Revised 2023, Mar. , Aug., and in 2024, Jan., to review suggestions for birth date and for brother Enos.

Some things are purposely left vague. For example, people propose two different answers for her birth date, yet, no town or church or legal document confirms either. In contrast: two documents confirm her maiden name was Freedom Kingsley. One, her signature as a witness for an employer. Second, her father's will confirmed he was John Kingsley, father to Eldad and Enos, not just Freedom. That will cited her by first name and residence in Northampton, plus, by her marriage to John French, called a "taylor' by her father. In his will, Mr. Kingsley lamented the "taylor" taking this daughter too far away.

Going away from her father happened twice. FIRST, spouse John French took her to his relatives' home, at Ipswich, far north of Boston (up by future Maine), whereas her father, John Kingsley, had moved far south. (He followed a Mather-connected minister to Taunton?) SECOND, She and John then followed her brother Enos to Northampton, on the Conn. R. He'd already gone there, with a Mather-trained minister. (Spouse John's older brother had long been down the Conn. River at Guilford, near New Haven.)

By the time she was at Northampton, John Kingsley would instead be at Rehoboth, down by Providence, RI. (He wrote his will there. )

MOVING. For her last move, catty-corner, across the Bay Colony, Ipswich to Northampton, they could go by land, difficult in that era. The roundabout seacoast route let them stop at her father's place, "might as well, he's on the way". Once past RI, they'd head west, toward the mouth of the Conn. River, then north, upstream, past Springfield, to Northampton.

Ipswich, where lived close kin of her spouse, was a seacoast place, on the Ipswich River, in Essex County, its church organized about 1654. Spouse John French's parents were said to follow an old minster from England to Ipswich. The years 1657 through 1673 then saw a string of births/baptisms recorded at Ipswich for her John French's children. (If born 1636, her child-bearing years thus ended at about age 37, instead of the usual 40 to 45, causing some to argue she might have been born before 1636.)

The last two births, those of Jonathan and Elizabeth, occurred before leaving Ipswich. For most of her children, baptism papers kept at Ipswich were followed by the same names repeated later in marriage records at Northampton. Further once at Northampton, three sons were among those required to take oaths of allegiance there, the neighbors not yet "angry enough" with the British king to refuse the oaths and revolt.

The repetition of names in two places, Freedom French and Enos Kingsley especially unique, son Jonathan French's name more unique than Elizabeth French in their era, proved the family formerly in Ipswich had gone to Northampton.

Her eldest son is more difficult to track. John French the jr., without a Northampton marriage record, no baptism record at Ipswich, remained near her father's place, marrying someone from there.

When adult and married, Freedom's other children might come and go. Son Deacon Thomas would be in his own extreme circumstances, after leaving Northampton for Deerfield. Son Jonathan French's family was one clearly remaining long-term, at Northampton. (Further west of the Connecticut River, was New York province, large sections Dutch-occupied. Its British officials trying pre-Rev. to claim most or all of the west side of the Conn. River, Berkshire County, initially claimed by NY, would post-Rev. be brought under Mass. )

REMEMBER. Her brother Enos, out in Northampton, would name a new child "Remember". The name was fitting, as the next years, 1676 and 1677, were in tumult for her father. Her youngest child was only age 3 or 4.

Those years could not be forgotten. Her father John's area was starving.

Her father wrote letters, begging for assistance, from people westward of him, on the Conn. River. A minister did respond, but with a delay, sending food to Kingsley's place of Rehoboth, on the Seekonk River. (The Seekonk, at the time, divided old Mass., from old RI's "plantations". )

To remember, the starving time was hard, weakened people.

To remember, John Kingsley died in the next year, 1678.

Then, her father's last widow died? Then came the death of Freedom's brother Eldad, also in 1678, having early moved to a Baptist church-town near his father.

John Kingsley's rugged boulder-like gravestone, appearing where few expect to find it, is in East Providence, RI, at Newman Cemetery, named for the long ago minister "signing the Covenant" at Dorchester in 1636, of John Kingsley's era. (With initials carved on it, "AK", in a corner, he was named in the center. AK was "Allice"? Kingsley's second wife? His will asked that he be buried by her in his farmyard, unusual in a time when and place when most wanted their coffin walked to a burying ground outside their church.)

Too many John Frenches?

Yes, her John French was merely one of multiple immigrating in that century. Most families called French moving into their first places in those early years are shown by modern DNA as not related. (28 groups studied, multiple testers each, were found unrelated, despite same surname. Freedom's John French, with relatives left behind in tiny Assington, DNA-wise, were found related to Frenches at Billerica MA, both of Haplogroup G, sorted into Group 06, in a table at FamilyTreeDna.com, supervised by the FrenchFamilyAssoc.com. Only Group 04, of over 20 groups with multiple testers, was Haplogroup G, with the more common R dominating most of the rest.)

Of the many John Frenches, John's mother, Susan/Susannah Riddlesdale, was unique in name. His father's name and the name of a brother, Thomas French, like John's, were too common to track him, without Susan or Assington named close-by. There's a record trail, for them, leading from Ipswich in the colonies, back to the tiny place of Assington in England (Suffolk region, their town at a border, almost in England's version of Essex; a larger town nearby being Colchester).

When the different John Frenches could not be separated by early geography, no such thing as y-DNA testing of males back then, their wives' and places' names helped define which was which. Still another John French, for example, was seen in Ipswich court records. That other John's wife was called Phebe/Phoebe, their names found with children's baptisms in Topsfield. That place was more rural and agricultural, maybe seven or eight miles southwest of Ipswich, with marshes near, the town likely kept dry by being up on some sort of ridge, hence, "Top" in the town's name.

A marriage at the bride's church was usually followed, back then, by the bride moving to the spouse's home. His geography matters more, though hers assists, given people can't meet and marry, unless their paths cross. Children's baptisms and funerals in the same small place confirm family relationships. DNA tests of known male descendants verified the Ipswich-Riddlesdale-Assington Frenches are not related to the John French d.1692 in Braintree (south of Boston, with wife Grace French's stone still readable at Hancock Cemetery, in what's now Quincy; that other couple had begun their children-bearing about 1640, so a few decades earlier than did Freedom and her John French.)

Occupation helped separate the different John Frenches. Tailor? Miller? Hunter/trapper? Shipbuilder? Ship captain? Farmer? Different skill sets.

If the whole family practiced an occupation. they often did not want to switch. They had learned that taught skill, had locations set-up, mortgages and contracts-for-deed slowly paid off, had buyers, customers, clients, who went to them repeatedly.

Her spouse's tailors were able to live in towns, bigger ones better for business than smaller ones. Farmers, common then, not rare like now, needed access to land, outside towns, many staying in one spot for generations, emotionally attached to neighbors, not just family. Less common were her father's set, the special class of farmer called "husbandmen". Husbandmen were, to animals, as midwives were, to humans, respectively skilled in keeping animals and children alive.

Her father had been that kind of farmer, an animal husbandman. Not as sedentary as a crop farmer, with skills for breeding and birthing livestock, he and any family assisting him would move animals pasture-to-pasture for fresh grass, then to market, to whomever paid a decent price that justified the distance travelled.

Freedom's father, thus, moved about.

John Kingsley was first important as an elder at Dorchester's church, then an independent church-town. It was a mother church when it had re-opened under Rev. Richard Mather, circa 1635, where people and their ministers-in-training could wait until the next church-town was created, to welcome a new set of "freemen", as voting church members.

Both of her parents were with R. Mather to "sign the covenant". That signing was a big opening event, special, remembered, done on Aug.23 of 1636. People who like 1636 as her birth year thus noticed her mother signing, not just her father. (See her mother's FindaGrave page, showing the signature list, saved in an old book. (Her mother might have had just arrived in the Bay Colony,, so it's possible Freedom was born back in England.)

Dorchester was still barely south of old Boston then, not annexed by Boston until much later. Mr. Kingsley was there until at least 1651, said to be in the Dorchester Neck, possibly both a home and pasture land. The Neck was said to be the only approach, by land, to a still tiny and peninsula-like Boston, soldiers and officials in Boston protected from possible attack by water on three sides.

