The impetus for this work was my frustration with previous publications on or including the 17th and 18th century Mellens of New England. A heavy reliance on secondary sources and erroneous transcriptions of primary sources combined with what I think is flawed reasoning haven't served the history of the family well. This is my assessment of the evidence I've found for the earlier generations.
Developing biographies for members of this family is particularly hampered by the following circumstances: the name "Mellen" is certainly one of the most cryptic in early New England, having been spelled many different ways; the Mellens had a healthy share of what must be unrecorded deeds and some moved to towns in which vital record keeping was very poor, such as Framingham and Oxford, Massachusetts.
A benefit of the internet, with sites like ancestry.com and familysearch.org, is being able to find images of original manuscripts. These have cleared up issues such as poor transcriptions and reveal documents that have rendered previous assumptions, in my opinion, obsolete. The biographical informaton in print for the Mellens is slim. Most of it is within larger local histories from the 19th century. N. P. Maling's books on the Maling family and Simon Mellen and his descendants are the most extensive attempts to collate information on this family. I feel those efforts fall short of credibility and scholarly diligence. While some information I've found may have become more accessible in the five years between my research and the publication of Maling's books, the vast majority at least of what I've found was available at that time.
Despite claims on the internet and spread through repetition, no evidence was found to say that his father was John or that he was born in Weymouth, England. I also find nothing to support the claim that Richard's wife was a Barrett or a Barnett. N. P. Maling speculates that Simon was the same man who lived in Charing, Kent, England, who married Mary Bridges in 1662. He came by this marriage obliquely, but the parish register for Charing shows not only the marriage, but also their children being baptized there up to 1675. This precludes a connection to the family in Massachusetts Bay.
Here are some other discussion points:
1. Richard Mellen lived in Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony.
This is vaguely inferred by many publications that cite his becoming a freeman in the Colony on 7 September 1639 ("Richd Mellen"). The original record of freemen on which he appears doesn't give residences.1 However, his daughter Sarah had her birth recorded there on 4 April 1643,2 so he did live in Weymouth, but when? The following discussion also refers to Weymouth and helps clarify when they were there.
2. Richard Maling or Waling of Weymouth and Richard "Mellen" of Charlestown and Weymouth
When Gilbert Nash wrote his History of Weymouth, Massachusetts, published in 1885,3 he transcribed a town record of landowners there dating from the early 1640s. There is an entry for Richard "Waling" (his spelling) with other references to him as an abutting property owner. This record had already been cited in connection with Richard "Mellen" by Barry in his 1847 History of Framingham.4 Barry correctly calles him Richard "Maling." N. P. Maling seems to promote Richard "Waling" as the credible interpretation and says Richard "Maling" is fictitous. There is no question, when looking at the original manuscript of the town records, that the name is "Maling."5
Gilbert Nash prefaces his transcription by saying "The following from the town records must have been compiled not earlier than Oct. 26, 1642, the date of the death of William Fry, whose daughters are named among the property owners, and May 21, 1644, the date of the deed of Thomas Dyer to Thomas Bayley, conveying a grant of the property described as belonging to him." Richard Mellen's son James' birth ("Mellens") was recorded in Charlestown as being on the fourth of the fourth month of 1642. On the contemporary Julian calendar, the fourth month was June.6 Assuming this date is correct and given that Nash says the Weymouth grants record dates after 26 October of that year, this supports the supposition that the Mellen family moved to Weymouth from Charlestown between James' birth and that of his sister Sarah in Weymouth on 4 April 1643. It doesn't support them being in Weymouth as early as 1639 as has been stated without explanation, but lacking contrary evidence, it isn't impossible. The property descriptions say that Richard Maling had acquired some of the land from others as well as being granted some of it directly, so he wasn't a very recent resident there. There are no deeds recorded that involve him or any other man with a similar name and no probate was initiated when he died, leaving a large blank space in the Mellen story between 1643 and the adulthood of the children except Sarah, for whom there is no further record. She likely died as a child.
