Shw Mae!
I hope you will bear with me. I've got a little mystery I've been trying to
solve for some years now. My 10thggrandfather was Edmond Johnson, who was one
of the first settlers of Hampton, NH. He died in 1651.
There are old family stories that Edmond's family came from the Pontypool
area. Below, I reprint excerpts from the oldest sources I have been able to
track down.
I would appreciate any light that anyone on this list might be able to shed
on this subject.
Diolch yn Fawr,
David Larsson
(residing near, and working in, Philadelphia, PA, destination of so many
Welsh Quakers in the 17th and 18th centuries)
I begin with a quote from William Little's History of Weare, NH. (Weare,
N.H.: Town of Weare NH, 1888):
"There is a well-kept and perhaps well-founded, tradition handed down
from generation to generation, of two generations in Wales back of the
Edmund that came to this country. The first of these two generations,
who was also named Edmund, was, with his six eldest sons, drowned while
fishing in the river at Ponty Pool, in the south of Wales, about the
year 1600, leaving one son, John, who remained at home with his mother
and thus escaped the fate of his father and elder brothers. John was
born in 1588, being twelve years old at the time of his father's
decease. John had two sons, John Ap John, who was a distinguished
co-laborer with George Fox in founding the Society of Friends, or
Quakers, in 1653, and Edmund, who settled in Winnicumet, in 1635, and
perhaps other children."
Here's another relevant quote from the website
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/1094/peaslee.htm that adds another
sibling to the mix:
"Mary Johnson was born in Trevor Issa, Wales and was the granddaughter
of Edmund Johnson. He, along with six of his children, drowned while on
a boating trip in Ponty Pool, Wales, in 1600. The only surviving child
was Mary's father, John who was 12 years old when this happened. He had
stayed home with his mother during this family outing. John Johnson was
a successful farmer in Wales. He had at least three children, Edmund,
Mary and John. Edmund settled in Hampton, New Hampshire in 1635. Mary
married Joseph Peasley and settled in Haverhill, Mass, while John
remained in England where he became a noted Quaker and a companion of
George Fox ... Sources; The Peaslees by E.Kimball (Press of Chase
Brothers,Haverhill,Mass. 1899), A Passel O' Peasleys by Fredrick
Lamphere (Indianapolis, Indiana 1979), The History of Sutton, New
Hampshire, by Augusta Worthen (Republican Pree, Concord, NH 1890), The
Peaslees and Others of Haverhill and Vicinity, by E.A. Kimbal,
Mass:Press of Chase Brothers, 1899."
Finally, from Kimball, E.A. The Peaslees and Others of Haverhill and
Vicinity,
Haverhill, Mass.: Press of Chase Brothers, 1899
"Miss Johnson of Oak Knoll, Danvers, is authority for the statement that
Joseph Peasley married, in Wales, Mary Johnson, the daughter of a farmer
possessed of considerable worldly estate; that the couple came to this
country at about the same time as Edmund Johnson, who left England
(Bristol?) in 1635, and with his wife Mary was in Hampton, New
Hampshire, in 1639."
By the way ... "Miss Johnson" was one of the women who cared for the famous
Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier in his declining years, which he spent at
the house known as Oak Knoll in Danvers (originally a portion of Salem),
Massachusetts. Miss Johnson's father (and owner of Oak Knoll) was Edmund
Johnson, whose father was a Johnson and whose mother was a Peaslee ... so it
all comes together in the end.