Their Ipswich was far north, the town on drier land along the Ipswich River, yet still in marshy territory (marshes make up much of the modern wildlife refuges nearby?). They were north, not just of an emerging Boston, but further than that, beyond an alternative port called Salem, used by Puritans when entering the Bay Colony. Being a bit inland on the Ipswich River, Ipswich became a shipbuilding place later.

The needs of their occupations, not just distance, separated her spouse's tailoring family from her father's cattle drovers and husbandmen. Tailors could more easily stay in one place, to build a business, bigger towns better for them. They could farm on the side, if they wished. Her father, in contrast, as an "animal husbandman", would have had some veterinary skills, deliberately moved about. Having pastures near several different markets was good, able to sell at whichever had better prices, but the pastureland of a "big operator" would not be inside the market towns, as town land was too pricey.

Dorchester Neck would have been affected by the growth of its nearby market town (Boston). As emerging Boston grew and moved out into the neck, with marshes filled in, previously low cost land might have gone up in value. Her could profitably sell land in the Neck, to buy land still inexpensive, down nearer RI?

Her father's changing locations were thus near two main markets, first at Dorchester Neck, salt marshes near, at the south edge of a still tiny Boston. (Freedom's mother is presumed, not proven, to have died at Dorchester. When both parents "signed the covenant", John was last of the elders, mother Elizabeth signed after the other elders' wives, as if she and John had come a distance and arrived late. )

John Kingsley moved nearer a second big marketplace, Providence, after Freedom's mother died, careful to stay on the Mass. side, without the issues of the RI "plantations". Places named in his second and third re-marriage records would be his brides' addresses, if not also his.

He wrote his desperate letters to Connecticut people, in a time of attack and starvation. He received some food for his town, in return, delivery delayed, and wrote his will not long afterward.

Kingsley's will seemed to leave Freedom and her brother Enos little. The will described their brother Eldad, nearby, as expected to care for John Kingsley and (third) wife Mary in their "further old age". Thus, Eldad appeared to be the one set to inherit after Mary died. However, all three staying near RI, father, his widow, his son, were weakened by events. All died in short order, father John Kingsley first.

East Providence, RI, was created by a boundary change in the mid-1800s, putting both sides of the Seekonk inside RI . Her son John French's grave is now found there, with John Kingsley's stone, in East at the Newman Cemetery, not in Mass.

In contrast, some other children, she, her spouse and her brother Enos would be buried considerably westward. Ipswich records cotinued to track her and John, recorded their death dates at Northampton, no special coffins and rail travel invented yet to carry the deceased "back home", thus, burial in Northampton's cemetery would be expected, many of its stones gone.

CHILDREN. Her last child's baptism at Ipswich occurred in her mid-to-late 30s, if she was born 1636.

FamilySearch shows these baptism dates at Ipswich:

Thomas 1657, unnamed child 1658, Mary 1659, "Samuell" 1661, "Hanah" 1664, Jonathan 1667, Elizabeth 1673.

Others count more children. A long ago family historian named Savage thought two were born at Rehoboth. Her eldest, son John, clearly missing from the above list, is called John Jr in some records at Rehoboth. His birth year would put his birth ahead of the opening of the Ipswich church, so he had to be baptized elsewhere.

DETAILS. John Linzee, a careful historian in the 1800s, writing for just the Parker and Ruggles families and their in-laws, mined Ipswich records for details. He detected spouse John French signing deed paperwork for a number of plots of land in June, 1677, one for about two acres that seemed right to be the Ipswich homestead, promising to allow possession to the buyer by June 1, 1678, with Freedom promising in 1677 to give up her "Dowrye in the house and land" (dower, a widow's rights to occupy should the spouse die first).

Selling their Ipswich properties freed them to move and buy elsewhere. Maybe they'd been torn, wanting to go to the Rehoboth/Seekonk area to join her father and Eldad, but also wanting to join her brother Enos at Northampton? A "birds-eye route" over land would run diagonally, NE to SW, across the Bay Colony, from Ipswich to Northampton. To move furniture, tailors' equipment, their youngest children, etc, it was easier to go by ship, follow the Mass. coast southward from the Ipswich port, then circle around the Rhode Island corner, until ending west by the emerging Conn. towns (future suburbs of NY city). Once as far as the Windsor colony (towns were colonies in early CT) , they would unload, hire wagons, and turn to go up the Conn. River and back into Mass. , past Springfield, to enter Northampton.

They could have stopped at her father's or Eldad's farms on the way, dropping off eldest son John, if he had not gotten to Rehoboth otherwise, earlier, for example, by driving livestock. That son was said to marry at Rehoboth in 1676, when he would have been about 20, the date for leaving their Ipswich land not yet reached..

1676 was a year that mattered.

Northampton was the choice of their next location. Material saved at MinerDescent.com quotes the 1800s historian called Savage. Did he know the paperwork signing date? He says they arrived or began to arrive about 1676, presence of the whole family at Northampton confirmed in Mar. 1678 by a daughter's marriage, then in 1679, by three sons taking oaths at Northampton. Savage assumed they came from Rehoboth. However, if so, they had been there only briefly as they left Ipswich, Linzee noting her father's will chastising them for absence.

From Savage:

"JOHN, Northampton, came a. 1676, from Rehoboth, with w. d. of John Kingsley, and ch. John, Thomas, Samuel, and Jonathan, the first three of wh. took o. of alleg. 8 Feb. 1679; beside three ds. Mary, w. of Samuel Stebbins, m. 4 Mar. 1678, wh. d. bef. her f.; Hannah, w. of Francis Keet; and Elizabeth w. of Samuel Pomeroy."

Compare the dates. Agreeing to sell Ipswich properties June, 1677, that action of the Freedom and spouse preceded her father signing his will Nov. 2, 1677. That will was then "proved" in a few months, on Mar. 5, after John Kingsley's death. A database at FamilySearch shows her brother Eldad died Aug 30, 1679, so there was a lot of death in her family around the time Freedom and John took their children to Northampton. If John and Freedom had been with her father, as Mr. Kingsley wished, then what? They might have joined the others with their deaths noted after the starvation time?

ENOS. Her brother Enos had gone to Northampton earlier. He married Sarah Haines there in 1662. He most likely arrived with the first minister, Rev Eleazer Mather, son of Richard Mather. They were said to be educated together back in Dorchester, where Rev. Mather insisted on local education, before the Mather sons were sent off for higher education (could happen at age 12 or 14, as local schools were "grammar" level, while seminaries were the first colleges, no such thing as high school, in between). The "First Church" congregation at Northampton organized in 1660. Enos and Sarah had a son they named John, who died in 1664. Young Rev. Mather was deceased by 1667, replaced in 1670 by Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who'd married the first minister's widow. Other children, a Samuel, Haines, Hannah and Jonathan were born to Enos and Sarah, 1667 through 1679. Near the end of that set was their son Remember born July, 1677. Enos and Sarah had finished a year everyone would always remember?

Freedom died first, then her John French, exact death dates remembered, as reported back to Ipswich, Northampton noted as their death place. That reporting was fortunate, given Northampton death records are lacking, paper mentions not saved, only stone, andmuch of that gone. (A Northampton graveyard book of the 1850s found a still legible stone for a later Enos Kingsley, telling us that brother's end of the Kingsleys was there long-term.)

SCRATCHPAD--redundant earlier versions below, much to be cut.

MORE DETAILS. Her father John Kingsley chastised her spouse John French in his will, for taking her away from him. A "taylor" stayed in one spot, to grow his business. A "husbandman" could live near one market, sell at another when prices at the first fell too low. One set of pastures could have a drought, when a different set had had adequate rain. At some point, her father stopped moving, stayed east of the Seekonk R. The Seekonk was salty? Animals need salt. The downside? It's villages were harder to defend than Boston and Dorchester had been?

The Kingsleys' first regular residence, amidst their moving about, was said to be at the "Dorchester Neck", while her father was an elder at Dorchester. Cart trails thought the neck gave the only easy land entrance to an old Boston that had been peninsula-like.