It's probably not a coincidence that Simon, James and Mary "Mellen" had direct connections to "Mystic Side," a part of Charlestown that became the town of Malden. It suggests that one or both of their parents also moved there. Neighbors of Richard "Maling" in Weymouth moved from there to Mystick Side. John Upham moved in the late 1640s and Richard Adams by 1649.7 Richard Mellen and his family may have joined them.
If Richard Maling and Richard "Mellen" weren't the same person, then the former had land in Weymouth and the latter didn't when both were there. Richard Maling had no recorded family in Weymouth nor is he recorded in any other way. One had land while the other was raising a family. While this is in the realm of possibility, it's very unlikely. Further emphasizing this point is that consistent spelling can't be relied on for this family name for the rest of the 17th century.
3. About the family name
Spelling was often phonetic and done according to the ability and choice of the person writing the document at a time when people who could write were often semi-literate. There can be different name spellings within the same document. Even individuals are often found signing their own name inconsistently. Phonetics played a big role. Settlers in Massachusetts Bay Colony came mostly from England, but would someone who came from London pronounce a name the same as someone from Yorkshire? And would those people interpet that name in writing in the same way?
N. P. Maling further discredits the idea that Richard "Maling" was the same as Richard Mellen because the surname is otherwise consistently spelled beginning with "Me" and without a "g." This line of thought eliminates many documents that must involve the "Mellen" family. The surname of his sons James and Simon and some of their children, whether being referred to by others in writing or signing their own names, varies a lot: Melinges, Milings, Meyling, Meylin, Melyon, Mealing, Mealings, Meelen, Mellin, Mellens and Mellen.
With so many various spelling of this surname, it's impossible to say anything definitive about it, not even to guess that it's of English origin. All the spellings mentioned above can be found in English parish records, which were also subject to phonetics. But the name Meylins, itself varioiusly spelled, can be found in the Netherlands and in Dutch Colonies such as New Amsterdam. In the one instance found of Simon, Sr.'s, signature, on a Quinsigamug (now Worcester, MA) petiton, we find "Meylin," and there is another Quinsigamug reference to him by someone else as "Meyling." This suggests, if he was English or Dutch for instance, a pronunciation of "May-lin(s)." Otherwise, the spellings suggest a pronunciation of "Meh-lins," "Mee-lins" and "Mye-lins." Again, nothing is clear here.
Further complicating things, descendants in the female line of the Mellen family who used the name as a middle name sometimes changed it to McMellen and McMillins. McMillen/McMillin was a fairly common name, far more than Mellen, so the parents involved may simply have been confused, but it lead to later researchers to call the Mellens themselved McMellen, McMillen, McMillins, etc.
In his transcription of records in the mid 19th century, a Framingham town clerk included marriages of Framingham residents in other towns. A Simon Millen/Susannah Haven marriage is included, gleaned from a Sherborn record, but the clerk spelled the name "Miller," causing some researchers to doubt he was of the Mellen family. The original and published Sherborn records clearly show the name was written "Millen."
Another case of transcription error involves David Mellen (Simon, Simon, Richard). He's called Daniel in the published Framingham vital records, but the original town records call him David.
Images from contemporary documents showing the various interpretations of the family name spelling:
4. Simon and Mary "Mellen" were also children of Richard.
Despite the many ways of spelling the family surname, there aren't any other families in Massachusetts Bay Colony with whom they could be confused. If Simon and Mary weren't children of Richard and Sarah, they were close relatives. As stated above, Simon, Mary and James all lived as adults in the part of Charlestown called "Mystic Side." Although this area became the town of Malden in 1649, records continued to sometimes refer to Mystic Side as within the bounds of Charlestown. A research of town boundaries shows that they were distinct, and I can't find an explanation for why Malden and Charlestown's Mystic Side existed in deed records at the same time. In any case, Mystic Side wasn't a large area.
