Houses of Salem

Houses of Salem? There are many. Some have put these into periods. We'll start with what's called 'Period One' and venture around a little. We'll be at this, for a while, so stay tuned.

What precipitated this little journey was an article posted on the Stanford University site. It was titled: The Salem Houses of William "Old Billy" Gray. The author was a descendant who missed a chance to see one of the houses of his ancestors while he was in the area as a student back in the '60s.

And, the principal focus of the article was the area of Essex Street in Salem, near where the PEM is now. Having been following Sidney Perley's work the past couple of years, we have to compare notes with the information that the Stanford author used. Sidney roamed the archives, walked about the area, drew up maps, and left very good records for us to study.

But, first, how did we get to Old Billy? Well, looking a Loyalists was the key. After we looked at Abigail Gardiner, we went looking for other Gardner Loyalists. Abigail had been painted by Copley. Well, we found a good example of Loyalists: Henry and Weld Gardner. Old Billy had dealt with this family. The Grays were in several of the  towns in the area (William Gray of Salem and Samuel Gray of Medford) and were of note (Our First Men). Billy was quite successful as a ship owner and lost business due to the Revolution (see Gardner-Pingree house as an example - this was the following conflict - War of 1812).

The Old Billy article had a map from 1780. Sidney drew one up from records for the time period of 1700. We provide a snap of those maps below. The great thing about Sidney's look is that he tells us what the records say about each of the lots.

Now, this look is cursory as we will be digging deeper. Just as we mentioned that the Gray family was spread around, so too was Downing. Turns out that Emmanuel sold land to John Porter. It's in Danvers and known as the Porter-Bradstreet homestead. This Bradstreet is of a later time (Revolution), so this all pulls together.

John Porter is an ancestor of Dr. Frank. John had two daughters marry sons of William Hathorne. A granddaughter of William married a grandson of Thomas and Margaret. Sarah (Porter) Gardner and her husband were buried near Thomas in the Gardner Burial plot. Harmony Grove has their stone, but it's unclear what happened to the bodies. That was work being done late last year and earlier this year.

As said, we'll dive into this more. This area of little Essex County is just full of stories waiting to be told. Such as? A lonely grave in the west having a remains of a descendant of John and William (as in, Porter and Hathorne, respectively). That is, a cousin of Dr. Frank (and Ann). Too, though, he's a descendant of Alden and has a granddaughter who married someone from the Brewster line (one of his daughters is already in the database of members of MF).

However, seems that those (or some types of) western-moving people get dissed. I'm sorry, but we are facing a situation that needs attention (yes you, Mayflower people and NEHGS). As if, someone has to pay $1000 or so for a genealogist. We did this work (and a whole bunch more) pro-bono.

Let's get intellectual, too: Genealogy and Bayes. This is one of many examples.

As said, everywhere we look, there is something to dive into. So, we have no lack of work to do.

Remarks: Modified: 04/05/2025

12/25/2019 -- Found out about the Lost New England blog, today (Gardner-Pingree House).

04/05/2025 -- Add "OpEd" label. Will explain. 

Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 4

One goal of the Thomas Gardner Society will be to collect, and hopefully organize, material that references, even if indirectly, the lives and time of Thomas and Margaret and to construct a coherent view for future generations. However sketchy this material might be in the beginning, future research can help flesh out the story. The works of Dr. Frank A. Gardner, and prior work, by others, establish the basis. Gardner's Beacon, and its corresponding blog, has tasks related to supporting this theme. Another approach would be support for scholarly papers.

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We have our first guest article written by John Goff who is an architect and who has been very active in preservation efforts across New England, principally Salem. He is a Thomas descendant. John provides technical commentary on the Gardner-Pingree house (see earlier post) whose construction represents the amount of wealth that had been attained by the Gardners.

Image from Conant book

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As we look back, there can be obvious differences of opinion about what information means, especially, if it's scanty. Scholarship would suggest to look at all sides of the issue. There are several examples.

The house built on Cape Ann, called the Governor's Faire House (GFH) by Rev.Higginson, is a good example. Earlier (Thomas' (note comparison to a house in the Pilgrim area) or Margaret's house), we used an image provided in the 1887 book by the Conant family (pg 104). The house had been moved by Endicott from Cape Ann to Salem. That means that many would have seen it and could describe what they saw to an artist.

Photo by John Goff
Salem Preservation, Inc. 

In 1930, Dow, et al, built the Salem Pioneer Village so that people could see how things were 300 years before. We have the 400th look back coming up. The image on the right (photo by John Goff, Salem Preservation, Inc.) shows how Dow conceived the building. It does not match up with what the Conant book said. Of course, any information about dimensions may have been hard to find. Yet, one could imagine that the ship(s) may have carried material for a house, as depicted by Conant. There would not have been enough time, even with tools, for even the house of Dow to be built, given the small size of the crew plus the fact that they had to get themselves settled, fed, and a whole lot of other important things.

What did Dow go on to make his re-creation? John Goff mentions that the GFH towers over the other houses which are mostly either diminutive English timber frame cottages or English wigwams built with bent-sapling frames.

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See Vol. II, No. 4 of Gardner's Beacon which considers some of the houses that have been associated with the Gardner family over the years.This issue on houses was interesting; our coverage of the topic ought not be thought of as complete, by any means.

References: Conant -- History and genealogy ..., Dow - Every Day Life ..., Fischer - Albion's Seed ..., Stone & Fickett - Every Day Life ...

Remarks:

03/09/2019 -- Added in image to build an index at our portal to truth.