Water is defensive, protecting from an attack with no warning, crossed less easily than is land. If the Atlantic protected the peninsula's more rugged east side, then the Neponset River protected the peninsula's longish westward side. The eastern side's cliffs gave an early view of anyone approaching from the Atlantic Ocean, old "Merry Mount" an example.

Had Boston urbanized enough, that land prices made it profitable to sell his Dorchester spot? Or? An old Dorchester history book said records had been lost, implied that a Rev. Maverick had not been able to stop an "accidental" burning of the old combo church-town hall before Rev. Mather came.

If John Kingsley had been renting, an employer, Winthrop or someone else with cattle, who'd owned the property and hired him, then no longer needed him? Whatever the reason, Dorchester was given up and John Kingsley was thereafter only down by the Seekonk?

After John Kingsley move away from Dorchester, he was definitely at Rehoboth, alleged but not proven at Taunton. Both were east of the Seekonk River, thus, both east of Providence, R.I.

Near the end of his life, John wrote a minister at Hartford, one of the town-colonies of future Connecticut, south of Freedom's and Enos' Northampton. The minister must have known him from events in the past. Kingsley begged that the minister send food for Rehoboth in his "starvation letter", a year or two pre-death. Over 600 bushels of corn were gathered and sent, but maybe not soon enough to stop the weakening of John and others. John's third wife would die a month or so after he did, Eldad to die as well.

Only two adult Kingsleys, a man and a woman, were among eighty or so first signers of the new covenant at the Dorchester church in Aug. of 1636. Baptisms by its Rev. R. Mather were thus no earlier than that. Freedom thus was not of record if baptized on Jan. 2 in 1636, as one tree claims, no source cited, not there, not in any other old records checked.

In 1859, an "Antiquarian Committee" published what they could find of old Dorchester records, over two hundred years after her father's last Dorchester record showed John Kingsley declared a "freeman" in 1651:

"The existing- church records commence with the Covenant adopted at the settlement of Mr. Mather, August 23, 1636. The record of births previous to the year 1657 was accidentally burnt, and the few that have been preserved before that date were furnished afterwards from family Bibles. "

Since Bibles were not mass-produced until the 1830s, the bible entries might have been based on saved letters, etc, but also could involve guesswork.

A long stretch of fifteen years had thus passed after he and Elizabeth "signed the covenant", promising to comply with congregation requirements, before he became a "freeman" in 1651, under Winthrop's idea of trying local democracy despite a king overhead. John had some say-so at Mather's church as one of the four original "elders" signing, so maybe was a co-author of their covenant.

Fifteen years passed, between Aug. 1636 and 1651. Children, both born after the covenant signing, and also who then had clearly adult records, were Eldad, Enos and Renewed. Zero records for Freedom were found by Dorchester antiquarians. She had records, at other locations, not at Dorchester. She worked as a young teen at Hingham pre-marriage, in Hingham.

Elizabeth Kingsley was a covenant co-signer in 1636. She died. When? Sometime inside those particular fifteen years, a span that could have included John's marriage to his second wife, a widow. When could that widow remarry? Not until her first spouse, Mr. Jones, died.

The date of Mr. Jones' will paperwork thus assigned John Kingsley's children born earlier than

Renewed, to John's first wife Elizabeth. John's children born afterward would have hazier births, possibly to the former Widow Jones, possibly to Elizabeth if she were still living during Akice Jones' early widowhood.

In summary, those checking the will dates concluded the three cited in John's will, Freedom, Eldad and Enos, were born before Mr. Jones died, thus, definitely were not by his second wife, the woman remembered as Alice in John's will. What about Renewed, born as a Kingsley, after Mr. Jones death? She could have been by either wife, by Elizabeth if Elizabeth lived longer than Mr. Jones, so still alive up to Renewed's birth in 1644. There's no dated will by Elizabeth saying what to do with cherished possessions should she die.

Renewed, was named in Dorchester records as having married and gone to Ipswich. Was she there when Freedom was there? Possible, if only eight years younger?.

His third wife, Mary, with his son Eldad, to die about a month after he (Preserved at Hartford, Conn, was a later "starvation letter" sent from Rehoboth to their church, saved at Hartford, any sent to Northampton or Dorchester not saved. He begged for food for Rehoboth, asked for news of "Enoes", implying Enos circulated as John French had done, was not instead of Taunton and Rehoboth, down by the R.I. plantation-colonies . John's will stated his second wife's burial spot was as in his farmyard, his third wife, not married for long, called Mary, is buried where? with a prior spouse? )

Elizabeth died and John's marriage to a Widow Jones before 1651 were not caught by the antiquarians, their word for historians. They viced a strong suspicion that records were carried away by some leaving for Conn., while other records "accidentally burned". An earlier minister, in the few years of settlement before Mather came, accidentally set fire to gunpowder stored at the meeting house (combo church and town hall, with large quantities of gunpowder regarded as too unsafe for homes, so the meeting house also doubled as their armory).

Her father had only three children surviving by the time of his will, Mary cited there (his third wife), the Alice also (second wife, previously deceased). Her father, as many did due to high death rates then, had three wives, married the last two as widows when he was a widower.

Guesses for her birth are that, not the same as facts. The most solid ones match current events of her day, ranging from "about 1630" to "about 1636". The first is reasonable if her parents came already married, with Gov. Winthrop's mostly unnamed 4000 passengers or so on his ships described as also filled with cattle.

The later date "about 1636" could mark a birth anywhere, but with the places then plausible ranging from England to Essex County northward. Rev. Richard Mather's hurricane-stricken ship arrived at Dorchester in Aug. 1635. About 100 were guessed on it, maybe her Kingsleys, maybe not. They could have come earlier, with Winthrop, with the earliest Puritans, or later, in the months soon after Mather came, in time to "sign the Covenant". Only a few families were named in Mathers' journal. It's saved at Dorchester, no baptisms by him beginning until Aug. 1636 when the critical Covenant signed by certain adults marked his church as open.

Again, a suspiciously precise birthdate of Jan 2, 1636 for her was not seen until modern times, was not in the town records, not in the church records. The date first appears in a modern tree, on a page that presented someone highly unlikely her sister. That party's stone is in a cemetery with zero Kingsleys, her first name never listed in old Kingsley records, her Frenches in 2014 proven of a different male DNA than Freedom's in-laws.

What's known from old records, saved by town or church, from deeds or wills?

First, most of her people were infant-baptizers, until her brother Eldad decided not to be, became a Baptist in adulthood. Freedom has no baptism record detected in the colonies, raising the likelihood it was left behind in England, not the same as proving that.

Second, at the grand re-opening of the Dorchester church in Aug. of 1636, both of her parents participated, allowed to sign a special document called the covenant, to show they agreed with church requirements. (They each used the same odd spelling, "Kingesley", even though each stood in a different line. John was last of the signing male elders. Elizabeth was last of the signing wives of those elders. A photo image on her FindaGrave page shows a published version of the handwritten Covenant sign-up.)

The grand signing occurred after a prior minister named Warham and maybe half of his old congregation had left Dorchester, for more fertile land along the Connecticut River. Rev. R. Mather had a year to prepare, after arriving Aug. 1635 on a hurricane-stressed ship, a new covenant ready-to-sign by Aug. 1636

.

Third, Dorchester was no London. In its beginning years, it was still a tiny town, with a small church population, "everybody knew everybody". They did not have to SAY "the only two Kingesleys on the two pages of sign-ups were man and wife". Everyone ALREADY KNEW the two Kingsleys were man and wife.

Fourth, her parents had no marriage record at Dorchester. They therefore married elsewhere.

What caused guess work?

First, an "Antiquarian Committee" of the 1850s studying early Dorchester and its church found multiple Kingsley baptisms and marriages. The difficult ones concerned names too common, provoking guesswork. Which Mary, which Samuel, which John?

A young John Kingsley, not her father, near Freedom in age, belonged to a Stephen Kingsley. Stephen Kingsley's family eventually lived in what had split off from Dorchester in 1662, to become Milton. Dorchester's Antiquarian Committee tried to locate Freedom's father, John Kingsley, after he left Dorchester. They noticed a John Kingsley marrying a Daniels of Milton, noticed that that woman had died at Milton in 1670, did not or could not investigate the groom's age, did not understand there were two John Kingsleys, so mistakenly concluded Freedom's father John Kingsley had moved to Milton, was living there in 1670.