Regarding the Mystic Side connections, "Marie Mellens" married Daniel Whittemore in 1662.8 The Whittemores were a Mystic Side family, and Daniel and Mary raised their family there. James Mellen, known to have been Richard's son, had land there as early as 1668.9 He married into another Mystic Side family, the Dexters, about 1657 and continued to live there.10
Simon had several Mystic Side/Malden connections. He was involved in the settlement of Quansigamug, mentioned above. He was joined by Malden residents Daniel and wife Mary (Mellen) Whittemore and Pelatiah Whittemore, likely Daniel's brother. This was primarily a venture by Malden families. A petition to the General Court brought by the interested parties was made on 27 May 1674, on which he signed "Symon Meylin."11 Daniel and Pelatiah Whittemore also signed.
Land descriptions in Quinsigamug say that Simon "Meyling" had a twenty-five acre lot grant on the north side of the Connecticut Road, western squadron.12 Most of the men had towns of origin named. Simon didn't for his above lot, but he was (again "Meyling") of Sudbury when mentioned in the east squadron next to the Country Road to Boston, with fifty-five acres.13
Disputes with the Nipmuc tribe, part of "King Phillip's War" waged across eastern New England, led the settlers to seek safer places. The houses in Quansigamug, remote and unprotected, were burned on 2 December 1675.14 Simon "Meyling" signed an agreement in Malden on 3 March 1678/79 to return and reestablish the settlement in the face of threats to forfeit the grants there,15 but apparently nothing was done. The whereabouts of Simon and his family isn't known for about ten years after they left, but the Whittemores returned to Malden. Pelatiah Whittemore, surely a son of Daniel and Mary, witnessed several probate court documents in Charlestown (where the Middlesex court was based). Both were in 1696, one being Simon's probate administration bond and the other his son James' guardian bond.16 This connects the Whittemores and Simon's family across a span of at least twenty years. Simon having sons named Richard and James is also of note. He had a daughter Mary, but his wife was also named Mary. Another connection between Simon and Mystic Side/Malden is with Samuel Blanchard.
5. Samuel Blanchard was "responsible" for Simon in 1659.
Simon apparently lived with the Blanchard family in Mystic Side at least between 1659 and his marriage about 1664. His first child was born in Boston,17 but several born after that are recorded at Malden.18 There supposedly is or was a record dated 23 January 1659/60 in which Samuel Blanchard of Charlestown is described as being "responsible" for him.19 This sounds like a guardianship, but nothing of that type appears in probate records. He was very likely an adult by then, so maybe it was a power of attorney. Samuel's nephew John, a mariner, appointed his wife his power of attorney on 22 March 1694/5,20 probably to act on his behalf if he died abroad.
I've found nothing to suggest Simon was a seaman, but he did leave Massachusetts Bay Colony for a while, a part of his life I've not found mentioned in any genealogical publications. On 16 June 1663 he is described as a passenger on the vessel Consent, Capt. John Long, which sailed from Cape Fear to Boston.21 This reveals that he was among the "Adventurers around Cape Fayre," a group of New Englanders who went there to settle the newly chartered Province of Carolina. They were dissatisfied after a couple of months and Long brought back the ones who wanted to return to Massachusetts. Some passengers didn't pay the fees, and Long brought them to court. Simon testified in that case:
The deposition of Simon Mellens adged 27 years or thereabouts testefyeth that being a passenger with John Long from Cape Fayre that he payed him forty shillins for his passage home & after the rate of fiftey shillins a tun for his goods & that he knows noething to the contrary but that every passenger in the ship did know that they were to give fee for there frayt and passage home which was upon the same terms but we were carryed thither & further sayeth not.
This was sworn at court on 16 June 1663.
This is something that might have induced Simon to grant a power of attorney. The day after he deposed about the Cape Fear case, he was as a witness in another case and was described as 25 "or thereabouts," two years younger than his age in the Cape Fear deposition. 22 That record calls him Simon "Melinges." There was a flurry of disputes involving the extended Blanchard family and their neighbors, also in June 1663. The inconsistency in his given age in these documents dated only a day apart isn't unusual. There are many inconsistencies in this regard in Massachusetts Bay court records, making it apparent that the deponents themselves weren't necessarily telling the clerks how old they were. Other researchers have posited this, and I haven't seen any evidence to explain the anomolies.
