vital records sources
go to Mary Man page

bio in progress

Oral history written down by a descendant in 1782 (according to the author of Laphams of America>/i>) says that John was a weaver who immigrated from Devon, England. I've found nothing to confirm this. There are several unsupportable claims by casual genealogists online regarding John. One is that he came from North Molton, Devon. There were Laphams there in the mid to later 16th century, but none afterward up to 1634, at least. There's also nothing to support the claim that he was the son of John Lapham and Joanna Bothwell of Kilmington, Somerset. John Lapham and Joane Bottwell married there in 1629, but why point to a couple from Somerset if the only clue you have is that John the immigrant was born in Devon? Like many Americans looking for 16th and 17th century roots in England, whoever came up with this probably doesn't understand that there is no complete English parish register index or database, and even the registers themselves and the Bishop's transcripts of those registers are often incomplete. In any case, no likely Johns born about 1635 in Devon show up in indexes. All we can justify is that he was born about 1635, possibly in Devon. 6 May 1673, freeman at Providence      

children of John Lapham and Mary Man:

i. Mary, b. 1 March 1673/74
ii. John, b. 13 December 1677
iii. William, b. 29 November 1679
iv. Thomas, b. 30 September 1682
v. Mary, b. 5 October 1686
vi. Nicholas, b. 1 April 1689

vital records sources: marriage is from Newport Friends records, see The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 18, no. 3 (July 1864), (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1864), 241, "John Lapham and Mary Man, both of Providence, m. April 6, 1673." This isn't an exact transcription, given the usual wording of early Friends records. For instance, they used numbers instead of names for months of the year.

1 1.

all text and photographs © 1998-2023 by Doug Sinclair unless where otherwise noted