Preston Genealogy

ROGER PRESTON, the emigrant, came from London, England, in 1635; then aged 21. He was first mentioned in the records of Ipswich, Mass, 1639. He married Martha , b, in 1622. Their children were born in Ipswich, and were:

THOMAS PRESTON, b. in 1643, m. Rebecca Nurse, the daughter of the witchcraft martyr.

SAMUEL, b. 1651, m. Susanna Gutterson.

JOHN, b. , m. widow, Sarah (Gary) Holt. JACOB, b. 1655, was lost at sea, 1679.

LEVI, b. , settled in Killingly, Conn.

ELIZABETH, b. , m. Wm. Henfield of Salem.

MARY, b. , m. Nathaniel Ingersoll of Salem.

Roger Preston removed from Ipswich to Salem in 1657, and died there Jan. 20, 1666. Widow Martha married 2d May 21, 1666 Nicholas Holt of Andover; to which place she took her sons Samuel, Jacob and John Preston. She died March 21, 1703, aged upward of 80.

Samuel² Preston (Roger¹ & Martha) m. May 22, 1672, Susanna Gutterson, and had eleven children of which the 5th was Jacob³ Preston and the 7th was John³ Preston or " Preston."

Jacob³ Preston (Samuel², Roger¹) born Feb. 24, 1651, m. Sarah Wilson June 2d, 1702, and had children:

Joseph, William⁴, John, Jacob, David and Benjamin.

Jacob³ Preston's children (William⁴ and brothers) nearly all were born in Andover, and settled in Windham.

William⁴ Preston (Jacob³, Samuel², Roger¹) married in Windham Lois Simons, daughter of Jonathan, and had Lois Preston who married James Smith.

Lois Preston, the wife of James Smith, was the daughter of William and Lois (Simons) Preston, Lois Simons being the daughter of Jonathan and Miriam (Allyn or Allen) Simons of Windham. Miriam Allen was probably the daughter of Joshua Allen, an early and prosperous settler in that part of Windham, now Mansfield, and "was probably from Massachusetts, perhaps Yarmouth." Jonathan Simons was born in 1687, and was one of the sons of Robert and "Thomasin" (Walden) Simons of Wenham, Mass., who settled in 1710 in Windham.

Edward Walden of Wenham (perhaps brother of John of Marblehead, one of whose descendants, John Walden, Jr., and wife, Abigail Cutler, settled about 1717 in Windham), in his will of 1678, names his children, apparently all of them, but one of the witnesses deposed in the court, that Mr. Walden, excepted his daughters 11 Mary" and 11 Thomasin," as he had formerly given them their shares; thus they were particularized,-no other records giving a precise account of them.

• MARY WALDEN m. Robert, son of Robert Hibbard of Salem or Beverly, and settled about 1698 in Windham, Conn.
• THOMASIN m. Robert Simons, b. 1645; he d. in Windham, Aug. 29, 1724. Of his five sons, Jacob and Jonathan settled in Windham.
• JONATHAN SIMONS, b. 1687, died Sept. 14, 1727, at age of 40. He m. Miriam Allyn, 16 Dec., 1702.

Lois was the fifth of eleven children; was born March 15, 1711 ; she was but 16 years of age when her father, Jonathan, died in 1727. Lois Simons married, Feb. 28,1734, William⁴ Preston (of Windham), born in 1711. Their children were ten in number, of which seven married in or near Windham. Lois Preston was the third, born Feb. 16, 1737-S. She married James Smith, April 30, 1766; when she died it is not known.

The will of William Preston, Aug. 6, 1778, mentions "son Stephen, daughter Tamar Parish, Richama Kennedy, wife of Daniel; daughter Lois Smith, wife of James Smith; daughter Mehitable Simons, wife of Jacob Simons, Jr.; daughter Sybil Baker, wife of Samuel Baker. Son William the executor," etc.

The relationship of William Preston, the father of Lois, who married James Smith, and John Preston, the father of Mary, who married Stephen Smith, can be seen by the following brief genealogy of the Preston name, from Roger Preston of Ipswich, Mass.

John³ Preston the brother of Jacob³ born May 1, 1635, m. Mary Haines of Haverhill. Of their children, Mary Preston, married Stephen Smith of Windham; and their son James (Smith) m. Lois⁵ Preston (William⁴).

JOHN³ PRESSON (as he always spelled his name) (Samuel², Roger¹) b. May 1, 1685, married June 10, 1706-7, Mary, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Moulton) Haines, b. March 3, 1686. After marriage it is probable that they immediately settled in Killingly, Conn., as he was enumerated among the proprietors in 1709. Here they remained until they had ten children born to them, when in 1727 they removed to Windham, where two more children were added. John, the father, died July, 1733.