Another connection to the Blanchards is in the will of William Godden, dated 9 February 1663(/64?). He bequeathed Simon "Melings" twenty shillings in "marchantabell goods."23 Godden, of Middlesex County but no town specified, was evidently not settled and was most likely a captain trading at least in cloth. His estate inventory includes diverse kinds of cloth goods and pins. Deloraine Corey says he "was perhaps a roving trader who exchanged sugar and tobacco for beaver pelts and other merchantable production of the country."24
Godden drowned in 1665, but he evidently had been living, when on land, with the Blanchards. They had a homestead on what was then called Wilson's Point, part of the town of Malden when it was set off from Charlestown in 1649 and now the Wellington neighborhood of Medford. The Blanchards witnessed the will and Mary was also given money or goods, depending on where his assets were. An administration account mentions that he had given Mary a Bible and books, perhaps on loan. When his estate was brought to probate, Samuel Blanchard was ordered to account for Godden's assets. Godden also was a witness in court cases involving the Blanchards in June 1663. Involving Simon in his will suggests he was also living with the Blanchards in 1663. Otherwise, or maybe additionally, Simon and Godden may have known each other as fellow seamen.
While Simon may have been a minor in 1659 when Samuel was "responsible" for him, he certainly wasn't in 1663. It's possible he was in some way related to Samuel or Mary Blanchard, but research into both of their families didn't reveal anything likely. That leaves the open question about why Simon was so closely associated with them unless, considering William Godden, they simply took in boarders. This seems the most likely scenario since Godden and Simon weren't settled in any other way. Despite the lack of solid evidence, Simon's adventure in Cape Fear and his apparent domestic transiency suggest he was a seafarer of some sort, at that time.
6. Simon's life after Quansigamug
After Simon left Quansigamug, the next place I find him is Watertown, Massachusetts, where "Simon Melyon" was chosen a tithingman for Watertown on 25 February 1684/85.25
His son John's birth is in the records there in 1685, and all of his children except Thomas were baptized there on 21 Nov 1686: "5 of old Simon Millings children viz Simon, Richard, Mary, James & John."26 He wasn't particularly old at 48, even by standards of the later 17th century, but Simon, Jr., had recently turned 21, so this may have been a way of distingushing between them. Thomas was baptized shortly before this as "a young man."26 Church members were noted in the baptisms, and Simon wasn't one. Apparently soon after, Simon settled in Sherborn, Massachusetts, on land owned by Lt. Gov. Thomas Danforth. Danforth owned large tracts in the area and rented parcels to interested parties. The Mellens are said to have been there as early as 1687 in various publications, but I haven't found a source for this. Simon, Sr., and his sons Simon and Thomas (who were the only sons of age at the time), signed a petition to form the town of Framingham, set of from Sherborn, on 2 March 1692/9327 Shortly after Simon, Sr.'s, death, Simon, Jr., and Thomas were given a lease of land from Danforth,28 perhaps revising an existing lease. It's likely the same land was involved.
By the time their father died, Simon and Thomas signed their last name consistently as either "Mellens" or "Mellen," the earliest examples known of this being in their father's probate papers,29 after the clerk drawing up the same documents called them "Millens."
James and John, youngers sons of Simon, were minors when their father died. They chose their brothers Thomas and Simon respectively as guardians. Their guardianship bonds and Simon's will were approved at the probate court in Charlestown. Pelatiah Whittemore, as above, and George Blanchard, very likely Samuel's brother and who was involved in the court case in which Simon and William Godden testified, were witnesses.30
7. Some Mellen odds and ends
Simon Mellen III is said to have married Susannah Haven in Sherborn in 1744.31 It's far more likely that she was his father's second wife (see details in the summary below). There is an unusual lack of information about Simon and his wives in Framingham, especially in later years, but Simon, Sr., was certainly still alive in 1744. Framingham records are poor in the mid 1700s, and most deaths went unrecorded.
