Nicholas Mundy, Sr. was the founder of the Mundy family in New Jersey. Many of his descendants are buried in the Old Colonial Cemetery and the nearby First Presbyterian Cemetery. He may or may not have been buried here.
The memorial here was placed in 1893 "under the oak tree" by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, a descendent, and an early genealogist of the Mundy family in NJ. This location was his "best guess." Two pictures are posted: one taken in 2015 and one taken before 1907. The inscription says:
"In Memory of
Nicholas Mundy
The ancestor here of the Mundy family
who settled on land near the Vineyard road, about the year 1670.
Erected April 1893 by Ezra F. Mundy"
Nicholas Mundy and his wife Elizabeth APPEAR to have been in Piscataway, NJ by 3 Aug 1668 when the baptism of their son Nicholas Jr. was recorded. Family tradition in the 19th century said he was in Piscataway by 1665 but there is no proof of this. There is only the story of a missing 1665 deed that someone's grandfather saw. This deed was missing in the 19th century when it was first looked for. The first existing deed in his name was dated 1676. There is a record that in 1672 he witnessed an incident in Elizabethtown along with "James the Governor's man, Cramer and his wife, and many others" (Hatfield in "The History of Elizabeth, NJ"). He signed a "Dutch Oath" in 1673 and was then living in Piscataway (Monnette in "Early Settlers of Piscataway"). The births of three children are recorded in Piscataway in 1668, 1672, and 1676.
Nicholas Mundy was not mentioned on the 1991 memorial plaque honoring the first settlers of Piscataway that is between Piscataway "city hall" and the police station. There is a blank on the marker at the bottom of the middle column after Manning where Mundy would fit. This says that he was not among the first wave of colonists as calculated by the people who placed this plaque. He is not on the earliest lists reported by Monnette. Judging from the memorial marker placed by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, he thought that Nicholas Mundy arrived about 1670.
Nicholas Mundy was reportedly a blacksmith.
He lived near Vineyard Road on the boundary of what is now Edison, NJ and Metuchen, but was then Piscataway. Based on the 1907 notes from the Rev. Ezra Mundy, various old maps, and details from the 1900 census, it is believed that he lived in the area around Vineyard Road, Middlesex Ave. (Rt 27), and Route 1. Note that Highway 287 creates a boundary today that did not exist in his time. Probably he lived near the current Costco store. His family owned some of his land into the middle of 19th century at least. He originally had about 120 acres in 1676 and an additional 101 acres in 1679. There are several surviving deeds. He and his son are referred to as "of the Vineyard."
A birth date of c 1640-1645 is a guess based on the birth dates of his children (1st and 2nd families) and his arrival in Piscataway. The c 1715 death date is an estimate based on when the existing records stopped referring to both Nicholas Mundy Sr. and Nicholas Mundy Jr. He did not leave a will which is surprising since he owned property--although there is wording in a deed suggesting that a will existed. If so, it has been lost. This deed mentions his second wife and potential second family, plus "testamentary bequests" for his son Nicholas, daughter Elizabeth Compton, and Sarah Fford, his servant. The 1734 will sometimes cited as his was that of his son Nicholas Mundy Jr.
It is not known where he came from, and my thinking on this has evolved. I now think that he came to New Jersey from England via Barbados.
Although most of the first settlers of Piscataway came from what is now the New Hampshire/Maine/Massachusetts border area near the Piscataqua River, no record as yet been found for him in New England in spite of a professional search of the records at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Paraphrasing Agatha Christie, "He wasn't there." His absence from the record is a finding. Nor did the "Great Migration" researchers find him. Some say his father was the William Mundy who arrived on the Bon Adventure which sailed "to Virginia" in 1634. Contrary to reports, there is not a 1688 will for William Mundy in Newburyport, MA although there is a 1688 will for a William Mundy in South Carolina. This will did not mention Nicholas Mundy. Some have suggested his father was the William Moudey who arrived on the second voyage of the Mary and John in 1634. Subsequent records show that William Moudey was William Moody rather than William Mundy and his life can be otherwise traced.
Some have suggested that his father was the well documented Henry Mundy "gentleman" of Salisbury, MA. This has been explored and discounted. Henry Mundy seems to have left no children. His heir was a nephew Philip Wollidge ("my sister's son") whose own son, interestingly, ended up in Piscataway.
Also some on the internet have created a hypothetical "William Henry Mundy" as his father. This person does not seem to have existed in New England.
The most that can be said is that there were Mundy men in America in the generation before him although no specific connection has been found. Although nearly all of the other early Piscataway settlers came from New England, but there is no proof that he did. There is no record that he came directly from England. His parents are unknown at this time
There was a Nicholas and Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who baptized a son Nicholas in early August 1668 at Christ Church. There is also a 3 August 1668 baptism record in Piscataway. It is unclear whether this is a coincidence or relevant, but other records imply that they were not yet in Piscataway in 1668. With a New England origin seemingly disproved, one has to wonder if Nicholas Mundy Jr. was in fact born in Barbados and was rebaptized (or retroactively reregistered) in Piscataway. An expert in early NJ records says this was often done because it was important for there to be a baptism record. It is worth noting that Piscataway founder Hopewell Hull and his wife, a daughter of founder John Martin, remarried in Piscataway because the local powers-that-were did not accept the form of their original marriage in Massachusetts.
In 1655-1687 there is an Edward Munday mentioned in several wills in Barbados among the merchant class. Could he have been the father or uncle of Nicholas Mundy? Could Edward Munday have been a relative of affluent "gentleman" Henry Mundy of Salisbury, MA? There was also a land-owning Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who clearly was not the wife of the Nicholas being considered since there are records for her in Barbados after Nicholas was unquestionably in NJ with his wife. It is worth noting that there were more English immigrants in Barbadoes in the 17th century than in mainland America. It is also reported that an estimated 200 ships a year traveled between England, Barbados, and the American coast in this period so it is not at all improbable that the Mundys passed thru Barbados.
