Thomas Freeman

Notes:

Will of Thomas Freeman of Erchester, co. North^t. Gent. Dated 24th March 1585. Proved 11th May 1586. (P. C. C. 24 Windsor)
To be buried in Irchester church. Legacies bequeathed by my late father Henrye Freman to be paid with all speed. Repairs to Irchester church 2/-; to those of the Irchester side of Wyllingborowe brydge 2/-; and of Dytchforde brydge 2/*- To the poor of Archester and Knoston 4/-, of Wyllinbroughe 4/-, Higham Ferrers 2/-, Rusheden 2/-, Wollaston 20 d., Farnedishe 12 d.
To my son Henry Freman all my free land in Overdeane and Netherdene, co. Bedf.; all my copyholds in Irchester (held of the Manor of Higham Ferrers), also my lease of the parsonage of Irchester and all my right in the Rectory of Irchester; my lease of a windmill in Farrendishe, co. Bedf., and of duffehowse close, dove house and one yarde lande in the same, one other close now a hoppyarde and one cottage in Archester devised to my father by William Vaux Lord Harrowden. To my son John Freman 100 marks. To my son Blase Freman 100 marks and my dark grey geldinge. To my daughter Elizabeth wife of Robert Margettes 100 marks. My freeholds in town of Northampton to my son Henry.
Exor: my son Henry Freeman. Overseers, Rychard Trowell chyrurgeon and my son in law Robert Margettes, to each 6/8.
Witnesses: Richard Trowell chyrurgeon, Roberte Margettes, Wyllm Buttery. Proved 11th May 1586 by Henry Freman.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1564

Henry married Margaret Edwards on 10 Feb 1589 in St. Sepulchre, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England. Margaret (daughter of Edward Edwards and Ursula Coles) was born before 25 Sep 1565 in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, England; was christened on 25 Sep 1565 in Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire, England; died after 23 Aug 1637. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 24 Dec 1658, Stonington, New London, Connecticut

Notes:

One of TNH's four proven "gateway ancestors". Also one of TSW's eight, one of JTS's eleven; one of TWK's twelve; and the sole "gateway ancestor" yet discovered for FW.

"Alice and at least two of her daughters emigrated to New England. She was living in Roxbury, Massachusetts, by 2 April 1640, when a complaint was drawn up against 'Alice Tompson widdow.'" [Randy A. West, citation details below.]

Descendants of Alice Freeman of particular interest to anyone liable to be looking at the ancestry of people named Nielsen Hayden include Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Frank Baum, and Thomas Pynchon. Other notable descendants include Katherine Hepburn, Julia Child, Fannie Farmer, Louisa May Alcott, Grace Slick, Louis Auchincloss, Dorothea Dix, George B. McClellan, Cyrus McCormick, J. P. Morgan, Charles Dana Gibson, Clarence Almon Torrey, Kingman Brewster Jr., Nelson, David, and Winthrop Rockefeller, Archibald MacLeish, Clarence Day, Warren G. Harding, Humphrey Bogart, Harriet Monroe, Admiral George Dewey, Thomas E. Dewey, George Gallup, Spencer W. Kimball, Martha Graham, Laura Ingalls Wilder, George F. Kennan, Robert Lansing, Brewster Kahle, James Taylor, Boris Johnson, Tammy Duckworth, Seth Low, Oliver Platt, Alec Baldwin, and would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley, Jr.

To the best of our knowledge, Alice Freeman is the only seventeenth-century immigrant to New England proven to be both descended from an English monarch and an ancestor of the current British royal family. (Corrections welcome.) Thus:

Aethelred II "Unraed", King of England (~968-1016) = Aelfgifu (~970-~1002)
Aelfgifu = Uchtred, Earl of Northumbria (~970-1016)
Ealdgyth of Northumbria = Maldred (~1009-1045)
Gospatric of Dunbar, Earl of Northumbria (~1044-~1074)
Gospatric of Dunbar, Earl of Lothian (d. 1138)
Juliana of Dunbar = Ralph de Merlay (d. 1160)
Roger de Merlay (d. 1188) = Alice de Stuteville (d. 1219)
Agnes de Merlay = Richard Gobion (d. 1230)
Hugh Gobion (d. 1275) = Matilda (d. ~1271)
Joan Gobion (d. >1312) = John de Morteyn (d. 1296)
John de Morteyn (d. 1346) = Joan de Rothwell
Lucy de Morteyn (d. ~1361) = John Giffard (1301-1369)
Thomas Giffard (~1345-1394) = Elizabeth de Missenden (d. 1367)
Roger Giffard (~1367-1409) = Isabel Stretley
Thomas Giffard (1408-1469) = Eleanor Vaux
John Giffard (~1431-~1506) = Agnes Wynslow
Thomas Giffard (d. 1511) = Jane Langston (d. 1535)
Amy Giffard (d.~1488) = Richard Samwell (d. 1519)
Susanna Samwell (~1511-~1586) = Peter Edwards (~1490-~1550)
Edward Edwards (~1537-~1592) = Ursula Coles (d. 1606)
Margaret Edwards (1565-~1637) = Henry Freeman (~1564-1606)
Alice Freeman (~1595-1658) = John Tompson (d. 1626)
Dorothy Thompson (1624->1709) = Thomas Parke (1615-1709)
Dorothy Parke (d. >1707) = Joseph Morgan (1646-1704)
Margaret Morgan (b. 1686) = Ebenezer Hibbard (1682-1732)
Keziah Hibbard (b. 1722) = Caleb Bishop (1717-1785)
Lucy Bishop (1747-1783) = Benejah Strong (1740-1809)
Dr. Joseph Strong (1770-1812) = Rebecca Young (1779-1862)
Eleanor Strong (1805-1863) = John Wood (1785-1848)
Ellen Wood (1831-1877) = Franklin H. Work (1819-1911)
Frances Ellen Work (1857-1947) = James Boothby Burke Roche (1851-1920)
Edmund Maurice Burke Roche (1885-1955) = Ruth Sylvia Gill (1908-1993)
Frances Ruth Burke Roche (1936-2004) = Edward John Spencer (1924-1992)
Diana Frances Spencer (1961-1997) = Charles, Prince of Wales (1948- )
William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge (1982- )

In addition, Alice Freeman's descent to General McClellan:

John Tompson (d. 1626) = Alice Freeman (1595-1658)
Dorothy Thompson (1624->1709) = Thomas Parke (1615-1709)
Martha Parke (b. 1646) = Isaac Wheeler
Martha Wheeler (d. 1745) = John Williams (d. 1702)
Eunice Williams (1702-1772) = Joseph Gallup (1695-1760)
Lucy Gallup = James Eldredge
Eunice Eldredge = James McClellan
Dr. George McClellan (1796-1847) = Elizabeth Sophia Brinton (1800-1889)
George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885)

And to Warren G. Harding:

Alice Freeman (~1595->1658) = John Tompson (d. 1626)
Dorothy Tompson (1624-1709) = Thomas Parke (1619-1709)
Dorothy Parke (d. >1707) = Joseph Morgan (1646-1704)
Rev. Joseph Morgan (1671->1738) = Sarah Emmons (~1678->1706)
Dorothy Morgan (1697->1747) = Henry Van Kirk (1700-~1776)
Henry Van Kirk (1740-1798)
William Van Kirk (1763-1826) = Deborah Watters
Charity Malvina Van Kirk (~1803-1878) = Isaac Haines Dickerson (~1802-1867)
Phoebe Elizabeth Dickerson (1843-1910) = George Tyron Harding (1844-1928)
Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923)

And to, of all people, Boris Johnson:

John Tompson (d. 1626) = Alice Freeman (1595-1658)
Dorothy Thompson (1624->1709) = Thomas Parke (1615-1709)
Dorothy Parke (1652-1707) = Joseph Morgan (1646-1704)
Dorothy Morgan (1676-1759) = Ebenezer Witter (1668-1712)
Mary Witter (b. 1696) = Jeremiah Tracy (b. 1682)
Jeremiah Tracy (b. 1719) = Margaret Huntington
Solomon Tracy (1756-1835) = Mary Wells (~1864-1848)
Hila Tracy (1799-~1841) = Jonathan Nobles (~1792-~1870)
Maria Nobles (~1823-~1880) = Judson Holcomb (~1819-~1880)
Clara Holcomb (1848-1927) = Henry Clinton Porter (1851-1922)
Helen Tracy Porter (1876-1963) = Elias Avery Lowe (1879-1969)
Frances Beatrice Lowe = Sir James Edmund Sanford Fawcett (1913-1991)
Charlotte Offlow Fawcett (1942-2021) = Stanley Patrick Johnson (1940- )
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (1964- ), UK Prime Minister 2019-

(Freakishly, because everything about Boris Johnson is freakish, Boris Johnson is also a descendant of Alice Freeman's second husband Robert Parke, via his first wife Martha Chaplin.)

