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William ALLIS (1614 - 1678) and Mary (? - 1677) my 9g-grandparents
William ALLIS (1614 - 1678) and Mary (? - 1677) my 9g-grandparents
William ALLIS was born between 1613 and 1616, in England. He came to New England in 1630, in Winthrop's fleet. This group of 11 ships carried 700 immigrants. One of the ships was the Mayflower, the same ship that had brought the first Pilgrims to Plymouth in 1620. [HDA] argues that William ALLIS was on this ship, which carried mostly people from London, and Essex County, so it is likely that William was from that area. The ship landed at Boston (then called Trimountain), on 1 Jul 1630.
The Mayflower on this, its third voyage, had as passengers a group called the Braintree Company, including William ALLIS, Thomas GRAVES and Thomas MEEKER, whose descendants intermarried. GRAVES and ALLIS were both surveyors and laid out the town or fort of Charlestown. The Braintree Company settled in Mount Wollaston, which they soon renamed Braintree, after the town of the same name in Essex, England.
This 1802 map shows Braintree, south of Boston Harbor.
The town of Braintree (Mount Wollaston) was settled in 1625, colonized in 1635 and incorporated in 1640. In addition to the present Braintree, now a suburb of Boston, it comprised land that was later split-off into the separate municipalities of Quincy (incorporated in 1792), Randolph (1793), and Holbrook (1872). Braintree was part of Suffolk County until the formation of Norfolk County in 1793.
William ALLIS surveyed Mount Wollaston, and received 12 acres on February 24, 1640. William became a freeman, and married Mary in 1641. They lived in Braintree until 1658, and had their 8 children there. Nothing seems to be known about Mary before 1641. It is likely that she was born in England, between 1610 and 1625, and came to New England with her parents, but that is just a guess. She died in Hatfield, MA, on 10 Aug 1677; more about that appears below.
1 Lieut. William ALLIS b: Bet. 1613–1616 in England, d: 06 Sep 1678 in Hatfield
+ Mary m: 1641 in Braintree, d: 10 Aug 1677 in Hatfield
......2 Hannah ALLIS b: 1654 in Braintree, d: 1718
...... + William SCOTT m: 28 Jun 1670
......2 Capt. John ALLIS b: 05 Mar 1642 in Braintree, d: 01 Jan 1691
...... + Mary MEEKER m: 04 Dec 1669, d: Bef. 10 Apr 1705
......2 Samuel ALLIS b: 24 Feb 1647 in Braintree,
......2 Josiah ALLIS b: 1649 in Braintree, d: 25 Oct 1651 in Braintree
......2 William ALLIS b: 10 Jan 1653 in Braintree, d: Jul 1653 in Braintree,
......2 Mary ALLIS b: 1657 in Braintree, d: 25 Jan 1690 ; unmarried
......2 Josiah ALLIS b: 20 Oct 1651 in Braintree,
......2 William ALLIS b: 11 Oct 1655 in Braintree, d: 19 May 1676 ; Killed by Indians at Turner's Falls
+ Mary BRONSON m: 25 Jun 1678
Braintree, MA to Wethersfield, CT in 1658
Our ancestor was a well-educated, capable man, and well fitted to take his place among the Puritan settlers. He was not only an experienced surveyor but also a successful farmer in Braintree. He was a prominent citizen of the town, being one of its selectmen, and had the supervision of building a road from Boston, Mass., to Providence, R. I. He lived in Braintree until 1658 and then emigrated to Wethersfield, Conn., in the fertile Connecticut valley. At that time the Massachusetts Bay Settlement was becoming somewhat crowded, and as a result the colonists left there from time to time for Connecticut, settling the towns of Windsor, Wethersfield and Hartford in the order named. Most of the settlers made the trip afoot through the wilderness and brought with them only such things as they needed most, leaving the remainder of their possessions to be brought around from Boston and up the Connecticut River by boat. [HDA, page c]
William and Mary moved their family from Braintree, MA to Wethersfield, CT in 1858. I don't know the reason for the move. His friend. Thomas GRAVES, was also in Wethersfield by 1661.
William ALLIS and family didn't stay in Wethersfield very long. It seems they came in the middle of a controversy in the church, that began in 1656. It may have been nothing more than a personality conflict, but the pretext concerned various arcane matters of church doctrine, such as whether children of non-members of the church could be baptized. The result was that the Rev. John RUSSELL found himself unwelcome in Wethersfield, and decided to leave, along with several of his followers, including William ALLIS, and Thomas GRAVES.
This 1755 map shows the Connecticut River from Wethersfield, CT to Deerfield, MA. Hatfield is partly hidden by the fold. The small squares along the river are English habitations. The small pictures identify meeting houses of towns. [source]
Most of the followers of Rev. John RUSSELL left Wethersfield in the early 1660s, and settled in Hadley, MA, which at that time included land on both sides of the Connecticut River. On May 31, 1670, the part of Hadley on the west side of the river became the town of Hatfield, and in 1771 the northern part of Hadley was incorporated as the town of Whately.
The villages on the west side of the river, especially Hatfield and Deerfield, were very exposed to Indian raids, and suffered heavy losses from around 1675 to 1725, being at that time on the outskirts of the English settlements.
William ALLIS and his family moved from Wethersfield to Hatfield in 1661. William became a Lieutenant, and led the Hatfield troops in King Philip's War 1675-8, between the colonists in New England and a unified force of Indian tribes, and afterward. See the page on King Philip's War.
William ALLIS was a Captain on 18 May 1676 when he led his troops in the "Falls Fight" at Turner's Falls, north of Deerfield. Three of his sons were with the company, one of whom, William ALLIS Jr, was killed.
There are some strange coincidences between William ALLIS and Samuel BELDING, who are both g-grandfathers of my 6g-grandmother, Mary SCOTT. Both William and Samuel had first wives named Mary, last names unknown. Both died in 1677. Sources [WW, p. 374], [CCW, p. 6], [BFH, p. 20], and [CMB, p. 14] all say that Mary, the wife of Samuel BELDING, was killed in the Indian attack on Hatfield, on 19 Sep 1677. However, [HDA, p. 5] claims it was Mary, wife of William ALLIS, who was killed in the attack on 19 Sep 1677. I think the latter must be an error, because [WW, p. 369], [CHP, p. 16] and [JMS, p. 250] all agree that Mary, wife of William ALLIS died on 10 Aug 1677, and they don't say she was killed by Indians. So it looks like the two Marys died 40 days apart.
Almost a year after his first wife died, on 25 Jun 1678 William ALLIS married his second wife, Mary BRONSON, daughter of John BRONSON. William was at least 62, and the couple did not have any children. William died on 06 Sep 1678, so they were married less than 3 months.
Mary BRONSON was married 4 times. She married (1) John WYATT of Haddam, CT. He died, and she married (2) John GRAVES, of Hatfield, who was killed in the Hatfield massacre of 19 Sep 1677. Next she married (3) William ALLIS on 25 Jun 1678. After William died on 6 Sep 1678, she married (4) Samuel GAYLORD on 16 Mar 1681. [HDA, p. 5]
William ALLIS had an 8-acre house lot on Main Street, 12 rods (198 feet) wide. [HDA, p. 3]
Sources
[HMC] MAGIC Historical Map Collection - New England United States
[JMS] History of the town of Sunderland, Massachusetts by John Montague Smith (1899)
[WSP] History of Old Braintree and Quincy (1878) by William S Pattee
[WW] A history of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts (1910) Wells and Wells
Updated 18 Aug 2020 by William Haloupek. Contact haloupek at gmail dot com.
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