A blurb for a new edition of "Genealogies of Barbados Families" says: "Many of the early settlers of Barbados eventually moved to the mainland of North America and settled in Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other colonies. A son of John Winthrop, for example, was one of the original settlers of Barbados, and two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were descended from men who left Barbados a century earlier. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in fact, there was a continuous flow of settlers from Barbados to virtually every point on the Atlantic seaboard, with the result that many families in America today trace their origins in the New World first to Barbados."
Additionally, the introduction to this book says: "In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Barbados had connections with almost every point of the Atlantic seaboard from the Piscataqua River in the north to Charleston in the south. We know of persons from the Piscataqua who immigrated to Barbados in the 1640s, and in the 1670s a Barbadian was Governor of South Carolina. Americans went to Barbados to trade, and population pressures...led hundreds of Barbadians to seek their fortunes in America."
In 1870, Ezra Hunt MD, a Mundy descendent, gave a speech on the history of churches of Metuchen. In it, he mentions a family tradition that "Nicholas Mundaye" came from the West Indies, although he mentioned Jamaica rather than Barbados. His source was Moses Munday, then 90 years old. This gives more support of the idea that Nicholas Mundy came to America via Barbados.
Research in England has been inconclusive. There is an often cited record of a Nicholas Munday, son of Nicholas and Hester, baptized 19 June 1639 in Corsham, Wiltshire, England, but a search of the parish records shows that this child died young and that his father also died in Wiltshire. There was a Nicholas Mundy born in London, son of Henry, in the right time frame, but that child too died young. The record shows that this Henry was not the one who ended up in New England. Another candidate was Nicholas "Mundee" who was baptized in North Nibley, Gloucestershire in 1637 and who was the son of another Nicholas Mundee. I am not aware of his future life. I am inclined to think that the Nicholas Mundee who married an Elizabeth in 1651, also in North Nibley, was not the Nicholas baptized in 1637 who would have been 14 at the time. Since all parish records are not yet on-line, more may come to light in the future.
It is sometimes claimed that his first wife was Elizabeth Ayers. I have seen no proof of this or definite source. No marriage record has been found. The record only shows her as Elizabeth Mundy. I have found no unaccounted-for Elizabeth Ayers of the right generation in New England in spite of some assigning her to a well-known Ayers family. There were, however, Ayers in New England and Piscataway who were members of the same family. Of course, this would be irrelevant if the Mundys came from England via Barbados.
Their children were:
* Nicholas Jr. (1668-1734) who married Hopestill Hull in 1691 and had a large family of children.
* Elizabeth (1672-after 1731) who married John Compton in 1689 and had many children including Mary, John, Elizabeth Ayers, Sarah Alward, David, Hannah, Rachel, and William. Some say she died in 1731, but she was alive when her husband's 1731 will was probated. Some say she died in 1737.
* Anne (1676-1677)
The first Mrs. Elizabeth Mundy died 1694. Nicholas remarried in 1695 to another Elizabeth. This has created confusion.
There is a 1695 document conveying land to Nicholas Mundy when he married
Elizabeth Doughty "late of Somerset County." Mark Dissoway of Staten Island acted for Elizabeth. This raises the question of what was the relationship of Mark Dissoway and Elizabeth Doughty and raises speculation that she was a Doughty/Doty widow who was born into the Dissosway family and returned to Staten Island from Somerset County after the death of her first husband. Candidates are Mark Dissoway Jr.'s niece, sister, or wife's sister. Again there is no proof, only a possibility to account for the facts. She has not been found in Doty records. She obviously owned land and had lived in both Staten Island and Somerset County, NJ. She was obviously much younger than Nicholas. In the 1690s he had grown children and was a grandfather, and she was young enough to have babies. A second family born in the 1690s points to NM not having been born before the 1640s.
The Dissosway family lived in Staten Island across the river from Perth Amboy near the current Outer Bridge Crossing, i.e. they were very close to Woodbridge and Piscataway.
At the time of this wedding, Nicholas Sr. conveyed land to his son Nicholas Jr. Perhaps daughter Elizabeth had received her share when she married as a dowry. It seems as if Nicholas was providing for his first family as he began a second. He transferred land "near the Vineyard" to his son. Perhaps this implies that he moved to the land that came with his new wife.
The children of his second family included:
* Rachel b. 1697--I have found no other record of her
* Job b. 1700 --Job is an unusual name also used in the Dissosway family which might be a clue. Some have reported he died in 1773, but I have not found the source for that date. Some place him in the Nicholas Jr. family, but he is not mentioned in the 1734 will although all of the known living children were.
There is no record of Nicholas Mundy's death, only a dropping out of the record around 1715.
**
In 1907 the Rev. Ezra Mundy published a genealogy of the Mundy family following some descendents of Nicholas Mundy. This is a remarkable work done long before the internet and computers. However, he made a grave error in collapsing Nicholas Sr. and Nicholas Jr. into one man. This has resulted in endless confusion compounded by there having been two Mrs. Mundys named Elizabeth. Even a basic study of the data reveals the truth. It is astonishing that he made this error.
**
Note that the spelling of 17th and 18th century names is slippery and inconsistent. One sees Mundy, Munday, Monday, Mundey, Mondaye, Mundie, etc. I have used Mundy as did the Rev. Ezra Mundy since that seems to have been the consensus by the 19th century.
**
Discussion and additional information would be welcome. Research continues.
I am a descendent of both Nicholas Mundy, Jr. and Elizabeth Mundy Compton. My grandmother was a Mundy.
