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Author: Judith_Schreiber
Surnames: Kerly/Kerley/Carley, White, King
Classification: queries
Message Board URL:
http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carley/435/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I have been researching this family's history for the last 15 years and I have reached
some serious conclusions about much of the recorded history for this family and would
appreciate your indulgence in it's regard and also any feedback you can give me. As I
am a descendant of this family, I would very much like to see all of these discrepancies
solved and resolved. Please take the time to follow what I have discovered in my
probings.
1. The senior and core Kerly family to come to Massachusetts was a William but not the
William of the "Confidence". The first family was William, b. 1602 at Ashmore,
Dorset, England with his wife Ann White, and their children, Mary, b. 1627 (m. 6 Oct. 1647
Richard Smith, Sr, b. 1626, d. March 27, 1654 at Lancaster); Henry, b. 1632 (m. 1. at
Sudbury November 02, 1654, Elizabeth White who was killed during the Massacre at Lancaster
in 16776, m. 2. February 18, 1677 at Charlestown, Elizabeth Ward, widow of John Howe, Jr
(actually John Howe, III), d. December 13, 1713 at Marlborough; William, Jr., b 1633, m.
Jane Unknown in 1666 at Sudbury, d. May 13, 1719 at Lexington where he is buried with
wife Jane and daughter Elizabeth in the Robbins Cemetery, East Village of Lexington - his
age at death, (86 yrs.), corroborates his date of birth. These three children of William,
Sr and Ann White Kerly were all born at Ashmore in Dorset, England.
2. The William of the "Confidence" is noted in ship's documents as having
arrived in MA with and Edmund or Edward who was 22 years of age at the time of
embarkation, making Edmund/Edward's date of birth as 1616.
In "Ages from Court Records 1636 to 1700, Vol.I: Essex, Middlesex, and Suffolk
Counties,Massachusetts"; Melinde Lutz Sanborn, (William Kerly) Took oath as Freeman
at Marlborough - 23 May 1666 and in Court records - Gen.Pub.Co., 2003 gave his age in
litigation proceedings as follows;
-William Kerly....age 45 in 1666....MCC folio 40
-William Kerly.....46 in 1667....MCC folio 44
which makes his date of birth 1620/21 depending of the date of the proceedings and the
actual date of birth.
This would tie him better to having married Anna King, b. abt 1625 at the Isle of Purbeck,
Dorset, England, daughter of Thomas and Ann King, than would a marriage to Ann White Kerly
b. abt 1602, or to Jane Unknown, who died in 1721 at age 70.
I have gone through these records and dates over and over and I can find no justification
for making William Kerly, Sr out to be the William of the "Confidence" and
actually, another cousin who is of the British side of the family has traced the early
lineage of these two Williams back into the 1400's and has found that the Senior is a
great-grandson of a Robert Kerly, b. 1510 through his son Martin, b 1538, and his son
William, b. 1563 while the younger William is a great-great-grandson of Robert through son
Henry, b. 1542 and Henry's son William, b 1563 through his son William, b. 1594.
Thus they are both of the same "root" but different twigs from a branch -
I further believe that William, Sr is the William Kerly called "Planter at Hull"
in 1637 - his last known sighting in Ashmore was in 1636 when he was reprimanded by the
minister of his church there for not attending a service in that year, to which he
responded that he was in another town attending to his property and thus unable to be at
Ashmore on that day. Would a 14 year old have such an excuse? I also believe that the
duties assigned to William, Sr, by the town authorities would have been far beyond the
abilities of this younger William, at least for many more years than outlined by your town
histories and records, and that there has been too much confusion for too long a period
with no one paying attention to the minute details.
I am aware of the complications involved in anyone recognizing that these are the true
facts - but would very much like to see them become a part of the record for this family.
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