THOMAS SAVORY

• Birth Notes
  • 1617 (assuming he was at least sixteen when employed in the Plymouth fur trade on the Kennebec).
    

• Death Notes
  • DEATH: Plymouth between 6 April 1674 

• General Notes
  • NOT CLEAR ABOUT TWO DIFFERENT THOMAS SAVORYS     , BIRTH DATES SUGGEST DIFFERENT GENERATIONS. PLUS DIFFERENT NAMES FOR WIFE.BUT SAME DEATH YEAR  AND NO DAUGHTER ELIZABETH SOME SOURCES SAY ELIZABETH'S BROTHER.
    
    THOMAS SAVORY 
    
    ORIGIN: Unknown
    MIGRATION: 1633
    FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
    OCCUPATION: Planter. Undermarshal.
    EDUCATION: Signed his deeds and agreements. His inventory included, at the head of a long list of moveables, "1 Bible and psalm book & 3 other books."
    OFFICES: On 4 June 1652 "Thomas Savory is indented with by the Court to serve in the office of under marshal, or executioner, according to the terms and nature of his said office already entered, and is to have 20 nobles per annum, besides his ordinary fees allowed by the Court" [ PCR 3:12, 94].
       On 7 June 1670 "Thomas Savory was dismissed from his office of undermarshal, having been found several times unfaithful in the performance of his said office," but after pleading by himself and others he was reinstated on 7 July 1670 [ PCR 5:40, 44].
       In the Plymouth section of the 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:188].
    ESTATE: On 16 September 1641 "Josuah Pratt is granted a garden plot about the house he hath bought of Thomas Savery, at Squerrell" [ PCR 2:27].
       On 20 February 1662 Thomas Savory of Plymouth, planter, granted to "Samuell Eedey" of Plymouth, tailor, "all that his whole right and portion" at Punckateesett, in exchange for "a parcel of upland and meadow ... lying at the Four Mile Brook" in Plymouth and "a parcel of upland being six acres lying and being at or near Fresh Lake" in Plymouth [ MD 17:244-45, citing PCLR 2:2:111].
       On 7 June 1665 "Thomas Savory for his children," along with four other men, was granted one share in the Major's Purchase, "to have thirty acres apiece out of the best of it, and commoning proportionable" [ PCR 4:95; see also Stratton 288]. On 4 July 1673 Plymouth court "had measured unto Thomas Savory and Benjamin Eaton sixty acres of upland in the land called the Major's Purchase, near Namassakett" [ PCR 5:129].
       On 10 July 1667 Thomas Savory of Plymouth, planter, sold to "Sacaryah Eedey" of Plymouth, planter, "all that my share of land granted to me lying and being near Whetstone's Vinyards in a certain tract of land commonly called Major's Purchase containing thirty acres of upland"; Thomas Savory signed the deed, and Ann Savory consented to the sale, making her mark [ PCLR 3:81].
       "The last will and testament of Thomas Savory Senior," dated 6 April 1674 and proved 7 March 167[5/]6: "I give my soul to him that gave it and my body to a decent burial and next I give to Anne my dearly beloved wife all that estate that I have that is to say my house and lands, both my lands and meadows, with all my moveables in the house or belonging to the house, or all that appears to be mine from any other. Thus I say and will and give to Anne my dear wife, she to pay all my debts and I desire my dear wife to consider my son Aron at her decease, if she have anything left and the reason why I give all to my wife is because I have little all my debts being paid. I leave her sole administrator and executor" [ PCPR 3:1:172].
       The inventory of the estate of Thomas Savory Senior, taken 28 January 1675[/6], was untotalled and included "his house and land, upland and meadow, and orchard, and the upland nine acres lying at home and six acres lying at the fishing point and threescore acres lying at 4 Mile Brook and four acres of meadow lying at the Four Mile Brook" valued at £12 [ PCPR 3:1:172].
       On 7 March 1675/6 "[l]etters of administration [were] granted unto Anne Savory, widow, to administer of the estate of Thomas Savory, Senior, deceased" [ PCR 5:189].
       On 22 March 1677 "Anne Savory widow" of Plymouth deeded to "my two sons Anthony Savory and Aron Savory" both of Plymouth, planters, "all that my lot and share of land" in Plymouth "at a place called Four Mile Brook which lot of land fell to my husband Thomas Savory deceased by exchange with our brother-in-law Samuell Eedey aforesaid, tailor, ... and given and willed to me the said Anne Savory by my said husband as appears by his last will and testament," about threescore acres of upland, with the meadow belonging thereto [ PCLR 4:311].
    BIRTH: By about 1617 (assuming he was at least sixteen when employed in the Plymouth fur trade on the Kennebec).
    DEATH: Plymouth between 6 April 1674 (date of will) and 28 January 1675[6] (date of inventory).
    MARRIAGE: By about 1645 Ann/Annis _____. She died after 22 March 1677 [ PCLR 4:311].
    CHILDREN:
        i   BENJAMIN, b. about March 1645 [ MD 5:90-91, 12:133]; living on 2 March 1657[/?8] [ MD 12:133]; no further record. 
    
