Sarah Parker

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 14 Jan 1663, Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Notes:

Robert Charles Anderson (citation details below) gives Edward Converse only two wives: (1) Sarah Parker, who he married in 1614 and who died at Woburn, Massachusetts in 1662 or 1663, and (2) Joanna Warren (widow of Ralph Sprague), who Edward Converse married in 1663, just before his death, and who died in Woburn in 1680.

Douglas Richardson (citation details below) gives him three wives: (1) Sarah Parker, d. 1625 in England, (2) Sarah _____, married Edward Converse in Woburn in 1632, d. in Woburn 1662 or 1663, and (3) Joanna Warren, as above. Richardson cites a record of the burial, at South Weald, Essex, 13 Jun 1625, of "Sara wyfe to Edward Convers", citing "Parish registers of South Weald, Essex (FHL microfilm 1,526,985)."

ancestry.com's database "U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s" asserts that Edward Converse arrived in Charlestown with his "Wife Sarah Parker; Son James; Daughter Sara; Daughter Mary; Son Josiah; Son John", which information they credit to the Edward Converse entry in Anderson's The Great Migration Begins, and which would seem to refute Richardson's claim that Sarah Parker died in England in 1625. But in fact Anderson's 1995 GMB entry on Edward Converse, and Anderson's Converse entry in his 2012 The Winthrop Fleet, are entirely silent on the question of which members of Edward Converse's family, if any, accompanied him on his voyage across the Atlantic. The ancestry.com indexer, whether human or algorithmic, has made assumptions entirely unsupported by the cited texts.

(Further demonstrating the unreliability of ancestry.com's indexing, what Anderson actually says about the "Son John" shown in their index record is that no "John" appears in any further records and that the South Weald baptismal record read as "John" may actually refer to Edward Converse's son James, for whom no baptismal record has been found.)

Lacking the expertise to adjudicate this, we show Anderson's model, but Richardson's claim that Converse's first wife died in 1625 and was succeeded by a second wife also named Sarah, who Converse married in New England, could well be correct. Either way, JTS ancestor Josiah Converse, born in 1618, was clearly the son of Edward Converse's first wife Sarah Parker, whether she died in 1625 or the 1660s.

Sarah married Edward Converse on 29 Jun 1614 in Great Burstead, Essex, England. Edward (son of Allen Convers and Joanna) was born before 23 Mar 1589 in Navestock, Essex, England; was christened on 23 Mar 1589 in Navestock, Essex, England; died on 10 Aug 1663 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 3 Feb 1691, Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Deacon married Hester Champney on 26 Mar 1651 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Hester (daughter of Richard Champney and Jane) was born before 31 Oct 1630 in Stisted, Essex, England; was christened on 31 Oct 1630 in Stisted, Essex, England; died on 5 Apr 1713 in Billerica, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Josiah married Ruth Marshall on 8 Oct 1685. Ruth died on 16 Mar 1737 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Henry Spring. Henry (son of Henry Spring and Lydia Cutting) was born in 1692. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]