5:7 - New England Connections
Reverend Robert Peck and the Bacon Family of Massachusetts
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Reverend Robert Peck, the second husband of Martha Woodward Bacon and William Ripley of Hingham, Massachusetts were on the same ship that went to Massachusetts in 1638. William Ripley may have been related to Richard Ripley of Virginia and Elizabeth Ripley who married John Golding. The following is The Passenger List of the Diligent 1638 Ipswich, Suffolk England to Boston Harbor from The Planters of the Commonwealth by Charles E. Banks. (Banks, 1930, p. 191-194)
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DILIGENT, of Ipswich, John Martin, Master
She sailed from Ipswich, Suffolk, in June and arrived August 10 at Boston, with about one hundred passengers, principally from Hingham, Norfolk, destined for Hingham, Massachusetts. Other sources state the Diligent sailed from Gravesend on 26 Apr 1638. (packrat-pro.com)
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Among the passengers were:
WILLIAM RIPLEY of Wymondham, Norfolk was traveling with his wife and Mary Ripley, John Ripley, Abraham Ripley and Sarah Ripley.
Rev. ROBERT PECK of Hingham, County Norfolk was traveling with Mrs. Peck, Anne Peck and Joseph Peck. His wife must have been Martha Woodward Bacon, formerly the wife of Rev. James “Immigrant to Virginia” Bacon because it is known that Rev. Robert Peck was her second husband. His other wife was Anne Honniwood. According to the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Jan. 1904, George Lyddall was the fifth son of Thomas Lyddall and a younger brother of Sir Thomas Lyddall who married Bridgett Woodward, daughter of George Woodward and Elizabeth Honniwood. These people were closely related in England and when they came to Virginia they settled in the same locality, along the Pamunkey River in New Kent County. They were Royalists and the move to Virginia during the Commonwealth was a natural one to avoid persecution from Cromwell. Among the families represented were the Woodwards, Lyddalls, Bacons, Honniwoods, Hammonds and others who established their homes close together in St. Peter's Parish. Martha Honniwood married Rev. James "emigrant to Virginia" Bacon, so the question is of course, how are Elizabeth and Martha Honniwood related?
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JOSEPH PECK of Hingham, County Norfolk was traveling with his wife. He was the brother of Rev. Robert Peck.
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Rev. Robert Peck and his brother Joseph escaped persecution in Massachusetts
Reverend Robert Peck, a talented and influential clergyman, zealous preacher and nonconformist became the rector of St. Andrew's Parish in Hingham, England on January 6, 1605. He was a firebrand and was already in trouble with his superiors by 1636. The following is from The Story of the Gilmans and a Gilman Genealogy by Constance Ames (Ames, 1950)
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"The immediate occasion of their departure seems to have been trouble in ecclesiastical matters. Their rector, doubtless with the sympathy and aid of most of those constituting the emigrating party, had pulled down the rails of the chancel and altar, and leveled the latter a foot below the church, as it remains to this day. Being prosecuted by Bishop Wren he left the kingdom, together with his friends, who sold their estates at half their real value, promising to remain with them always. The party having landed at Boston, Massachusetts, August 10, 1638, immediately proceeded to their place of destination, about fourteen miles south-east from Boston."
Robert Peck was held responsible for the damage done by his parishoners and so he was called before a consistory court in Norwich and charged with “cutumacious disobedience to the orders and ceremonies of the church.” Not only was he held in contempt because he held prayer meetings in private houses, a practice that was against church law but he refused to subscribe to any of the orders and ceremonies of the church and so was excommunicated. Eighteen months later he and his family were headed for America. They went to join others who believed the same things they did because a group had already left from Great Yarmoth in the “Elizabethan Bonaventure” and had settled at Bare Cove, later renamed Hingham, Massachusetts.
The main issue that men like Robert Peck aspired to was Puritanism, a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to “purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Puritans became noted in the 17th century for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that informed their whole way of life, and they sought through church reform to make their lifestyle the pattern for the whole nation. Their efforts to transform the nation contributed both to civil war in England and to the founding of colonies in America as working models of the Puritan way of life.
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Wren was Bishop of Hereford in 1634, of Norwich in 1635 and of Ely in 1638 but he fell from power when his strong support of Archbishop Laud and his toughness on the Puritans led to his being imprisoned in the Tower of London once the Parliamentarian factions gained control from 1642 to 1660. The main opponent of the Puritans at that time however was William Laud, Archibishop of Canterbury, born on October 7, 1573. In matters of church policy he was an autocrat, intent on maintaining uniform worship in England and Wales. He was regarded by Puritan clerics and laymen as a formidable and dangerous opponent, and they no doubt felt threatened because the Counter-Reformation was succeeding abroad and the Protestants were not doing well in the Thirty Year's War. In a climate like that, Laud's high church policies might be seen as sinister. Only a year after his appointment as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the ship Griffin left for America, carrying religious dissidents such as Anne Hutchinson, Rev. John Lothropp and the Reverend Zechariah Symmes. Those convicted of "seditious libel" might, like William Prynne, have their ears cropped and their faces branded. Prynne reinterpreted the "SL" branded on his forehead as "Stigmata Laudis". The Long Parliament of 1640 eventually accused Laud of treason and in the Grand Remonstrance of 1641 called for his imprisonment in the Tower. He stayed there throughout the early stages of the English Civil War. Apart from a few remaining enemies most of the members of Parliament would have preferred to allow the former Archbishop to die of natural causes rather than execution, but his past caught up with William Laud when on January 10, 1645 he was beheaded on Tower Hill.
