Charles may be the ancestor of the Glovers of Salem, Massachusetts. There is no proof found that he was the father of John (ca1637-1695), but it is a possibility. He did not necessarily come over on the ship Lyon in 1632, as many have assumed. This subject is covered by Robert Charles Anderson in The Great Migration Begins series.(1) The passenger list includes a single man named Charles "Glower." If these were the same men, there is an approximate six-year gap between his appearance in records, the next being on (26 February?)(2) 1638/1639, when at a town meeting he was allowed to be an inhabitant of Salem and was granted land there.(3) This indicates he was a recent arrival to the colony. He probably married Elizabeth in England, perhaps in the mid 1620s, and came to New England about 1638, not 1632. There were ships coming into Massachusetts Bay Colony at that time for which there is no record, and the Glovers were likely on one of them. It's possible Mr. Glower was Charles Glover, but if so, he likely returned to England.
Charles joined the church at Salem on 3 March 1640/1641 and had his daughter Mary baptized the same day. After two more baptisms, the last early in 1643, the family moved to nearby Gloucester. Charles was elected a constable there in October 1644. Elizabeth supposedly died on the sixth of the first month of 1647, according to the Gloucester vital records. Since this date was likely in the Old Style (the month and year of the Julian calendar), this would translate to 6 March 1647. Some publications have interpreted it with the double date 1647/1648, which isn't correct, at least not as it was originally written. Either way, this date conflicts with a court record in which the wife of Charles Glover was charged and convicted of adultery with Philip Udall in the twelfth month of 1648, which translates to February 1649 in the New Style (Gregorian calendar).(6) Charles married secondly (according to the town records) to Mrs. Esther Saunders on the twelfth of the eleventh month of 1649, meaning 12 January 1650. This leaves the adulteress in limbo between the deaths of Charles' two known wives. Did he marry someone in 1647 or 1648? It isn't recorded, but if so, it may have been enough of a mismatch that it ended in a divorce. For her crime, Charles paid a fine. The same day in court they were charged with "fighting each with each other" and sentenced to sit in the stocks for a half hour or pay a fine. What they ended up doing isn't noted. If this marriage ended in divorce, Charles' marriage to Esther may then have been considered his second. It was unusual for town records to note the number of a marriage, and this may have been done to emphasize the dissolution of the previous one.
More on Charles Glover to come
possible children of Charles and Elizabeth Glover:
Steven, b. abt 1627
John
children of Charles and Elizabeth Glover:
Elizabeth, bap. 13 March 1640/1641 (Salem)
Mary, bap. 24 February 1642/1643 (Salem)
Samuel, bap. 20 June 164- (Gloucester, record damaged)
1. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, vol. (Boston:The New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1995), p. .
2. Anderson cites this record in the above work, and says the date was 15 April. The source is Town Records of Salem, Massachusetts, vol. 1 (Salem:1868), p. 86. This needs to be double checked. My research shows town meetings on 26 February and 17 April, with the Glover issue being covered in the first of these.
3. It was customary with admittance to be given land, and he requested an area between "Hollingworth and Mr. Steephens at Catcove." Many publications say that he became a proprietor in 1638, when he was called a shipwright. This apparently is a misundertanding of Old and New Style dating and lists created by authors that combine information that was and was not contemporary to the event in question. Charles was a shipwright, but this is found in later records.
. John James Babson, Notes and Additions to the History of Gloucester (Salem:1891), pp. 65-66.
all text and photographs © 1998-2009 by Doug Sinclair unless where otherwise noted