James, son of Richard, remained in Charlestown. His children are recorded there with their last name spelled "Mellen," "Mellin," and "Mellins."32 A deed from his in-laws Richard and Bridget Dexter dated 10 Mar 1667/68 calls him "Melins" and says he was a mariner of Charlestown.33 One of the witnesses was Daniel Whittemore. Another deed from the Dexters, dated 10 April 1671, calls him James "Mealins," while the abstract in the margin spells the name "Melins."34
His estate inventory, dated 2 Apr 1680, calls him James "Meelen," "deceased or lost at sea."35 Richard Dexter sold land to his daughters Elizabeth Mealings and Ann Pratt, and refers to "the late James Mealings" as an abutting property owner in January 1678.36. However, on 15 July of 1678 Dexter sold land to his daughter Elizabeth "Melins" and says she was the wife of James, "if he be now living."37 There was a period of time when they must have been waiting for James to return from sea or hear from someone with knowledge of his death. If he was called "late" in January 1678, enough time must have passed that he was assumed dead, likely putting his death some time in 1677.
On 22 July 1678 Richard Dexter sold Elizabeth and her children shares of a dwelling and land in Mystick Side in Charlestown in exchange for a life annuity.38 The "double" share of her son, the younger James ("Mealins") "late of Boston, deceased," is mentioned in what is called an inventory dated 9 Aug 1684, after a division had been decided upon among his brothers and sisters on 28 Jan 1683/4.39 This property was sold by Thomas, William, John, Mary (Mellins) Upham and their spouses to their brother-in-law Samuel Townsend on 23 May 1694.40 It was James and Elizabeth's son John of Charlestown, also a mariner, who appointed his wife his power of attorney.
8. Genealogical summary
(all dates are as found in the original records and reflect the Julian calendar unless otherwise noted. Our modern or Gregorian calendar came into use in 1752)
1. Richard Maling/Mellens/Melin, died after 4 April 1643.
Richard lived perhaps in Weymouth, Suffolk (now Norfolk) County, Massachusetts Bay Colony when he took the freeman's oath on 7 September 1639. The family was in Charlestown, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, when son James was born, and Weymouth when daughter Sarah was born. No further record found of Richard.
children of Richard:
Simon? b. perhaps 1638
Mary? b. perhaps 1640
James b. 4 June 1642
Sarah b. 4 April 1643
1 Simon Mellins/Melinges/Meylin, born perhaps about 1638, perhaps Weymouth, married Mary, probably in Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, died 19 December 1694, Sherborn (now Framingham), Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony.41
Simon died with personal property, which was, on 20 May 1696, divided between his widow and six children. Mary received her thirds, Simon, as eldest son, a 2/7 share and the rest 1/7. No mention has been found of Richard, James or John after their father's estate was settled. James chose brother Thomas as his guardian on 15 December 1696; John chose Simon on 20 May 1696. Simon and Thomas had a lease agreement with Thomas Danforth in 1696, likely for the same property that their father leased. Their mother continued to live in Framingham. It's not apparent why she wasn't their guardian, but presumably they lived with her, and either Simon or Thomas likely took over their father's homestead with this extended family living with them. Mary died 1 June 1709, age 70.42
children of Simon and Mary:
i. Simon b. 25 September 1665, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony,43
ii. Thomas b. August 1668, Malden, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony44
iii. Richard b. 1 Mar 1671/2, Malden,45 d. after 20 May 1696, no further record
iv. Mary b. abt 1675-77, perhaps Sudbury or Quansigamug, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Bay Colony
v. James b. abt 1681, d. after 15 December 1696, no further record
vi. John b. 29 January 1685(/6?),46 Watertown, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, d. after 20 May 1696, no further record
2 Mary Mellins, born perhaps Weymouth about 1640, married Daniel Whittemore, 7 March (likely 1661/2), Charlestown,47
died after 6 November 1693.48
children of Daniel and Mary:49
i. Daniel b. 27 April 1663
ii. John b. 12 February 1664/5
