ANDREW PIERCE REPORTS - JULY 9, 2001

Mr. Tim Farr
P.O.Box 449
Ferron, UT 84523

Dear Tim,

I have continued research on the various New England ancestral lines you presented some weeks ago, and herein Include new findings since my last report. The Middlesex County Court Records Folio Collection, at the Massachusetts State Archives, has a petition(Folio 1679-86-4) from the selectmen of Reading on 12, 10 mo. 1679, for power to dispose of Hanah Davise, a "widdow woman" with minor children, "she not haveing whearewith to mainetaine her selfe but her hard labor much less to mainetaine her children...she haveing bene by us warned to put her children out and fee us of thie truble but yet the matter is neglected..."

The Middlesex County court record book adds in 1679 that "The select men of Redding are ordered to dispose of the children of Widow Davis as the law directs.? No further record Is found of the Davises in court records. It Is obvious that Hannah probably did not inherit property, land or otherwise, from her husband or her parents. She may well have remarried after 1679, but probably not In Reading as there Is no record; the IGi entries for Hannah Davises marrying In Massachusetts during the next decade might be checked for possibilities.

Walter Goodwin Davis? The Ancestry of Joseph Neal(1 945)presents the best treatment of Thomas Clapp, his parentage and children. He was born ca.1 609, not 1597, and was the son of Nicholas & Elizabeth Clapp, not Richard Clapp. The name of his second wife, the mother of his son Increase, Is NOT known; she was NOT his third wife, Abigail Wright. The latest volume of The Great Migration adds some notes on the Clapps, stating that a comprehensive study of the Clapp family will "be included In the forthcoming fourth volume of the ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton, by Dean Crawford Smith and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Mr.Smith is deceased and Ms.Sanborn is a close colleague of mine, and I will ask her about the book at my earliest opportunity.

The will of Richard Parke of Cambridge MA, made in 1665, mentions his wife and two daughters(unnamed), and his son Thomas. An inventory is attached. In 1676(MCRD 6150)his son Thomas sold two acres of salt marsh in Cambridge, which had been purchased by his father, to Francis Whitemore(who had married Thomas? sister Isabel Park).

The will of the younger Francis Moore of Cambridge, made in 1689, names a number of kinsmen Including his brothers John & Thomas; Anna Eaton, daughter of Daniel Eaton; and Nathaniel & Samuel Kidder. An inventory was taken for his father, the senior Francis Moore, in 1671, but this gives no relevant genealogical information.

I plan to determine the identity of the younger Richard Park?s wife(whether Sarah King or not), but in the meantime I wished to get what I have out to you without further delay. This concludes my report; total time spent thus far on this project Is 10 hours, and $25 In photocopy and postage expenses for a total of $325.00. Less your $100 advance retainer, this leaves $225 outstanding.

Please advise as to your wishes for any further research; it has been a pleasure to work on your New England colonial lines, and I shall look forward to corresponding again In the near future.

Sincerely,

R. Andrew Pierce