Thomas Gardner of Roxbury

There are always questions coming up with respect to "all things Gardner." Dr. Frank summarized what he knew about colonial Gardner families in both versions of his book. See image from the 1933 edition: Gardners and Gardners.

This post is about part of the family of Thomas of Roxbury. One of his sons-in-law is the Rev. John Wise. In this post, we will pull together a few things related to Rev. John in order to set the stage for further discussion.

But, first, let's look at his grandmother, Alice Freeman. This graphic (adaptation from Chris Chester's site on Alice Freeman) shows how she relates, as well, to some descendants of Thomas of Salem.

Alice was coined uber-mother by Gary Boyd Roberts of the NEHGS. Her daughters are the forebears of many prominent New England families. Too, Alice is from an ancient Anglo-Saxon line. So, we will be looking at that further.

One purpose for the image is to show the timeline that ends near the middle of the 20th century. Since then,we have several more generations at hand. What is coming up will be the 400th of those first entrants and their lives. You know, the 300th needs some attention, as effects from the War of 1812 were wide-spread (see Gardner-Pingree House).

Now, Rev. John, who was from Ipswich in MA, was called one of the inspirations for the Declaration of Independence (DoI), by President Calvin Coolidge. In the Stories from Ipswich blog, there was some discussion about the motivation for the comment. This image provides a snap of the post showing words from Rev. John and the DoI.

Given the times, we see a lot of interest in the subject. An example is the musical, Hamilton. Alexander is of the Philly crowd (see How powerful is the U.S. Constitution?). But, lots happened before then to set the stage.

As Dr. Frank mentioned in his series of monographs related to the Boston Massacre, many at that event had trained militarily and served under the King (see Regimental History Series).

Now, Rev. John is of interest due to his being both a Harvard graduate and a working man. That is, the Rev. put his muscles to work (those other than the brain). Of course, at the same time, there were clergy who only diddled in religous issues. Too, we had lawyers. But, somehow, the lessons from Rev. John have been lost on the populace. He was no pretend Lord of the realm.

Remarks: Modified: 07/03/2017 

07/03/2017 -- We mention Rev. John in the summer issue of Gardner's Beacon.

U.S. and us

Research continues. There is a lot to do as the scope keeps expanding. Part of this is due to just becoming aware of what was there and to the queries about things Gardner.

As well, I am looking further into Nathaniel Eaton. His experience can stand as the dart board for a whole lot of discussion; and, this bit of debate would be apropos to our times. Pending is a further look at Sir Christopher Gardner. The tales that are commonly told are both off the target and incomplete. So, we will weigh in there. Seems that there might be a relationship with Thomas. We'll see.

Mentioning Eaton. He came up since Harvard has lots of appeal and gets a lot of attention. As it ought. Why? It comes out of the New England experience. And, despite some arguments otherwise, those times of 400 years ago have meaning for us now.

And, getting to Harvard, we will be looking at one early graduate (pre-1700). He was said to be an inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. Now, the Philly crowd (my characterization) gets a lot of attention. Genius, we hear. And, the Constitution. Stands as God-given, does it not? However, those later guys relied upon work done prior to their time. I have a little better grasp of that now having looked at parallels twixt the Massachusetts (and its surrounds) and Virginia (and its surrounds) experiences. Some were in both places, such as our friend, Nathaniel.

About the inspirational guy, as said by Sibley, Calvin Coolidge, and others. Sibley said that they republished this guy's books in 1772 as debate fired up. We are talking Rev. John Wise from that interesting place called Ipswich. We will get more into that.

• Stories from Ipswich - John Wise 

John's wife was the daughter of Thomas Gardner of Roxbury. So, as this chart shows, there was a merger of the two Gardner families just before the U. S. Civil War.

Chris Chester (Descendants of Alice Freeman - ancestry's support for rootsweb went) has an interesting site. He decided to document descendants of Alice. We were happy that we could add information about daughter, Mary, who was the oldest. BTW, the Hodgkins is brother of the Colonel featured by David McCullough in his look at 1776.

Now, John is also noted for being jailed during the tax turmoil in the 1680s. That is, he led the first tea party, so to speak. Dudley had these guys fined. The Governor had them jailed. Later, John sued Dudley and won; the claim: not allowing rights of habeas corpus. 

So, "all things Gardner" covers a lot of territory. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/29/2023

03/01/2019 -- Changed the image as we are building an index by images at our portal to truth. 

10/29/2023 -- Changed link from "storiesfromipswich.org" to "historicipswich.net" (for Rev. John Wise). Removed link to Chris Chester's site at rootsweb. 