Alice married John Tompson in 1613. John was born about 1585 in of Maidford, Northamptonshire, England; died between 7 Nov 1626 and 14 Nov 1626 in London, England; was buried on 14 Nov 1626 in St. Dunstan in the West, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Alice married Robert Parke after 30 May 1644 in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. Robert (son of Robert Parke and Alice Chaplin) was born before 3 Jun 1580; was christened on 3 Jun 1580 in Poslingford, Suffolk, England; died on 4 Feb 1665 in Mystic, New London, Connecticut; was buried on 7 Feb 1665 in Mystic, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

No documentation absolutely proves that the Mary Tompson who married Joseph Wise was the Mary Tompson who was baptized in 1619 to John Tompson and Alice Freeman. But a large amount of evidence suggests that this is probably the case.*

Arguing that the two individuals were the same, Mary Lovering Holman (in Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and His Wife Frances Helen Miller, Concord, New Hampshire: The Rumford Press, 1948) pointed out that, (1), when "Mary Tompsonn" married Joseph Wise in Roxbury in 1641, there was no Tompson family in Roxbury save for that of Alice (Freeman) Tompson; (2) in the course of their marriage, Mary frequently joined her husband Joseph in the sale of property, and only on one occasion signed in release of dower rights, a believable pattern of behavior if Mary was in fact from a gentry family; (3) Mary and Joseph named their seventh child Henry, "an unusual name at the time but that of Alice Freeman's father, brother, and great-grandfather, while the name of Katherine, the ninth child, also appears in the Freeman family"; and (4) if Mary the wife of Joseph Wise was in fact the Mary Tompson born to John Tompson and Alice Freeman in 1619, then she would have been 22 at her marriage, an entirely plausible age.

In 1980, 32 years later, Robert Charles Anderson wrote: "Joseph [Wise] is next seen marrying in Roxbury on 3 Dec. 1641 'Mary Tompsonn.' There is good reason to believe that this is the Mary Tompson baptized at Preston Capes, Northants, 14 Nov. 1619, to John and Alice (Freeman) Tompson (TAG 13: 1-8; 14:145 f.). Arguments for this identification of Joseph's wife are given by Mary Holman (Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and His Wife Frances Helen Miller, pp. 422 f.), with support from Donald Lines Jacobus (TAG 32:128). Further supporting circumstantial evidence lies in the Rhode Island land records, where we find that on 7 June 1671 Joseph Wise of Roxbury sells to Deacon William Parke of Roxbury half of a 600 acre tract in Providence. After the document was drawn up, it was discovered that an error in the bounds had to be corrected. This correction was made and signed by Joseph Wise Senior and by Samiel Williams 'for his father Deacon William Park.' William Parke was son of Robert Parke of Roxbury by his first wife, and was therefore stepbrother of Mary Tompson, daughter of John and Alice (Freeman) Tompson. Samuel Williams, who had married Theoda Parke, daughter of William, was brother of Stephen Williams who had married Sarah, daughter of Joseph Wise. Two years later Joseph Wise sold the other half of this tract to Caleb Lamb and Stephen Williams (Rhode Island Land Evidences vol. 1, 1648-1696, pp. 40 f., 81.). ["Joseph Wise of Roxbury, Butcher," citation details below]


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* Note that even without this connection, JTS retains descent from "gateway ancestor" Alice Freeman, via descent from her daughter Bridget.

Mary married Joseph Wise on 3 Dec 1641 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. Joseph (son of Henry Wise and Katherine Willmore) was born before 10 Jun 1617; was christened on 10 Jun 1617 in Bulkington, Warwickshire, England; died on 12 Sep 1684 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptised: 11 Sep 1622, Preston Capes, Northamptonshire, England

Notes:

"The wife of George Denison & a godly young woman dyed of a feaver & consumption." [The Great Migration Begins]

Bridget married Capt. George Denison in Mar 1640 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. George (son of William Denison and Margaret Chandler) was born before 10 Dec 1620; was christened on 10 Dec 1620 in St. Michael, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; died on 23 Oct 1694 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; was buried in Ancient Burying Ground, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 5 Sep 1707
• Alternate death: Aft 1709

Dorothy married Thomas Parke before 28 Oct 1644 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. Thomas (son of Robert Parke and Martha Chaplin) was born in of Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut; was christened in 1616 in Hitcham, Suffolk, England; died on 30 Jul 1709 in Preston, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]