The children of John and Mary were:

1. JOHN, b. --, m. Eleanor Styles, March 18, 1730-1
2. MARY, b. --, m. Stephen Smith, 1736.
3. SUSANNA, bapt. Sept. 9, 1711, m. Thomas Adams.
4. JONATHAN, bapt. Feb., 1714.
5. JOSEPH, bapt. Sept. 15,1717, m. Mary Frame, April 8, 1738.
6. BENJAMIN, bapt. June 22, 1718.
7. THEODORE, b. 1720, m. Eunice Bunde, Jan. 29, 1741-2.
8. WILLIAM, b. 1721.
9. ABIGAIL, bapt. Sept. 15, 1723.
10. DAVID, bapt. Oct. 10, 1725, m. Susanna Mason, June 22, 1747.
11. SAMUEL, b. in Windham, Aug. 20, 1727.
12. SARAH, b. Feb. 6, 172g, d. March 8, 1730.

During the settlement of the estate, as the sons came of age they disposed of their shares by which recorded deeds we know that Benjamin and Joseph, who were then of Pomfret, sold their shares of the estate of their "honored father, John Preston" to their "brother-in-law, Stephen Smith of Windham"; and in Oct., 1739, Stephen Smith "Tanner" and Mary, his wife, sold to Ebenezer Griffin of Windham "their own rights, together with those of their brothers, Joseph and Benjamin." William sold his right' to Theodore. It is probable that widow, Mary (Haines) Preston continued to reside with Theodore, and removed with him elsewhere from Windham, after the year 1748.

After the successful ending of King Phillip's War, in the great battle at Narragansett, this part of New England became quite peaceful and free from Indian invasions. One John Preston or " Presson " as be spelled the name, supposed to be the uncle of John of Killingly, had a part in this celebrated war; so helped to make peaceful this country that John and Mary were destined to occupy. There is a shadow of mystery or romance over the lives of most of those who were engaged in this short and sanguinary campaign.

Quoting from a deed dated Dec. 18, 1727, recorded in Windham, is the following : -" 1, John Preston Sen., of Windham (John² Roger¹), sell to my cousin (grand nephew), John Preston, Jun., of Windham (John⁴, Jacob³, Samuel², Roger¹), land granted me for serving his majesty in the expedition to Narragansett under Capt. Gardner. I, being then of Andover, and called John Jun." He was not junior to any other John in Roger's line, so must have had reference to some John of other Preston family.

In one of the oldest cemeteries in Hampton, Conn. (the second parish of Windham), can be seen the gravestones of this John of "Narragansett," and John of Killingly, the latter of which reads : -"John Presson, died July 26, 1733 in the 42 year of his age."

On another stone is simply, "Mr. John Presson." Standing by its side is a stone having the inscription, "Mrs. Sarah Preston, died 1751." It is supposed that these two stones are those of John, the Narragansett soldier, and his wife, Sarah. Mary, the wife of John of Killingly and Windham, lived longer, and died elsewhere probably than in Windham.

Mary Haines, the wife of John Presson, was a daughter of Jonathan and Sarah (Moulton) Haines of Newbury and Haverhill, Mass. She was born March 3, 1656-7, in Haverhill. She married John Presson of Andover, Jan. 10, 1706-7, when nearly 21 years of age. Her life before marriage was eventful, and the account of it, with the history of her parentage, or their ancestry, will take the reader to the towns of Essex County, and other towns on or near the Merrimac River, and to earlier periods of time.

Her mother was Sarah, daughter of William Moulton of Hampton, N. H.; her father having first married a Mary Moulton, who died within a few months after, -supposed to have been sisters.

Jonathan Haines and Sarah Moulton were married by Rev. Samuel Dalton, of some celebrity, the pastor of Hampton church, Jonathan being at this time a resident of Newbury.

Says the Moulton Genealogy:

"William Moulton, born in Ormsby, Norfolk, Eng., about 1617, married Margaret, daughter of Robert and Lucy Page, with whose family he came to New England, his age being 20 when embarking in; England, 1637. They landed probably at Boston, thence he and the Pages went to Newbury, Mass., and remained somewhat more than a year, and then joined the new settlement at Hampton in 1639." William Moulton died 1664, and in his will he mentions eight children, the 4th being Mary, and the 6th Sarah.

Robert Page of Salem, says one authority, came from Ormsby, Norfolk, Eng., in 1637, aged 33, with his wife, Lucy, aged 30, with three children, Francis, Margaret and Susanna. They had with them two servants, William Moulton, 20, and Ann Wadd, 15. Robert Page was a freeman in 1642; and was among the first settlers at Hampton, N. H. He was of the first board of selectmen, and six times after to 1670. Was a member of the general court in 1657 and again in 1665. He was marshal of the old county of Norfolk, which then included Hampton. His tax in 1659 was the highest among 76 persons, amounting to one-twentieth of the whole. He was the only deacon of the church for 20 years. He died 1679, aged 75; wife, Lucy, died 1665, aged 58. In his will, 1679, he mentions, among others, "Margaret, wife of William Moulton."

NOTE.-The term "servant," applied to those who were not of the children of the family, but among them and with the family, was' given them probably to comply with some technical demand in the passenger lists in the custom house of the port of embarkation.