Simon Willard

Bef 1605 - 1676  (> 71 years)

• Name	Simon Willard  [1]
  Birth	Bef 7 Apr 1605  [2, 3, 4]
  Baptism	7 Apr 1605	Horsmonden, Kent, England   [2, 3, 4]
  Gender	Male
  Death	24 Apr 1676	Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachussets   [2, 5]
  Alternate death	25 Apr 1676	Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachussets   [2]
  Burial	27 Apr 1676	Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachussets   [2]
  Siblings	1 sibling
  + 1. Margery Willard ,   b. Bef 7 Nov 1602   d. Between 17 Jul 1658 and 16 Feb 1668  (Age > 55 years) ▻ Dolor Davis ,  m. 29 Mar 1624 + 2. Simon Willard ,   b. Bef 7 Apr 1605   d. 24 Apr 1676, Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachussets  (Age > 71 years) ▻ Mary Sharpee ,  m. 13 Oct 1628 ;  Mary ,  m. Bef 1653
  Person ID	I28485	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AW, Ancestor of TNH
  Last Modified	4 May 2020

  
  

  Father	Richard Willard,   b. of Horsmonden, Kent, England d. 20 Feb 1617, Kent, England
  Mother	Margery Humfrey,   b. of Marden, Kent, England d. 12 Dec 1608, Horsmonden, Kent, England
  Marriage	23 Sep 1601	Westgate, Kent, England   [6]
  Family ID	F16996	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Mary Sharpee,   b. Bef 17 Apr 1609   d. Between 1649 and 1652 (Age > 39 years)
  Marriage	13 Oct 1628	Marden, Kent, England   [2, 4, 7]
  Children	+ 1. Elizabeth Willard,   b. 1633, England d. 29 Aug 1690, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Age 57 years)
  Family ID	F16995	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	4 May 2020

  
  

  Family 2	Mary
  Marriage	Bef 1653  [2]
  Family ID	F16998	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 May 2020

  
  

• Notes

  "For the entire forty years of his residence in New England, Simon Willard performed more public service, both civil and military, than all but a few of his contemporaries." [Robert Charles Anderson] From Wikipedia, accessed 3 May 2020: Simon Willard was an early Massachusetts fur trader, colonial militia leader, legislator, and judge. Willard was born in Horsmonden, Kent, England and baptized on April 7, 1605. He emigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1634 with his first wife Mary Sharp and their daughters Mary and Elizabeth. He was a founder of Concord, Massachusetts, served it as clerk from 1635 to 1653, and helped negotiate its purchase from the Native American owners. Willard represented Concord in the Massachusetts General Court from 1636 to 1654, and was assistant and councillor from 1654 to 1676. Willard served as an advisor to the Nashaway Company which founded Lancaster, Massachusetts in the 1640s and 1650s, and he settled in Lancaster by 1660. In 1651 Willard laid out 1,000 acres for settlement along the Assabet River which may have included parts of what is now Maynard, Massachusetts when a Native American leader, Tantamous (Old Jethro), defaulted on a mortgage for a debt due to Concord gunsmith, Herman Garrett, for an unpaid debt. In 1654/55, Willard led an expedition against Ninigret in southern New England, and removed Ninigret's Pequot wards and placed them with Niantic Sachem Harman Garrett in what is now Westerly, Rhode Island. In Massachusetts Willard served as an advisor to the Nashaway Indians and provided guns to them by order of the Massachusetts General Court. He served as a major of militia in King Philip's War in 1676 at age 70, and he was the Chief Military Officer of Middlesex County, Massachusetts and repelled a Nipmuc force that was besieging Brookfield. He became a magistrate and died aged 71 on April 24, 1676 in Charlestown, Massachusetts while holding court. The Willard Elementary School in Concord, Massachusetts is named after Willard. The Liberty ship 0743 Simon Willard was also named after him.

  
  

• Sources

  [S4107] Descendants of Thomas Farr of Harpswell, Maine, and Ninety Allied Families by Edith Bartlett Sumner. Los Angeles, 1959. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011. [S562] Bassett-Preston Ancestors: A History of the Ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston Rogers Bassett, Isabel Bassett Watson, and Helen Bassett Hauser, Children of Edward M. and Annie (Preston) Bassett, by Howard Murray Bassett Preston. New Haven, Connecticut: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1930. [S4109] Ancestry of Alice Maud Clark, version 0.153, by A. H. Gilbertson. 16 Apr 2020. [S562] Bassett-Preston Ancestors: A History of the Ancestors in America of Marion Bassett Luitweiler, Howard Murray Bassett, Preston Rogers Bassett, Isabel Bassett Watson, and Helen Bassett Hauser, Children of Edward M. and Annie (Preston) Bassett, by Howard Murray Bassett Preston. New Haven, Connecticut: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1930., year only. [S4099] Samuel Pearce May, "Notes and Queries: Willard." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 46:398, Oct 1892. [S4100] Joseph Cook, "Corrected Ancestry of Mary1, First Wife of Major Simon1 Willard." The Genealogist 30:226, Fall 2016.