James Leonard

James married Hannah Walley on 28 Feb 1699 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts. Hannah (daughter of Thomas Walley and Hannah Bacon) was born in 1665 in Barnstable, Barnstable, Massachusetts; died on 2 Aug 1725 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts; was buried in Plain Cemetery, Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Sarah Leonard died on 22 May 1742.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1643

Notes:

From his Wikitree page: (accessed 3 Jan 2024):

He likely learned the trade of Ironworker from his father in Braintree, and when in Taunton in 1671 he was given the west hearth of Raynham Forge. In 1695, James and his brother Thomas built the Chartley Iron Works at the corner of South Worcester and West Main streets. Bog iron was dug along the banks of Stony Brook which flowed through the area where Chartley Pond is today. He continued this trade all of his life.

James was a representative to the general court of Massachusetts, first lieutenant in the first Military Company of Taunton, 1705 and captain in 1713.

Capt. married Lydia Gulliver in Oct 1675 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts. Lydia (daughter of Anthony Gulliver and Lydia Kinsley) was born about 1659; died on 24 Jul 1705. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1651

Notes:

At Lynn in 1651; of Braintree, 1652, and settled the same year in Taunton. At each of these places he and his brother Henry established forges, the first in Plymouth colony.

He was survived by a wife, Margaret, who was not the mother of his children.

On 2 Feb 1733, Hannah (Leonard) Deane, a daughter of James Leonard and the wife of Isaac Deane (d. 1710), wrote down an account of several generations of her family, which she gave to her great-newphew Zephaniah Leonard (Stephen³, James², James¹) (1704-1776). An abstract of Hannah (Leonard) Deane's account was published in the The New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1853 ("Brief Memoirs", citation details below). Pertinent portions of the abstract are shown below:

1st. Namely her Great Grandfather's name was Henry Leonard
2nd. Her own Grandfather's name was Thomas Leonard
3rd. Her Father's name was James Leonard
Her Grandmother's name was White
Her Mother's name was Martin

James married Jane Martin. Jane died on 25 Feb 1664 in Taunton, Bristol, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 25 Feb 1674, Raynham, Bristol, Massachusetts

Notes:

Said variously to have been named Mary, Hannah, or Mary Jane. The record of her son Thomas's 1641 baptism at Kinver calls her Jane.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Milton, Norfolk, Massachusetts

Notes:

He is variously claimed to have been born in England or Ireland.

Anthony married Lydia Kinsley. Lydia (daughter of Stephen Kinsley) died after 1680. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Said by some to have been "of Pontypool, Wales" and by others to have been of Bilston, Staffordshire. He appears to have been involved in the early iron refining industry; he may have lived at both places at one time or another. He was not in any way "one of the last of the 13 children of Sampson Leonard and Margaret Fiennes, Baroness Dacre, of Knol in Kent and Herstmonceux in East Sussex", as asserted on his Find a Grave page; that chestnut was debunked decades ago. There is also no evidence of his birth and death dates, nor any indication that he ever came to New England.

An internet source cited in Ancestral Lines (citation details below) claims that he was christened at Chevening, Kent on 23 May 1577.

Thomas married Elizabeth White. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She is named Elizabeth in the record of her daughter Margery's baptism.

Notes:

Arrived in 1636; first at Boston, then Braintree in 1637, then later Dorchester. He may have been the Stephen Kyinsley recorded at Boston, Lincolnshire as having married Marie Spawlding there on 29 Apr 1624. (The surname is spelled Kindsley in the bishop's transcript of this record.)