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vital records sources
go to Eleanor Lynn's page (not yet online)


Ralph is surely Ralph "Ellwood,"1 a 28-year-old who came to Salem in Massachusetts Bay Colony on the ship Truelove, which set sail on 19 September and arrived in November of 1635. Apparently the original record has a small hyphen above his last name, indicating an abbreviation. Ellwood, Ellinwood and Ellenwood are among the spellings in early colonial records. Many people at this time were illiterate - even those who could sign their names - so determining exactly what the surname was in England is impossible. All those names can be found in English parish records, but no evidence has been found of Ralph's birth in England. Ralph was in a 1637 division of marsh and meadow at Salem, given one-half acre for a family of two, indicating that he married Elizabeth between this event and his arrival in Massachusetts.2 Her first name is known from a depostion she made in 1641.3 Ralph was elected a fenceviewer for Salem on 4 April 1640, but his name is crossed out in the record.4 He probably didn't serve. An inquest was ordered in 1644 when a servant of Ralph's was found dead.5 Ralph was admitted to the Salem church in 21 March 1646/47 and "Goodwife," presumably Elizabeth, joined on 13 August 1648.6
     Early in 1652/53 Robert "Gowing" sold Ralph his houses in Wenham, with 8 acres adjoining and common land associated with them, 10 acres "on the neck," and 1 acres of meadow "in Great Meadow near the Island."7 Later in the same year Ralph, "planter," sold to Francis Skerry 1 acre near Ipswich ferry.8 In January of 1660 (New Style) the Town of Salem agreed with Ralph to keep a poor woman named Sarah Lambert for 2 years, £10 a year, and the use of some "waste land." It is supposedly this land that he and his family settled on in what became the town of Beverly. This is unlikely, given the prime location of the land Ralph owned land and it is more likely that the "wast land" that he could use (there is no mention that it was deeded to him) was somewhere in Salem. Ralph and Eleanor were among the founding members of the Beverly church, Ralph appearing on a petition dated 23 April 1667 to present "our desires to be a church of our selves" in what was known as Bass River.9
     Ralph and Eleanor appear in various court records. Ralph was charged with trespass by Richard Hollingsworth in 1638;10 with "absence from watch," which was not proved, in 1642,11 with insufficient fences in 1647,12 with putting his cattle in the general field in 1649,13 and, with John Smith, carting dung away from John Knight’s land in 1673.14 Ralph and Eleanor were involved in a case of slander that was typical of the time.15 Mary (Dixy), wife of Hugh Woodberry, accused Richard Stackhouse of calling her a "filthy, bob-tailed sow" and that he would "stab her and stamp her fine as the earth." In such cases others were called to testify. Ralph said that Stackhouse called him and Eleanor "rogue and baud." Henry Baily said Stackhouse "abused him with words," calling hime a "knave," among other things. Thomas Tuck and Samuel Corning (another Ellingwood ancestor) testified that they overheard Stackhouse slander Ralph and Eleanor. Stackhouse's daughter testified that Mary Woodberry gave her "abusive speeches" and hit her with a broom.
     Eleanor is called Ellen in her marriage record, but her son Benjamin named his first daughter Eleanor and she is "Ellenor" in Ralph's probate paper is. She may have been a daughter of Henry and Sarah Linn/Lynn. Three of their children were baptized by their widowed and remarried mother, Mrs. Sarah Gunison, in 1647 at First Church, Boston (now Dorchester), the oldest born in 1638. Perhaps Eleanor was an older sister baptized in England. Her last child was born in 1670, so she may have been born about 1628-30. A court record dated 29 September 1669 gives the ages of Ralph and Eleanor as about "three score" and about 33 respectively.16 Ralph's age given on the ship list is probably more accurate and puts the court record off by two years. Court depositions were often inaccurate by larger margins. The court record places Eleanor's birth before those of Henry Lynn's known children, and if the margin of error for her age is similar to Ralph's, she may have been born before 1635, when many settlers arrived from England in the Winthrop Fleet.

