Nicholas Busby and Bridget Cocke) was born before 2 Feb 1608 in Norwich, Norfolk, England; was christened on 2 Feb 1608 in St. Mary Coslany, Norwich, Norfolk, England; died after 18 May 1686 in Monomoit, Barnstable, Massachusetts; was buried in Burial Hill, Chatham, Barnstable, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He may have been a son of John and Elizabeth Nickerson of Norfolk.

The Margaret Nickerson who married William Ward at St. Lawrence church in Norfolk, 29 May 1626, appears to have been this William Nickerson's widow, but not necessarily the mother of all his children.

Notes:

He was a weaver. He may have been the Nicholas Busby who was a selectman in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1640 and 1644. Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England says "Nicholas Busby of Watertown came from Norwich in 1637, aged 50, with wife Bridget, aged 53, and four children." He definitely died in Boston, though.

Nicholas married Bridget Cocke on 24 Jun 1605 in St. Mary Coslany, Norwich, Norfolk, England. Bridget was born about 1584; died between 1 Jul 1660 and 3 Jul 1660 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was possibly the unnamed daughter of Christopher Cocke and Ellen Wigman that was baptized at St. Mary Coslany between May and September 1582.

William Emery Nickerson (citation details below) asserts that she was the daughter of Christopher Cocke and Margaret Allen whose marriage, 25 Jan 1579/80, is recorded in the same parish register as the 1605 marriage of Nicholas Busby and Bridget Cocke.

Nicholas married Margaret about 1575. Margaret was born in of Claxton, Norfolk, England; died before 7 Jun 1595; was buried on 7 Jun 1595 in Salhouse, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Or Bushby. He was a mercer.