01/25/2013 -- By the way, we're going to document this more thoroughly on Wikipedia - Great House (Cape Ann). We have John Goff's expertise available to assist us. This house was the first of its kind in New England.

10/27/2012 -- See Great House (Cape Ann) on Wikipedia. As Higginson said, it was two-storied with a high-pitched roof. The image from Conant's book, and from the letter by C.M. Endicott, shows three-stories. The house underwent major alterations in 1792 which was before the sketches were done. Unfortunately, no sketch exists from earlier times.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

09/12/2012 -- It was said that we're not done with houses. Fischer notes, in Albion's Seed, that the lean-to was found in Kent, England in the 17th century, though not many have survived. Despite its usefulness in New England, evidently the 'seed' for this type of house came over with those whose background was from the Kent area.

09/11/2012 -- The Stone & Fickett book has the younger student in mind and provides classroom exercise. Ought something similar be done for later students?

Modified: 03/09/2019

Two houses

TL:DR -- A tale of two houses within one family and common timeframe. Too, we get to consider New Hampshire in a way that will be persistently fair and equitable with regard to its larger sibling to the south. One house is maintained by the Society of Cincinnati but built by a ggp of Ann and her kin. 

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We mentioned doing research with a New Hampshire focus. It is about time, as we started to run into families who went up to NH very early when we first began to research New England. Rev. Bachiler is one example of someone with lots of families associated with him. He appears in this work but is not the focus, yet.  In a few lines from now back to the beginning, we have a collection of twelve generations and are taking a good look at generations eight and nine. The other ones are well covered. 

It is typical in this type of work to run into problem areas. For about a year, we were looking at the frontier issues related to people following the expansion west after the Revolution. In that case, the interior was carved over a century's time, with St. Louis as a focal point. There are issues that could be better handled by the experts (we'll get there - modernize the thinking, a little). With tongue in cheek, we could say that the practice for the real west was done in that pseudo-northwest that is on the wrong side of the Mississippi. 

Also, we have pointed out that the Revolution's brunt had been borne by the fifth generation with the fourth providing some guidance and the sixth hanging on for their dear lives. With the seventh, we started to see the enjoyment of the fruits of the labor of the earlier generations, in part. 

Okay, we are now putting our attention back into New England's milieu. Having mentioned the 400th parties for Massachusetts several times, we will now correct that by bringing in New Hampshire. What about ME and CT and the rest? We'll get there. Right now, we can say that lots of these families were in the Kittery, ME area prior to wandering west. 

There are many ways to go about looking at this topic. For this post, we will consider two houses. Same family. We'll list the one of glory, first; then we can balance with a look at other views. BTW, that latter? Well, with Harry being over here, we can really start to look at the commonality of ourselves and that Mother country. 

Both houses are in Exeter, NH and were built in the early 1700s.  

• Ladd-Gilman house -- We knew of this house years ago. What got our attention recently was the association with the Society of Cincinnati. The owner of the house at the time of the Revolution was a founding member of this organization. So, we will get back to that theme, too. Right now, let's look at the families. Nathaniel Ladd, Jr. (who is the builder) is in Ann's lineage. Nathaniel had married a Gilman who was a daughter of the Hon. John of note. They, Nathaniel and Catherine, sold the house to the grandfather of the signer in the family (Nicholas Gilman, Jr). The grandfather was the 1st cousin of Catherine. The house is now used as a private museum and for meetings by the Society of Cincinnati which is one of the members of the Hereditary Society Community which is oriented toward preserving history and our knowledge about it. 
• Gilman Garrison house - This is our balance for several reasons. It is contemporary, somewhat, as the Ladd-Gilman (1721) was built about a decade after this one (1709). However, one can see that the times and styles were somewhat different. Now, the people. Hon John Gilman was the first tenant of this house built by the family for security. A couple of generations later, Brigadier General Peter Gilman was the occupant. He was well-known for his service in the French and Indian Wars. However, come the Revolution, and he was a Loyalist. That subject needs further attention. For now we have this overview: The American Loyalists (1847). If one scrolls up a little in the file (to page 315), there is a list of the Gardner Loyalists, such as Henry and Dr. Sylvester. 

Remarks: Modified: 10/09/2021

10/09/2021 -- Form with details for National Register of Historical Places. The house is 300 this year; somehow did not see that earlier. Great work, Nathaniel Ladd. 

Thomas' house

Firstly, we have no photo of the house. The attached drawing has appeared in several publications. We'll run down its source.

The house was put together by material brought over by the Cape Ann party. With such a small crew, there would have been room for a lot of material on the boat.

We might say that this is the house that Thomas built. Evidently, the building job was completed in 1624. Possibly, that would have allowed some shelter for their first winter. Who lived in the house?

One researcher suggested that the overseers used the house. Tilly didn't have a family. Did other families share the warmer space over that first winter?

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We need to pull together all of the stories that have been told over the years.

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Of course, we can say this is the house that Roger Conant took over with his coming into leadership at Cape Ann, in 1625, after his sojourn in Plymouth and Nantasket.

Too, we can say that this is the house that John Endicott had taken over to Salem for his use. See Higginson's description of Salem including the 'fair house' for the governor.

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Obviously, it was the first 3-story house in New England, perhaps even in the eastern U.S. Before saying that, we would have to look at what the Spanish did in Florida. Jamestown put more into their fort than the houses.

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Of course, what did the other houses that use locally fabricated material look like? And, to what did Thomas and Margaret move when Conant 'confiscated' the house?

