Mary Denny

Mary married Thomas Astley before 1563. Thomas (son of Thomas Astley and Ann Cruse) was born in of Writtle, Essex, England; died in 1595; was buried in Writtle, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Edward Darcy. Edward (son of Arthur Darcy and Mary Carew) was born about 1543 in of Dartford, Kent, England; died on 28 Oct 1612 in Dartford, Kent, England; was buried in St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 1631

Family/Spouse: Grace Reddish. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1669, London, England

Notes:

Her second husband was the Rev. Sydrach Simpson, Master of Pembroke Hall at the University of Cambridge.

Isabella married John Launce about 1619. John (son of Robert Launce and Susan Tubb) was born about 1597 in of Penair in St. Clement, Cornwall, England; died before 25 Jun 1635; was buried on 25 Jun 1635 in St. Clement, Cornwall, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Newhall, Derbyshire, England

Edward married Elizabeth Stanhope after 1634. Elizabeth (daughter of Philip Stanhope) died about 1683. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

One of AP's two proven gateway ancestors.

Cotton Mather, in Magnalia Christi Americana, called Mary Launce, second wife of the Rev. John Sherman, a "young gentlewoman [...] a Person of good Education, and Reputation, and honorably descended," whose mother was "daughter to the Lord Darcy, who was Earl of Rivers." She certainly was not, and in his pioneering 1860-64 Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, James Savage took delight at exercising his well-known animus against Mather, who "tells of this wife calling her mother daughter of Darcy, Earl Rivers, one of the Popish Counsellors of Charles I who had no daughter that married a Launce." Savage continues: "If [Mary Launce Sherman] did give [her husband] these myths of her noble descent [...] either she was insane, which he had not sanity enough to discover, or she was irreverently playing on his bottomless credulity." It was left to the great Donald Lines Jacobus, founder of the twentieth-century "Jacobus School" of skeptical, fact-based genealogy, to point out, in a 1944 article, "The Family of Rev. John Sherman" (citation details below), that Mary Launce's mother really was a Darcy, albeit one of the Darcy family of Kent. Isabella Darcy of London, daughter of Sir Edward Darcy, a confidant and ally of Elizabeth I, first married John Launce of Cornwall and, secondly, the Rev. Sydrach Simpson, master of Pembroke Hall at Cambridge University. Her 1668 will names, with others, her sons James Launce and Darcy Launce, and her daughter Mary Sherman. In a subsequent article, "The Darcy Ancestry of Mrs. John Sherman" (citation details below), Jacobus put forth further proofs of Mary Launce's parentage, calling it a "perfect chain of evidence" and remarking that "Few English lines of early colonists are so thoroughly proved."

Descendants of the Rev. John Sherman and Mary Launce include Norman Rockwell, Declaration of Independence signer Robert Treat Paine, and the 68th governor of Massachusetts, William Weld.

Regarding the date of her death, the Early New England Families Study Project (citation details below) states only that she "[d]ied probably at Watertown between 15 October 1705 and 24 December 1712. She was living on 20 October 1704, when she acknowledged a deed." But Watertown records (citation details below) clearly state "m^s Mary Sherman (widow of mr. John Sherman Late: R^d: pastor of the church in watertown) deceas^t march : 9 : 1709/10".

Mary married Rev. John Sherman about 1647. John (son of Edmund Sherman and Grace Makin) was born on 26 Dec 1613 in Dedham, Essex, England; was christened on 4 Jan 1614 in Dedham, Essex, England; died on 8 Aug 1685 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts; was buried in East Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Katherine married Erasmus Phillips about 1 Sep 1660. Erasmus (son of Richard Phillips and Elizabeth Dryden) was born in of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales; died on 18 Jan 1697. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1645

Notes:

Minister at Sudbury, Massachusetts, Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and Salem, Massachusetts.

James married Mary Walker on 13 May 1680 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Mary (daughter of Thomas Walker and Mary Stone) was born on 9 Aug 1661 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died after 11 Mar 1709. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: John Shorter. John (son of John Shorter, Lord Mayor of London) was born in of Bybrook, Kent, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He and his wife Abigail Stone "settled in Springfield, Mass., where he was a schoolmaster and physician; but about 1722 they removed to the region which in 1731 became the town of Brimfield, where he was a physician, town clerk for thirty successive years, representative three years, and captain of militia." They were married for nearly seventy years.

John married Abigail Stone on 9 Nov 1703 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Abigail (daughter of Daniel Stone and Mary Moore) was born on 13 Feb 1681 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 9 Mar 1772 in Brimfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Catherine married Robert Walpole on 30 Jul 1700 in Knightsbridge Chapel, London, England. Robert (son of Robert Walpole and Mary Burwell) was born on 26 Aug 1676 in Houghton, Norfolk, England; died on 18 Mar 1745 in London, England; was buried on 25 Mar 1745 in Houghton, Norfolk, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 31 Mar 1703, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts

Bezaleel married Abigail Graves on 4 Feb 1732 in Brimfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. Abigail (daughter of Ebenezer Graves and Mary Colton) was born on 18 Feb 1707 in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Christened Horatio Walpole, he was an antiquarian, an art historian, the author of the first Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, and of letters of great social and historical interest, which have been published in 48 volumes by Yale University Press.

MP for Callington, Cornwall, 1741-1754; for Castle Rising, Norfolk, 1754-1757; and for King's Lynn, Norfolk, 1757-1768. Earl of Orford from 1791 to his death.

Abigail married Joseph Thompson on 19 Feb 1754 in Brimfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. Joseph (son of James Thompson and Mary) was born on 25 Mar 1733 in Brimfield, Hampden, Massachusetts; died in 1795 in Virginia, Coshocton, Ohio; was buried in Virginia, Coshocton, Ohio. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]