        ii   THOMAS, b. about March 1648 [ MD 3:139-41]; d. at Pawtucket in King Philip's War, 26 March 1676 [ TAG 60:241]. 
    
        iii   MOSES, b. Plymouth 22 January 1649[/50] [ PCR 8:8]; d. Plymouth 9 June 1650 [ PCR 8:10]. 
    
        iv   SAMUEL, b. Plymouth 4 June 1651 [ PCR 8:12]; m. by 1678 _____ _____ (eldest known child b. Plymouth 3 July 1678 [ PCR 8:67]). 
    
        v   JONATHAN, b. Plymouth 4 March 1652[/3] [ PCR 8:14]; no further record. 
    
        vi   MARA, b. Plymouth 7 April 1654 [ PCR 8:16]; no further record. 
    
        vii   ANTHONY, b. say 1656; living on 22 March 1677 [ PCLR 4:311]; no further record. (In his article of 1887 A.W. Savary thought that this Anthony was the one who married on 2 February 1703 Margaret Price [ NEHGR 41:382], but in 1893, "according to my more mature opinion," he decided that this groom must be of a later generation, son of Samuel [Savery Fam 26].) 
    
        viii   AARON, b. say 1658; living on 22 March 1677 [ PCLR 4:311]; no further record (unless he is the Aaron Savery whose will was proved in Bristol County in 1717 [ BrPR 3:359; NEHGR 41:380]). 
    
    ASSOCIATIONS: Probably related to ANTHONY SAVORY who was present in Plymouth from 1632 to 1642.
       Either Thomas Savory or his wife was related to SAMUEL EDDY (see his sketch for further discussion).
    COMMENTS: Thomas Savory was a member of the Plymouth party involved in the fur trade on the Kennebec in 1634 when JOHN HOCKING and MOSES TALBOT were killed [ MD 2:11].
       On 4 October 1636 "Tho[mas] Savery [was] found guilty of drunkenness, & [the jury] thought meet he should be whipped" [ PCR 1:44]. On 7 March 1659/60 "Thomas Savory, for being drunk, fined five shillings" [ PCR 3:181].
       On 3 November 1657 John Shaw Sr. of Plymouth and Alice Shaw his wife agreed with "Thomas Savory and Annis Savory his wife" that they would take "their son Beniamine" until the age of twenty-one "he being nine years old in March next," and if John Shaw or Alice Shaw should die before the end of this term of years, then Benjamin would go with their son Jonathan Shaw, who would teach him a trade and also teach him to read and write; the agreement was terminated on 4 March 1657 [ MD 5:90-91, citing PCLR 2:1:91]. On 2 March 1657 Thomas Savory of Plymouth and Stephen Bryant Sr. of Plymouth agreed that Bryant would take "his son Benjamine Savory" as a servant until age twenty-one "he being thirteen years old this present month" [ MD 12:133, citing PCLR 2:1:207].
       On 2 August 1653 "Thomas Savory Senior of Plymouth and Ann his wife" agreed with Thomas Lettice of Plymouth, carpenter, "that their son Thomas Savory Junior aged five years or thereabouts on the 15th day of March last past" would stay with Lettice until the age of twenty-one, to be instructed in carpentry [ MD 3:139-41, citing PCLR 2:1:71].
       On 7 May 1661 "Ann, the wife of Thomas Savory, was presented before the Court to answer for being at home on the Lord's day with Thomas Lucas at unreasonable time, viz:, in the time of public exercise in the worship of God, and for being found drunk at the same time under an hedge, in uncivil and beastly manner, was sentenced by the Court as followeth, viz: for her accompanying of the said Lucas at an unreasonable time as aforesaid, she was sentenced to sit in the stocks during the pleasure of the Court, which accordingly was performed and executed; and for her being found drunk as aforesaid, fined five shillings; and for prophaning the Lord's day, fined ten shillings, according to the laws in such cases provided" [ PCR 3:212].
       On 1 March 1663/4 "Richard Willis and Joseph Savery [were] fined 3s. 4d. for breaking the peace towards each other" [ PCR 4:50]. A.W. Savary thinks that this was another son of Thomas [ NEHGR 41:380], but based on this single isolated record, we can only say this is a possibility.
       Reasonable evidence is available for the ages of all the children except Anthony and Aaron. They are placed here as the youngest, but they might possibly have been the eldest. Thomas Savory's request that his widow have special regard for Aaron might mean that he was in some way incapacitated.
       Thomas Savory and his wife were from time to time in trouble with the courts, and he was never a freeman, yet he was for many years entrusted with the duties of undermarshal. This may tell us as much about the nature of that office as it does about the character of Thomas Savory.
    BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1887 A.W. Savary published a lengthy article on "The Savery Families of America" [ NEHGR 41:369ff.] and in 1893 he followed this up with a book on the family, which in its early sections differed little from the article six years earlier [A Genealogical and Biographical Record of the Savery Families (Savory and Savary) and of the Severy Family (Severit, Savery, Savory, and Savary) ... (Boston 1893), cited above as Savery Fam]. Stratton also gives a detailed account of this immigrant [ Stratton 348-50].