We can surmise the construction style by comparing the Thomas house with the one (shown below) of George Soule (a re-creation) which illustrates both the material and the construction technique.

A little later, there would have been houses like we see with Balch (Beverly) and Whipple (Ipswich).

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By 1626, the crew was on the move to what became Salem. Did they leave anyone behind in Cape Ann?

The house was not moved until later; was it occupied during that time? We know its location in Salem after the move. What eventually became of the house?

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Finally, let's look at some of the economic realities, that will be addressed more fully, here and elsewhere, until we get the real story out there about Thomas and his kind (the real contributors).

• The crew came into the area in the spring. Given that planting requires preparation, was there really enough time to do anything (even if there were good ground) that first year beyond sustenance? Hint: did not the group sustain itself? We did not hear of food problems of a major sort until the mass influx later that overwhelmed the supply.

• The house took some of the effort from the crew. Even if all of the material was there, construction takes time, energy, and knowledge. Did this diversion impact fishing efforts, to boot? Again, the sustenance issue comes to fore.

• I have said elsewhere that 'capital' was asking for its profit before giving enough time to the planters. Given what we know now about start up costs, were they not underestimated for this effort (or was the presence of the Church mindset necessarily associated with over-optimistic views -- of course, selling one's nephew down the river seemed to fit well that Church-obsessed mind)? One can also imagine all of the logistical nightmares? Just because this group was better prepared than their neighbors to the south did not lessen the difficulties that those who came over faced.

• Asking for unreasonable profits still exists today (why else the impetus behind globalization -- and leaning, that is, push costs to your suppliers while not listening to their pangs as you squeeze out their blood); at this time, it would have been worse due to the nature of that aristocratic bent that had God's approval (Church, again, supposedly).

• Of course, we know that Roger was no more capable than Thomas. How did those two relate (their offspring married, we'll get into that)? It is interesting that Roger, and his Old Planters, went off to what is now Beverly. Thomas and Margaret were still very much part of Salem (we'll put out, soon, a post on their 1641 location).

• As said before, Thomas' offspring are strong evidence for him and Margaret. We'll detail each more fully. Too, he was referenced as 'Mr' and performed a whole lot of civic duty. Some have gone on about Roger's grace as he yielded to John (the Endicott, of course) for the greater good. Thomas, too, was graceful, in many more ways (we'll have to tell this tale -- essentially stayed well enough under the radar for all of his offspring to become effective adults).

That these economics considerations are pertinent in today's world seems to increase their potential interest.

Remarks:

03/19/2022 -- Nice to see research on the family of John Tilly. NEHGR, Winter, 2022 has an article on John and his family by Clifford L. Stott. The title is "Rev. William Tilley of Broadwindsor, Dorset, and His Sons in New England: John, Nathaniel, and William." Identifies his child and more. 

09/28/2014 -- A week ago, the record for the marriage of Thomas Gardner and Margaret Friar was discovered in Sherborne by John Cook of Minneapolis, Dorset files. This sets a type of focus. Looks as if some transcription work might be in order.  

01/25/2013 -- By the way, we're going to document this more thoroughly on Wikipedia - Great House (Cape Ann). We have John Goff's expertise available to assist us. This house was the first of its kind in New England.

11/27/2012 -- Let's itemize what we know, re-iterate some basics, and the proceed constructively.

10/28/2012 -- September issue had a theme of houses.

10/24/2012 -- John Goff (Salem's Witch House ..., pg 24) writes: After his arrival downtown in 1628, Endicott ruled that the old Thomas Gardner "Governor's House" from Cape Ann (built about 1623) be dismantled, moved by sea from Cape Ann to Naumkeag and be re-erected in earliest Salem to serve as a new Governor's House here. It stood north of the old shawmut on what is now Washington Street.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

05/01/2012 -- There will be a 'house' category, soon. Too, house is mentioned in the Maypole post.

12/17/2011 -- Tim Lambert's A World History Encyclopedia will be used much in this blog and in related material. Here is his description of colonial homes. By the way, we'll look at this, too. In Connecticut, where the cast offs (kidding) from Winthrop's world went, in part, they started to build big houses early. As in, the prototype for the American Mansion (and the McMansions) was worked right there south of Massachusetts. What was different? Multiple fireplaces, many rooms, large square feet, multiple cooking areas, servant quarters, and so forth.

12/02/2011 -- According to Felt, in the Annals of Salem, Endicott purchased, when he arrive, the house and have it moved from Cape Ann. Felt writes "It was then two stories high. Some of the remains of it are said to be still contained in the Old Tavern, at the corner of Court and Church Streets." Felt also mentions the reference to the house made by Higginson ("we found a faire house newly built for the Governor") when he arrived in Salem.

10/13/2011 -- Er, Margaret's house.

08/21/2011 -- Going through White's Plea may take some time. See Remarks 08/21/2o11.

08/16/2011 -- We will be using the Planters' Plea (from White) to get some better sense of what happened in that early period. Only Endicott is mentioned by name.

Modified: 03/19/2022

Sign of the times

Researching Ipswich is an interesting task. They have the largest collection of early 1700 (plus or minus) houses in one area (see Ipswich walking tour). Each of these houses has a history which, then, can help build the picture of a family. And, Ipswich had enough of these houses that one could be disassembled and put in the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

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Mother obtaining guardianship

The image is from a 1761 Ipswich court record of a case in which a mother obtained guardianship of her son. Now, this son was over 14 years of age but was still a minor. And, his father had died, leaving three small children (but, he left land for his wife), when the boy was one year old. So, the mother had raised him for 13+ years prior to this request. Okay, she did have to establish her right to the obligation, given the times. As well, she had to have a couple of character witnesses. 