Ralph's will, as recorded:

At a county court held the 30: 4 mo: 1674

Ralph Elinwood: January 7th 1673
[/74]

The last will & testament of Ralph Ellenwood who being weak in body but of good memory: first I comitt my body to the earth & my soul to God that gave it

2ly I make Hellen my wife my lawfull executrix & to make use of all my estate to bring up my children in the fear of the Lord

3ly I make my son Ralph my lawfull heire after his mothers decease but when he is come to the age of 21 yeares he is to have the ten acres which was formerly old Robert Moultons lott: and that our son Ralph is t pay to our other 4 sons as namely John, Joseph, Benjamin & David & our two daughters Mary & Elizabeth each & either of them an equall portion only Ralph a doble portion according as the estate is prised to be paid as each comes to age only I allow my wife her thirds duering the term of her life & after her decease equaly her third are to be devided amongst our sons & daughters that then doe survive

as witnes

Thomas Pickton
& his wife Ann

Sworn in court at Salem 3: 5 mo: 74 by ye sd Tho. Pickton and Ann Pickton that they as witnesses were present when the sd Ralph Elenwood declared the above written to be his last will & testament

The inventory of ye estate of Ralfe Ellenwood of Beverly late deceased both goods chattels & cattells veiwed & vallued by us whose names are underwritten the 30 of January 1673
[/74]

The lott comonly caled Moulton's lott with the building, orcharding, moweing ground &
[?] - £135
The plowable land & pastures with pt of the orchard £130
for 2 cowes at 7
[lbs symbol used throughout] 10 [shillings symbol used throughout]: 2 heifers with calf 5 lbs 10 shillings: 2 oxen 8 lbs 10 shillings - [£ symbol at top of page only] 21 10 [shillings symbol used at top of page only]
for 1 calfe 20 lbs: 1 mare & 2 mare colts 3 lbs: 15 sheepe with their lams 7 lbs 10 shillings - £11 10 shillings
for 4 swine & 3 piggs 3 lbs 5 shillings: 6 load of hay, 6 lbs - £9 5 shillings
for a bed pt feathers & pt flockes: 3 feather pillowes with a bolster & covering - 3 lbs 10 shillings
for a flock bed with 3 blanketts 30 shillings: 20 Bushell of Indian corne 3 lbs - £4 10 shillings
for 15 bushells of barly, 40 shillings: 2 bushells of pease, 8 shillings - £2 8 shillings
for 8 fliches of bacon 3 lbs 10 shillings: 2 bushells of ry 7 shillings - £3 17 shillings

for 30 lbs of sheeps wooll 30 shillings: 16 lbs hemp 8 shillings: 10 lbs of flax 10 shillings - £2 8 shillings
for chaines & fetters & horse trases, 16 shillings for a cart & wheeles with a cops & bolt with plow irons - 2 lbs
for 3 boxes For wheeles 5 shillings: 6 lbs of wedges 2 shillings: for axes & hoes 8 shillings - £15
-----------------
£327 9 shillings