Stephen Kingsley had a daughter named Mary Kingsley. Freedom's father was married last to a Mary, changing her last name Kingsley. If someone said Mary Kingsley, which one was meant? King Phillips War had brought about a starvation time. Mary the third wife would live another few weeks or a month after John's will was read. His will asked to be buried in his Rehoboth farmyard with Alice, did not say Alice was his 2nd wife, a widow Jones he had married, that each had lost their first spouses. Who was Mary? The will did not say Mary was his 3rd wife, a widow he married after losing second wife, Alice. a few years earlier.

Since Freedom was in the will, someone guessed Mary was Freedom's real name? Her middle name? Yet, none of Freedom's clear records ever cited her with a middle name.

BORN IN ENGLAND. A range of birth places have been reported for Freedom, depending on circumstances. If born in England, then her parents married there, brought her with them. If they came with Winthrop, the latest date for her birth was "about 1630". Those was the conclusions of John William Linzee, after checking the parish registry up at her in-laws' church in Ipswich, his book published circa 1913.

ESSEX COUNTY. A port at Salem opened up before Boston's? Then her parents might have met and married in Essex County, had their eldest child, Freedom, in Essex County, before coming to Dorchester. That was the conclusion in modern times of Tim Dowling, a family historian for Stephen Kingsley's family. (Again, he was of Milton, a 1662 spin-off of Dorchester, after Stephen was of Braintree earlier, a 1640 spin-off of Dorchester, his property perhaps spanning the Milton-Cochato line, letting him attend church at either place, Milton more convenient once it finally had a church.)

Dowling had decided John and Stephen were brothers, others noticing they had disappeared from England's records as they appeared here.

Stephen's descendants spent more time looking at Milton and Essex records, less time looking at Dorchester. To signal guess work, with no exact record found, "about 1636" was the birth year they guessed for both Freedom and her presumed cousin at Milton, listed as born there "about 1636". Again, 1636 was the latest birth year for Freedom that would let her parents "sign the Covenant" at Dorchester with their eldest daughter already baptized elsewhere.

A range, about 1630 to about 1636? Her guessed dates of birth begin with Gov. Winthrop's estimated 4000 employees and other passengers on his ships (who, he said in a letter, were crammed in with considerable cattle). "About 1636" implies arriving instead intending to join Rev. Richard Mather if not already with him in Aug. 1635.

With either guess, her parents arrived in time for the Aug 1636 grand opening of the re-populated Dorchester church, a very special ritual called a covenant signing. (About half of the old congregation had left with Rev. Warham/Wareham to start a settlement at Windsor, on the Conn. River. Half was estimated after an Antiquities committee checked old deed transfers, new incomers buying property from those departing.)

Places of birth?

Plausible guesses include birth in England, birth in Essex County (Salem had a port before Boston had one), and birth in Dorchester.

Dorchester is a problem given no Kingsleys were of record in Dorchester before the grand opening of the re-populated Dorchester church in August of 1636.

From the first revision in progress--

OUTLINE OF EVENTS

Family Places, to Guide Our Record-Keeping   

(1) 1636, DORCHESTER, Formerly Mattapan, now south Boston, Rev. Richard Mather arrived with a boat load Aug 1635, of about 100, to replace those departing for Windsor. A year later, in Aug 1636 her parents participated in the opening day ritual, of signing the new church covenant, as "Kingesley", with other elders and their wives, as did varied new ministers training for daughter churches, Rev. Newman for Rehoboth/Taunton, Rev. Tompson for Braintree, etc. Daughter town Milton (formerly Unquity) spun off in 1662 with Stephen Kingsley (uncle?) resident there, that Stephen also at Braintree earlier when it spun off earlier in 1640, so maybe lived at the Braintree-Milton boundary. Dorchester Committee's official history 1851 missed two Kingsley baptisms, hers and that of Stephen's son, her "cousin" in Mlton called John.

"The record of births previous to the year 1657 was accidentally burnt" (from 1859 Antiquarian Committee report on history of Dorchester, page V. The committee's public face was an Ebenezer Clapp Jr, with suspicions expressed that the early Dorchester set gradually leaving for the Windsor and the Conn. River had taken pre-1636 records away).

(2) EAST OF SEEKONK RIVER (REHOBOTH/TAUNTON). Husbandman as an occupation meant moving animals about. Father John Kingsley went to and fro, active at Dorchester church (until freeman in 1651?), also east of Seekonk R., the 1690s there memorably bad. Dorchester-trainee Rev. Newman's church was there. Brother Eldad, settled apart at Bristol, turned Baptist.

John's letter regarding starvation at Rehoboth would be saved at Hartford Conn. He questioned belief that we must deserve any evil that happens to us, as, if so, why aren't others who did the same suffering with us? John Kingsley's will cited Freedom, chides her spouse John French, "taylor" for taking her away. John's will asked for burial by second wife Alice. A.K. scratched on his stone. Third wife (Mary?) and son Eldad died soon after John. State boundary moved, places east of the Seekonk R., once in Mass., moved into RI. Developers come. John's burial stone moved to Newman Cem. (See user Jan Snopes at John Kingsley's's findagrave page for details.)

(3) IPSWICH, Her record-keeping in-laws settled there, their Parish Registry, her children's baptisms, deed transfers all at Ipswich. Records studied by John William Linzee, old book,1913 (its Kingsley index in photograph, left).

Kingsleys and Mathers were together not just at Dorchester, but in two more places, affecting two more generations:

(4) NORTHAMPTON. Together there, one of Rev. Richard Mather's ministering sons (Eleazer Mather), one of Freedom's brothers (Enos Kingsley, m. 1662, to Springfield woman). Freedom and spouse followed, from Ipswich. Her and spouse John French's deaths at Northampton recorded back in Ipswich. Many blank stones noticed in Northampton by an 1850s cemetery walker trying to capture whatever inscriptions were left, before they too disappeared. Son Jonathan stayed near Northampton, at Hadley? Sons Thomas and John went north and east instead?

(5) DEERFIELD. Violently disputed frontier, like Rehoboth. Together, to Deerfield, were Rev Eleazer Mather's ministering son-in-law (John Williams), with Freedom's second-eldest son (Thomas French). Natives had helped settlers in times of hunger at Northampton, but French Canadian historians say the settlers then over-expanded, wanted spots still used, cleared by the natives, who rotated them to keep them fertile. Considerable misery happened there for both French and Williams families. Stone remains for Deacon Thomas.

(6) QUEBEC AND RURAL NY. Of five children of Thomas French kidnapped, not dying in the attack or enroute to Canada, only two wanted to return. Three refused to return, could have liked their adoptions in new places better than their lives at Deerfield. One daughter stayed with a native tribe in NY state. Two daughters stayed with people ethnically French in Quebec, renamed by their adopting French families. Freedom's captured namesake, granddaughter Freedom French, would marry a French Canadian and have a remarkable great-grandson in Quebec, long remembered.

Things Changed After Her Death

20 Years Later--Some Granddaughters Carried Away (goes to Virtual Cem.)

100 Years Later-- New DNA In Town

MAIDEN NAME IN EMPLOYER'S WILL. Freedom's maiden name is of record, the records done in days with few rules about capitalizing proper nouns and with no standardized spellings. Webster's dictionary, picking one dialect over all others, had yet to be written, to tell people how to spell and pronounce Freedom. The will of a William Lane, once of Hingham, made on Feb. 27, 1650, read in 1654, thus remembered "ffredome Kingley my faithfull servant". She had (most likely?) married by the reading, her eldest John born 1655-1656

WITH HUSBAND IN FATHER'S WILL. How to know which Kingsley family was Freedom's?

It was not clear until the right paperwork was found. Was her father the well-documented John Kingsley, first of Dorchester, mistakenly thought for a bit to be of Milton, eventually to die southward, east of the Seekonk River?

Was her father instead Stephen Kingsley? His last records were truly in Milton, after it split apart from Dorchester, his surname sometimes spelled as Kinsley.

Only John Kingsley of Rehoboth named a Freedom in his will. As seen when she was witness for William Lane, her father was not fussy about spelling and capitals. He listed her as "ffreedum".

