John Vincent (ca 1603 to after December 1663) of England and Plymouth/Duxbury & Sandwich, Massachusetts

John Vincent was born about 1603 in England, but I have not discovered his origins. His birth year is an approximation based on his having a child born about 1628. His name is also spelled Vinson in records. He was a man of significant social rank as he is referred to as “Mr” in records. He is my 10th great-grandfather on my grandfather Arthur Washburn Ellis Davis’ side of the family.

John probably married in England but I have not found his wife’s name, although some researchers identify her as Hannah. He is not the John Vincent who was with the Pilgrims at Leiden, Holland, husband of Sarah Allerton (sister of Mayflower passenger Isaac.) That John Vincent was considerably older and died before 4 November 1611 when his widow Sarah married Degory Priest at Leiden. [The Mayflower Descendant, hereafter MD, 22:15]

John is sometimes incorrectly referred to as one of the Ten Men of Saugus, the group that founded the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod. He was, however, one of the first fourteen settlers there. [Lovell] 

John Vincent was a member of Rev. William Leveridge’s congregation who were in Plymouth or Duxbury by 1637 and soon settled at Sandwich. Others in the group were Bourne, Slawson, Burgess, Bassett, Armitage, Skiff, and Butler. [Lovell] That he owned land in Duxbury is confirmed by a 3 July 1637 court record in which ten acres granted to Thomas Burges at Ducksborrow, bounded on the north side by the lands of Mr. John Vincent. [PCR 1:63-4] I do not know whether John ever lived on this land.

There was a court case in Dorchester, Dorset, England, with an answer dated 12 October 1634, in which Rev. John White of Dorchester answers to a bill against him and his associates in a New England adventure from 1623 to 1628, to recover the value of salt seized at Cape Anne by the agents of the adventurers. White provided a lengthy list of his associates which included John Vincent of London, but I am not certain it is the same John.[Gardner]

Mr. John Vincent was on a list of freeman of Plymouth Colony on 7 March 1636/7 [Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, hereafter PCR, 1:53] He was admitted and sworn a freeman on 2 October 1637 [PCR 1:67] and on the October 1654 list of Freemen of Sandwich. [PCR 3:68]  He is on the 1643 list of Sandwich men able to bear arms in New Plymouth.  [NEHGR 4:258] 

John Vincent was deeply involved in serving the town of Sandwich, clearly he was a man respected by his peers:

• Mr. John Vincent was chosen the first constable of Sandwich on 6 March 1637/8, to serve for a year and a quarter. [PCR 1:80] 
• On 5 March 1638/9 Division of planting land in Yarmouth to be made by committee and that Josuah Pratt of Plymouth and Mr. John Vincent of Sandwich shall view the land there and make a report to the Court. [PCR 1:117]
• In June 1639 John Vincent and Richard Bourne, another of my ancestors, were the first men of the town to be chosen as Deputies to the General Court at Plymouth, a position of status. [PCR 1:126] He also was chosen in 1649 [PCR 1:144], 1650 [PCR 1:154], 1651 [PCR 2:168], 1655 [PCR 3:79], 1659 [PCR 3:162], 1661 [PCR 3:214]. At 10 June 1662 court Mr. John Vincent of Sandwich was fined 40 shillings for not appearing at last court last June to serve as deputy. [PCR 4:23] 
• He served on juries including Grand Inquest 7 March 1636/7 [PCR 1:54]; jury on 7 December 1641 that heard cases about debt, assault and trespass [PCR 7:28]; Grand Inquest 3 June 1657 [PCR 3:115].
• On 26 February 1647 there was a court case about land a committee that included John Vincent buying land from Edmond Freeman on behalf of the town of Sandwich; also part of 20 August 1651 court. [PCR 12:211]
• He was one of a group of six of the leading townspeople, which excluded any of the 10 original settlers, was set up 26 February 1647/8 with the purpose to “agitate things betwixt the Committees and the town.” [Lovell]
• At 7 January 1650/1 meeting, a five pound levy to complete Mr. Leveridge’s house was passed. Agreed that the levy shall be made by those four men which were chosen to make the ten pound levy above mentioned, Mr. Vincent, William Newland, Thomas Tupper, Robert Bodfish. [Lovell]
• At 21 November 1651 meeting, ordered by the town that these five men, Mr. Vincent, Thomas Tupper, William Newland, Richard Bourne, and James Skiff being chosen by the town shall make a levy of six pounds for the payment of the Clerk and the Committees. [Lovell]
• On 20 August 1651 “John Vincent, Willam Newland, Anthony Wright, Robert Botfish, and Richard Bourne, being deputed by the town of Sandwidge in the behalf of the said town” to settle accounts with Edmond Freeman, reimbursed him for “the sum of seventeen pounds in the consideration of the purchase of the lands from the Indians from three different sources, the last of these being “4 pounds…paid by Mrs. Joane Swift.” [PCR 12:211-12]
• The first property survey in town, completed in 1667, was an arduous task since a total of 242 lots were later described, and even that surviving record is incomplete. The committee selected consisted of the familiar leaders, Edmund Freeman, John Vincent, Edward Dillingham, Richard Bourne, Thomas Burgess, William Newland and Richard Chadwell. [Lovell]