iii. Thomas b. 5 March 1666/7
iv. Mary b. 15 February 1668/9
v. Nathaniel b. 7 February 1670/1
*younger child: likely Pelatiah, b. abt 1673-75 (not b. 27 April 1680, Malden, or 7 May 1680, Charlestown)50
*younger child: apparently James (see note 50, NEHGR citation)
*younger child: a daughter, her sister Mary being called the oldest daughter in Daniel's will
*possibly a ninth child
3 James Mealins/Mellins, b. 4 June 1642, Charlestown (son of Richard, no mother named, transcribed as "Mellers?"), married Elizabeth Dexter, died between 10 April 1671, when his father-in-law deeded him land and January 1677, when his father-in-law deeded land to his widowed daughters Elizabeth and Ann. Elizabeth, m. 2. Stephen Barrett, 14 May 1680, d. aft. 6 October 1693.51
children of James and Elizabeth:52
i. Elizabeth b. 4 September 1659
ii. Mary b. 8 July 1661, Charlestown
iii. James b. 14 April 1663
iv. Richard b. 24 April 1665
v. John b. 17 September 1666
vi. Sarah b. 27 November 1668
vii. Thomas b. 11 May 1670
viii. William b. 22 August 1671
1. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, etc (Boston, MA:1853), 1:376. This is as close a facsimile as could be made in print of the original record, according to the contributor and born out in appearance. An earlier transcription of this record is in NEHGR 3:187, in a modified format. Here there are many towns of residence added by the names, maybe where it was otherwise known, but here again, Richard isn't connected with Weymouth.
2. "Sara Melin," Vital records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 vol. 1 (Boston, MA:1910), 187.
3. Gilbert Nash, Historical Sketch of the Town of Weymouth, Massachusetts, from 1622-1884 (Weymouth, MA:1885), 264.
4. William Barry, A History of Framingham, Massachusetts (Boston, MA: J. Munroe & Co., 1847), 325.He refers to these land grants as being described in a manuscript letter by Hon. Christopher Webb and spells the name Maling. As far as I've found, this is the earliest published connection made between Mellen and Waling or Maling.
5. The original record image can be found at familysearch.org, catalogued as "Massachusetts, Norfolk, Weymouth, land and property, Proprietors Allotments 1642-1644," image 138, from LDS film #7009659, item 2.
6. Massachusetts Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001, familysearch.org database, Charlestown, vol. 3, image 7: "James Mellens (?), son of Richard Mellers." Both are likely "Mellens." Original record not found; also transcribed for NEHGR 4:269, based on transcriptions by David Pulsifer, apparently from the original mss. Pulsifer interpreted both instances as "Mellers."
7. Richard Adams' will written 21 March 1673/4, probated 15 Dec 1674 (Middlesex Co., MA, Surrogates Court, probate case file 221), sold land in Malden to Thomas Lynde 18 Aug 1674; 13 Oct 1664, John Upham to son Phineas land in Malden, abutted by James Mellins.
8. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [hereafter MTVR], ancestry.com database online (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), Charlestown, image 239 of mss 3:358. The year is written 1662, but surrounding entries, none of which are double-dated, indicate this is the Old Style (Julian) year. They were married by Lt. Gov. Richard Bellingham, which is unexpected, considering nearly all the other marriages within the same year in Charlestown were by local magistrate Richard Russell.
9. see note 33
10. see deeds between Richard and Bridget Dexter and James and his wife Elizabeth: Middlesex Co., MA, deeds [hereafter MCMD], 3:285, 6:207-210, 7:40-44.
11. William Lincoln, History of Worcester, Massachusetts, etc. (Worcester, MA: Charles Wolsey, 1862), 15. The signers wanted a decision by the Court to settle a disagreement with an unassociated settler.
12. 25 acres, Ibid, 18.
13. Ibid.
14. Increase Mather and Paul Royster (editor), "A Brief History of the War with the Indians in New-England (1676): An Online Electronic Text Edition" (Faculty Publications 31, UNL Libraries: 2006), 34.
15. History of Worcester, 33.
16. Middlesex County, MA, Surrogates Court, probate estate [hereafter MCSC] files 14998, 14999. He surely was a son of Daniel and Mary (Mellins) Whittemore. Daniel's brother Pelatiah supposedly died in 1679 and Pelatiah, a nephew of Daniel and Mary, was too young to be the witness (see note 50).