TMM, a review

In the last issue, the TGA (list of issues) provided the Table of Contents for Vol. I through Vol. V. of The Massachusetts Magazine (see The Gardner Annals, Vol. III, No. 1 - pg 13). Next issue will provide an overview of the remaining years.

Then, we will look at specific articles, such as this one (Regimental History Series, background and motivation) by Dr. Frank. The TMM had articles by several prominent authors, such as RA Douglas-Lithgow, MD, LLD.

As an aside, we now have the internet, cloud, and social media (categorization is still needed). In the early days, one printed. That is, after the press was made generally available. Many magazines have come into existence and died out since the time of entry that is celebrated by those who have New England old-time blood. The TMM was the second try with this name. The first even had the interest of old Ben, himself, as in Franklin.

Remarks: Modified: 02/16/2018

04/23/2017 -- The Gardner Annals, Vol. III, No. 1 provided the Table of Contents for the first five volumes of The Massachusetts Magazine.

02/16/2018 -- The last issue of The Massachusetts Magazine was in January of 1918. There were several factors that contributed to the demise of the periodical, such as WWI and the draft. As well, we will look more closely at the Spanish Flu which peaked in the fall of 1918 with Boston as ground zero. 

DNA, again

Related posts: DNA and genealogy, Genome and more.

For now, a list:

• The DNA Exchange - I got here by searching on Hank Greely of Stanford who has been looking at DNA for awhile in terms of legal issues, ethics, etc. 
• The End of Sex - Brief little overview of issues, in bioethics. 
• CRISPR: and Nantucket, legal battle, gene drives run amok, ... 
•  ...
• How much DNA do distant cousins actually share?  
• Average percent DNA shared between relatives  
• 2nd cousins and DNA 
• If cousins mismatch - Widen the net    
• Vita Brevis  
• Relatedness calculator 
• Limits -  The DNA Geek
• Generation Gaps - Journal of Genetic Genealogy (V 8, N 1) - ISOGG.org  
• ...

Remarks: Modified: 06/04/2020 

01/18/2017 -- This will be discussed in the context of nature and nurture. After all, there is a whole traditional collection, albeit more arguable given social media, that bears some attention.

06/04/2020 -- "Back to DNA II" looks at a WikiTree Project and more.

Summary, 2016

Recaps: 2019, 2018, 2017 (missing), 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011.

Remarks: Modified: 12/29/2019

12/15/2018 -- Added link to an interim view this year. Somehow, missed this task at the end of 2017.

The Gardner Annals, Vol III, No 1

This post introduces the fifth issue of The Gardner Annals (Volume III, Number 1). This issue covers several topical areas in order to provide status of ongoing research. As well, we look at future work directions.

The following is a snapshot of the Table of Contents.

The Gardner Annals (list view) supports the interests of the Thomas Gardner Society, Inc.'s purpose: to honor the accomplishments of the Cape Ann party and to promote, and to sponsor, scholarly research of a cultural, biographical, historical, and genealogical nature, with an emphasis on, but not limited to, the origins and the lives of New England immigrants.

Submissions of articles for consideration are encouraged: algswtlk[at]aol[dot]com.

Remarks: Modified: 12/07/2016 

12/07/2016 --

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. VI, No. 2

This issue of Gardner's Beacon briefly looks at research that will be reported in the next issue of The Gardner Annals (to be published, Dec 2016).

• In particular, there will be detail provided about Gardiner and the Battle at Bosworth. David T. Gardner will give us an overview of what he has discovered. This material relates to our interest in the whence issue.
• In Flyover Country, we follow families from Massachusetts and Virginia as they move west. In other words, this is an example of the pathways that were described in Albion's Seed. From a lonely grave site out west, we follow back the generations for the preceding 200 years to early New England (north and south). 
• The Massachusetts Magazine will be featured regularly. TMM was published by Dr. Frank and his sister, Lucie M. Gardner, whom we introduce. Lucie was a graduate of Tufts in 1897 and active in a lot of areas. She contributed to all of the issues of the TMM. This Gardner's Beacon issue provides the Table of Contents for Volumes I through V and discusses some of the articles. We also introduce R.A. Douglas-Lithgow, M.D., LL. D. who submitted several articles. This preeminent researcher and author came over here late in his life. He wrote the definitive history of Nantucket.  

Additionally, a guest writes in this issue about the Magna Carta and the celebration that occurred in the summer of 2015. Then, we start a series on DNA and its issues as they relate to general subjects such as what we know and admissibility of such.

---

See Vol. VI, No. 2 of Gardner's Beacon for a review of research to date.

Remarks: Modified: 03/01/2019

03/01/2019 -- We're building an index via images for our portal to truth.