It is challenging to determine exactly where John lived in Sandwich as many deeds were lost in a Barnstable Courthouse fire. 

• At the 20 March 1636/7 Court, Mr. Vincent assigned “hey ground betweene Moyses Symons feild & the lande lately given to Edmond Chaundler, towarde that wch is appoynted to Mr Collyer.” [PCR 1:57]
• On 7 January 1638/9 Thomas Weybourne was granted ten acres of land formerly used by Mr John Vincent and lying to the house he hath bought of the said Mr. Vincent. [PCR 1:109]
• In a 16 April 1640 division of meadow land at Sandwich, John Vincent received 7 acres. [PCR 1:149-50]
• In a 1654 land division the freemen of Sandwich, Mr. John Vincent, Thomas Burgess, Thomas Tupper, Richard Bourne, and James Skiffe desired some parcels of land by Marshpee Pond, 10 acres of meadow, 100 acres of land by Santuit Pond, a neck of land by Cotuit River to keep cattle, meadow at the place called Mannamuch Bay. [Lovell]

In a 1 May 1670 deed, John Ffeake of Wighton in Norfolk England, sold house, land, tenements, pastures, meadows, uplands at Sandwich belonging to his late father George Ffeake, that did sometimes belong to George’s brother Henry Ffeake, to Robert Harper of Sandwich, that were late in the possession of John Vincent. [Plymouth Colony Deeds 1671-1673, 3:2:111]

John also witnessed a will and settled an estate.

• John Vincent witnessed will of George Allen, the elder of Sandwich, whose inventory was taken 22 September 1648. [NEHGR 4:284]
• In the 12 October 1662 will of Joan Swift named John Vincent and Benjamin Hammond [his son-in-law] overseers of her will.  [PCPR 2:2:16]

John Vincent’s children, likely born in England:

1. Mary born about 1628; possibly married Benjamin Hammond 8 November 1648 [published Sandwich VR  p 4—groom’s name is too worn to read as is the year but footnote states she perhaps married Benjamin Hammond]; died 5 August 1705 [Rochester VR 2:388] 
2. Sarah Vincent born about 1633; married William Dexter in July 1663 at Barnstable [Barnstable VR in MD 4:223] and removed to Rochester; died after 9 May 1694 [MD 23:64]
3. Henry Vincent born about 1635; married Mary Matthews 15 December 1657 [Sandwich VR in MD 14:166]; removed to Yarmouth

I descend from Sarah whom I wrote about here.. The children’s birth records are not found, but they clearly belong to John Vincent given the rarity of the surname in Plymouth Colony. In reading Plymouth Colony records for this time period, almost all mentions of the Vincent surname are of John. The exceptions are one record of a William that may be an error for John and John’s son Henry. 

Some researchers assign him a daughter Elizabeth who married Thomas Dexter, but I am unclear what proof there is of this.

John Vincent died after 1 December 1663, the date of a court case about his having been one of the men who laid out a way through the land of Richard Chadwell; it is not written to indicate he had passed away. [PCR 4:48] It seems he died before 1667 when he is not included in a Sandwich land survey. [Lovell] 

Sources:

R.A. Lovell, Jr., Sandwich A Cape Cod Town, 1984

Torrey’s New England Marriages to 1700, 3:1572

Henry Howland Crapo, Certain Comeoverers, 1912

Lura F. Alexander Fallas,  Genealogy, Descendants of William and Dorcas Fallass of Boston, Massachusetts, 1929

Mary Elizabeth Sinnott, Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and Allied Families, 1905

Nathaniel B. Shurtleff and David Pulsifer, eds., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, in New England, 12 vols. (New York: AMS Press, 1968)

Joseph Gardner Bartlett (communicated by), NEHGS Register, “Genealogical Research in England,” 61:280