Another point, though, is the next thing we know is that the young man is in the Ipswich military; the time frame was the latter days of the French & Indian war. He is on several rolls including that of Capt. Nathan Brigham's company. So, being a minor, the young man needed someone to sign him up; his father was deceased. 

As an aside, some have said that this bit of friction involving the French was a training ground for the Revolution as many younger males were enlisted, trained, and learned from the experience. So, England trained its own rebels, so to speak. But, too, the revolution could have started in Ipswich, a recent columnist noted, almost a century earlier, to wit, Rev. John Wise's (1687 arrest by Gov. Andros - see Remarks, 08/02/2014) experience (he married Abigail Gardner who was a descendant of Thomas Gardner of Roxbury). 

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There are more details in an upcoming article (TEG 34). But, the young man was signed up as John Leatherland, son of Sarah. Usually, the younger enlistees were noted as son of the father. That type of recorded association can be a nice genealogical boost. John, the enlistee in 1761, had been born in 1744. His parents were John Leatherland and Sarah Kimball, of Ipswich.

His great-grandniece married a Thomas Gardner of Salem descendant. 

Remarks: Modified: 09/30/2014

08/02/2014 - Book Review, WSJ, 07/25/2014: The Revolution might well have happened a century before it did. When word reached Boston in April of 1689 that James II had fled England and that William of Orange had arrived from the Netherlands to take his place (the colonists didn't learn the news until months after it had happened), riots broke out across Boston. "The Body of our People," one observer noted, were encouraged to "assert our Liberties against the Arbetrary Rulers that were fleecing them." Already many colonists could think of colonial authorities—governors, even local authorities—as agents of a foreign power.

09/19/2014 -- Sarah (Kimball) Leatherland is mentioned in Gardner's Beacon, Vol. IV, No. 3. Today, I found out about Stories from Ipswich: Sarah Goodhue is Sarah Kimball's grandmother; I found this story on FB through Nutfield Genealogy. Sarah Kimball will feature in an upcoming issue of The Gardner Annals. The article will also appear TEG 34 (November edition).

09/30/2014 -- Sarah is featured in The Gardner Annals (Vol. I, No. 2).

Houses and homes - Note to Salem

For a decade now, we've used our skills to wander (some of the times without any guidance and at other of the times with some purpose) and collect (like hunting and gathering). When we started, the current 'www' was a young buck. Static modes were still predominate. Those modes that were more clever still left a lot to be desired. And, needless to say, what we have now is a huge mess.

Anyway, we've blogged our findings over the years and have built a framework from which to attempt structure and actual knowledge. In a sense, what we did on the internet, Sidney did with his walkabouts and recordings for which Salem needs to show some gratitude. One mode would be to extend his stuff. This post is a suggestion. There are many possible ways to go in terms of mood and mode, however people will have to pay attention and contribute their time and energies.

We could talk, for instance, of taking one property and looking back (step wise) to the 17th century. One could look at who was there. One could consider conditions of their life, say cooking, even. One could build a database with several threads that can be launching points to deeper knowledge. One could, yes, build a 3D model that is dynamic, sufficient that virtual reality enthusiasts would be impressed. And, we would have the dynamism relate to time and its influences. Say, at some piece of property, go backward, as well as, stop at some year and explore the information which would include simulation.

Yes, this is for Salem and its inane witch focus (written from the viewpoint of a family with everyone involved and two 'hung' - being politically incorrect, by design, hung by the neck until dead). BTW, this post is merely a start on the brainstorming that can be done.

So, back to the theme. Earlier, we saw an NEHGS article on an Elizabeth Clapp. That got our interest, as there might be Clapp links that come in a time or two into the family tree. So, on looking at Dr. Frank's index, we also saw another Elizabeth (Gardner who married Blanchard). That led to a few other Elizabeths that we looked at briefly. And, the thought came up that taking a name and picking a few from the index might help us hone in on collateral families.

Early on, there were a lot of Hannahs. What about Margaret? Or Catherine? Remember, the focus is home and life across time for this exercise.

Sometime, or other, we ran into this notice of a wedding. Several things caught the attention: Peabody and Gardner, California (in particular, Ojai - ah, CCR), and Theosophist. So, just a little bit ago, we got Google fired up again and found these pointers to further research, that are in bullet form as they are mainly meant to be reminders with (hint, hint) notes to Salem (whoever that might be).

• Back-bay houses - okay, learned something. There was a history of the house and the occupants. Note to Salem: Sidney did this with properties in Essex County. He also drew maps. We need to make this 3D and operative (interactive mode of knowledge processing). So much more. Notice. Catherine owned this property, at one time. 
• Her father - Catherine is mentioned. 
• Who are they? - We thank the researchers who gave us this. Nice format. But, too, it shows what we can call a chunk which starts with John Lowell. Who is he? Well, his ancestor went over (notice the perspective) to Boston (like Winthrop for whom Salem was too back water). However, the family has other relatives in Salem. There are many stories. 

Of course, that last bullet shows lots of collateral families. So, we can see all sorts of ways to go. Some work (actually a lot) has already been done. We'll try to pull links to these into an orderly order (stated by design - oh, our order is better?). 

Salem has responsibilities. Let's hope that it assumes those. The Thomas Gardner Society, Inc. has been working to this end for decade. It's time to step it up a notch and prepare for the 400th.

