General Notes

m.  Jan. 16, 1619/1620

Many genealogies claim John married Sarah Hawkins; others Susanna Stacy or Clark. The parish records at St. Mary's Church in Bocking, Essex Co., England, where John was baptized 29 August 1596, do not record his marriage. Abraham Hammatt (1) refers to her as Sarah and states she died 14 June 1658 in Ipswich.  Clarence Torrey (2) refers to her as Susanna Stacy/Clark.

John's first child was a daughter named Susanna, born in Bocking 1 July 1622. (3)  His last born child, also a daughter, was named Sarah, born 3 Nov. 1641 in Ipswich. Naming patterns at the time suggest the first born was named after her mother.

Those who contend his wife was Sarah Hawkins are probably relying on John Hawkins, Jr.'s will dated 3 Sept. 1633 (proved 18 October). Hawkins of Braintree, a town on the Blackstone River immediately adjacent to Bocking, mentions sister Whipple, sister Kent, sister Edes, sister Archer, brother Francis. (4)

John's father, John Hawkins, Sr., was married at least twice. His first wife is unknown. He had at least two daughters by her: Eleanor, baptized 6 Mar. 1595, buried in 1610; and Mary, married Wm. Wright 8 Nov. 1610. John, Sr. married Mary Levitt 21 Feb. 1603/4 and had daughters Ann who married Matthew Whipple 7 May 1622 in Bocking (Matthew was the older brother of John) and Sarah who married William Coppin 26 Sept. 1622 in Bocking. (5)

Parish records include the marriages of Ann and Sarah to Matthew and William. This evidence strongly suggests that when John Hawkins, Jr. referred to "my sister Whipple," he meant Ann, wife of Matthew. His will was so specific in other instances he would have distinguished between them if he had two sisters married to a Whipple.

That John's first wife's name was Susanna Stacy or Clark is suggested by the nuncupative will of Elizabeth Stacy. Elizabeth's maiden name was Clerke (sometimes spelled Clark). This will, "as received from her own mouth" by her children Simon, Sarah, and ANN in Ipswich, was proved 29 March 1760. (6) Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Clerk, yeoman of Theydon Garnon, Essex Co., married Simon Stacy, a clothier from Bocking 6 Nov. 1620. (7)

The Stacys immigrated to New England at the same time as Matthew and John Whipple, and Simon was granted "six acres of planting ground beyond the swamps next to John Whipple" in 1638. (8)

ANN Stacy's will, dated 13 Feb. 1681/2, names her brother Simon, sister Sarah, and appoints "my cuzen John Whipple (son of John of Bocking) senior executor." John, Jr., later presented the inventory of the estate to the court. (9)  "Cuzen" meant the children of your aunt or uncle. Additionally, it was generally used to claim kinship or a relationship. (10)

Other Whipple-Stacy relationships are suggested by the fact that seven of the 12 persons named as heirs to Simon Stacy Jr.'s estate sold their rights to Col. Francis Wainwright of Ipswich, husband of Sarah Whipple, daughter of "cuzen John Whipple." (11) Also, Matthew, Jonathan, and James Whipple, grandsons of John, Sr.'s brother Matthew, were in possession of land in 1709 that had belonged to Thomas Stacy, son of Simon Stacy, Sr. (12)

Lacking a primary source for John's first marriage, the above evidence, while not conclusive, strongly suggests that John married Susanna Stacy/Clark and not Sarah Hawkins.

John married (2) in Ipswich after 1662 Jennet Dickinson, widow of Thomas Dickinson of Wenham, MA.

1 Abraham Hammatt, The Hammatt Papers. Early Inhabitants of Ipswich, Massachusetts 1633-1700 (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1980), p. 405.

2 Clarence A. Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1985), p 803. Melinda Lutz Sanborn compiled a Supplement to Torrey's work in 1991 which includes corrections, deletions, new entries, and additional details to the original work. Also published by the Genealogical publishing Co., Inc.

3 Parish Records of St. Mary's Church, Bocking, England. Salt Lake City: Family History Library, film #1471886, items 12 and 13. Original records at the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford.

4 Henry F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1969), pp. 466-7. See also Rev. Philip Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, published in two volumes between 1763 and 1768, p. 398.

5 Mary Lovering Holman and George R. Marvin, eds., Abstracts of English Records Gathered Principally in Devonshire and Essex in a Search for the Ancestry of Roger Dearing c. 1624-1676 and Matthew Whipple c. 1560-1618 (Boston: 150 copies privately published, 1929).

6 Essex County, MA, probate files, No. 26069.

7 Joseph Foster, ed., London Marriage Licenses, 1521-1869 (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1887), p. 1273.

8 George A. Schofield, ed. and publisher, The Ancient Records of the Town of Ipswich, vol. I (Ipswich: Chronicle Motor Press, 1899), pages unnumbered.

9 Essex County, MA, probate files, No. 26052.

10 See The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, vol. II (New York: The Century Co., 1911), p. 1315 for definition of cuzen.

11 Essex County Probate Records, vol. 310:435; Essex County Deeds, vols. 14:26, 28; 16:4-6.

12 Essex County Deeds, vol. 21:88.

13 Torrey, p. 803.

14 T.H. Breen, The Character of the Good Ruler (New York: Norton), p. 592.

15 Wills at Providence were sometimes proved at once upon execution. Irving Berdine Richman, Rhode Island: Its Making and Its Meaning, 1636-1683 (New York: Putnam, 1908), pp. 186-8.

16 Charles M. Whipple, Jr., Sons and Daughters of Jesse: a 360 Year History of the John Whipple Family (Oklahoma City: Southwestern Press, 1976), p. 12.

17 Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, vol. 5 (Providence: Knowles and Bose Printers, 1843), p. 184.

18 Donald D. Breed, "North Burial Ground Also Serves City as Recreation Area,"  Providence Journal-Bulletin, date unknown but probably after 1979.