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Author: Judith_Schreiber
Surnames:
Classification: queries
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http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.carley/443.1.1.1/mb.ashx
Message Board Post:
I'm not sure that this is the proper venue to argue this case but I do welcome the
opportunity to have others view this information and hopefully contribute to it.
Since John was born prior to the death of Grace Bully Bowden January 10, 1710 at Boston,
he would have also been born at Boston -- John Bowden, husband of Grace and father of
Mary, died April 04, 1697 at Boston. Prior to that date he had arranged cargoes for
vessels out of the port of Marblehead, the Bowden family having vacated Saco and
Scarborough areas due to the Indian unrest in the area by 1690. William and Mary Carley
settled his estate in 1726.
II. John 2 Bowdoin, b. 1640, or earlier. He probably was the " John boden " in
service, 1676, in " Captain Gardiner's Souldiers, credited to Salem." The
wife of John Bowdoin was Grace, daughter to " Nicholas Bully of Saco." They
lived in Saco until driven off by the Indians, in 1690; the date of his death is not
known. That she took refuge in Boston is evident from the fact that " Wid° Booden
" was mentioned in 1700 in a list of tax abatements. In a return of a census of
Boston, taken June 26, 1707, " Grace Bowden W. P. [Widow, Poor] " appears as
living at " Widow Henlys " - rent £4:10.
Settlement of John's estate at Saco - - " John Bowden of Saco . . . Planter
" was living there in 1687, on the two hundred acres which he bought, Oct. n, 1659,
of "Joseph Boles of Wells ;" the land adjoined that of Peter Hills. "
William Kerley [Carley] of Boston, in behalf of his wife & three Sisters Daughters of
John Bouden Some time Inhabetant of Saco Dec* " claimed (no date given) the above
mentioned land " near Peter Hills." In 1726, "William Careley . . . Mariner
& Mary Carley my Wife . . . Ruth Bouden Spinster . . . Margaret Foxwell Widow . . .
Ann Mullins Widow . . . William Marshall . . . Butcher & Hannah my Wife ... all of
Boston in the County of Suffolk . . . Elias Ware of Rhode Island . . . Merch* . . .
Benjamin Collins of Dighton in the County of New Bristol in Rhode Island . . . Housewright
& Elizabeth my Wife . . . Joseph Andrews of Dorchester ... Husbandman & Elizabeth
my Wife . (last few names may not be part of this document).
http://books.google.com/books?id=UMRRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1467&dq=Mary Bowden
Carley#v=onepage&q=Mary Bowden Carley&f=false
In the mid 1720's the name of Joseph Carley appears in the records for Fairfield, CT
located by another Carley family member now living in Fairfield area, as well as a James
Carley and John, who married Sarah Sherwood -- we have no marriage record copy for John
and Sarah Sherwood - so many church and area records were lost to fires set in the area
during the Rev. War, it is said in retaliation for the activities of anti-British groups
organized by Sarah's cousin Adiel Sherwood, Sr, - but they were supposedly married at
Westport in 1731 and removed to the Oblong, Dutchess County, NY, according to her
father's Will of 1760 by that date, Sarah Carley being called wife of John Carely.
In boxes of records available for the time period needed (1731-1732. These records are of
the Judicial dept in some boxes and the Superior court in others.. - - - - -John Carley
has his signature on the petition along with Sherwoods and others. ---(and) his name on
the Fairfield tax role for that same area extending from Greenfield Hill into a portion of
Wilton and including northern portions of Greens Farms Society. Fairfield West was another
name used."
Basically there were three Carley men in Fairfield about 1733-John, Joseph and James. In
one debt collection document, John Carley and Ephraim Jackson(Abraham's father-in-law
later?) are the principales and written finely above a line saying, "of
Fairfield," is the phrase, "late of Marlborough now resides...". This is
the only or most pointing written statement that we have yet to confirm our conclusions
thus far! It says John Carley was of Marlborough! The document also seems to say
"South Fairfield" which would be Southport today(next to or part of Greensfarms
and Westport) and there is a church there which documents the family of David Sherwood
and names John and Sarah.
From oral history of my family - I can clearly remember my grandmother
- who was named for Grace Bully Bowden - musing on the possibility that the movie actor
Ralph Meeker might be a distant relative of ours-- (He wasn't - it was his stage
name), since Sarah Sherwood Carley's mother was Sarah Meeker Sherwood, wife of David
Sherwood, and her sister Elizabeth Meeker married a William Gray whose son Thaddeus Gray
became the second husband of Susannah, John and Sarah's son Abraham's widow, in
Feb. 1759. Can life get more convoluted?
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