Again, houses were homes. BTW, Thomas' crew brought one with them: Great house, Cape Ann. Roger came along and took it from Thomas (and Margaret) who went back to a wigwam. Then, John had it moved to Salem, so that Higginson could tell the folks back home what glories there were in the new world (small, by design). But, Ann Bradstreet told us her reaction to the squalor of early Salem. We need to tell the whole of the tale. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/11/2020

01/06/2020 -- Streets of Salem comment. 

01/11/2020 -- Made this a 'featured post' (portal to truth).

Illegitimates, Royal family

TL;DR -- We ran across the one heritage group in the U.S. that claims the most stringent application process which keeps their membership small. We will use RBs here. After a brief review of technology of late, we look at heritage societies as they exist in the U.S. Many of these go back to the colonial era. At the same time, there is a huge chunk that goes back before the moment of "origins" into the far reaches of the History of Britain and of Europe. The 250th has direct bearing on those studies, such as the interest of the ABA in the heritage of the Magna Carta. Our contribution to history will be via the Gardner Family Trust with its focus of 2,000 years. 

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We have seen so much sillyness the past few years that one might wonder if there is more or have we seen everything of that nature. There was a time when we took computation more seriously. 

But then, GenAI/LLM happened. It has been only a little over four years now, but the related work goes back one decade for the main focus and back to the 1950s altogether with interesting progress throughout the whole of those seven decades. 

One of those areas of work was Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) the public awareness of which was never known or was lost in the shuffles of time. 

But, the lessons of KBE were not lost, as my survey over the past few years has shown. The phenomenal world contains lots of remnants from that period ('80s, '90s) in various shapes which include academic involvement and classes plus companies representing operational knowledge improvements of various types through their intellectual property and activity. 

Phenomenal? I use that a lot with a meaning related to things that we can sense in the world. That is, these are "real" and not our mental images. As if, their presence conveys that something is there in the world. Of late, there has been attention given to "twins" which are digital models of the "real" thing which is then represented in bits and heated moments by circuits processing such things. We call those circuit conglomerates computers. Much to discuss. 

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Now with respect to this organization, we see people as phenomenal. They are here, have a history in terms of their genetic lineage, can name some of their ancestors, and then leave us (some having then a phenomenal legacy for us to consider). We have mentioned the Hereditary Society Community which consists of groups with different historic and genealogic focus. Each of these Societies have an application process and an associated list of people. If one is a descendant of one of those people, then one can join if an application shows direct lineage from the applicant to the person of the past. 

Many groups have a U.S. or colonial theme. Examples of this are the Daughters of the American Revolution, The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Society of Cincinatti, and such. With regard to the group honoring Cincinnatus, there are two houses that are associated with Ann's family: see TGS post, Two Houses. 

Some groups use "Gateway" to represent the bearer of heritage information that continues on the other side, as in prior to their immigration to the colonies.  We recently wrote of that: see post, Gateway Ancestors, redux. Here, the Magna Carta groups stand out. 

The rest of this post is about one of those groups. 

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We recently were reminded of this group as they had their annual meeting in Washington, DC. We took a little time to look at their website (Illegitimates or RBs) and found an on-line tutorial about the application process involved which is one of the stringent. Many early members were associated with the Society of American Genealogists. So, it is no surprise that that they would start an effort to firm up the application process. 

Having done tons of applications over the years while helping people join societies, we are sensitive to the arguments which we will be looking at in more detail in later posts. Today we want to introduce the video that is quite interesting with its coverage of historical issues as well as the discussion of the research and documentation process as well as a look at how things are evaluated. 

The video --- Webinar: Finding Your Bastard and Your Line: Tuesday, November 18, 2025. 

Let's start with a discussion related to American History. In the video, go to 12:33 and find the first page of the "Background" overview. The story of Americans visiting England is quite instructive as those here were thought of as "rustics" mostly. Whereas, the list of Gateways shows that many families had a heritage worth looking into. Well, everyone's family has that quality. Rather, people here have the same genetic involvement with the history of England as do folks there.

But, the U.S. offered more which we expect will be more publicly discussed during the long run of the 250th celebration. Frankly, we are still over two months from the Declaration of Independence. After that, expect a continual review to be part of our days until after 2033. 

With technology and mature computing, the amount of new documention to be attained will be without limit, with quality material rising to the top of the heap of attention. 

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The Royals (all over Europe) are (have been) an interesting bunch. With respect to "Gardner" and command/control, we have stumbled around the "origins" aspect for a bit and will be more focused with the advent of David T. Gardner's new site: Gardner Family Trust. His theme is "2000 Year History". 

Remarks: Modified: 04/19/2026

04/19/2026 -- Changed links that did not copy corrrectly: Two houses, Society of Cincinnati.  

Written out of history

Foreword (or forewarn): This is one of the backbone series. The post is motivated by thoughts related to material used for the coming Gardner's Beacon issue, which will be on houses from the early start.

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The effort at learning about Thomas and Margaret is about three years old. The main issue seemed to be that not much was known in the sense of mentions, in the writings, being sketchy, at best. That is, even though Thomas led the group into Cape Ann, not much was recorded. Mention of his effort came later with an early 18th century publication by Rev. Hubbard (saved from a fire, thank God for that!). John White mostly denigrated the crew (ah, we can write a bunch about that). What we hear about is the arrival of Conant (and Lyford), the move to what became Salem, and then post-Endicott times.