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William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury was an opponent of the Puritans
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Unlike Laud, Bishop Wren survived and was allowed the freedom to write notes on the improvement of the Book of Common Prayer on which he later had some influence. His nephew was Sir Christopher Wren.
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Rev. Peck must have married the widow of James Bacon because his first wife Anne Packington was buried at Hingham in England on August 30, 1648 and the Diligent landed at Boston only twenty days before that date. Peck waited in Massachusetts until the long Parliament, or until the persecutions in England ceased in about 1641 and then returned to minister to the same church at Hingham, England he had left in 1638. Mr. Hobart says he returned October 27, 1641 and Mr. Cushing the town clerk says his wife and son Joseph returned with him but his daughter Anne remained here because she was married to CAPTAIN JOHN MASON, 'the conqueror of the Pequots'. They were married in 1639 in Massachusetts and eventually had seven children. Robert Peck died in 1656 and was buried under the choir of St. Andrew's church. His funeral sermon was preached by Nathaniel Joslin (Josselyn) and was published.
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Joseph Peck was the brother of Rev. Robert Peck and he was born April 22, 1587 at Beccles, Suffolk, England the son of Robert Peck and Helen Babbs. The wife listed in the passenger list of the Diligent was his second wife Deliverence. His sons and daughters were probably all by his first wife Rebecca Clark who died October 21, 1637 in Hingham, England.
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William Ripley and Richard Ripley of Essex, Virginia
There was a man named Richard Ripley who in 1651 brought John Golding to Virginia. The relevant information is recorded in Cavaliers and Pioneers. Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants, 1623-1666 (Nugent, 1934)
There are four instances where Ripley appears in this book.
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EDWARD DREW 300 acres Accomack County, 8 September 1636, p 376, N.W. upon the river Nly upon land of Mr. John Howe, Sly. upon land of Thomas Powell & E.E. E. into the woods. Trans. of 6 persons: John Ripley, Peter Higgison, Richard Wanes, George Hall, Thomas Stidwell, William Carter (Nugent, 1934, p. 46)
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RICHARD RIPLEY 400 acres 29 June 1651 p 357. Beg. at the head of a branch in Winter Harbor neare New Point Comfort and running to the bay side. Trans. of 8 persons: Mr. John Wlaker, twice, Josias Lackly, Katherine ___, Daniel Tucker, John Singleton, Elizabeth Elderwell, JOHN GOLDING, "These by assignment from Mr. John Walker." (Nugent, 1934, p. 223)
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HENRY SINGLETON, 400 acs, on Ewd. side of Eastermost riv, in Mockjack Bay, beg at marked trees of Richard Ripley, p 68 (532). (Wm. Leathermore & John thomas, 6 Dec. 1652, by Leathermore assigned to sd Thoas, who assigned to sd Singleton.) (Nugent, 1934, p. 417)
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MAJOR JOHN WASHINGTON, 1700 acs., lying bet. the head branches of Powetridge & Appamattox Cr., the one falling into Rappa. Riv. & the other into Potomack Riv., beg. by Wariscreeke path at cor. tree that lyeth next to land belonging to Nat. Pope, over certain branches falling into Appamattox Cr., W. by br. of Porortridge Cr. &c. by land cleared by Wm. Freake. 600 acs. granted Wm. Freake 18 Mar. 1662 & assigned to sd. Washington 26 Mar. 1664. 1100 acs. for trans, of 22 pers: Jno. Sherman, Robert Baker, Ann Baker, Jno. Rowly, Susan West, Mary Godfry, David Lobdell, Susan Ripley, Luke Raven, Joan Swift, Robt. Glass, Abille Denny, John Dixon, John Heath, John Linton, Edward Morgan, John Mustran, Susan Sale, John Munday 3 tymes, Law- rence Hatch (or Falch). 1 June 1664, p. 168, (50).
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1651 - Golding, John Of Essex Golding
There are also eleven records from this same book associated with the Goldings/Gouldings who arrived in America who are the John, William and Thomas most likely associated with John “of Burnham Essex” Golding, either William “of Gravesend” or William the Clergyman Golding and Thomas Golding/Goulding. That list is recorded in “Immigrants to Virginia”.
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John Golding married Elizabeth Ripley, but her relationship to Richard Ripley is largely unsubstantiated. She may have been his sister. Both Richard Ripley and John Golding lived in a place called Occupacia in Essex, Virginia.
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According to my records it is not documented that Richard Ripley was related to William Ripley of Hingham. That does not mean he wasn't; it simply means I have found nothing to firmly establish the claim. Ripley was evidently the captain of a Barque named the Boneta because I found the following entry in Hotten's under "Barbados Tickets Granted". It reads "Joseph Gooding in the Barque Boneta, Richard Ripley Commander for Jamaica April 12, 1679". That date would have been after his transportation of John Golding to Virginia.
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References
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Ames, C. L. (1950). The story of the Gilmans and a Gilman genealogy of the descendants of Edward Gilman. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/storyofgilmansan00ames
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Banks, C. E. (1930). The Passenger List of the Diligent 1638 Ipswich Suffolk. Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Nugent, N. M. (1934). Cavaliers and Pioneers; Abstracts of Virginia Land Patents and Grants 1623-1800 Vol 1 (Vol. 1). Richmond, VA, USA: Press of the Dietz Printing Company. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/cavalierspioneer00nuge/page/n11/mode/2up
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packrat-pro.com, A. S. (n.d.). The Diligent. Retrieved from packrat pro: https://packrat-pro.com/ships/dilligent.htm