The memorial here was placed in 1893 "under the oak tree" by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, a descendent, and an early genealogist of the Mundy family in NJ. This location was his "best guess." Two pictures are posted: one taken in 2015 and one taken before 1907. The inscription says:
"In Memory of
Nicholas Mundy
The ancestor here of the Mundy family
who settled on land near the Vineyard road, about the year 1670.
Erected April 1893 by Ezra F. Mundy"
Nicholas Mundy and his wife Elizabeth APPEAR to have been in Piscataway, NJ by 3 Aug 1668 when the baptism of their son Nicholas Jr. was recorded. Family tradition in the 19th century said he was in Piscataway by 1665 but there is no proof of this. There is only the story of a missing 1665 deed that someone's grandfather saw. This deed was missing in the 19th century when it was first looked for. The first existing deed in his name was dated 1676. There is a record that in 1672 he witnessed an incident in Elizabethtown along with "James the Governor's man, Cramer and his wife, and many others" (Hatfield in "The History of Elizabeth, NJ"). He signed a "Dutch Oath" in 1673 and was then living in Piscataway (Monnette in "Early Settlers of Piscataway"). The births of three children are recorded in Piscataway in 1668, 1672, and 1676.
Nicholas Mundy was not mentioned on the 1991 memorial plaque honoring the first settlers of Piscataway that is between Piscataway "city hall" and the police station. There is a blank on the marker at the bottom of the middle column after Manning where Mundy would fit. This says that he was not among the first wave of colonists as calculated by the people who placed this plaque. He is not on the earliest lists reported by Monnette. Judging from the memorial marker placed by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, he thought that Nicholas Mundy arrived about 1670.
Nicholas Mundy was reportedly a blacksmith.
He lived near Vineyard Road on the boundary of what is now Edison, NJ and Metuchen, but was then Piscataway. Based on the 1907 notes from the Rev. Ezra Mundy, various old maps, and details from the 1900 census, it is believed that he lived in the area around Vineyard Road, Middlesex Ave. (Rt 27), and Route 1. Note that Highway 287 creates a boundary today that did not exist in his time. Probably he lived near the current Costco store. His family owned some of his land into the middle of 19th century at least. He originally had about 120 acres in 1676 and an additional 101 acres in 1679. There are several surviving deeds. He and his son are referred to as "of the Vineyard."
A birth date of c 1640-1645 is a guess based on the birth dates of his children (1st and 2nd families) and his arrival in Piscataway. The c 1715 death date is an estimate based on when the existing records stopped referring to both Nicholas Mundy Sr. and Nicholas Mundy Jr. He did not leave a will which is surprising since he owned property--although there is wording in a deed suggesting that a will existed. If so, it has been lost. This deed mentions his second wife and potential second family, plus "testamentary bequests" for his son Nicholas, daughter Elizabeth Compton, and Sarah Fford, his servant. The 1734 will sometimes cited as his was that of his son Nicholas Mundy Jr.
It is not known where he came from, and my thinking on this has evolved. I now think that he came to New Jersey from England via Barbados.
Although most of the first settlers of Piscataway came from what is now the New Hampshire/Maine/Massachusetts border area near the Piscataqua River, no record as yet been found for him in New England in spite of a professional search of the records at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Paraphrasing Agatha Christie, "He wasn't there." His absence from the record is a finding. Nor did the "Great Migration" researchers find him. Some say his father was the William Mundy who arrived on the Bon Adventure which sailed "to Virginia" in 1634. Contrary to reports, there is not a 1688 will for William Mundy in Newburyport, MA although there is a 1688 will for a William Mundy in South Carolina. This will did not mention Nicholas Mundy. Some have suggested his father was the William Moudey who arrived on the second voyage of the Mary and John in 1634. Subsequent records show that William Moudey was William Moody rather than William Mundy and his life can be otherwise traced.
Some have suggested that his father was the well documented Henry Mundy "gentleman" of Salisbury, MA. This has been explored and discounted. Henry Mundy seems to have left no children. His heir was a nephew Philip Wollidge ("my sister's son") whose own son, interestingly, ended up in Piscataway.
Also some on the internet have created a hypothetical "William Henry Mundy" as his father. This person does not seem to have existed in New England.
The most that can be said is that there were Mundy men in America in the generation before him although no specific connection has been found. Although nearly all of the other early Piscataway settlers came from New England, but there is no proof that he did. There is no record that he came directly from England. His parents are unknown at this time
There was a Nicholas and Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who baptized a son Nicholas in early August 1668 at Christ Church. There is also a 3 August 1668 baptism record in Piscataway. It is unclear whether this is a coincidence or relevant, but other records imply that they were not yet in Piscataway in 1668. With a New England origin seemingly disproved, one has to wonder if Nicholas Mundy Jr. was in fact born in Barbados and was rebaptized (or retroactively reregistered) in Piscataway. An expert in early NJ records says this was often done because it was important for there to be a baptism record. It is worth noting that Piscataway founder Hopewell Hull and his wife, a daughter of founder John Martin, remarried in Piscataway because the local powers-that-were did not accept the form of their original marriage in Massachusetts.
In 1655-1687 there is an Edward Munday mentioned in several wills in Barbados among the merchant class. Could he have been the father or uncle of Nicholas Mundy? Could Edward Munday have been a relative of affluent "gentleman" Henry Mundy of Salisbury, MA? There was also a land-owning Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who clearly was not the wife of the Nicholas being considered since there are records for her in Barbados after Nicholas was unquestionably in NJ with his wife. It is worth noting that there were more English immigrants in Barbadoes in the 17th century than in mainland America. It is also reported that an estimated 200 ships a year traveled between England, Barbados, and the American coast in this period so it is not at all improbable that the Mundys passed thru Barbados.