This message was apparent in retrospectives by several families, such as Woodbury, Trask, and more. The site for the John Balch house was a reminder. That is, on the write-up of this house, nothing is mentioned of Sarah, Thomas' and Margaret's oldest daughter. John's son came to Cape Ann with the party. As well, Sarah was born at Cape Ann (pre-Endicott Massachusetts). Sarah married Benjamin Balch. John Sr. gave the couple the house. Hence, I'll refer to it as Sarah's house.

Actually, the Beverly oversight (wake up!) is more appalling when you consider that John's wife came with him to Cape Ann. She and Margaret represented the females. And, they went through all of the same crap (perhaps more than) as did the men.

Also, we find this: When the company was recalled to England, the Balches, Roger Conant, John Woodbury, Peter Palfry, and others stayed in Massachusetts and moved south to Naumkeg, now Salem, in 1626.

Four families are mentioned here. Trask was left out. The 'others' would have included the Gardners. That story needs to be told; it's part of our task list. The Paine sisters, Thomas descendants, wondered if the family had gone back to England for some period of time. Had that been so, Woodbury, who did go back and forth, might have mentioned this. However, the Woodbury lookback doesn't mention Gardner, at all.

Too, Thomas' kids would have said something about going back. John, the Magistrate, would have known. So, too, would have his older siblings.

We ought to try to document the fact that, after the group moved, someone would have gone back and forth between Cape Ann and Salem. What is it? 17 miles or so? Look, the house was nice enough for Endicott to want it moved.

Too, and this is a big TOO, the group was NOT unsuccessful. Did Conant report that he found starving people? On the contrary, they were bolsterous enough to want to tangle with Standish and his crew. They had their food sources, dwellings (however meager), and themselves (true independent souls of the American which was to be).

What the group did not achieve was the capitalistic dream (and John White's, to boot) that, essentially, tries to get something for nothing. Yes, folks. The success of the model requires an unending supply of hapless exploitees. So, Cape Ann's little group was not able to ship back produce or seafood. But, they fed themselves.

In fact, that Thomas and Margaret got their nine kids to adulthood is evidence enough. They were very good parents. And, each of their kids was a healthy, and effective, adult.

---

Another topic deals with the regime, and regimen, imposed upon the freedom-loving people. We all know the stories. But, Thomas' life, as a focus of study, will allow a re-look.

In 1637, when Thomas deigned (yes, used purposefully) to get himself drummed into the group mindset -- freeman's oath -- he did it for his kids. His boys were adults and needed the social involvement. You see. That is a long time after the 1626 move. Thomas had class, abilities, and showed self-reliance long before Emerson wrote about it.

It's telling that Thomas was made Deputy to the General Court, with Major Hawthorne, in the year when he took the oath. People wanted his involvement since he was an elder by action and more. For some reason, post 1637, his effort was local to Salem and the area. We can, and might, speculate about why this was so.

Again: Not a descendant. Objective third-party. However, married to one who has a whole slew of these folks in the ancestral tree.

Remarks:

06/25/2019 -- We have a few more examples of the forgotten (early on, we had Aunts, Uncles, Cousins). Of late, there was Lt. Benjamin West who was killed at Bunker Hill and forgotten. Prior to that, we were trying to count the number of lost graves in Essex County. Then, we have the travelers out west, such as Jedediah Strong Smith, except he did post some reports back east by courier. There were many lost a sea over the years.

07/12/2015 -- Of course, when Roger brought his people to Salem, Thomas was not there. Why? He and Margaret kept the Cape Ann house. Of course, when John Endicott came over, he saw Mr. Gardner in his nice house. John said, that is mine. Take it over to Salem. So, by splitting his time (Salem is not that far), Thomas had an idyllic time with his wife and kids; too, he had time to get himself and his family settled in the new realm.

07/12/2015 -- Okay, turtle speed. But, we get there. Announcing a new project: Sherborne, Dorset. No doubt, it is about time. When finished with the data collection and analysis, we will present the strongest story (the prerogative of the family) that the facts, and abductive reasoning, will support. As such, we hope to demonstrate some very much needed research viewpoints. ... This is a case of two Quakers being ignored.

10/13/2014 -- Tabula raza, and more, will be of concern.

07/17/2014 -- The book about the Invisibles (the unsung heroes) offers another viewpoint. Of course, it is set in the modern context. But, we all know that history covers only a fraction of reality. What we see now is that technology will allow us suitable ways to go back and fill in the blank slates.

11/13/2013 --  Phippen would be part of the slate fill.

11/06/2013 -- While working on the next Beacon issue, I ran across some books. The one by Staloff was timely; imagine, I was wondering why the backbone series? Has the talented set ever allowed the lessors to have some semblance of a good life? Oh, you say yes? Winthrop, et al, were against this from the beginning. The stalwart of what could be (or could have been)? Thomas Gardner, of course.

09/09/2013 -- Forgot to update this earlier. But, the post related to Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 6, discusses that Thomas had no shadow over him as was feared by some old planters (would Dr. Frank, today, still want to include Thomas in the group?).

06/15/2013 -- John Farmer wrote that Thomas was from Scotland. Origins are, and will be, a focus.

02/10/2013 -- Having finished a book on the 1692 events and doing a post on the subject, I can add to this look at Thomas. I've mentioned that he didn't queue right up to join the church and that he was recognized by Endicott. As well, he married a Quaker without any repercussions that we know of. Of course, his sons left the area due to the Puritanical (hypocritical) mindset.

01/01/2013 -- David Goss' talk at the 1999 Essex Society of Genealogists gives a perspective that also motivates. See the TGS bibliography.

