John Simmons (b ca 1640) and His Wife Martha of Taunton and Freetown (later Fall River), Massachusetts

John Simmons is a very challenging ancestor to research! There is a lack of records pertaining to him, which is made worse by a good deal of incorrect/unsourced/conflicting information written about him. John is my 9th great-grandfather through my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family. The Simmons surname is also seen spelled as Simonson, Symonds, Symons, and Simons. This sketch contains the theories about John I believe are incorrect, as well as what I believe to be accurate at this point in time. 

Inaccuracies and uncited information

One problem is that John is often conflated with John Simmons born about 1644, son of Moses and Sarah Simmons of Duxbury, who married Mercy Pabodie. Mercy is a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden of the Mayflower, probably a motivating factor of attaching John to this Duxbury family. I have a separate line of descent from Moses and Sarah but I haven’t found a connection with John of Freetown. 

Another inaccuracy is giving his parents as Thomas Simmons/Symonds and Elizabeth Nash, but Robert Charles Anderson of The Great Migration Begins Project states Thomas and Elizabeth may never have existed! Raymon Meyers Tingley, in Some Ancestral Lines, p. 371-2, fraudulently created records to state that Elizabeth Simmons was daughter of Thomas Simmons (Symonds) of Plymouth and Elizabeth Nash and that Thomas Symonds was son of Moses Simmons. Unfortunately once something is in print, it is often taken as fact and repeated indefinitely, rather than people conducting their own research.

John’s findagrave.com profile (memorial ID 138787809) has him: born Nottinghamshire 30 April 1644; dying Fall River 18 March 1712; buried Mothers Brook Cemetery in Fall River; marrying first Martha Sheppard and second Elizabeth —?—. I have not yet found a source for this death date; it’s not found in Freetown records. In John’s will, he names his wife as Martha. John’s wikitree profile has Martha as daughter of William Shepherd, but states this is not proven, and that she married John in 1666 at Little Compton, Rhode Island. 

Some sources, including findagrave, give Martha a 1691 death year, but she was still living in 1696 when she witnessed a will. 

Findagrave and wikitree aren’t primary sources but they can be great starting points, especially when wikitree provides citations. 

What I do know (or feel fairly confident about!)

John was probably born about 1640 (based on estimated age at marriage which is also estimated). He married, by about 1665, a woman named Martha. Perhaps her maiden name was Shepherd but that is not proven.

John and Martha may have lived first in Taunton and then in nearby Freetown, Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the part of town that later became Fall River. In 1803 Fall River was separated from Freetown and officially incorporated. 

Their children’s birth records do not survive. The older children may have been born Taunton where early records there are quite sparse.The younger perhaps born Freetown, but those early records are not complete and the town records of Fall River were burned in 1843. [Cleveland] In a published excerpt from John’s February 1678/9 will, he names the first four children: eldest daughter Mary, eldest son John, second son Remembrance, and third son Edward. He wrote his will in February 1678/9, some years before his death, so children 5-9 born after that date. Birth years for all are rough estimates.

1. Mary Simmons, born about 1666 at Taunton; died after 1712 Freetown; married Thomas Burt about 1680; married 2nd Thomas Makepeace 10 January 1698 Freetown; children Mary, Abigail, and Hannah Burt and possibly William Makepeace. [Makepeace]

2. John Simmons born about 1668 in Taunton; died 28 March 1747 at Dighton, Mass.; married Hannah Hathaway 14 December 1697 [NEHGR 2:235]; children John, Oliver, Constant. 

3. Remembrance Simmons born 1671 Taunton; died before 19 September 1726 at Swansea, Mass.; intentions to marry Hannah Smith published Freetown 16 December 1701 [FVR 1:76]; children Hannah, Remembrance, Joseph.

