General Notes

ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1623
FIRST RESIDENCE: Weymouth
REMOVES: Barnstable 1639
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: No evidence of church membership for John Bursley, but on 22 July 1643 "Mestresse Bursly" joined the Barnstable church [NEHGR 9:280].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 (as "Mr. John Burslin") and admitted 18 May 1631 (as "Mr. Jo: Burslyn") [MBCR 1:79, 366]. OFFICES: Weymouth deputy to General Court, 25 May 1636 [MBCR 1:174]; on 8 September 1636 the General Court ordered that "whereas the town of Waimoth hath sent 3 deputies to this Court, being a very small town, at the request of the said deputies two of them were dismissed by the Court, viz: Mr. Bursley & John Upham" [MBCR 1:179]; committee to make colony rate [MBCR 1:175]; committee to survey colony boundary, 20 November 1637 [MBCR 1:211]; with Richard Collicott fined 6s. 8d. "for absence when the Court sat in the afternoon, being jurymen" [MBCR 1:232]. Dorchester committee to assess ¹30 for the captain of the train band, 2 June 1634 [DTR 7]. Barnstable constable, 4 June 1645 [PCR 2:83]. Plymouth grand jury, 1 June 1647 [PCR 2:116].
ESTATE: "John Busley, gent.," was one of the group of New England men on both the first and second patents for Agamenticus [York] granted by the Council for New England, 2 December 1631 and 2 March 1631/2 [Council NE 101, 105]. There is no evidence that he ever resided on or took advantage of this grant. "Mr. John Bursleye's inventory" was taken 21 August 1660 and totalled ¹115 5s., with no real estate included [MD 17:159; PCPR 2:2:63]. The following record, although ostensibly for a Thomas Bursley, must be for John, for it comes at the right time, it takes place in Barnstable, and the widow's names is Joanna: "Mr. Hinckley is appointed by the Court to treat with Joanna, the wife of Mr. Thomas Bursley, late deceased, concerning the disposing of some part of his estate unto his children, that so what is done on that behalf may be entered on the Court records," 2 October 1660 [PCR 3:201].
BIRTH: By about 1600 based on his appearance at Weymouth in 1623.
DEATH: Barnstable before 21 August 1660 (date of inventory).
MARRIAGE: Sandwich about 28 November 1639 "Mr. Hull's daughter" (Joanna Hull, daughter of Reverend Joseph Hull) [NEHGR 9:286]; she was born in England about 1620 [Hotten 283], and married (2) after 1660 Dolor Davis.
CHILDREN:        
    iv JOANNA, bp. Barnstable 1 March 1645/6 [NEHGR 9:283]; m. Barnstable [blank] April 1653 [sic] Shubael Dimmock [MD 4:221; in the margin beside this entry and the accompanying births of children is the note "These records perhaps 10 years too old"]. (Joanna is inadvertently called "Jemima" by Savage.)
ASSOCIATIONS: In both the 1628 assessment for the removal of THOMAS MORTON and the 1631 patent for Agamenticus, Bursley is associated with WILLIAM JEFFREY. COMMENTS: Charles Francis Adams marshalled the evidence in favor of the position that John Bursley was part of the company of ROBERT GORGES which arrived in New England in the fall of 1623 and settled at the location that was to become Weymouth [MHSP 1:16:197]. One of the most important pieces of evidence in this argument is the list of those who contributed to the expenses involved in deporting THOMAS MORTON  in 1628, which included an entry for "Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Burslem, ¹2" [Bradford LB 43]. The identity of the John Bursley of Weymouth with the man of the same name in Barnstable is based on the marriage of Bursley to the daughter of Reverend Joseph Hull, at about the time the latter moved from Weymouth to Barnstable, and the disappearance of John Bursley from Weymouth about the time of this marriage. Both Pope and GDMNH have separate entries for the activities of this man in the two towns. That this same man was patentee of York is based on the continued association with WILLIAM JEFFREY, and with the Gorges family. The John Bursley who resided in Exeter, Hampton and Kittery was a different man, since he was of a lower social stratum, and there were chronological conflicts between him and the Barnstable man [GDMNH 122-23; Granberry 186]. On 14 May 1634 the General Court ordered that Wessaguscus [i.e., Weymouth] should bear the charges for "Thomas Lane, late servant to John Burslyn, [who], by the providence of God, is fallen lame & impotent, & hath since remained at Dorchester" [MBCR 1:121]. This record, and the service of John Bursley on the Dorchester committee to make a rate for the pay of the captain of the train band, have led some writers to state that Bursley lived for a time at Dorchester. However, since Weymouth was in these early years an appendage of Dorchester for church and military matters [GMN 1:29], the appearance of Bursley in association with Dorchester does not require that he ever lived there.         

The Great Migration Begins
Sketches
PRESERVED PURITAN