Freedom's brothers Eldad and Enos Kingsley, like her, were named in her father's will, as they were the three children living as long as did their father. The brothers were born after the covenant-signing. Enos' baptism record, however, was not found until late, changing his birth from "about 1640" to 1639. (The collections of the Mass. Historical Society gathered stray records, maybe a church record taken away and now returned, maybe a town record that did not burn, maybe families turning in notes. Records were first gathered up mid-1850s to create books of vital records.)

John's will said he wished to be buried with Alice in his Rehoboth farm yard. His second wife, she was said to be the widow Alice Jones. No marriage would have occurred until both of their spouses had died. That date was vague for Elizabeth Kingsley as she left no will. However, will paperwork existed for the first spouse of second wife Widow Jones. People checking dates in paperwork concluded that John Kingsley's child called Enos was born BEFORE Mr. Jones died, therefore, was a son of Elizabeth. John Kingsley's child called Renewed was born sufficiently AFTER Mr Jones died, to be judged a child of Alice, not Elizabeth., so Freedom's half-sister

The three children most fully "fleshed out" are the three in John's will, with uncommon names. Renewed was uniquely named, but died before John Kingsley died, so was left out of his will.

Names too common to track include Mary, given Stephen Kingsley also had a Mary, and given John's third wife, surviving a short time after his death, was a Mary. Renewed was said in Dorchester records to marry and go to Ipswich, yet Linzee, familiar with Ipswich, not just Dorchester, omits Renewed. Some think they saw an Edward in some records. Others suspect that was a scribbling of Eldad.

John's third wife was the one still living at the reading of his will. Both she and John were elderly by their marriage, no children.

Looking for more on Stephen Kingsley, he and and his wife were not present, or if present, not ready to sign-up, for the Dorchester church's grand opening, on Aug 23 of 1636. The opening's dramatic highlight, again, was a "covenant signing", John and Elizabeth, both to sign as "Kingesley". Maybe 30 women signed? Fourteen marked an X next to their names, to show they approved of someone writing their name for them, given they could not write. Elizabeth needed no X. Her spouse could have taught her? Or..?

An Israel and Elizabeth Stoughton had been allowed to sign in first. The two were remarked as there earlier than Mather. (If half of the earlier congregation left for Windsor, they were in the half that stayed.)

Israel ran a mill of some sort.

Some people thought Freedom's mother Elizabeth had been a Stoughton before marrying John Kingsley. There is no official record saying that.

Had someone seen Israel Stoughton's name at the top of the covenant signers? Israel's wife Elizabeth Stoughton was listed off to his right. Elzabeth Stoughton and Elizabeth "Kingesley" were confused?

DORCHESTER PERIOD.

As Puritans, their lives centered on church. The names of the best-known Kingsley children were not unusual that era. Sometimes Puritan-admired virtues made the list (Freedom and Renewed), but more commonly used were Puritan-admired persons of the Old Testament (Enos and Eldad, assigned to her brothers). Most of their baptisms are on record as occurring at Dorchester.

Freedom's baptism record is missing.

Two different birth years and three birth places are suggested as plausible for her. The earliest and most distant, "about 1630", in England, was cited in the old book by Parker-Ruggles family historian (John William Linzee), after checking Freedom and John French's family records up at Ipswich. There, her spouse, the tailor called John French, had siblings and a mother. His mother was the former Susan Riddlesdale, her family thought to arrive first and wait for the family's old minister to come from England. His old congregation was to be beside him, old knowledge such as Susan's maiden name brought along.

"About 1636" let her parents arrive with or right after Mather, no baptism record for Freedom meaning her parents arrived before the covenant signing.

In contrast, the ministers being trained by Mather, as if at a university seminary. They had no pre-made congregations, no set of records.

Several competent searchers checking old sources outside Ipswich concluded Freedom's parents had no marriage record in the colonial records. If the marriage record was not here, it was back in England? That conclusion matched Linzee's as to place, would let Freedom be born there before they left, or on the ship

Thus, two dated answers of "About 1630" matched coming with Winthrop from England. In a letter to someone, he'd estimated he'd brought about 4000 people, considerable cattle also on the ships. Winthrop thought it a violation of bible principles to name the people, so said he purposely made no lists.

If? It means maybe. If coming with Winthrop, then born "about 1630". If coming with Mather, then born "about 1636"

Old-time gravestones lacked the space to say "born at some time from 1630 to 1636". Instead, if given a range, most rounded up by using the later end, maybe under-estimating age, yet, putting a person in the right generation, maybe the right birth order among siblings.

Some add Jan. 2 (found by user Dan Woodward). Again, no written "official record" clearly survives as proof. If someone long ago saved Jan. 2, there was once a written record that has since disappeared?

Critical dates for her family were:

(a) 1635, 1ST LAND GRANTED. Old Dorchester granted land to Freedom's father in 1635. A John Kingsley was also of record with land near the Seekonk River. Some think he was at Taunton about that early? Historian Sprague checked and found no Kingsleys signing the covenants at either Taunton or Rehoboth. The freeman system was at multiple places, an idea supported by Gov. John Winthrop, local democracy encouraged even if autocrats ruled at the top. John was declared a freeman late, in 1651, then was free to sell his Dorchester land and move?

Many left Dorchester with Rev. Warham much earlier, scouts sent earlier, many moves made 1633 to 1635 or 1636. Some moving were said to be unhappy about autocratic rule at the top, not convinced when officials increased Dorchester's size so local rule was bigger than before, maybe did not like Winthrop's opinion, voiced, for example, in a letter, that God had let natives die of smallpox purposely, as it was God's way of freeing land for settlers, and so on.

Soil fertility mattered? Scouts sent out early noticed spots along the Conn. River Valley produced more than near Boston.

(b) 1636, CHURCH BEGINNING. At a "mother church" in the "in-town" part of Dorchester, her father co-founded a new congregation with Rev. Richard Mather and some others also called "elder". He signed last of the elders, as "John Kingesley", on Aug. 23, 1636, with Freedom's mother signing after the other elders' wives, as Elizabeth "Kingesley". (See published image of the two-page covenant at her mother's grave page, the notion that her maiden name was Stoughton may have been due to confusing her with an Elizabeth Stoughton high on the list ? It's alleged often, but the name not otherwise found in truly old records showing the Kingsleys?)

Background. Local native people called Dorchester Mattapan. Two ministers were co-preaching at Dorchester 1630-1633. Circa 1633, part of the original congregation began to leave, to what became Windsor in Connecticut. Rev. Maverick would not go, having died at Boston in Feb of 1636, his son the younger Maverick at Noddle's Island.

The other minister was a Rev. John Warham/Wareham. Moves were in steps, not made "all at once". Warham's wife Susannah was said to die while still in Dorchester, in 1634, a year after the move-out began. Some acres at Dorchester had remained set aside for Rev Wareham's later use. However, the plans caused worry, once it became clear about half of the Dorchester population would leave.

Those leaving Dorchester left a place for John Kingsley, Richard Mather, and others to co-found their new congregation, with the new arrivals to buy property from those leaving. Committee findings included two purchases described bought by elder Richard Jones, a Samuel Jones described as son of Richard later and, much later, elsewhere, as a stepson to John Kingsley.

That process of new people buying out departing people was described in an old 1859 book published in Boston, with Ebenezer Clapp Jr, b. 1809, heading the committee studying the "History of Dorchester...". The committee belonged to the "Dorchester Antiquarian and Historical Society". They had the original handwritten journal of Rev. Richard Mather and books published by Roger Clapp and a Mr. Blake. They'd had an article by "Rev. Dr. THADDEUS M. HARRIS", written for the Mass. Historical Society. They lamented Rev. Harris was working on a longer book, made no notes, kept all in memory, too sick to finish, dying in 1842. He'd been a Harvard librarian, as well as a pastor at Dorchester, so had access to more materials than average.

They stuck to the surviving records, tracking deeds of land bought from original Dorchester property owners, made difficult as a map of them had "accidentally burned". They had local deeds and deed transfers, local probate records.