4. Edward Simmons born about 1673 Taunton; died 2 May 1758 Swansea; married Esther Reed 6 January 1703; children Seth, William and Margaret. His 9 January 1758 will mentions wife Esther, son William, deceased son Seth, daughter Margaret, daughter-in-law Mary Simmons, and various grandchildren. [Bristol Probate File 23215]

5. Mercy Simmons born about 1679 in Taunton [not mentioned in fathers’ 1678/9 will]; died Nov 1768 at Freetown; married Benjamin Chase II 23 June 1703 in Taunton. He was born 15 July 1682. [FVR p 22] Children: Benjamin III, Oliver, Hope, Unknown, Israel, Ammi, Caleb, Joshua, Michael Chase. Mercy and Benjamin were Seventh Day Baptists. Chase article gives her name as Mercy Simmons and they were of Freetown so seems probably she is daughter of John. Her sister Deliverance married her brother-in-law Walter Chase. [Chamberlain]

6. Abraham Simmons born about 1680 in Taunton; died 22 May 1749 Fall River; m. Anne Lee 25 December 1707 in Taunton. Children: Nathan, Job, Lebbeus, John, Anna, Mary, James, Jeremiah. [FVR 1:22, 23] Abraham is shown to be John’s son by a deed from his father.

7. Martha Simmons born about 1682, died after 2 May 1749, m John Cleveland 1 January 1712 in Taunton; children Dinah, Elizabeth, Thankful, Mary, Martha, Benjamin, John, Ambrose. The Cleveland Genealogy gives her parents and John and Martha Simmons. P 80

8. Deliverance Simmons born about 1684 in Freetown; married Walter Chase 29 January 1706 at Taunton; children Edward, Constant, Seth, Philip, Sybil, Walter, George, Charles, Sarah, Hannah, Alice, Benjamin. [Chamberlain]

Some researchers also assign them an unproven daughter Abigail. I descend from Abraham. The sketch I wrote about him, which you can see here, includes the tidy profit he made on land deeded to him by his father. 

John was involved in multiple records of land transactions concerning the Pocasset Purchase: 

• On 12 of the 11 month [January] 1701/2 John Simmons bought land from David Lake in the Pocasset Purchase in Bristol County. David Lake was of Nanaquoket in Tiverton. He was paid £20 silver money by John Simmons, yeoman, of Freetown all his “claime Right & Interest in & to the thirtyeth part of the undivided lands properly belonging to the Purchase of Pocasset so called…” The land began at the “south East corner bounds of the line of Division between Ffreetown lands & Pocasset purchase and from the said corner bound eastwardly upon a strait paralel line to Dartmouth line or division between said Dartmouth grant & Pocasset Purchase…” Witnesses were John P. Pierce [his mark], Mary Pearce.  David Lake acknowledged this deed 13 October 1703 before Benjamin Church Justice of the Peace. [Grantee Deed Book 1:452; also in 4:29 which is available but not searchable on Family search, “Massachusetts Land Records 1686-1715, vol 1”]
• On 1 January 1711/12 John Simmons, yeoman of Freetown, deeded this same land to “my son Abraham Simmons” for £20 current money, what John had paid for the land. The land is described as his 30th part in the 30th share of the Pocasset Purchase “beginning the south east corner bounds of the line of Division between Freetown lands & Pocasset Purchase and from said corner bounds Eastwardly up on a strait paralel line to Dartmouth line or Division between sd Dartmouth grant & Pocasset Purchase…northwardly of said paralel line to the extent of the sd Pocasset Purchase be it more or less.” It is “the land I formerly bought of David Lake of Nanaquaket as more fully appears by a Deed of Sale from sd David to John Simmons bearing date of 12th of the 11th month of 1701/2.”  John Simmons signed the deed. Witnessed by Jonathan Dodson, John Hathway and James Bell. John Simmons acknowledged the the deed before Thomas Leonard Justice; it was recorded 8 March 1711/12. [Bristol County Massachusetts Grantee 2:316 available but not searchable at Family Search “Massachusetts Land Records 1686-:1715,” vol 1-2 image 464-5]
• On 26 March 1720[/21] David Lake and Joel Lake, farmers, and Josiah Stafford, shipwright, and Sarah Stafford wife of Josiah, all of Tiverton, Bristol County, Massachusetts Bay. [Tiverton now is in Rhode Island] deeded Pocasset Purchase land to Abraham Simons to correct an error in the deed when their father sold the same land to Abraham’s father John Simons. Their father David Lake, deceased, of Tiverton and Little Compton, deeded land on 12 of ye 11th month 1701/2 1/30th part of a certain parcel of undivided lands of the Pocasset Purchase in Tiverton to John Simons late of Freetown in sd county deceased. Land extended from the southeast corner of Freetown bounds on a strait parallel to Dartmouth line belonging to the thirtieth share or right in Pocasset Purchase northward on eastward of sd line. There was a mistake “by a scribe or by some other means”  as their father did not have rights to the 30th lot but rather the 27th lot. John Simons did convey the same lands unto his son Abraham Simons of Freetown. They deeded the one thirtieth part of all the above land belonging to the twenty-seventh share to Abraham Simons, dated 26 of the first month [March] 1720[/1] and the sixth year of King George’s Reign. Signed by David Lake with his mark, Joel Lake, Josiah Stafford, Sarah Stafford by her mark, and Abraham Simons. Witnessed by John J. Cole, Richard Borden, Benjamin Chase Junr, William Caswell. The grantors and grantee acknowledged the deed 31 January 1721/2 in said county, Thomas Terry Justice of the Peace. Recorded 12 April 1722 by S. Howland Regr. [Bristol County Deeds 14:209-210]