17. MTVR, Boston, image 30 of original Registry of Births, Deaths, 1630-1699 mss p. 50.
18. Deloraine P. Corey (compiler), Births Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Malden, Massachusett, etc. (Cambridge, MA:1903), 55.
19. The earliest reference in print is likely Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, etc. vol. 2 (Boston, MA: David Clapp & Son, 1879), 664-5.
20. MCMD, 12:15
21. "Colonial county court papers, 1648-1798," familysearch.org, database online, image 354 of original Middlesex County Clerk of Courts records mss, folio 35.
22. Ibid, image 375.
23. MCSC, file 9276. The will year is written as 1663, perhaps the Old Style (Julian) year, in which case it was 1664 on the New Style (Gregorian) calendar).
24. Deloraine P. Corey, The History of Malden, Massachusetts, 1633-1785 (Malden:1899), 600. Transient seamen were common in Massachusetts Bay, there being a very active trade between there and England (see Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. 63 (Boston, MA: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1984), 101).
25. Watertown Records, (vol. 2) (Watertown, MA: 1900), 20.
26. Ibid, (vol. 1, part 2, "Records of Births, Deaths and Marriages") (Watertown, MA: 1894), 57, and ibid, (vol. 4) (Boston, MA: 1906), 119-120, Thomas "Milling, a young man who pfessed his faith in X & obed to him."
27. Joshua Temple, History of Framingham, Massachusetts, etc. (Framingham, MA:1887), 126-128.
28. Ibid, 112, 5 March 1696(/97?).
29. MCSC, file 14998.
30. Ibid, files 14999, 15000.
31. 11 Oct 1744, Vital records of Sherborn, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston:1911), 154. I believe she was Susannah Caryl. Although generally said to have been Simon's (III) second wife, DSM calls her Simon, Jr.'s, second wife despite saying it was unlikely. Nothing in print has been found that identifies her before the Mellen marriage. A review of possible Susannah Havenses, unmarried or widowed, who was the same generation as Simon III turned up nothing. The name is rare in New England, and the only other possibility that fits with a marriage in 1744 is Susannah Caryl. She was of Simon, Jr.'s generation. There are few helpful records for the Caryls of Hopkinton and Framingham, but the name is unusual enough that she surely was the daughter of Benjamin Caryl and Mary Cross, the progenitory couple of Caryls in that area. She came to the Mellen marriage already having been married twice. Her first husband was Daniel Claflin, Jr., whom she married in 1736 in Hopkinton and had one child with him. He was a widower with four children. His brother Cornelius married Elizabeth? Caryl, another presumed daughter of Benjamin and Mary. Daniel's death date is unknown, but there is nothing to suggest it wasn't before 1742, when Susannah Claflin married Moses Haven in Hopkinton. Again, the name Susannah Claflin is unusual and no alternatives were found to say that Moses might not have married Daniel's widow. He died a little over a year later and also had children from a first marriage.
32. see note 50.
33. MCMD, 3:285.
34. Ibid, 7:40.
35. MCSC, file 14971.
36. MCMD, 6:207-10. The date of the deed is January 1677 (no day given). It was acknowledged by Dexter and recorded on the 19th of the 11th month of 1677, which is, by the Julian calendar, 19 February 1677 and if it had been double dated, as was common at the time, 1677/78 to acknowledge the Julian/Gregorian calendar year transition.
38. Ibid, 7:42.
39. Ibid, 6:213; MCSC, file 14972.
40. MCMD, 10:313.
41. inventory, MCSC, file 14998.
42. Vital Records of Framingham, Massachusetts, to the year 1850 (Boston:1911), 452, transcribed from her gravestone in "Old Burying Ground Cemetery" before it was damaged (the year of death is now missing, "17--").
43. MTVR, Boston, image 30 of original Registry of Births, Deaths, 1630-1699 mss p. 50.
44. Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Malden, Massachusetts, 1649-1850, comp. Deloraine P. Corey (Cambridge:1903), 55, taken from a Middlesex County Court record.
