General Notes

"A great and noble woman, widow of the Reverand John Wing of England and Holland, built a house and reared her sons, John, Daniel, Stephen and Mathew from whom the family in America descended. She came in the ship William and Francis with her father, the Reverand Stephen Bachiler, landing in Boston, Jan 5, 1632. Her posterity believe she named the town in honor of Sandwich, England, where her husband had received signal favors, and to which he dedicated one of his books. This tablet was erected by the Wing Family of America, Incorporated, A.D. 1903."

None of the original settlers in Sandwich came from Sanwich, Kent, England, though at least one appears to have spent a few years there. The name seems, instead to be taken from strong geographic parallels, namely:

"A shallow harbor with wide marshes.
A bay running southwest/northeast called Kent Buzzers Reach or Buzzers Belly, here Buzzards Bay.
A record of Dutch trade connections; in Kent from weavers and refugees, here from the Aptucxet Trading Post visited by New Amsterdam Secretary Isaac de Rasieres in 1727."


From the Preface to VITAL RECORDS OF SANDWICH MASSACHUSETTS TO 1885: (PG. XV) "Sandwich was the first town in Plymouth Colony, settled in 1637. Like Taunton, also settled in 1637, its first families came from Massachusetts Bay colony, then overflowing with new arrivals who were establishing new settlements in Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Long Island and Plymouth colony."

(pg. xvi-xvii): "The ship Abigail, Richard Hackwell Master, arrived at Boston in October 1635 with passengers Edmund Freeman 34, wife Elizabeth 35, children Alice 17, Edmund 15, Elizabeth 12, and John 8; plus the William Almy family and single men Benjamin Nye, Thomas Tupper, Thomas Landers and Thomas Greenfield. All these persons are found in the subsequent settlement at Sandwich...Sandwich settlers mentioned in Massachusetts Bay Colony Records include, Edward Dillingham, Thomas Dexter, Richard Chadwell, John Carman, William Wood, Henry Feake, and Rev. William Leveridge...

"On April 3, 1637 the Plymouth Colony court allowed:

" 'It is also agreed by the court that those tenn men of Saugust, vis Edmond Freeman, Henry Freake, Thomas Dexter, Edward Dillingham, William Wood, John Carman, Richard Chadwell, William Almey, Thomas Tupper & George Knott shall have liberty to view a place to sitt down & have sufficient lands for three score famylies, upon the conditions propounded to them by the Governor and Mr. Winslowe.'

"The removal of the main body of settlers from Saugus to Sandwich doubtless occurred during 1637. The first appearance of the word 'Sandwich' in Plymouth Colony Records occurs January 2, 1637/8 when a suit brought by Michael Turner of Sandwich against John Davis of Weymouth was heard in Plymouth, alleging failure of Davis to deliver goods by ship to Sandwich; the intended shipment obviously had been planned for 1637. Winthrop's History of New England states in a 1637 section:

         " ' Another plantation was begun (and called Sandwich) about fifteen miles beyound Plimouth, towards Cape Cod, by many families, which removed from Sagus otherwise Lynn.' "Massacusetts Bay Records for November 20, 1637 read 'Saugust is called Lin.' "


Of her sons, John moved further east on the Cape, Matthew returned to England, Daniel established himself where the Heritage Plantation is now and Stephen remained in Sandwich. His mother probably lived with him there. Her daughter, also named Deborah, having recently married, remained in England. Matthew returned to England later, where he lived the remainder of his life."