John Severans

• General Notes
  • Ninth Great-grandfather John Severans was probably born in 1609. We know that he married Abigail Kimball in Ipswich, England in 1635 but thata scant two years later he was in Boston, a freeman.  At the point that he came to America, he changed his name to Severance. The tracing of this name change takes us through much history.  The root of the name is Se-ver from which  came the various modifications,-Severin, Sev-  erinus, Severns, Severans, Severens, Scvereans,  Severance. The first man to bear the name, so far  as we know, was the father of Lucius Septimus  Severus, born 146 A. D. at Sepsis, an African  coast town. He was a Roman citizen and spoke  the Punic tongue. Many Roman families carried  the name,-a poet under Augustus; an orator un-  der Tiberius; the Emperor Septimus Severus, and  others. The Gregorian calendar names a Saint  Severin.A church founded in medieval Paris  carries the name Saint Severin. The medieval  outer walls of Cologne, Germany has some very  fine gate towers one of which is the Severins gate  which opens upon Severins Street,a main thor-  oughfare at the head of which stands the Saint  Severins Church, where Saint Severins, a learned  and a prominent bishop officiated for many years.  There was also a John Severans in Germany in  1580. Marcus Aurelius Severins born 1589 was  a distinguished physician who at the age of twenty-  five was elected to the Chair of Anatomy and Med-  icine in the University of Medicine in Paris. He  soon became Surgeon in Chief of La Hospitale  Incurables. Pierre Severinus was a noted Danish  physician who received the title of Doctor of Med-  icine from the King on his return from the study  of medicine in Paris.  There are many Severin families in France.  Rachel Severin, Foutet, France, wrote me that a  noted agriculturist and beet sugar specialist lives in  the Aisne department and that there were many  'landowners and landworkers in the valley of the  Garonne near the Pyrenees Mountains by the  name Severin and that several districts of France  and many families carry the name Severac.'  In England, we probably find our direct an-  cestors. There is a record in Burke's Landed  Gentry, page 1247, stating that 'there are ancient  and broken records tracing the ancestry of the  Severans of Shrawley to a remote period.' John  Severans of Shrawley had a son, Thomas,.of:  Broadway and Powick, who was succeeded by his  son, John of Powick, who married, Mary, daugh-  ter of Richard Langley. He begat three daughters  and two sons, one of which died unmarried. The  other, the youngest son, named John, was prob-  ably the patriarch of the Severances in America,  although there is no positive proof of it. Our  record, therefore, begins with your ninth great-  grandfather who we know was John Severans of  Ipswich, England, who was in Boston in 1637, a  freeman, and a member of the Ancient and Honor-  able Artillery in 1640. He was one of the founders  of Salisbury, Massachusetts. His name appears in  the list of names of men to whom lots and acreages  were assigned in 1639. He was a 'Prudential  Man' (Selectman)' often put in charge of public  trusts of various kinds, of which 'there can be no  better evidence of faithful discharge of the duties  so imposed upon him; all of which proves that he  was a man of sterling integrity and especially fitted  for the various trusts placed in his hands.'  Burke's Landed Gentry gives us no further in-  formation on this point The name here is spelled  Severne, but the form of spelling is not important.  However, the changes are interesting. John of  Boston signed his name Severans, so also his eldest  son, John, and his second son, Joseph,and it is  probably true that his other sons, Ephraim and  Benjamin did also, but the descendants of Joseph  kept the variation- 'Severans first and second gen- -  erations, Severens, third generation, then Seaverns  for the fourth generation. On the other hand, the  other branches of the family changed the form  from Severans to Severance in the third generation,  about 1700.