A blurb for a new edition of "Genealogies of Barbados Families" says: "Many of the early settlers of Barbados eventually moved to the mainland of North America and settled in Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other colonies. A son of John Winthrop, for example, was one of the original settlers of Barbados, and two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were descended from men who left Barbados a century earlier. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in fact, there was a continuous flow of settlers from Barbados to virtually every point on the Atlantic seaboard, with the result that many families in America today trace their origins in the New World first to Barbados."
Additionally, the introduction to this book says: "In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Barbados had connections with almost every point of the Atlantic seaboard from the Piscataqua River in the north to Charleston in the south. We know of persons from the Piscataqua who immigrated to Barbados in the 1640s, and in the 1670s a Barbadian was Governor of South Carolina. Americans went to Barbados to trade, and population pressures...led hundreds of Barbadians to seek their fortunes in America."
In 1870, Ezra Hunt MD, a Mundy descendent, gave a speech on the history of churches of Metuchen. In it, he mentions a family tradition that "Nicholas Mundaye" came from the West Indies, although he mentioned Jamaica rather than Barbados. His source was Moses Munday, then 90 years old. This gives more support of the idea that Nicholas Mundy came to America via Barbados.
Research in England has been inconclusive. There is an often cited record of a Nicholas Munday, son of Nicholas and Hester, baptized 19 June 1639 in Corsham, Wiltshire, England, but a search of the parish records shows that this child died young and that his father also died in Wiltshire. There was a Nicholas Mundy born in London, son of Henry, in the right time frame, but that child too died young. The record shows that this Henry was not the one who ended up in New England. Another candidate was Nicholas "Mundee" who was baptized in North Nibley, Gloucestershire in 1637 and who was the son of another Nicholas Mundee. I am not aware of his future life. I am inclined to think that the Nicholas Mundee who married an Elizabeth in 1651, also in North Nibley, was not the Nicholas baptized in 1637 who would have been 14 at the time. Since all parish records are not yet on-line, more may come to light in the future.
It is sometimes claimed that his first wife was Elizabeth Ayers. I have seen no proof of this or definite source. No marriage record has been found. The record only shows her as Elizabeth Mundy. I have found no unaccounted-for Elizabeth Ayers of the right generation in New England in spite of some assigning her to a well-known Ayers family. There were, however, Ayers in New England and Piscataway who were members of the same family. Of course, this would be irrelevant if the Mundys came from England via Barbados.
Their children were:
* Nicholas Jr. (1668-1734) who married Hopestill Hull in 1691 and had a large family of children.
* Elizabeth (1672-after 1731) who married John Compton in 1689 and had many children including Mary, John, Elizabeth Ayers, Sarah Alward, David, Hannah, Rachel, and William. Some say she died in 1731, but she was alive when her husband's 1731 will was probated. Some say she died in 1737.
* Anne (1676-1677)
The first Mrs. Elizabeth Mundy died 1694. Nicholas remarried in 1695 to another Elizabeth. This has created confusion.
There is a 1695 document conveying land to Nicholas Mundy when he married
Elizabeth Doughty "late of Somerset County." Mark Dissoway of Staten Island acted for Elizabeth. This raises the question of what was the relationship of Mark Dissoway and Elizabeth Doughty and raises speculation that she was a Doughty/Doty widow who was born into the Dissosway family and returned to Staten Island from Somerset County after the death of her first husband. Candidates are Mark Dissoway Jr.'s niece, sister, or wife's sister. Again there is no proof, only a possibility to account for the facts. She has not been found in Doty records. She obviously owned land and had lived in both Staten Island and Somerset County, NJ. She was obviously much younger than Nicholas. In the 1690s he had grown children and was a grandfather, and she was young enough to have babies. A second family born in the 1690s points to NM not having been born before the 1640s.
The Dissosway family lived in Staten Island across the river from Perth Amboy near the current Outer Bridge Crossing, i.e. they were very close to Woodbridge and Piscataway.
At the time of this wedding, Nicholas Sr. conveyed land to his son Nicholas Jr. Perhaps daughter Elizabeth had received her share when she married as a dowry. It seems as if Nicholas was providing for his first family as he began a second. He transferred land "near the Vineyard" to his son. Perhaps this implies that he moved to the land that came with his new wife.
The children of his second family included:
* Rachel b. 1697--I have found no other record of her
* Job b. 1700 --Job is an unusual name also used in the Dissosway family which might be a clue. Some have reported he died in 1773, but I have not found the source for that date. Some place him in the Nicholas Jr. family, but he is not mentioned in the 1734 will although all of the known living children were.
There is no record of Nicholas Mundy's death, only a dropping out of the record around 1715.
**
In 1907 the Rev. Ezra Mundy published a genealogy of the Mundy family following some descendents of Nicholas Mundy. This is a remarkable work done long before the internet and computers. However, he made a grave error in collapsing Nicholas Sr. and Nicholas Jr. into one man. This has resulted in endless confusion compounded by there having been two Mrs. Mundys named Elizabeth. Even a basic study of the data reveals the truth. It is astonishing that he made this error.
**
Note that the spelling of 17th and 18th century names is slippery and inconsistent. One sees Mundy, Munday, Monday, Mundey, Mondaye, Mundie, etc. I have used Mundy as did the Rev. Ezra Mundy since that seems to have been the consensus by the 19th century.
**
Discussion and additional information would be welcome. Research continues.
I am a descendent of both Nicholas Mundy, Jr. and Elizabeth Mundy Compton. My grandmother was a Mundy.
Nicholas Mundy, Sr. was the founder of the Mundy family in New Jersey. Many of his descendants are buried in the Old Colonial Cemetery and the nearby First Presbyterian Cemetery. He may or may not have been buried here.