45. Ibid, "2 (1) 1671," Old Style (Julian calendar) date, 2 March 1671. If it were double dated, as was common at the time, it would have been 2 March 1671/72 to acknowledge the Julian/Gregorian calendar year transition.
46. see note 26.
47. MTVR, Charlestown, image 239 of mss vol. 3, p. 358. This record, a transcript of an earlier one, gives the year 1662. It's after others from March 1663 and followed by others in May and June. A Middlesex County record places it among marriages in August 1663, and it was inserted in a different hand at the bottom of a page and also not double dated. At that time, the Julian and Gregorian calendar years during the transition period between January and March were often acknowledged by a double year. So in another town you might find this date written 7 March 1662/3. Without a doubled year or contextual evidence, it can't be said if the marriage was in 1662 or 1663 according to the Gregorian calendar, which came into official use in the British America in 1752. These Charlestown marriages in the years 1662 and 1663 were nearly all from the records of local magistrate Richard Russell, but the Whittemore/Mellins marriage was by Lt. Gov. Bellingham. If it was in 1663, Daniel, Jr., was born within a month after the marriage. His birth date fell outside the calendar transition period in April 1663. This suggests that the doubed year should be 1661/1662. I find no court case involving fornication for this couple, which there surely would have been if they married in 1663. That leaves the question why their marriage is recorded so oddly. In any case, Bellingham must have been long delayed in having the event recorded in the municipal records.
48. Middlesex Co., MA, deed 10:299, 15 Dec 1691, in which she and her son Daniel confirm an undeeded land transfer of Daniel, Sr., to Joseph Waite, and then acknowledged their deed on 6 Nov 1693.
49. MTVR, Charlestown, image 63 of mss 8 (Daniel), 66 of 15 (John, written 1664, but in a sequence of births that indicate this is Julian or "Old Style"), 68 of 18 (Thomas, written 1668, same), 71 of 24 (Mary), 74 of 30 (Nathaniel, written 1670, same). Daniel made a will in which he gives Daniel and John real estate, gives his 7 younger children equal amounts of money except oldest daughter Mary, who was to get more. A Genealogy of Several Branches of the Whittemore Family (Nashua, NH: 1893), 9.
50. Daniel's brother John's son Pelatiah was b. 7 May 1680, MTVR, Charlestown, image 86 of mss 3:54. He was bap. 27 June 1680, see ibid, images of Records Of The First Church In Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1632-1789, image 41 of p. 68. This date is recorded as being in the 4th month, which at the time was June, not April. An NEHGR article about the Whittemores notes confusion about the two Pelatiah's because they had "almost identical birth dates" (Bradford Adams Whittemore, "The Whittemore Family in America," New England Historical and Genealogical Register vol. 106, Jan 1952 (New England Historical and Genealogical Society), 194-5). The author misinterpreted the baptism date as 27 April 1680 and calls it a birth date in Malden, and then gives it to Daniel and Mary's son even though both birth and baptism name John and Mary as his parents. This has since been repeated on the internet. Since Daniel's brother Pelatiah was likely dead before 1680, the Pelatiah who witnessed Mellen documents in 1696 was likely Daniel's son and would have been of age by then, putting his birth between his brother Nathaniel and about 1675, allowing him to turn 21 by the time he was a witness.
51. "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," ancestry.com database online (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), "Charlestown, Archives [Charlestown Archives] Births Marriages Deaths, 1629-1800," image 248 of ms p. 377. Manuscript is a transcription volume (3) of an original volume (1) and is titled the same as the ancestry.com database. For her death, the earliest of Elizabeth Barrett's probate papers is an inventory with this date. See Middlesex Co., MA, probate file 1171.
52. MTVR, Charlestown, image 73 of mss p. 29 (Elizabeth, Mary, Thomas); 63 of 8 (James); 66 of 14 (Richard); 67 of 17 (John); 70 of 23 (Sarah); 75 of 32 (William).