12/24/2012 -- Thomas, unlike Conant, was not overshadowed in the world of being. We'll spend some time characterizing this fact and what it means to reasonable folks.

12/22/2012-- We need to differentiate between Old Planters of Beverly (see The Old Planters of Beverly in Massachusetts, 1930, Alice Gertrude Lapham, The Riverside Press) and the Old Planters of Massachusetts. One could even talk, Old Planters of New England.

12/19/2012 -- Sarah married Benjamin, son of John.

11/27/2012 -- Let's itemize what we know, re-iterate some basics, and the proceed constructively.

10/28/2012 -- September issue had a theme of houses.

09/13/2012 -- About Margaret. We'll honor her as the ancestor, with Thomas, of the Gardner family.

09/01/2012 -- Vol. II, No. 4 of Gardner's Beacon deals with houses.

Modified: 06/25/2019

2021, time of the pandemic, II

TL;DR -- Continuation of the pandemic theme from before. We look at posts from the remainder of 2021 and at the themes covered which are of a wide variety. 

--

Part 2 of 2 (Part 1). 

In 2020, restrictions changed our activity. Like most, we did computer work over the time of the pandemic but had been doing such work anyway. What was different was the focus. 

We looked more at local issues. But, we had anyway (to wit, our post of Flyover country). By 2021, we were rolling along and did more posts. Part 1 looks at those from Jan through Jun. Now, we'll pick up with posts from Jul through Dec.

The 250th came more into focus. We also spent a little time looking at S.A.R. which is the sons version of what the daughters did with D.A.R. But, AI started to come into focus after almost a decade of making headway (according to some views - the jury is still out) and claiming attention: Jeopardy win; Go win; modeling complicated lab work (Google had several of these); ... 

But, we had a post (Carving the land) which was motivated by our study of the activities out of St. Louis which was a hub for land management of the U.S and its west.  At the same time, Gloucester was approaching its 400th. We had an interest in that as the Dorchester crew came into that area in 1623. But, the great northwest? Michigan was approaching its 200th. 

Another twist was diving into the history of Harvard starting with an introduction to James Bryan Conant. He was a chemist and professor. He had wanted the Rumford chair. But, ended up in Europe and came back to become a Head of Harvard. At the same time, we decided that the long reach of New England was a theme of interest, as we had settled on All Things Gardner (22 Aug 1485) with respect to the many families with the name. 

Oh yes, AI was proposed for genealogy work. Again, that is an ongoing bit of study. But, we started to look at the genealogy of Harvard Heads. Many were of old New England families. D.A.R. found an interest in the 400th as well by starting work on identifying Patriot to Passenger (in this case, Mayflower) families. We took on Cape Ann to Patriot. 

Houses? While looking at the Dudley family, we got into houses of note. There were two in New Hampshire of interest. Both were built by relatives of descendants of Thomas and Margaret. One is now associated with the Society of Cincinatti. That brings up the other side of a coin. We honor the Loyalists of the family. Count Rumford mentioned above was a Loyalist who found success in Europe and left money to Harvard. 

The technology focus became more prominent. IEEE had an article: How dumb is AI? A few years later, we saw a general amount of interest. One observaton? Humans degradate themselves to make technology look good. Yes. Expect to see that theme periodically. 

A photo of the grandmother Dr. Frank (and 2nd great of Ann and her siblings) was found. We got that published. Generations? An eternal topic. Looking at this, we can say that the Revolution (250th now in progress) was done by the 5th generation. More on these. 

We picked up Dr. Frank's series on the Siege of Boston that were published in The Massachusetts Magazine, with issues four times a year for a decade. He started the series with Col. John Glover of Marble head. One of his vessels was the first vessel of the U.S. Navy. 

We continued our interest in rivers, as we mentioned in Part 1. The trails and railroads are always of interest, as well. But, jumping to technology now, we looked at John's favorite site dealing with the mathematics of physics. It was of the old style until a few years ago. The old stuff is still there and serves as the basis for the new. 

Aside, we are seeing lots of websites being done using new methods. Our prediction is that this method is not as stable as claimed and so have failures that are hugely visible and that will have negative repercussions. But, other than be aware, we have to wait and see. 

Why? If one looks at the whole campus of techies, there is no solution yet. Experiments have become a mainstay of life. But, take a plane, experiment types of these are not used to carry passengers. 

Remarks: Modified: 06/01/2025

06/01/2025 - 

Joseph Gardner

Joseph (WikiTree) was the youngest son. He was born in New England.

Joseph married Ann Downing who was the niece of John Winthrop. They did not have children.

Joseph was a lawyer as was his wife. Joseph was killed in the King Philip War. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. She drew up a pre-nup for him prior to their marriage.

• King Philip, Joseph and Ann - John Goff looks at the time of the war. 
• Aunts, uncles, cousins - we will take a special effort to remember this couple. 
• Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No 1. - featured this couple and their house which was given to them by Ann's mother. They lived there for years. After Joseph died and Ann remarried, the house was known as the Bradstreet house. It was Ann's house. She left it to a nephew, son of her brother-in-law (Samuel, line of Dr. Frank). 
• Houses, again - we have done several posts on houses. This one was motivated by a post in the Streets of Salem blog: First-period Fantasy. Many call this house the 'Bradstreet House.' Streets of Salem used 'Downing-Bradstreet' which is more correct. See image. 
• Chronicles of old Salem - the book mentions Joseph ( 1675) being killed. We are using it to fill in our text scroll (see the portal to truth). 