With her father's marriage to her mother missing, Freedom's baptism missing, and, at that time, the baptism of her brother Enos missing, they skipped all missing things.

They made a story for John Kingsley in which Freedom never existed. They did not see the wills in Hingham and Rehoboth citing her as Kingsley and naming her spouse. Their short version of her father's life:

"John Kinsley, or Kingsley, was here as early as

1635. He was grantee of land in 1635, and one of

the original signers of the covenant in 1636. He

had a share in the great lots in 1646; was a rater

in 1648, and freeman in 1651. He had a son Eldad, born in Dorchester in 1638; and a daughter Renewed, born [Jan 19?] 1644. He had a son Enos, who went to Northampton; and a daughter who married Samuel Jones, son of Richard. John

Kinsley married [second] the daughter of William Daniels,

of Milton, and resided there in 1670."

The last line about a remarriage was another mistake. It confused Stephen Kingsley's son John with Freedom's father John.

Old Dorchester had grown gigantic, before shrinking. They correctly said"we find that it extended .... to within 160 rods of the line of Rhode Island; about 35 miles as "'ye road goeth'." Old Dorchester touched old Taunton and Rehoboth. Milton was set apart in 1662, put with Braintree's towns mid-1800s in a different county, called Norfolk, after mother county Suffolk split in two.

Digging deeper into Milton records, given Milton was formerly part of Dorchester, maybe Milton had some records that concerned Dorchester, were missing from Dorchester. One researcher found the younger John Kingsley who had married a Daniels of Milton, found that he was about the same age as Freedom, born "about 1636", probably referencing the covenant signing and/or using known ages of wives to make that guess. That younger John Kingsley was presented as a son of Stephen Kingsley (b. about 1598, d. 1673) and Marie Spaulding. That different John Kingsley/Kinsley, not Freedom's father, was the one who married Susanna Daniels of Milton, who gave him a daughter before she died in Milton in 1670. Once widowed, common in an era of high death rates, with fast re-marriage helpful for rearing children in unforgiving times, that cousin-aged John Kingsley re-married. He needed to do so twice. His second wife was a Mary Mowry (1640-1679), with two more daughters, one called Mary Kingsley. He married third an Abigail Leonard (1654-about 1700), adding three sons and two more daughters.

In addition to being of Milton, also confusing people would be that younger John Kingsley's marriage and birth addresses, post-Susannah. One wife was married at Taunton, another at Rehoboth. That added geography (people can't marry until they meet, requiring proximity) resembled that alleged or proven of Freedom's father. Taunton and Rehoboth were east of the Seekonk River, with Providence, RI, on that river's other side, offering a sizeable market for selling livestock. When pastures up at Dorchester Neck lacked adequate rainfall, pastures down at Rehoboth could have had adequate rain? Moved animals thus lived on, did not die as they would have, if kept stationary, in one spot only. Eventually the moving about ended, as places became more settled, urbanizing, fenced in, eventually pastureless.

Freedom's father was described as a "husbandman", as was Stephen Kingsley. Sources for those conclusions are obscure, but they fit the moving around, moves made pasture-to-pasture, pasture-to-market. Someone engaged in husbandry was generally a livestock breeder and drover with some veterinary skills, needing a wide swath to have enough pasture, a sizeable town location or two or three also needed, to sell the cattle or sheep at auctions or on market days. Stephen Kingsley's family is discussed by Tim Dowling, his work currently, as of Mar. 2023, still at gw.geneanet.org/tdowling.

Someone visiting from England, maybe a university lecturer, said John and Stephen Kingsley had disappeared from England's records, the timing about as they appeared in the colonies. (Sorry, still looking for the reference, can't remember in which old book. Maybe it was an old one by a Kingsley, though not the one about the branch of Joseph Kingsley, descended of Eldad, his branch found in Conn.)

The Dowling tree treats the two men as brothers. It suggested Freedom' s parents married in Essex County northwards of Boston, plausible if they arrived before Rev. R. Mather, Salem's port having opened before Boston's. Records accessed by Clapps Jr's Antiquities Committee studying old Dorchester would have skipped Salem and Essex County, as Salem was never inside Dorchester, and as Dorchester was never inside the changing bounds of Essex County.

(c) 1636, FREEDOM'S MOTHER PRESENT AT DORCHESTER. The church co-founders would write a "covenant" to specify church rules in contract form. Any members joining were then required to first "sign the covenant". "Elizabeth Kingesley" signed.

(Elizabeth, first wife of John Kingsley, had a maiden name not written down in the Puritan era in a form that survived. Some suggested she was a Stoughton. That was maybe true, maybe not.)

(d) 1637-38, VERY FIRST BAPTISMS. Childrens' baptismal records under Rev R.Mather began at Dorchester after the signing. A brother was baptized as "Eldad Kingesley" in 1638.

We know Freedom is in John Kingsley's will; we know the Kingsleys baptized other children. Why was her baptism not recorded? A likely answer- Freedom's birth must have been earlier than Aug. 1636. Their church did not officially exist at the time of her birth, so could not keep her record. Complicating matters, Clapp Jr's Antiquities Committee suggested that Warham's set took records with them to their new settlement at Windsor, that records before a certain date (1657? some? all?) "accidentally burned".

Also pausible as a reason for no birth record in Dorchester archives? She came as a young child with her parents from England, already baptized "back there" or on the boat ride over, her birth as early as Apr. 1630, often cited as when Winthrop brought his multiple ships of employees over. Still another choice, records not checked by this researcher, maybe Freedom was born in Essex County, reasonable if her parents first found each other there (source: Tim Dowling, covering Stehen Kingsley's family).

Birthplace as England, birth as "about 1630", were reported by John William Linzee, after checking church records up at Ipswich. His work was published in 1913, covering the Sarah Ruggles and Peter Parker family, of Roxbury, next-door, westish of Dorchester. Linzee's record-checking was done long after the deaths of Freedom and her spouse John French were reported up in Ipswich, their dates and Northampton location saved in Ipswich, where that John French still had family. The possibility of error is indicated by Linzee's source using a round number for year, but it happens to be a year with an event that mattered, Winthrop's ships arriving.

DAUGHTER SETTLEMENT AT REHOBOTH. Rev. Newman, trained at Dorchester, signing the Covenant the same day as the "Kingesleys", would then go down to the region east of the Seekonk River. John Kingsley, described as an animal husbandman, an occupation that let him move around, driving his cattle to markets from rural pastures, left Dorchester behind and moved permanently south, east side of the Seekonk, close to the Rhode Island "plantation colony" on the Seekonk's west side.

Rehoboth. Freedom's brothers, Enos and Eldad Kingsley, were also still living at the time of John Kingsley's will, so were cited in it, with her, likely half-sister Renewed Kingsley recently deceased, so not cited. The will was written after the elder John Kingsley had settled in Rehoboth, letting his will stipulate that he be buried by second wife Alice in his Rehoboth farm yard, accounting for the initals A. K.scratched on a corner of his gravestone. John Kingsley's earlier letter to a Conn. minister, saved in Hartford, Conn., asked for food at a time of starvation in Rehoboth, namely, King Phillip's War. He and third wife Mary had fled to Eldad's in Bristol, with John's letter asking for news about "Enoes" but uncurious about his still-living daughter Freedom. Had Enos had been traveling, to Conn. while Freedom and John's business was stationary, up in Northampton?. Her father's will cited all three, Freedom, Eldad, Enos, other children deceased. That will would also mention Freedom's husband, John French, occupation given as "taylor". (There'd been several John Frenches in Puritan territory at the time, not all related, in modern times proven of different male DNAs, not understanding differences in geography, occupations, and wives' names, failing to check wills and deeds, caused errors in some family trees. The unrelated John Frenches had children with too-common names, such as John, Mary and Thomas. Happily for Linzee nd others, Freedom, Eldad and Enos were unique names, not at all common.)

John Kingsley's will chastized Freedom's John French for moving too far away, making it difficult for Kingsley's daughter to care for Kingsley in his old age. That was strongly lamented in the will.

OFF TO IPSWICH BY 1657.

