• General Notes

  Some researches have his mother as Sara G. Poore, daughter of John Poore (b. 1560). John Coffin Jones Brown disputes this as follows: "Some Internet sources, including the Mormon's International Genealogical Index, give the name of Nicholas' mother as Sara G. Poore. This seems likely to be someone's confused fabrication. First of all, it is extremely unlikely that a woman would have a middle initial in those days. The Poore connection may come from all the Poores mentioned in the will of William Gore."
  
  From Wallingfords of New England (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~teschek/wallingford/):
  The English ancestry of Nicholas Wallingford is unknown, but it is somehow tied to the Gore family of the village of Nether Wallop in Southampton (Hampshire) England. The will of William Gore of Nether Wallop in 1656 proves the connection (see William Gore the elder, son of William Gore). Included with these abstracts, originally done by Henry F. Waters, is an analytic note by a John Coffin Jones Brown of the wills of William Gore and his father William as follows:
  
  "In these Goore wills Mr. Waters is evidently probing the connections of the ancestors of our Merrimac Valley settlers. The villages of Wallop, like those of Choulderton, lie upon the edges of the Counties of Wilts and Southampton, and when Dummer, Saltonstall and Rawson, with their English associates, had arranged for developing a stock-raising town in New England, they arranged also to secure from co. Wilts and its vicinity the transfer of a colony of practical men not only accustomed to the care of livestock, but to the trades which interlaced in the products of a stock-raising community. The matter of first importance was to secure ministers with whom the community would feel at home. Rev. Thomas Parker and his relatives the Noyes family, natives of Choulderton, were secured, and with them the Wiltshire men were glad to join." "In the will, proved 28 March 1657 [sic], the names of many of the Poore family are mentioned as cousins of the testator, and so is Nicholas Wallingford, who came in the Confidence from Southampton in 1638, with others--Stephen Kent, John Rolfe, John Saunders, John and William Ilsley, and more recruits to join their relatives who established the town of Newbury. Joseph Poore, of Newbury, married, 6 August, 1680, Mary Wallingford, daughter of Nicholas, born 20 [sic] August 1663. Anthony Sadler was a passenger in the same vessel. In the Visitation of co. Wilts in 1623 are pedigrees of the Sadler family on p. 63. The son and heir of the family given there is Robert Sadler, born in 1608, who may have been the person mentioned as "brother-in-law" in the will given above." "The will proved in 1588 contains an instance, not uncommon at that period, but a terrible annoyance to genealogists, of two sons having the same baptismal name--eldest son William, and four youngest sons, among whom is William the younger. The name of Margaret Read recalls the fact that the Read and Noyes family intermarried in the locality of these testators. From these two wills it seems likely that the mother of Nicholas Wallingford was a Gore, sister to William who died in 1656 and daughter of the William who died in 1587 or 1588. Of course she could also be a relation to his wife, and thus a sister-in-law, but given that William had four sisters, namely Agnes, Elizabeth, Barbara and Margery, it would seem reasonable to believe that he was referring at the time to his own sister. Nevertheless we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Nicholas's mother was a Gore, and his grandparents were William and Joane Gore of Nether Wallop. Of the four Gore sisters it appears that Margery/Margaret married a man named Singer, but who the other three married isn't specifically stated. William Gore in 1656 mentions several "cousins", including Nicholas Wallingford, so these all may be nieces and nephews. The term 'cousin' was most often used to mean niece or nephew in those days, but was also used to refer to cousins in the modern sense, or even some other kind of blood relation. The surnames of Singer, Wallingford, Poore, Miller and Hamon are all mentioned as 'cousin'. He mentions his brother Roger Sherfield, which may indicate the maiden name of his wife, as well as his uncle Hugh Mundy, which may indicate the maiden name of his mother. Other scenarios are possible here as well."
  
  Daniels spells name Wallington and also refers to spelling of Warrington..
  