The memorial here was placed in 1893 "under the oak tree" by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, a descendent, and an early genealogist of the Mundy family in NJ. This location was his "best guess." Two pictures are posted: one taken in 2015 and one taken before 1907. The inscription says:
"In Memory of
Nicholas Mundy
The ancestor here of the Mundy family
who settled on land near the Vineyard road, about the year 1670.
Erected April 1893 by Ezra F. Mundy"
Nicholas Mundy and his wife Elizabeth APPEAR to have been in Piscataway, NJ by 3 Aug 1668 when the baptism of their son Nicholas Jr. was recorded. Family tradition in the 19th century said he was in Piscataway by 1665 but there is no proof of this. There is only the story of a missing 1665 deed that someone's grandfather saw. This deed was missing in the 19th century when it was first looked for. The first existing deed in his name was dated 1676. There is a record that in 1672 he witnessed an incident in Elizabethtown along with "James the Governor's man, Cramer and his wife, and many others" (Hatfield in "The History of Elizabeth, NJ"). He signed a "Dutch Oath" in 1673 and was then living in Piscataway (Monnette in "Early Settlers of Piscataway"). The births of three children are recorded in Piscataway in 1668, 1672, and 1676.
Nicholas Mundy was not mentioned on the 1991 memorial plaque honoring the first settlers of Piscataway that is between Piscataway "city hall" and the police station. There is a blank on the marker at the bottom of the middle column after Manning where Mundy would fit. This says that he was not among the first wave of colonists as calculated by the people who placed this plaque. He is not on the earliest lists reported by Monnette. Judging from the memorial marker placed by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, he thought that Nicholas Mundy arrived about 1670.
Nicholas Mundy was reportedly a blacksmith.
He lived near Vineyard Road on the boundary of what is now Edison, NJ and Metuchen, but was then Piscataway. Based on the 1907 notes from the Rev. Ezra Mundy, various old maps, and details from the 1900 census, it is believed that he lived in the area around Vineyard Road, Middlesex Ave. (Rt 27), and Route 1. Note that Highway 287 creates a boundary today that did not exist in his time. Probably he lived near the current Costco store. His family owned some of his land into the middle of 19th century at least. He originally had about 120 acres in 1676 and an additional 101 acres in 1679. There are several surviving deeds. He and his son are referred to as "of the Vineyard."
A birth date of c 1640-1645 is a guess based on the birth dates of his children (1st and 2nd families) and his arrival in Piscataway. The c 1715 death date is an estimate based on when the existing records stopped referring to both Nicholas Mundy Sr. and Nicholas Mundy Jr. He did not leave a will which is surprising since he owned property--although there is wording in a deed suggesting that a will existed. If so, it has been lost. This deed mentions his second wife and potential second family, plus "testamentary bequests" for his son Nicholas, daughter Elizabeth Compton, and Sarah Fford, his servant. The 1734 will sometimes cited as his was that of his son Nicholas Mundy Jr.
It is not known where he came from, and my thinking on this has evolved. I now think that he came to New Jersey from England via Barbados.
Although most of the first settlers of Piscataway came from what is now the New Hampshire/Maine/Massachusetts border area near the Piscataqua River, no record as yet been found for him in New England in spite of a professional search of the records at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Paraphrasing Agatha Christie, "He wasn't there." His absence from the record is a finding. Nor did the "Great Migration" researchers find him. Some say his father was the William Mundy who arrived on the Bon Adventure which sailed "to Virginia" in 1634. Contrary to reports, there is not a 1688 will for William Mundy in Newburyport, MA although there is a 1688 will for a William Mundy in South Carolina. This will did not mention Nicholas Mundy. Some have suggested his father was the William Moudey who arrived on the second voyage of the Mary and John in 1634. Subsequent records show that William Moudey was William Moody rather than William Mundy and his life can be otherwise traced.
Some have suggested that his father was the well documented Henry Mundy "gentleman" of Salisbury, MA. This has been explored and discounted. Henry Mundy seems to have left no children. His heir was a nephew Philip Wollidge ("my sister's son") whose own son, interestingly, ended up in Piscataway.
Also some on the internet have created a hypothetical "William Henry Mundy" as his father. This person does not seem to have existed in New England.
The most that can be said is that there were Mundy men in America in the generation before him although no specific connection has been found. Although nearly all of the other early Piscataway settlers came from New England, but there is no proof that he did. There is no record that he came directly from England. His parents are unknown at this time
There was a Nicholas and Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who baptized a son Nicholas in early August 1668 at Christ Church. There is also a 3 August 1668 baptism record in Piscataway. It is unclear whether this is a coincidence or relevant, but other records imply that they were not yet in Piscataway in 1668. With a New England origin seemingly disproved, one has to wonder if Nicholas Mundy Jr. was in fact born in Barbados and was rebaptized (or retroactively reregistered) in Piscataway. An expert in early NJ records says this was often done because it was important for there to be a baptism record. It is worth noting that Piscataway founder Hopewell Hull and his wife, a daughter of founder John Martin, remarried in Piscataway because the local powers-that-were did not accept the form of their original marriage in Massachusetts.
In 1655-1687 there is an Edward Munday mentioned in several wills in Barbados among the merchant class. Could he have been the father or uncle of Nicholas Mundy? Could Edward Munday have been a relative of affluent "gentleman" Henry Mundy of Salisbury, MA? There was also a land-owning Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who clearly was not the wife of the Nicholas being considered since there are records for her in Barbados after Nicholas was unquestionably in NJ with his wife. It is worth noting that there were more English immigrants in Barbadoes in the 17th century than in mainland America. It is also reported that an estimated 200 ships a year traveled between England, Barbados, and the American coast in this period so it is not at all improbable that the Mundys passed thru Barbados.