Pocasset Purchase Great Lots

The Pocasset Purchase was a large Wampanoag settlement purchased by a company of Plymouth and Rhode Island settlers from the sachem Wamsutta in 1659, located between present-day Tiverton Rhode Island and Fall River, Mass. It was bounded westerly by the Narragansett Bay and easterly by the old Dartmouth line but the lands purchased nevertheless extended northerly to the bounds of Middleboro and running easterly there to the Rochester line. The first division was 30 house lots, called Great Lots along the shore. There was also a mill lot, two ferry lots, and a lot for the minister at Tiverton. The second division was 120 one-acre lots laid out in 1696. There was also a 1700 division consisting of 50 acre lots. David Lake was one of the original purchasers. [Phillips; RI Historical Preservation Commission]

Martha Simmons died after 24 September 1696 when John and Martha Simmons (Martha by mark), witnessed the will of John Shaw of Swansea. [NEHGR 63:131]

John Simmons “Resident neer Ta[u]nton” wrote his will on 1 February 1678/79. [Worthington] He left bequests to children Mary, John, Remembrance, and Edward. Will was never probated. 

Excerpt: “…John Simmons…unto my Children Mary—my Eldest Daughter, and John Simmons my Eldest sonn, and Rememberance Simmons my second sonn and Edwaard Simmons my third sonn…doe…give…all my Estate…Either…Lands, Goods, household stuff mony Cattell…to be Equally devided…doe…appoint my…wife Martha Simmons…sole Overseer…first day of February…One Thowsand six hundred seventy eight or nine.”  John Simmons signed the will which was witnessed by Mathew Grinell [his mark], John Heath and Elizabeth Holderbee. [Worthington] 

I have not found John Simmons death record. Some give it as 11 November 1711 [wikitree is one example] but this is before his deeded land to Abraham. Another date given is 18 March 1712, buried Mothers Brook Cemetery in Fall River (on land originally in Freetown) but without a surviving stone. [findagrave] The cemetery sign states it was established in 1724, so I’m not sure if this burial information is accurate, although his son Abraham is buried there. 

If he did die in the 1711-1713 time frame, that was an unusually long time after writing his will. Perhaps he was seriously sick but recovered or was embarking on something dangerous. Some men wrote wills when they were going off to battle, but King Philip’s War had ended before this time. 

Many questions remain about John and Martha!

Sources:

Lucy Hall Greenlaw, NEHGS Register, “Abstracts from the First Book of Bristol County Probate Records,” 63:131-2 (April 1909)

Dorothy Worthington, Rhode Island Land Evidences, I:121, 1921 [excerpt John’s will]

Arthur Sherman Phillips, The Phillips History of Fall River, 1944

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, Historic and Architectural Resources of Tiverton, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report, 1983

Torrey’s NE Marriages To 1700

Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, Historic and Architectural Resources of Tiverton, Rhode Island: A Preliminary Report, 1983

Edmund James Cleveland, Genealogy of the Cleveland and Cleaveland Families…, 1899, p 54-55

George Walter Chamberlain, NEHGS Register, “Some of the Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth, Mass., 87:54-55 (1933)

Charles B. Moore, Town of Southold, Long Island: Personal Index Prior to 1698 & Index of 1698 (New York: John Medole, 1868) p 38

James A Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1860-62, p 100

William Makepeace, The Genealogy of the Makepeace Families from 1637-1857, 1858, P 39-41

Ebenezer W. Peirce, communicated by, NEHGS Register, “Inscriptions from Freetown, Mass.,” 10:53 (1856)