8:3 Virginia Connections
William Ripley of Hingham and John Golding of Essex, Virginia
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Reverend Robert Peck, the second husband of Martha Woodward Bacon and William Ripley of Hingham, Massachusetts, was on the same ship, the DILIGENT that sailed from Ipswich, Suffolk, England in June 1638 and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on August 10, 1638. As much as I would like to be able to connect William of Hingham Ripley with Richard Ripley who brought John Golding to Virginia in 1651, I can find no reliable source to do so. It would appear that Elizabeth Ripley married John Golding of Essex, Virginia but her connection to Richard Ripley is largely undocumented.
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John "of Essex" Golding came to Virginia with Richard Ripley in 1651
Of course, it is less important to record the descendants of John Golding who married Elizabeth Ripley than it is to determine how he came to know the Ripley family to begin with. There were two men named John Gaulding or Golding, living in adjacent counties of Virginia at basically the same time. One of John "of Essex" Golding who came to Virginia with Richard Ripley in 1651, married Elizabeth Ripley and settled in a place called "Occupacia". The other John Gaulding was my direct ancestor, described in a book called Men From Matequin as having "probably come from England". (Evans, 1984) That man married Anne Stewart and he left descendants in New Kent County, Virginia. I do not believe them to be the same person, though they may have some family connection that has not yet become known.
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I also know who John of Essex was not. He was NOT the son of William "the Clergyman" Golding who attended the Thursday Lecture in Boston in 1648. Louis Thorn Golding uncovered the identity of the "only son John" of William Golding of Bermuda, one of the Eleuthera Adventurers and he was John "of Huntington" Golding who moved to Huntington, New York and left descendants. It has already been determined that William Ripley was probably one of the congregation of dissidents traveling with Rev. Robert Peck from England to Boston, Massachusetts in 1638. They emigrated to New England to escape religious persecution back in their home church. The question is specifically is John Golding who married Elizabeth Ripley connected to William Ripley of Hingham, Massachusetts? The only facts that are known for certain is that William Ripley brought himself, two sons named John and Abraham and his wife with him on the same ship as Rev. Robert Peck, and that there was a man named Richard Ripley who had land in 1703 in Occupacia and also a man named Richard Ripley who in 1651 brought John Golding to Virginia. John “of Huntington” may have come to Virginia at some time during his life but he did not settle in Virginia. His line in New York is outlined in another chapter.
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"WILLIAM RIPLEY died 1656 was of Wymondham, Norfolk, England. Came to America in the "Diligent" in 1638, bringing with him his wife, two sons and two daughters. He was a weaver. Settled at Hingham in 1638. His wife died at Hingham. He married (2) September 29, 1654 Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Thaxter. William Ripley was buried at Hingham July 11, 1656. His widow married (3) January 20, 1658 John Dwight. She died July 18, 1660. Sarah Ripley was his daughter and she died in 1715 in Hingham. She was born in England and married Jeremiah Beal at Boston on November 18, 1652." (Who Begot Thee? Some Genealogical and Historical Notes Made in an Effort to Trace the American Progenitors of One Individual Living in America in 1903, 1903)
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Was Richard Ripley of "Occupacia" his son? Richard Ripley and his half-sister Elizabeth are reported by many to have been the children of William Ripley who went to Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638 in the 'Diligent'. This may or may not be true.
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Richard Ripley of Gloucester and Essex, Virginia
Richard is reported by some to have been the son of William of Hingham by William's wife Katherine Elizabeth Banks and Elizabeth his sister the daughter of William Ripley and Susanna Sharp. I have found nothing in the form of primary documentation to support this. It doesn’t mean the information is not true; it just means there is very little in the way of hard evidence to support the connection that is almost universally claimed. Sources like Find-a-Grave, genealogy.com, etc are simply not sufficient. Richard is also reported to have been born about 1620 in Moulton, Lincolnshire, England and if he is the same person as the Richard Ripley of Occupacia who died on June 13, 1711 then he wrote his will on June 3, 1710 in which he named his sons Richard, Thomas and John and daughters Elizabeth Smith, Dorothy, Sarah, Ann and Mary Beasley. He must have been a cooper or carpenter because he gave those tools to his son John and also mentioned his wife Elizabeth. James Landrum and William Golding filed an inventory of Richard's estate the year following his death. William Golding was the son of the Immigrant John.
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Richard Ripley does not appear in the Essex County land records until 1703 when he purchased 300 acres from John Hawkins of Sittenburne Parish and later an additional 50 acres from Mary Ward 'part of 1150 acres lying on the fork of the Occupasie". There is a certain discrepancy here, because by 1711 the 1651 Parmenter who brought John Golding to Virginia would have been in his eighties, leading some to believe the man who left the 1711 will might have been of a later generation because there was a Richard Ripley who patented 400 acres in Winter Harbor near New Point Comfort on 29 January 1651 and his holdings were later referenced as being at Mockjack Bay. The place is now called “Mobjack Bay” and it is a bay on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, lying between the Rappahannock River on the north and the York River on the south. The bay appears in early documents as “Mockjack” and the story is that echoes on the bay would sometimes sound like Jack, a term for a sailor. The place is not very far from Yorktown.