A blurb for a new edition of "Genealogies of Barbados Families" says: "Many of the early settlers of Barbados eventually moved to the mainland of North America and settled in Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other colonies. A son of John Winthrop, for example, was one of the original settlers of Barbados, and two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were descended from men who left Barbados a century earlier. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in fact, there was a continuous flow of settlers from Barbados to virtually every point on the Atlantic seaboard, with the result that many families in America today trace their origins in the New World first to Barbados."
Additionally, the introduction to this book says: "In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Barbados had connections with almost every point of the Atlantic seaboard from the Piscataqua River in the north to Charleston in the south. We know of persons from the Piscataqua who immigrated to Barbados in the 1640s, and in the 1670s a Barbadian was Governor of South Carolina. Americans went to Barbados to trade, and population pressures...led hundreds of Barbadians to seek their fortunes in America."
In 1870, Ezra Hunt MD, a Mundy descendent, gave a speech on the history of churches of Metuchen. In it, he mentions a family tradition that "Nicholas Mundaye" came from the West Indies, although he mentioned Jamaica rather than Barbados. His source was Moses Munday, then 90 years old. This gives more support of the idea that Nicholas Mundy came to America via Barbados.
Research in England has been inconclusive. There is an often cited record of a Nicholas Munday, son of Nicholas and Hester, baptized 19 June 1639 in Corsham, Wiltshire, England, but a search of the parish records shows that this child died young and that his father also died in Wiltshire. There was a Nicholas Mundy born in London, son of Henry, in the right time frame, but that child too died young. The record shows that this Henry was not the one who ended up in New England. Another candidate was Nicholas "Mundee" who was baptized in North Nibley, Gloucestershire in 1637 and who was the son of another Nicholas Mundee. I am not aware of his future life. I am inclined to think that the Nicholas Mundee who married an Elizabeth in 1651, also in North Nibley, was not the Nicholas baptized in 1637 who would have been 14 at the time. Since all parish records are not yet on-line, more may come to light in the future.
It is sometimes claimed that his first wife was Elizabeth Ayers. I have seen no proof of this or definite source. No marriage record has been found. The record only shows her as Elizabeth Mundy. I have found no unaccounted-for Elizabeth Ayers of the right generation in New England in spite of some assigning her to a well-known Ayers family. There were, however, Ayers in New England and Piscataway who were members of the same family. Of course, this would be irrelevant if the Mundys came from England via Barbados.
Their children were:
* Nicholas Jr. (1668-1734) who married Hopestill Hull in 1691 and had a large family of children.
* Elizabeth (1672-after 1731) who married John Compton in 1689 and had many children including Mary, John, Elizabeth Ayers, Sarah Alward, David, Hannah, Rachel, and William. Some say she died in 1731, but she was alive when her husband's 1731 will was probated. Some say she died in 1737.
* Anne (1676-1677)
The first Mrs. Elizabeth Mundy died 1694. Nicholas remarried in 1695 to another Elizabeth. This has created confusion.
There is a 1695 document conveying land to Nicholas Mundy when he married
Elizabeth Doughty "late of Somerset County." Mark Dissoway of Staten Island acted for Elizabeth. This raises the question of what was the relationship of Mark Dissoway and Elizabeth Doughty and raises speculation that she was a Doughty/Doty widow who was born into the Dissosway family and returned to Staten Island from Somerset County after the death of her first husband. Candidates are Mark Dissoway Jr.'s niece, sister, or wife's sister. Again there is no proof, only a possibility to account for the facts. She has not been found in Doty records. She obviously owned land and had lived in both Staten Island and Somerset County, NJ. She was obviously much younger than Nicholas. In the 1690s he had grown children and was a grandfather, and she was young enough to have babies. A second family born in the 1690s points to NM not having been born before the 1640s.
The Dissosway family lived in Staten Island across the river from Perth Amboy near the current Outer Bridge Crossing, i.e. they were very close to Woodbridge and Piscataway.
At the time of this wedding, Nicholas Sr. conveyed land to his son Nicholas Jr. Perhaps daughter Elizabeth had received her share when she married as a dowry. It seems as if Nicholas was providing for his first family as he began a second. He transferred land "near the Vineyard" to his son. Perhaps this implies that he moved to the land that came with his new wife.
The children of his second family included:
* Rachel b. 1697--I have found no other record of her
* Job b. 1700 --Job is an unusual name also used in the Dissosway family which might be a clue. Some have reported he died in 1773, but I have not found the source for that date. Some place him in the Nicholas Jr. family, but he is not mentioned in the 1734 will although all of the known living children were.
There is no record of Nicholas Mundy's death, only a dropping out of the record around 1715.
**
In 1907 the Rev. Ezra Mundy published a genealogy of the Mundy family following some descendents of Nicholas Mundy. This is a remarkable work done long before the internet and computers. However, he made a grave error in collapsing Nicholas Sr. and Nicholas Jr. into one man. This has resulted in endless confusion compounded by there having been two Mrs. Mundys named Elizabeth. Even a basic study of the data reveals the truth. It is astonishing that he made this error.
**
Note that the spelling of 17th and 18th century names is slippery and inconsistent. One sees Mundy, Munday, Monday, Mundey, Mondaye, Mundie, etc. I have used Mundy as did the Rev. Ezra Mundy since that seems to have been the consensus by the 19th century.
**
Discussion and additional information would be welcome. Research continues.
I am a descendent of both Nicholas Mundy, Jr. and Elizabeth Mundy Compton. My grandmother was a Mundy.
