John Marchant ca 1600 to before 1670 of England and Yarmouth, Massachusetts

John Marchant was born England ca 1600. [Banks] The identity of his parents and his place of birth are not known. John is my 11th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family. I know little about John, primarily because fires destroyed Yarmouth town records as well as Barnstable County land and probate records. His name is sometimes spelled Merchant and Merchand in records.

By about 1625 John married, in England, a woman named Sarah whose maiden name is not recorded.

John first appears in New England records in 1638 when he was admitted an inhabitant of Newport, Rhode Island. [Banks] He did not stay long in Newport, if he in fact resided there, as he was at the new settlement Mount Wollaston, Massachusetts, on 24 February 1639/40 when when “John Marchant” was granted 8 acres for “two heads.” [Braintree’s Book of Records, 1:49] Mt. Wollaston was named after its first settler, Captain Richard Wollaston, it later became known as Merry Mount, and the area was incorporated as Braintree in 1640. With him was his wife Sarah and a son.

Sarah and John had one known child whom I descend from:

1. John Marchant born about 1625; married a woman whose name is not known. They had seven children. John Jr. was an early settler of Edgartown on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

I wrote about the younger John here.

On 3 Dec 1638 “Sarah the wife of John Merchand” died at Braintree. [NEHGR 3:247, Records of Boston: Braintree]

It is probable that John would have remarried, as he was only about 38 when he was widowed and had a son to raise, but I have not found any records supporting this.

John lived next, very briefly, in Watertown where he was as early as 1642. [Banks] A William Marchant is found there in 1641 [Savage, III:197] and perhaps he and John were related. Braintree and Watertown were both in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Once more John moved, this time to Yarmouth on Cape Cod, which was part of Plymouth Colony. At the 8 June 1644 Plymouth Court, John Marchant was appointed and approved by the court to be ensign bearer of the military company of Yarmouth. [Shurtleff 4:65] A ensign (or standard) bearer was a soldier whose primary duty was to carry the company’s flag, or standard. It was a prominent position as the flag served as a visual beacon for soldiers to identify and stay with their unit, especially important during the chaos of battle. It seems John would have been in Yarmouth for some time as they would not appoint a newcomer to this position. 

At the 7 June 1648 Plymouth Court, John Marchant of Yarmouth was chosen as constable for the town, to be sworn at home. [Shurtleff 2:124] John Marchant was propounded to take up his freedom [no indication of town resided but assume it was Yarmouth] on 3 June 1652 at the Plymouth General Court. [Shurtleff 3:8]

John was a defendant at court because of his interaction with a married woman: 

Plymouth General Court 4 October 1652, presentments by the Grand Enquest: “wee prsent John Marchant, of Yarmouth, for misdemeaning himselfe in words and carriages with and towards Agnesse, the wife of Thomas Phillips.” [Shurtleff 3:41]

Plymouth General Court 9 June 1653, presentments by the Grand Enquest: “Wheras we have enformacon of John Marchant, of Yarmouth, his attempting the chastety of Annis, the wife of Thomas Phillips, of the said towne, but have not as yett oath of it, wee leave it to the next jury to enquiire after.”[Shurtleff 3:36]

Perhaps John did not remarry is he had some sort of involvement with Annis Phillips.

On 1 August 1654 the Plymouth court fined John Marchant £2 10 shillings. Perhaps this was his punishment for his actions towards Mrs. Phillips. [Shurtleff 3:64]

John probably died prior to 1670, when his son John was promoted from ensign to lieutenant in the militia and is called “Senior.” [PCR VII:60; III:36] I believe this is the son because John the elder would have been about 70 years old, thus not likely to be serving in or receiving a promotion in the militia. 

There is a lot of conflicting information about John Marchant, often with just one John as a combination who I believe are father and son. Some researchers have the elder John as moving to Martha’s Vineyard and dying there, but that was the younger John. Banks believes one man named John Marchant was at Newport, Braintree, Watertown, and Yarmouth. Torrey has him as of Newport, Braintree, and Yarmouth. 

Sources:

Charles Edward Banks, History of Martha's Vineyard, Volumes II and III, 1966

Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700

Charles Swift, History of Old Yarmouth, 1884

Nathaniel Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, Vol 2, 3, 4 1855