Given what little information there is for John's father, only guesses can be made about when and where John, Jr., was born. He surely was the underage son, mentioned with two underage sisters, in his father's probate file in 1647.1 Thomas Chubb and John Glover testified in 1684 that John Pride and his successors lived on Salem Neck between 1652 and 1662.2 He and the Crevetts mortgaged their parcels in 1661, which went into default.3 This may be when John moved to Maine, and before he married. 1652 is too early for John, Jr., so this may include the tenure of John, Sr.'s, widow and the children living there. Their mother's name and when she died is unknown. His sister Elizabeth married in 1663, putting her birth roughly to 1640-1645.
     On 26 March 1661, Edmond Batter sued John "Pryd" about a debt, which he withdrew before it went to trial.4 This is the first time John appears in public records, at least, and since he must have been an adult, it puts his birth before 26 March 1640. Given his death about 90 years after this, I estimate his was born in roughly 1638-1640. If he did have his own household on Salem Neck in 1652, it means he was about 100 when he died.
     James Savage, in hisGenealogical Dictionary, infers that John lived in Pemaquid, Maine.5 I've found no documentary evidence of this, and it's likely the author was confused by the fact that John's Oath of Fidelity, although taken in Salem, was recorded in the Devonshire County court records at that court's first session on 22 July 1674.6 His reference may have been the New England Genealogical and Biographical Register, which published freemen lists in 1849.7The list in question only says the men took the oath at Pemaquid. The full court record specifies John took his at Salem. Devonshire County existed only until the effects of King Philip's War were felt in 1675 and 1676, and the settlements within it were attacked and fishing trade seriously disrupted. Where John and his family lived between 1674 and 1686 isn't apparent. Also at that court session, John of "Damerills Cove" was selected to be a grand juryman. Damerill's Cove was an early name for Damariscove Island in Maine, which was within the bounds of Devonshire County. This region, much of it made up of islands and long necks of land in Penobscot Bay, was populated mostly by fishing families.
     In 1737 several people testified that they knew John, who at some point lived at "Cape Anawagin" Island (now Southport).8 The depositions were for information about the Lovering family of Sheepscot, Maine, now Newcastle, north of Southport. They also say John married Jane Lovering, sister of William Lovering of Sheepscot, and they had an oldest son named William, by then of Norwich, Connecticut Colony. 30 May 1737. York Deeds, 18:580-581. Jane Underwood, one of the deponents, was Jane Lovering's niece, and she knew the Prides were at Cape Anawagin and that they moved to Beverly where they both died. She also mentions their oldest son William. William became the oldest son when his brother John died, date unknown, but after the siblings were baptized in 1686. "Goodwife Pride" was admitted to the Beverly church on 16 November 1686, so it was she who brought the children in, with John, Jr., and Mary representing themselves, to be baptized.9 There's no record of any of the Pride family before this associated with a church, and it wasn't uncommon, in Beverly at least, for wives to become members and the husbands not.
     John probably died in the Spring of 1731 in what is the Pride's Crossing/Beverly Farms area of Beverly. The administration bond for his estate was agreed to on 28 June 1731.10 For some reason, someone later wrote in pencil the date 28 June 1730 on the back of the bond, which may be why it also appears on the packet envelope.

Because of this, 1730 has been the preferred year for his death. The handwriting on the bond is poor and was probably done fast, so letters are formed casually and here and there, left out. "Thirty" is followed by another number both times the year is written. The bond specifies that an inventory should be made by the first Monday of September and an account made by 14 November. The actual inventory and account(s) were done in August and September 1731 and brought to court on 28 September. Looking at the better of the handwritten years, you can see that the last number is "one." After the "o," the "n" is written with two upstrokes and the "e" is just a gesture, as was common with letters at the end of a word written fast. It doesn't look like any other number.

Comparing this ("hundred & thirty one") with the other written year, it's apparently the same, just more badly formed.

It's also highly unlikely the probate court left well over a year's space to bring in the inventory and account.

Land records involving him as an abutting property owner place him in what is now the Beverly Farms area, possibly at what is now Pride's Crossing. There isnt' a division or distribution. His wife Jane is supposed to have been the Mrs. Pride who died in 1713. There is a church record of Hannah, wife of John Pride, joining the Beverly church in 1691. It may be that Jane died by between 1686 and 1691, and John then married Hannah. I've seen no evidence that his son John lived long enough to marry, but it's possible, and he and Hannah don't appear in any other records. There are no found Prides who show up in later records who aren't accounted for as children of John, Jr.'s, brothers.

Other document's in John's probate file:

An inventory of all the estate of John Pride mariner formerly of Beverly, deceased, as it was shown by the administrator aprised att Beverly on ye 23d day of August 1731 by the subscribers is as followeth

To half one acre of land with sum orchard on it £14-00-00
to and old house standing on sd land not inhabited £1-11-00
to hay cut on sd land this year clear of charge 00-16[shillings]-00
to one common right in ye body of common not inclosed £19-00-00
total £35-07-00

Peter Pride
Jonathan Woodbery
John Ober

Sepr 28th 1731

Then Petter Pride made oath to the truth of this scct & what more shall come to his inowledge he will give an acct thereof, before John Appleton J. Probt

An acount of ye committee's charge in prising the estate of Mr. John Pride

Mr. Robert Haskul charge for half one day 00-02-06

Jonathan Woodbery half one day 2-6 mony expended 5s 00-03-02
John Ober one day 5s paying for 2 men being sworn 3s 00-08-00
by drafting ye inventory and a notification 1-6d 00-01-06

£1-3-2

Robert Haskell
Jonathan Woodbery
John Ober

Peter Pride of Beverly in Essex in New Engld
his accomptt of money dew to him from the estate of his father John Pride late of said Beverly deceased is as followeth

viz In the sumer of the year 1692 to a fire lock that my said father improved and sent out into the King's servis by a man that he hired which fire lock was my own and was never returned to me again, at £01-10s-00d

In the fall of the year 1697 - to six pounds in silver money that my mother recd of me pr accomt of my said father and for his use - 06-00-00

--------------
07-10-00

Beverly September 17th 1731

a true accompt - errors excepted

Peter Pride

children of John Pride and Jane Lovering, ordered following their baptism record, which separates them by gender:10

*John (oldest male in baptism record, had a wife Hannah in 1691)
*William (called oldest after brother John died, bought land on 2 Apr 1694, Essex Co., MA, deed 14:163b, dismissed to the church at Norwich, CT, in 1723)
*Peter (settled at what is now Pride's Crossing, Beverly)
*Joseph (bought land on 6 Nov 1693, 14:164a)
*Mary b. abt 1675 (oldest female in baptism record, married early in 1695, her last child was born in 1718, suggesting this was the last she could have had in her early to mid 40s)
*Elizabeth (youngest daughter, married 1698)

1. Files and Records of the Essex County Quarterly Court vol. 1 (Salem:The Essex Institute, 1911), 131.
2. Essex Antiquarian vol. 9 (Salem:1905), 119.
3. Ibid.
4. Files and Records of the Essex County Quarterly Court vol. 2 (Salem:The Essex Institute, 1912), 274.
5. James Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England vol. 3 (Boston:1861), 486.
6. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts, vol. 5, part 1 (Boston:1854), 18.
7. 3:243
8. York Deeds vol. 18 (Bethel, ME:1910), 580-81.
9. Records of the First Church in Beverly (Beverly, MA:Essex Institute, 1905), 26, 103.
10. Essex Co., MA, probate file 22742.