Her Children's Births. John and Freedom French raised their children up by the Maine border, in Ipswich, a shipbuilding center, where the tailoring Frenches had gone after a brief stint in Boston. In Ipswich parish records, Thomas was born on May 25, 1657; his younger sibling Mary followed, on Feb. 27, 1659; "Samuell", on Feb. 25, 1661, and Jonathan, born on July 30, 1667. Two others died on the day of birth. No official birth record is found anywhere for Freedom's eldest son, John French the younger, so he could have been born down in Rehoboth as claimed, in 1655 (that might match John and Freedom having married there, with her parents nearby, before the two move far north, to John French the senior's family, owning land up in Ipswich, near modern Maine. (Some possibilities--Son John's baptismal records may have burnt in a raid, and/or the old town of Rehoboth may have been adult-baptizing at the time, so recorded no infant baptisms. Or, ...?)

After their last child's birth in Ipswich, John and Freedom French then sold their Ipswich land. They created a deed trail as they followed Freedom's brother, Enos Kingsley, and one of Rev. R. Mather's sons, Rev. Eleazer Mather, to a different frontier place. That was Northampton, at the opposite corner of the Massachusetts Bay colony from Ipswich, upriver from Windsor, the Connecticut colony that began, circa 1633, housing Warham and his ex-Dorchester congregation. Both Northampton and Windsor rested alongside the Connecticut River, in the river's fertile farming valley.

John Linzee, in his 1913 book, quoted deed sections to prove that the John and Freedom French in Ipswich were "one and the same" with those in Northampton. He judged this by the sequence of deeds done, with their selling their Ipswich property in the year of birth for the youngest son, Jonathan, mid-1667.

Northampton. Reminding us of the Kingsley's connection to old Dorchester, Rev. Richard Mather's son, Eleazer, would be the first minister at the new Northampton church, there from 1661 until 1669. In 1669, Rev. Eleazer died there, his congregation thus "happy enough" with this son of the first Mather to preach in New England.

(SIDE STORY, REVIVALISTS. Contrast ministers from the Mather school of "Old Lights" with a noted revivalist in Northampton a century later, mid-1700s. That later one, of a new style favored by those churchgoers calling themselves "New Lights", initially succeeded in increasing attendance, but then "went too far", started denying communion to too many. Further, that once popular minister attracted negative attention by telling two seriously depressed male members of old families long at the Northampton church, a Stebbins and a Hawley, they had no hope of ever feeling better. Thereupon, each attempted suicide, with Hawley's successful. In the Hawley family's re-telling of their suicide's story, the unapologetic, erring minister had told him that the victim's depression was due to his having "invited" Satan into his soul and that the poor man's not being cured by the minister's preaching was proof that God had already condemned the man, did not want him redeemed. Having been told to see himself as both incurable of depression and as condemned by God for eternity, Mr. Hawley ended his life. Post-Revolution, unhappy "old lights" looked for alternatives as they moved away from Northampton, with Universal or Free Will Baptists and several variations of Methodists among the new choices, once church separated from state and town.)

A "catalogue" for old Northampton lists the church members roughly by order of arrival. These list Enos Kingsley as from Dorchester and marrying early at the new church in Northampton, in 1662 (p.13). That was in the first year of the ministry of the first minister, Eleazer Mather. The father of Freedom's children, John French, appeared on the next page of the catalogue (p.14 of the thick book), even though he would not have joined until after the last child was baptized in Ipswich, so 1667 or later. With 5 years passing per page, that remote, frontier church clearly was still in their slow enrollment period. (Warrings with native tribes and the French were ongoing. These warrings would scare away new settlers for decades and cause others to leave.) At 5 years per page, the Mary French mentioned on a next page of the catalogue could easily be a mature version of Freedom and John's sole surviving daughter, Mary.

A nicely done survey of grave inscriptions in and around Northampton was attempted pre-1850, by a Thomas Bridgeman. Bridgeman's survey reported the effort was too late for the many markers at Northampton that had already faded away. Thus, Bridgman found an Enos Kingsley who died Nov. 6, 1845, age 75, but the marker for the first Enos Kingsley, the one who arrived far, far earlier, married there in 1662, and then stayed, can't be picked out from the many that are illegible. "She's there", "He's there", we are told by older sources. USGWarchives.net listed the town's death records (which need not exactly match church records, given baptismal dates can be later than birth dates and as not all were baptized).

We know they died there, as the town's death records included both John and Freedom, date and place repeated at Ipswich. Freedom's brother Enos Kingsley died there Dec. 9, 1708. Whether their markers survived is half of the mystery. If so, which weather-blanked stones might be theirs is the other half.

Ipswich Parish Registry. Happily, we don't need Freedom's stone to date her death. Not only was there a town record, but Freedom Kingsley French was recorded with the same precise date, July 26, 1689, and the same place, Northampton, jotted down under John French's section of a parish register kept northward in Ipswich, where they once lived. The record began with his baptism back in Assington, England. (The Frenches of Ipswich are among the very few to know precisely which parish they came from in England. Most others guess. These Frenchs were believed to have followed a Rev. Rogers from their home parish in England, to the colonies, then to Ipswich, which is perhaps why the Ipswich registry tracked them so carefully.)

That parish registry in Ipswich was found by Linzee while writing his 1913 book. The jottings included a rough marriage date ("about 1654"), but no location. Marriages were usually at the bride's church, which could have been Rehoboth, near her father. An alternative was possibly Hingham, near her employer, Mr. Lane. The registry in Ipswich showed a rough birth year for Freedom ("about 1630"), which would be reasonable if she had been born in England. Those years were perhaps given by a survivor after John had died (a relative, the last minister who knew them?). John French's death date was later, as precise as Freedom's.

The registry confirmed that Freedom's parents were John Kingsley and "Elizabeth()", meaning no maiden name known. Looking backward is not as reliable as making a record while the people of concern still lived and could correct the errors. So, we cited the wills and the Dorchester beginnings above, which were based on their own era's info.

Coda. When all has ended, it should be remembered that Freedom was a true Kingsley. No documents are found in the correct era to back up any other Kingsley female marrying any other John French.

After these entries, no more males surnamed French and obviously descended from Freedom were listed as deliberately joining the Northampton church. For some, failure to join perhaps related to the shift away from "old Lights" to more radical "New Light" ministries, the latter seen as too limiting. However, for many, failure to join probably was due to descendants departing.

In contrast to the Frenches' children, on their mother's Kingsley side, their Kingsley cousins added new members at the Northampton church and graveyard for generations. They did so through the decade prior to publication of a Northampton catalogue in 1891.

(About Sources: See John William Linzee, covering John French and John Kingsley well, while writing mainly about in-laws named Parker and Ruggles in Roxbury. The careful Linzee is cited by the also careful MinerDescent.com. The place of Dorchester printed its records for its "First Church", 1636-1734, did so in 1891, after it had become a part of Boston. Northampton published its "Annals and Grave Inscriptions" around 1850 and, in 1891, its "Catalogue" of members.)

COMMENT-- Remember, there was little separation of church and state in Massachusetts prior to the mid-1820s. Churches might author town records, while the towns might pay for the organizing and storage of church records. Until population growth justified more, there was only one church per township ("town"). The main building was called a "meeting house", not a church, as it did double-duty, used for both church services and for meetings about governing the town. A town's boundaries for taxation and rule-following matched the parish boundaries that decided which church to attend and which militia mattered. The church records were the town records. The church's first cemetery might be the town's only cemetery. The minister's helper might be the town's teacher. And so on.

Looking Forward. These Frenches disappeared from the Northampton church records. How many were hidden by women once named French marrying non-Frenches? Also, some heirs to the land stayed, but boundaries of the towns containing them changed. Farms on the edges of old Northampton went into the spun-off towns of Easthampton or Southampton, often by petitions that protested having to go more than six miles from home to attend the Northampton Church. People walking with children in the snow, having essentially promised at the children's baptisms, to take them to church, were unhappy with long distances.

STAYERS. Following are the official Northampton deaths of surname French, those recorded through 1842, at first of Freedom and John French, but, at the end, showing Frenches of a different DNA. The last local child of Freedom died in 1714 (Jonathan Sr., her youngest child), with the last local descendant surnamed French at death gone in 1732 (a child of Freedom's grandson Ebenezer, who was Jonathan Sr.'s son).