  BIOGRAPHY: From Wallingfords of New England:
  Nicholas Wallingford came from England in the ship Confidence from London in 1638, landing in Boston. Customs House records published in the NEHGR are prefaced with the following note: "The List of the Names of the Passengrs Intended for New England in the good shipp the Confidence of London of CC [200] tonnes, John Jobson, M[aste]r And thus by vertue of the Lord Treasrs warr[an]t of the xjth [11th] of Aprill, 1638. Southampton, 24 Aprill, 1638". Among the passengers were Stephen and Margery Kent, husband and wife aged 17 and 16 respectively, whose origins in England were not stated on the passenger list as were most of the other passengers. [One source states the Stephen was from Salisbury, England and his wife Margery (Norris) was from Wallopp, co. South.] With them were four young people aged 9 through 20 described as servants, as well as "Nicholas Wallington, a poore boy", whose age was not given. The fact that he was listed among the servants yet not described as one probably means that he was not a servant. In any case from this we can guess that he was probably aged in the range of 5 to 15 years old at the time, give or take. A manuscript Wallingford genealogy by Charles Wallingford states that the ship's log gives his age as 19, and one by Samuel Shackford gives his age as 9, but no age appears in the published records in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register so this is suspect. Pope's "Pioneers of Massachusetts" also gives him a fictitious age of 9. If he was 19 at the time he would have been born about 1619, married at age 35 to a woman about 18 years his junior, had his last child at age 61, and disappeared at sea aged in his early 60s. It seems more likely that he was about nine years old and born closer to 1630 than to 1620.
  His whereabouts between his arrival in 1638 and his first appearance in the records in 1654 is unknown. He was likely a minor until the late 1640s, and may have been living with another family as a servant or perhaps, given his later occupation as seaman, he may have been at sea as a cabin boy or apprentice seaman. He may very well have stayed with the Kent family with whom he traveled to America. The Kents lived in Newbury.
  By 1654 Nicholas was living in Newbury, Mass., as he was married there in August. Also that year "Nicholas Wallington" was one of many Newbury residents to sign a petition to the Massachusetts General Court protesting an action against Lt. Robert Pike of Salisbury. In May of 1653 the General Court had passed a law making it illegal for anyone to preach in any town in the colony without the consent of the elders of four neighboring churches or with the approval of the county court. Lt. Robert Pike protested this as an infringement on personal rights of freemen and was censured by the General Court for seditious speech. He was fined, disenfranchised and prohibited from holding public office. This angered many residents of the towns of Newbury, Haverhill, Andover, Salisbury and Hampton and petitions were circulated in all those towns asking for the penalties to be rescinded. Most of the freemen in these towns signed the petition, which angered the General Court further. Rather than grant the petitioners' request they considered the petitions to be highly censurable. The Court did "deeply resent that so many persons of several towns, conditions and relations, should combine together to present such an unjust and unreasonable request." They appointed a commission to meet with the petitioners in each town and "require a reason of their unjust request, and how they came to be induced to sign the said petition." In October 1654 Capt. William Gerrish and Nicholas Noyes reported back regarding the Newbury petitioners. The Court ordered the petitioners whose answers to the commission they deemed unsatisfactory to appear in court and give bonds to answer for their offences. Only eight Newbury men were so ordered, and Nicholas Wallingford was not one of them, so he must have been one of the many who apologized in some way to the commission for signing the petition. Joshua Coffin, in his history of Newbury, remarks: "The whole case is a very instructive one. It exhibits, on the one hand, the watchful jealousy of the people in consequence of any supposed, or real, encroachment on their civil or eccestial rights; and, on the other hand, the determination of the magistrates not to have their authority lightly called in question."
  On October 1, 1659 Richard Window of Gloucester and his wife Bridget, widow of Henry Travers, conveyed to Nicholas Wallington of Newbury four acres and a house formerly belonging to said Travers. The land was bordered on the east by the street going to Merrimack, on the south by the South Street, on the west by Richard Brown's land, and on the north by the land of Tristram Coffin. On October 26, 1659 Nicholas turned right around and sold the land to John Browne of Newbury. Henry Travers was of course his father-in-law.
  Nicholas Wallington witnessed the will of John Cutting of Newbury October 22, 1659. On June 18, 1662 he owned land in the town of Rowley, as shown by a lease of that date in which Phillip Nelson of Rowley let to Robert Savery and William Bolton of Newbury a farm in Rowley of 300 acres, bounded on the east by the Newbury town line, on the west by land of "Nicolas Walington", on the north by the Merrimack River, and on the south by Crane Meadow.
  Nicholas Wallington served as surveyor of Highways, fences and chimneys in Bradford in 1667 with John Hardy.
  In a Court held at Salem, Mass., June 25, 1667: "Copy of deed, dated October 16, 1661, John (his mark) Willcot of Newbury and Mary, his wife, to Nicolas Wallington of Newbury, the half farm he purchased of Philip Nellson of Rowley, etc. Wit: Joseph Muzzey, Trustram Coffin, Robert Lange, John Pike, and Hugh Marsh. Acknowledged March 25, 1662, by John Wolcott. Copy made, June 24, 1667, by Robert Lord"(28). At a later Court held in Ipswich on September 24, 1667, Nicholas sued John Wolcott for not making good on this parcel of land. The verdict was for the defendant.
  In February 1670 Nicholas "Wallinghton" was mentioned in court records as someone who "frequently communed with" members of Mr. Edward Woodman's church despite not being a member. He took an oath as a freeman in Newbury on October 11, 1670. In November 1672 he owed 3 pounds to the estate of Abraham Toppan of Newbury. On February 24, 1672 town orders regarding fences, swine, cattle, and horses were signed by five people, including Nicolas Wallingford. No town was stated in this record, but since Bradford came into existence in 1675 it was most likely Newbury. "Nicolas Walington" was a member of a grand jury in Ipswich, September 25, 1677. By a deed acknowledged on January 29, 1677/8 he gave one acre of meadow in the Crane Meadow, bounded on Crane Brook, "to have an able & faithful ministry settle amongst the inhabitants of the s[ai]d Towne of Bradford" (Essex Deeds, 4 Ips.: 130).
  He settled in Newbury, Massachusetts and, judging by the birth records of his children, was apparently living in Bradford by 1672, which is when that town was first named. He may have lived a short time in Rowley, Mass., about 1662-3, as evidenced by the fact that he owned land there in 1662 and one of his childen's birth's was recorded in the Rowley town records (although also in the Newbury town records at the same time). Of course, Bradford was originally part of Rowley, known as "Merrimack" or "The Merrimac Lands", so these lands may have been in what later became Bradford.
  
  

Details of Nicholas' family with Sarah Travers