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At any rate, both references could refer to the same person, but that is less important than noting that Occupacia Swamp is a very specific location in Virginia and John "of Essex" Golding had property in the same location.
Source: Records of Colonial Gloucester County, Virginia: A Collection of ..., Volume 1,
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The following information is primarily from THE PAYNE-GOLDING FAMILY HISTORY by Wiley Payne and Nancy Jane Golding. I have not taken the narrative past one generation because I have already detailed the family in my research about the Gaulding Family of Pittsylvania County. The book is available for purchase on googlebooks. (Payne, 1995, pp. 93-97)
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"Dittmer's research on the Golding Family is the principal source for the five and a half generations of the ancestry of Reuben Golding (c1802) of Surry County, NC reaching back to c1625. At least four of these generations unfolded in Colonial Virginia, primarily in the counties of Gloucester, Essex and Orange. There was evolution of the Virginia County structure during this period as well as migration of Golding family members."
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In the Virginia Royal Land Grants and Patents Book #2 p 357 Dittmer found that in 1651 Richard Ripley acquired a patent to 400 acres of land as compensation for his having borne the expense of transporting eight persons to Gloucester County, Virginia. It is conjectured that Richard Ripley was about 29 years old at the time of his patent, putting his date at c 1622. He may have been younger if he had an inheritance, thought not a legal patenter if younger than 21. He may have been older. A Richard Ripley (Sr) whose will was probated in Essex County in 1711 is thought by Dittmer to have been of the generation after the 1651 Patenter because he had unmarried (minor?) children in 1710, unlikely, though not impossible for the 1651 patenter himself unless he be granted a vigorous maturity and a remarriage leading to a 'second family'."
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John "of Essex" Golding is said to have been born about 1635 in Dunston, Lincolnshire, England and he died in 1681 in Essex, Virginia. The marriage record between John Golding and ___ Ripley is recorded in U.S. and International Marriage Records 1560-1900 as having taken place in 1658, meaning John Golding married Elizabeth seven years after he was brought to Virginia by Elizabeth's supposed brother. That would probably have taken place after the term of his indenture was over.
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John Golding and Cassandra Tucker
From Payne and Golding p 95 "Robert Moss (c 1625) and his wife
Rebecca ____ (c 1677?) gave land to Tucker, Laomedon (c1628?) Rappahannock County, Virginia
Moss made bequests to "Laomedon Tucker or his two children..." apparently Moss grandchildren Daniel and Mary. Dittmer thinks Tucker was the widower of a Moss daughter and that he then married Cassandra, a woman perhaps 35 years his junior who may have borne an illegitimate child to Gatlin, John and who outlived him and was referred to as Cassandra Tucker before her marriage to John Golding. Between Tucker and Golding, Cassandra may have been married to Henry Wood by whom she had John Wood b about 1694 and Elizabeth Wood born about 1696.
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Nowhere in the Payne-Golding narrative does it suggest Richard Ripley was the son of William "of Hingham" Ripley. The only references that link Richard Ripley to William Ripley of Hingham are basically unsubstantiated, for instance Geni.com Hardly adequate. There is even a notation that Richard and his sister Elizabeth were somehow 'distanced' from the family in Massachusetts and came to Virginia before the others, but no real references are given to support that statement. It'a possible but needs further documentation. Again, the first mention of Richard Ripley in believable documentation occurs in 1651 and William of Hingham voyaged to Massachusetts in 1638. (Payne, 1995)
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There were several Moss immigrants to Virginia as recorded in EARLY VIRGINIA IMMIGRANTS by George Cabell Greer (Greer, n.d., p. 234)
1. William Moss 1656 by John Bromfield to James City, Virginia
2. Jane Moss 1653 by Richard Major, Gloucester Virginia
3. Edward Moss 1655 by Ralph Green, New Kent Virginia
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There was another group named Mosse but of the name Strapp, there are no entries.
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References
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(1903). In Who Begot Thee? Some Genealogical and Historical Notes Made in an Effort to Trace the American Progenitors of One Individual Living in America in 1903. Boston: D. Clapp and Son Publishers.
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Evans, J. B. (1984). Men of Matadequin, three hundred years from New Kent County. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA: Bryn Ffyliaid Publications. Retrieved from https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/358696?availability=Family%20History%20Library
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Greer, G. C. (n.d.). Early Virginia Immigrants by George Cabell Greer, Public Domain. Retrieved from ev.media.com: http://www.evmedia.com/virginia/
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Payne, W. a. (1995). The Payne-Golding Family History, Their ancestry to Colonial Virginia.. In E. i. Payne (Ed.).