The memorial here was placed in 1893 "under the oak tree" by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, a descendent, and an early genealogist of the Mundy family in NJ. This location was his "best guess." Two pictures are posted: one taken in 2015 and one taken before 1907. The inscription says:
"In Memory of
Nicholas Mundy
The ancestor here of the Mundy family
who settled on land near the Vineyard road, about the year 1670.
Erected April 1893 by Ezra F. Mundy"
Nicholas Mundy and his wife Elizabeth APPEAR to have been in Piscataway, NJ by 3 Aug 1668 when the baptism of their son Nicholas Jr. was recorded. Family tradition in the 19th century said he was in Piscataway by 1665 but there is no proof of this. There is only the story of a missing 1665 deed that someone's grandfather saw. This deed was missing in the 19th century when it was first looked for. The first existing deed in his name was dated 1676. There is a record that in 1672 he witnessed an incident in Elizabethtown along with "James the Governor's man, Cramer and his wife, and many others" (Hatfield in "The History of Elizabeth, NJ"). He signed a "Dutch Oath" in 1673 and was then living in Piscataway (Monnette in "Early Settlers of Piscataway"). The births of three children are recorded in Piscataway in 1668, 1672, and 1676.
Nicholas Mundy was not mentioned on the 1991 memorial plaque honoring the first settlers of Piscataway that is between Piscataway "city hall" and the police station. There is a blank on the marker at the bottom of the middle column after Manning where Mundy would fit. This says that he was not among the first wave of colonists as calculated by the people who placed this plaque. He is not on the earliest lists reported by Monnette. Judging from the memorial marker placed by the Rev. Ezra Mundy, he thought that Nicholas Mundy arrived about 1670.
Nicholas Mundy was reportedly a blacksmith.
He lived near Vineyard Road on the boundary of what is now Edison, NJ and Metuchen, but was then Piscataway. Based on the 1907 notes from the Rev. Ezra Mundy, various old maps, and details from the 1900 census, it is believed that he lived in the area around Vineyard Road, Middlesex Ave. (Rt 27), and Route 1. Note that Highway 287 creates a boundary today that did not exist in his time. Probably he lived near the current Costco store. His family owned some of his land into the middle of 19th century at least. He originally had about 120 acres in 1676 and an additional 101 acres in 1679. There are several surviving deeds. He and his son are referred to as "of the Vineyard."
A birth date of c 1640-1645 is a guess based on the birth dates of his children (1st and 2nd families) and his arrival in Piscataway. The c 1715 death date is an estimate based on when the existing records stopped referring to both Nicholas Mundy Sr. and Nicholas Mundy Jr. He did not leave a will which is surprising since he owned property--although there is wording in a deed suggesting that a will existed. If so, it has been lost. This deed mentions his second wife and potential second family, plus "testamentary bequests" for his son Nicholas, daughter Elizabeth Compton, and Sarah Fford, his servant. The 1734 will sometimes cited as his was that of his son Nicholas Mundy Jr.
It is not known where he came from, and my thinking on this has evolved. I now think that he came to New Jersey from England via Barbados.
Although most of the first settlers of Piscataway came from what is now the New Hampshire/Maine/Massachusetts border area near the Piscataqua River, no record as yet been found for him in New England in spite of a professional search of the records at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Paraphrasing Agatha Christie, "He wasn't there." His absence from the record is a finding. Nor did the "Great Migration" researchers find him. Some say his father was the William Mundy who arrived on the Bon Adventure which sailed "to Virginia" in 1634. Contrary to reports, there is not a 1688 will for William Mundy in Newburyport, MA although there is a 1688 will for a William Mundy in South Carolina. This will did not mention Nicholas Mundy. Some have suggested his father was the William Moudey who arrived on the second voyage of the Mary and John in 1634. Subsequent records show that William Moudey was William Moody rather than William Mundy and his life can be otherwise traced.
Some have suggested that his father was the well documented Henry Mundy "gentleman" of Salisbury, MA. This has been explored and discounted. Henry Mundy seems to have left no children. His heir was a nephew Philip Wollidge ("my sister's son") whose own son, interestingly, ended up in Piscataway.
Also some on the internet have created a hypothetical "William Henry Mundy" as his father. This person does not seem to have existed in New England.
The most that can be said is that there were Mundy men in America in the generation before him although no specific connection has been found. Although nearly all of the other early Piscataway settlers came from New England, but there is no proof that he did. There is no record that he came directly from England. His parents are unknown at this time
There was a Nicholas and Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who baptized a son Nicholas in early August 1668 at Christ Church. There is also a 3 August 1668 baptism record in Piscataway. It is unclear whether this is a coincidence or relevant, but other records imply that they were not yet in Piscataway in 1668. With a New England origin seemingly disproved, one has to wonder if Nicholas Mundy Jr. was in fact born in Barbados and was rebaptized (or retroactively reregistered) in Piscataway. An expert in early NJ records says this was often done because it was important for there to be a baptism record. It is worth noting that Piscataway founder Hopewell Hull and his wife, a daughter of founder John Martin, remarried in Piscataway because the local powers-that-were did not accept the form of their original marriage in Massachusetts.
In 1655-1687 there is an Edward Munday mentioned in several wills in Barbados among the merchant class. Could he have been the father or uncle of Nicholas Mundy? Could Edward Munday have been a relative of affluent "gentleman" Henry Mundy of Salisbury, MA? There was also a land-owning Elizabeth Mundy in Barbados who clearly was not the wife of the Nicholas being considered since there are records for her in Barbados after Nicholas was unquestionably in NJ with his wife. It is worth noting that there were more English immigrants in Barbadoes in the 17th century than in mainland America. It is also reported that an estimated 200 ships a year traveled between England, Barbados, and the American coast in this period so it is not at all improbable that the Mundys passed thru Barbados.
