Family of William * GARRISH and Anna PAINE

Husband:	William * GARRISH (1617-1687)
Wife:	Anna PAINE (c. 1620- )
Marriage	12 Nov 1685

Husband: William * GARRISH

Wife: Anna PAINE

Name:	Anna PAINE
Sex:	Female
Father:	-
Mother:	-
Birth	1620 (est)

Note on Husband: William * GARRISH

Capt. William Gerrish was born on 20 August 1617 in Bristol.2 William Gerrish had come from Bristol, England, and was the first captain of the Newbury militia band and a representative; he settled in Boston in 1678.3 He married firstly Joanna Lowell, daughter of Percival Lowell and Rebecca (Unknown), on 17 April 1645 (Farmer gives a date of 17 April 1644).1,4,5 Capt. William Gerrish married secondly Anne Parker, daughter of Richard Parker, after June 1677.6,7 Capt. William Gerrish died on 9 August 1687 in Salem, Massachusetts, at the age of 69 Farmer says that he moved to Salem on 3 August and died on 9 November.3

 

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The ship “Jonathan” brought William Gerrish and the Percival Lowle family from England to Massachusetts in 1639. William, who was born on August 20, 1617, in Bristol, Somersetshire, was instructed in the mercantile business by Mr. Lowle while both still lived in England. Not long after the group arrived in the colony, William married widow Joanna Lowle Oliver. Together they had ten children, at least eight of whom survived to adulthood.

 

Residing with his family in Newbury, William became a freeholder in 1649. As he grew in the esteem of his townsmen he was appointed to such positions as Commissioner of Common Causes, Lieutenant and then Captain of their local militia (known as band), and ultimately deputy to the General Court (the lower house of representatives in Massachusetts). He was the equivalent of a road and public works commissioner seeing to road and bridge repair and the town's water mill construction.

 

As he became more involved in his community the townspeople asked that he not be in charge of both the Horse and the Foote troops at the same time, possibly implying he was gaining too much power. As a deputy to the General Court (ultimately the lower house of representatives in Massachusetts) he and six others listed a number of actions which had displeased the king. They in turn were asked to defend their statement. Apparently this was done to the satisfaction of his peers, for in 1686, after he had moved to Boston and remarried, he was asked to give the opening and closing prayers at the semi-centennial celebration of the city of Boston.

 

In his final years William Gerrish was the owner of Number Three Long Wharf. He died on August 9, 1687 at the house of his son Benjamin in Salem, where he wrote and signed a detailed will, regrettably more generous to his sons than to his daughters.³

Sources

1	Edmund West, "Family Data Collection - Births" (Provo, UT 2001).

2	Edmund West, "Family Data Collection - Death" (Generations Network, Inc 2001).

3	Nat'l Society of the Colonial Dames of America, "Short Biographies of our Colonial Ancestors".