Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Thomas Makepeace

Male Bef 1595 - 1667  (> 70 years)


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  • Name Thomas Makepeace 
    Birth Bef 22 Sep 1595  [1, 2
    Baptism 22 Sep 1595  All Saints, Burton Dassett, Warwickshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Gender Male 
    Death Between 30 Jun 1666 and 2 Mar 1667  Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Alternate death Aft 30 Jun 1666  [3
    Alternate death Between Jan 1667 and Feb 1667  Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Person ID I28497  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TNH
    Last Modified 4 May 2020 

    Father William Makepeace,   b. Abt 1562, of Burton Dassett, Warwickshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Mary   d. Bef 8 Sep 1604 
    Family ID F17007  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family 1 Alice Brasier   d. Bef 1641, Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage 10 Oct 1620  Alkerton, Oxfordshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1, 2
    Children 
    +1. Esther Makepeace,   b. Abt 1635
     2. Sarah Makepeace,   b. Abt 1638   d. Bef 16 May 1666 (Age ~ 28 years)
    Family ID F17003  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 19 Oct 2021 

    Family 2 Elizabeth Hawkredd,   b. Bef 8 Dec 1604   d. Aft 1670, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age > 67 years) 
    Marriage Bef 25 Jul 1641  [1, 2, 3
    Family ID F17004  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 4 May 2020 

  • Notes 
    • Emigrated in 1635; first at Dorchester, then Boston by 1648 or 1649. He was a merchant. His will mentions his daughter "Hester, ye wife of Jno Browne".

      He appears to have had some social standing in Burton Dassett, where he is recorded more than once as "gentleman." In Massachusetts he was called "Mr. Makepeace," and he is frequently seen in New England records in conjunction with persons of known aristocratic ancestry such as Richard Saltonstall. George Wyllys, who became governor of Connecticut (and whose son Samuel married a daughter of proven royal descendant Mabel Harlakenden) was a friend in both Warwickshire and in New England.

      He was admitted to the "Military Company of the Massachusetts" in 1638, at about the same time as he was being prodded by the local religious authorities to bring himself into stricter compliance with the ruling ideology. From History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 1637-1888, volume 1, page 71 (citation details below): "He was a man of prominence, and had the prefix 'Mr.'; but these did not prevent his being brought before the court (1638) perhaps at the instigation of the clergy. That body labored and decided, 'Mr. Thomas Makepeace, because of his novel disposition, was informed, we were weary of him, unless he reforme.'" According to The Ancestry of Russell Makepeace (citation details below), the General Court's problem with Thomas Makepeace wasn't that he wasn't a Puritan, but rather that he wasn't sufficiently devoted to core principles of the Bay Colony's version of Puritanism. Makepeace's roots were in the Puritanism of south Warwickshire, with its emphasis on professions of faith and spiritual growth, relative tolerance for dissent within the body of believers, and less interest in posing a direct challenge to the Church of England and to episcopacy. Presumably Thomas Makepeace made peace with the colony's leadership, as he went on to a long and successful career in Dorchester and Boston over the next quarter-century.

      The History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts further notes that "He was an early friend of free schools, and was one of those citizens of Dorchester who agreed to a direct tax for the support of a free school in that town. In 1641, he was one of the patentees of Dover, N.H., and signed the petition to come under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts. In 1654, he was in the Narraganset expedition against the Indians. At this time he was about sixty-two years of age."

  • Sources 
    1. [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.

    2. [S4105] The Ancestry of Russell Makepeace of Marion, Massachusetts, 1904-1986, A Descendant of Thomas Makepeace of Dorchester, Massachusetts by Zelinda Makepeace Douhan. Boston: Newbury Street Press, 2005.

    3. [S317] The Bulkeley Genealogy by Donald Lines Jacobus. New Haven, Connecticut: 1933.

    4. [S2741] History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts, Now Called the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 1637-1888 by Oliver Ayer Roberts. Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1895-1901.