A blurb for a new edition of "Genealogies of Barbados Families" says: "Many of the early settlers of Barbados eventually moved to the mainland of North America and settled in Virginia, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other colonies. A son of John Winthrop, for example, was one of the original settlers of Barbados, and two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were descended from men who left Barbados a century earlier. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in fact, there was a continuous flow of settlers from Barbados to virtually every point on the Atlantic seaboard, with the result that many families in America today trace their origins in the New World first to Barbados."
Additionally, the introduction to this book says: "In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Barbados had connections with almost every point of the Atlantic seaboard from the Piscataqua River in the north to Charleston in the south. We know of persons from the Piscataqua who immigrated to Barbados in the 1640s, and in the 1670s a Barbadian was Governor of South Carolina. Americans went to Barbados to trade, and population pressures...led hundreds of Barbadians to seek their fortunes in America."
In 1870, Ezra Hunt MD, a Mundy descendent, gave a speech on the history of churches of Metuchen. In it, he mentions a family tradition that "Nicholas Mundaye" came from the West Indies, although he mentioned Jamaica rather than Barbados. His source was Moses Munday, then 90 years old. This gives more support of the idea that Nicholas Mundy came to America via Barbados.
Research in England has been inconclusive. There is an often cited record of a Nicholas Munday, son of Nicholas and Hester, baptized 19 June 1639 in Corsham, Wiltshire, England, but a search of the parish records shows that this child died young and that his father also died in Wiltshire. There was a Nicholas Mundy born in London, son of Henry, in the right time frame, but that child too died young. The record shows that this Henry was not the one who ended up in New England. Another candidate was Nicholas "Mundee" who was baptized in North Nibley, Gloucestershire in 1637 and who was the son of another Nicholas Mundee. I am not aware of his future life. I am inclined to think that the Nicholas Mundee who married an Elizabeth in 1651, also in North Nibley, was not the Nicholas baptized in 1637 who would have been 14 at the time. Since all parish records are not yet on-line, more may come to light in the future.
It is sometimes claimed that his first wife was Elizabeth Ayers. I have seen no proof of this or definite source. No marriage record has been found. The record only shows her as Elizabeth Mundy. I have found no unaccounted-for Elizabeth Ayers of the right generation in New England in spite of some assigning her to a well-known Ayers family. There were, however, Ayers in New England and Piscataway who were members of the same family. Of course, this would be irrelevant if the Mundys came from England via Barbados.
Their children were:
* Nicholas Jr. (1668-1734) who married Hopestill Hull in 1691 and had a large family of children.
* Elizabeth (1672-after 1731) who married John Compton in 1689 and had many children including Mary, John, Elizabeth Ayers, Sarah Alward, David, Hannah, Rachel, and William. Some say she died in 1731, but she was alive when her husband's 1731 will was probated. Some say she died in 1737.
* Anne (1676-1677)
The first Mrs. Elizabeth Mundy died 1694. Nicholas remarried in 1695 to another Elizabeth. This has created confusion.
There is a 1695 document conveying land to Nicholas Mundy when he married
Elizabeth Doughty "late of Somerset County." Mark Dissoway of Staten Island acted for Elizabeth. This raises the question of what was the relationship of Mark Dissoway and Elizabeth Doughty and raises speculation that she was a Doughty/Doty widow who was born into the Dissosway family and returned to Staten Island from Somerset County after the death of her first husband. Candidates are Mark Dissoway Jr.'s niece, sister, or wife's sister. Again there is no proof, only a possibility to account for the facts. She has not been found in Doty records. She obviously owned land and had lived in both Staten Island and Somerset County, NJ. She was obviously much younger than Nicholas. In the 1690s he had grown children and was a grandfather, and she was young enough to have babies. A second family born in the 1690s points to NM not having been born before the 1640s.
The Dissosway family lived in Staten Island across the river from Perth Amboy near the current Outer Bridge Crossing, i.e. they were very close to Woodbridge and Piscataway.
At the time of this wedding, Nicholas Sr. conveyed land to his son Nicholas Jr. Perhaps daughter Elizabeth had received her share when she married as a dowry. It seems as if Nicholas was providing for his first family as he began a second. He transferred land "near the Vineyard" to his son. Perhaps this implies that he moved to the land that came with his new wife.
The children of his second family included:
* Rachel b. 1697--I have found no other record of her
* Job b. 1700 --Job is an unusual name also used in the Dissosway family which might be a clue. Some have reported he died in 1773, but I have not found the source for that date. Some place him in the Nicholas Jr. family, but he is not mentioned in the 1734 will although all of the known living children were.
There is no record of Nicholas Mundy's death, only a dropping out of the record around 1715.
**
In 1907 the Rev. Ezra Mundy published a genealogy of the Mundy family following some descendents of Nicholas Mundy. This is a remarkable work done long before the internet and computers. However, he made a grave error in collapsing Nicholas Sr. and Nicholas Jr. into one man. This has resulted in endless confusion compounded by there having been two Mrs. Mundys named Elizabeth. Even a basic study of the data reveals the truth. It is astonishing that he made this error.
**
Note that the spelling of 17th and 18th century names is slippery and inconsistent. One sees Mundy, Munday, Monday, Mundey, Mondaye, Mundie, etc. I have used Mundy as did the Rev. Ezra Mundy since that seems to have been the consensus by the 19th century.
**
Discussion and additional information would be welcome. Research continues.
I am a descendent of both Nicholas Mundy, Jr. and Elizabeth Mundy Compton. My grandmother was a Mundy.
Bio by: Linda Lyons
Inscription
In Memory of
Nicholas Mundy
The ancestor here of the Mundy family
who settled on land near the Vineyard road, about the year 1670.
Erected April 1893 by Ezra F. Mundy
Family Members
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