==================================================

NORTHAMPTON FRENCH DEATHS

Based on USGWarchives.net/ma/hampshire/towns/

*=Frenches of unrelated DNA

==================================================

(1) ADULT DEATHS

French, Samuel 09/08/1683 (b. 1661, son of Freedom)

French, Freedom 07/26/1689

French, John 02/01/1697 (Freedom's spouse)

French, Jonathan 02/05/1697 (Jr., Freedom's grandson)

French, Jonathan 02/17/1714 (Sr., son of Freedom)

............................................

(130 year gap, ended by unrelated Frenches)

............................................

French, Asa* 02/17/1842 (age 82, Rev'y pensioner)

==================================================

(2) CHILD DEATHS

French, Ebenezer 09/08/1728 (of Ebenezer + Mary)

French, Ebenezer 02/10/1732 (of Ebenezer + Mary)

............................................

(80 year gap, ended by unrelated Frenches)

............................................

French, Augustus* 03/19/1836 (of Ambrose, age 8)

French, (child)* 08/06/1837 (of Ambrose, age 2)

French, (child)* 04/05/1839 (of Jabez, 1 yr 8 mos.)

French, (child)* 09/29/1842 (of Ambrose, 6 mos., poison)

==================================================

SPIN-OFF TOWNS. Of multiple Ebenezers, the first, son of Jonathan, survived into adulthood. An Ebenezer French stayed in the area a long time. Someone named Ebenezer married Mary, but the rural edges of Northampton split off as their own towns and churches, so tracking them diminished. A town history for Northampton had two listings for an Ebenezer French on the polls (adult males allowed to vote?), saying he was granted 9 acres of newly divided land in 1748 or 1749, in what would shortly become Southampton. Thus, not all of his children who died locally are buried in Northampton.

Southampton split off first, 1753-1773. Easthampton spun off in stages, 1785-1809. Westhampton was in the mix, the Southampton minister said to help the congregation form, that church dated Sept. 1, 1779, its first minister Rev Enoc Hale. (The Rev was brother of the martyred Nathan Hale.)

The other DNA of Frenches was seen in what became Westhampton. They did not arrive until the decade before the Revolution, distant cousins of Jabez. Some marriage records for adult children of Abiather French the Sr. were preserved, only as found at the first (Northampton) church. Later record-keeping moved to the later formed Westhampton church, kept by Rev. Hale at his house, then were lost at a fire at his house. (Families that stayed did sometimes put reconstructions of their lost records into the next records, apparently done at an elder's local funeral, seen for a Dorothy/Dorothea French of the other DNA who married an Alvord.)

Confusions? Abiather senior's youngest son apparently took over the Westhampton farm. He confusingly was a Jonathan French, but much later than Freedom's youngest son called Jonathan.

Some of Freedom's DNA were in Westhampton. The two sets appeared as different, separate clusters in the first censustaker's route through Northampton. In-laws living next-door differed. Freedom's male descendants surnamed French had next-door females descendants with the Bartlett surname, that name known as some grew a popular pear tree. At a distance, Abiather French's set instead had next-door the German-surname of a daughter's Hessian husband. (Young women having fewer males to marry, due to deaths in the Revolution, was partly made up by some Hessians hired by the British staying to marry.)

Ebenezer French himself apparently moved with adult children, down the Connecticut River, to Coventry, CT. It becomes confusing. Other records indicate he was around in Massachusetts, later, so must have returned, or there was a junior and a senior whose records are hard to separate.

There would be a 130-year gap with no adult Frenches dying inside Northampton bounds until the death of unrelated Asa French. Not of Freedom Kingsley and her John French, he marked a new DNA coming into town, of a different John French.

Things Changed--Looking Forward

20 Years--GrandDaughters Carried Away--Unfortunate Raid, A Younger Freedom Kingsley, French Descendant Rev. Plexxis (Virtual Cem.)

100 years later. Unrelated to Freedom in the list above were Asa French and the children of Ambrose and Jabez French, perhaps grandchildren of Asa, cited as dying over a century later. They were of different male DNA, descended of the different John French family that stayed for many generations just south of Boston, in and around Braintree, Mass.

In between, around 1801, the two French trees, descending of different male DNAs, intermarried. How did they come into contact? An older and distant cousin of Jabez named Abiathar French (the senior), Braintree-born, would move to the western edge of Northampton, did so ahead of the American Revolution, with his area of Northampton later to have its own church and spin off as Westhampton. A gravestone still stands for one of Abiathar's sons, a Jonathan French unrelated to Freedom, who would die in Westhampton. His other son (another Abiathar, the junior) and his grandsons went on to the Western Reserve in Ohio, did so well before the War of 1812 and shortly after one of them, Jacob French, married Abigail Bartlett of the West Farms area. (Abigail Bartlett French descended from Freedom's youngest son Jonathan via Freedom's grandson Ebenezer. Her grandmother, a Mary French, married into the Pomeroys, producing a daughter, Jerusha Pomeroy, who married into the Bartletts. Some of Abigail's Bartlett cousins being those noted for pear-raising abilities.) Jacob and Abigail moved to Ohio with Jacob's parents and numerous adult siblings. Abigail's distant cousins via the above Ebenezer French would join them in Ohio later. (Freedom's descendant, Nathan French, once of Coventry, CT, thus would be buried in the same Ohio cemetery as Braintree-descended Rebecca French Clapp McMillen, sister to Abigail's husband).

Commentary. There has been confusion over multiple John Frenches who immigrated early to the colonies as Puritans. The John French whose immigrating brother was William French and who died in an early epidemic with his wife, left his brother to raise this John's orphans. He would be of the same DNA as Freedom's John, but with their male ancestor-in-common someone unknown back in England. Children of this John and William would be found in the Cambridge/Billerica area north of Boston. Of two longer-lived John Frenches, the younger, of the tailoring family that went northward, past Billerica and Cambridge, way up to Ipswich, up by the Maine border, married Freedom. Some people have speculated that an older Puritan also named John French, of a different DNA, born in a different decade, raising children in far away, this one's town being Braintree south of Boston, was the same as Freedom's John French. Freedom's maiden name would thus be taken from her and given to the other John French's wife. Wills and children's birth records, however, make clear the two Johns were different.

One more source of name confusion has been the Freedom bunch's Seba vs. the unrelated Braintree bunch's Zeba. These two names were sometimes treated as substitutes for each other by census-takers, when they were not. Those consistently using Seba as a first name without other spellings most likely descended of Freedom's eldest son, John. That Seba French married Molly/Mary Ide and went from Rutland County, VT, into Painesville, Ohio, but originally hailed from the Rehoboth area of Mass., with his closer ancestors named Elkanah and Ephraim French. In theory, Seba could be short for Sebastian. That's a legendary Catholic martyr, however, so would be avoided by Puritans who instead meant it as the name of a place in the Old Testament. Seba then means a variation of Sheba, as in "the Queen of Sheba". The Braintree batch, including some going from Orange County, VT, into Perry and Mentor, Ohio (carved out of old Painesville) and from Montpelier/Barre, VT, into Illinois, used Zeba, but saw it mis-spelled as Seba and Jeba. Zeba was a nickname for Zebadiah, a person in the Old Testament with the inherited power to stand as judge over the Jewish kings.

To keep the two DNA sets separate, remember the very odd name of Abiathar French for the Braintree set, and that they acquired new in-laws of certain names (Alvord and Phelps and Clapp and Keneipp/Kneip and Pittsinger/Pitzinger). Later, some of Freedom Kingsley's Frenches would ALSO end up in the Western Reserve in Ohio (ones that had gone to Rehoboth/Providence, then north to Rutland, VT). They did not arrive in the Painesville area until AFTER the War of 1812, however, and had different in-laws (Ide, Richmond, Bliss).

=======================================================

Copyright by Julia Brown, Austin, TX, Apr., 2015, Revd. Aug. & Oct., 2015, with permission granted to Findgrave and its contributors, for use with descendents in the direct line of Freedom Kingsley French and her John French, born 1620ish. Names, dates, and places are history, do not belong to anyone. They can be borrowed freely.