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for 2 hauks & 1 pr of fier tonges 10 shillings: 3 iron potts and a skillit 15 shillings - £1 5 shillings
for 2 acres of salt marsh ground lying to the comon - 1 lb
for a warming pan 10 shillings: a brass kettell & scillett 30 shillings - £2
for 1 barrell of a gun 3 shillings: 5 pewter platters & an old pot & porrenger 22 shillings - £1 5 shillings
for halfe a barrell of macrell 9 shillings: 10 bushells of turnups 10 shillings - 19 shillings
gpt 1 barrell & half of sider, 15 shillings: 3 spining wheeles 10 shillings - £1 5 shillings
for two chests 15 shillings: 20 lbs of cheese 6 shillings 8
[pence symbol used throughout]: 8 lbs of cotten yearne 16 shillings - £1 17 shillings 8 [pence symbol used at top of page only]
for woodden dishes & boales & platters earth - 5 shillings
for 2 old sithes & 2 Reape hookes 4 shillings: a sider prees & pounding troff 20 shillings - £1 4 shillings
for a conoo 10 shillings: 4 old bibles & som other bookse 18 shillings - 18 shillings
for 4 pr sheetes with pillow beers & table cloathes - 4 lbs
for 5 yrds of home made wollen cloath 40 shillings: in money 3 shillings - £2 3 shillings
for a a trowell 18 pence: his best sute of home spun cloath 3 lbs - £3 1 shillings 6 pence
for 2 wasecotes a coate & drawers 25 shillings: stockens, shooes & hatts 20 shillings - £2 5 shillings
for 3 shirts & neck cloathes 30 shillings: for 3 chaires 5 shillings - £1 15
[?] shillings
--------------------
this som is £25 2 shillings 2 pence

the totall is £352 12 shillings 2 pence

Henry Skerry
Thomas Rootes
John Massey

what the estate is indebted £24

Ellenor the relict of the deceased gave oath in court yt ye within invintory is a true invintory of her said husbands estate to the best of her knowledg & what shall com to her knowledg of ye sd estate afterwards shee is to ad to ye sd invintory: in court at Salem 3: 5 mo 1674
17

     This is the transcription of the inventory found as recorded in the Essex County Quarterly Court records. Another transcription can be found published in The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, vol 5 (Salem:1916), 364. Oddly, it isn't the same as the actual Quarterly court version. It may be a direct translation of the original inventory, which I haven't seen, but so too should the recorded version. The original will and inventory aren't in the County Courthouse in Salem, and apparently disappeared from there long ago. It has similar phonetic spelling as the recorded version, showing them to be contemporary, and slightly different ways of totalling value of individual items. The total value is also different, being £351, 11 shillings and 1 pence.

children of Ralph Ellinwood and Elizabeth:

i. Josiah bap. 26 March 1644 142, 203
James is said to have been another son of this marriage, but I've found no evidence of it

children of Ralph Ellinwood and Eleanor Lynn:

ii. Stephen, bap. 16 March 1655/56 (church record, image 146 p. 207, 16th day, 1st month, 1656)
iii. Ralph, b. 18 March 1656/57, bap. 26 April 1657 (same citation).
iv. John, b. 2 July 1659, no bap.
v. Joseph, b. 12 May 1662, ("12 of 3rd m 1662"), bap. 22 June 1662 (same citation), died young
vi. Mary, b. 3 April 1664 ("3rd:2nd mo:1664"), bap. 5 June 1664 (147, 208)
vii. Elizabeth?, b. 27 June 1666, called Sarah when bap. 7 August 1666 (same citation)
viii. Benjamin , b. 1 April 1668, bap. 31 May 1668
ix. David, b. 6 July 1670





vital records sources: his marriage

1. 2. 25 December 1637; Town Records of Salem, Massachusetts (hereafter TRS),1: .
3. 29 June 1641; Essex County Quarterly Court Files (hereafter EQC), 1:28; .
4. TRS, 1: .
5. 27 August 1633; EQC, 1:71.
6. Records of the First Church, Salem, http://nehh-viewer.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/content/SalemFirst/viewer/Church20records2C2016291843/212, image 212, p. 273 7. 24 January 1653/54, Essex Co. deed book 1:17.
8. 9. 22 June 1653, Essex Co. deed book 1:18.
10. 25 October 1638; EQC, 1:10.
11. 28 February 1642/43; EQC, 1:50.
12. The fences were "next the corn field on Cape An side." EQC, 1:152.
13. He was fined "for a pound breach." EQC, 1:180.
14. 15. 13 May 1660; EQC, 1:18.
16. 29 September 1669; EQC, 4:216.
17. EQC, 22:6-7.

all text and photographs © 1998-2022 by Doug Sinclair unless where otherwise noted