---

Children (according to the NEHGS and the Great Migration Project - as represented by WikiTree): Thomas, George, Richard, John, Sarah, Samuel, Joseph, Miriam, Seeth.

Remarks: Modified: 04/02/2022

12/01/2019 -- Added the image of the house of Ann and Joseph. Plus more links. We'll be updating these posts of the kids through time.

01/07/2020 -- Streets of Salem, on the house. Our comment. While searching, today, for more information about Joseph and Ann, we ran into two cases that prompted a look at the need for a Gardner's Gate. More on that (Gardner's Gate). Also, we found an interesting paper on JSTOR on the Downing family by George Crutcher Downing (dated 1908).

04/02/2022 -- Two references to Joseph and Ann: The Downings, Lorenzo and Peggy.

Women's History Month, 2025

TL;DR -- March is the month to look at the women's history in all of its aspects. 

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March 8th is International Women's Day this year. StreetsofSalem put together a walking tour of houses for to look at Salem women's history. Houses in the tour are associated with these families: Crowinshield; Emmerton; Peabody; Saltonstall; Adams; and more. 

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March is Women's History month in the U.S. and many other parts of the worlds. We have had a post for this the past three years. 

• Women's History Month, 2024
• Women's History Month, 2023 
• Women's History Month, 2022

The prior posts have a list, current at the time, of material from other sites and this blog. 

The Bohrs

We have had several posts over the past year which focused on a woman. Here are a few. 

• Mary Gardner Bolyston -- Considers a couple of threads that lead up to the generation of John and Abigail Adams who featured in the time of the U.S. Revolution. 
• von Neumann, Hopper -- Given some of the recent controversy related to GenAI and computer software, this post looks at the view of two pioneers in the field, one of which was Admiral Grace Hopper. 
• Lady Science -- In our research, we ran into a blog that has a focus on women in science. One example is Margrethe Nørland Bohr who worked with her husband in the early days of quantum research. 

Since we have a technology focus, coverage of work by women will be mostly technical. 

Remarks: Modified: 03/08/2025

03/08/2025 -- 

Themes, categories

TL;DR -- We touched upon the rivers of Texas as part of our continuing theme of the rivers of the U.S. We have also looked at houses, including one brought over to Cape Ann in 1623. This was moved to Salem by John Endicott when he arrived. Winthrop then was feted in 1630 in the house when he showed up. He left Salem and went on to Boston. Today, we look at a house on the other side of Boston from Salem. It was built by the Fairbanks family and still exists in Dedham. 

--

Yesterday, we looked briefly at the rivers of Texas having covered some of the U.S. rivers that are central to the history of the U.S. and its settling of its interior out to the west coast. Texas plays heavy all around and will be in focus many times. So, that's a theme but has no category involved yet. A topic that is both a theme and a category? Houses. We had a post about the house brought to Cape Ann by the Dorchester Company crew. 

This was known as the The Governor's "Fayre House" (named such by John Endicott). This mention by the Bigelow Society will get more attention: 

It is well known from contemporaneous evidence that Capt. John Endecott, upon his arrival, had floated up from Cape Ann a frame house that had been erected there for use at the fishing settlement. This seems to have been the best house in the infant settlement, as the early cabins and cottages built by the fishermen from Cape Ann, along the shore of the North River in Salem, had all disappeared by 1661.

We have had several posts on that house. Thomas Gardner's crew brought the material from England. Later reports mentioned that it had been constructed and built for transportation. The Conant family was there for a while. After being moved to Naumkeag, it hosted Winthrop (see Hype, 1600s) in 1630 while he decided on whether Salem was suitable. Later, the Downings extended the house. Their daughter (Ann) married the son (Joseph) of Thomas Gardner; the couple lived in the house. Joseph was killed in a conflict with the natives. Ann married Simon Bradstreet. The house got his name. 

At some point the house was torn down; some buildings in Salem had been built with the wood. This link may have been lost in the Salem fire of 1914. 

Today, we look at another house which is in Dedham MA and appeared in 1637. This was built by Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks. Now a museum, the original house is there with extensions made over the years. In terms of location, Dedham is on the opposite of Boston from Salem and was incorporated in 1636, same year that Salem got its name. 

Fairbanks House
Bigelow Society

This area is close to where Thomas Gardner of Roxbury lived. In terms of interest, we start with CapeAnn and Salem and then Essex County. After that, Massachusetts is the focus along with New England. Of late, interest is being directed toward the 250th viewpoint, but we will be stressing the 400th and other mileposts along the way to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

Remarks: Modified: 08/23/2026

08/23/2026 --  

Renovation, plus

We are in the process of getting the next issue of Gardner's Beacon (Vol. IX, No. 2) ready which will review our 10 years of research activity and look to the future. Along that line, the Gardner FAQ is being updated. Plus, we are going back through posts to get the themes back into coherency.

Note: We have a link (see menu, right side) to the WikiTree profile of Thomas Gardner of Salem. This profile is owned by the Great Migration team and is based upon Anderson's series of books plus research after the fact. See Margaret's profile (as 1st wife of Thomas) for recent discussions and changes that stemmed from reviewing Sherborne records.

• In 2011, early on, we were newbies having just started this type of research. After some time getting acquainted with the people and events, we took notice of houses as these were a common theme through the years. Thomas' house seemed like a nice topic. Of course, later, we had to consider it to be Margaret's house. But, then, Roger came along. Finally, John took it from Cape Ann to Salem. Some of the original wood is believed to still be in some current structures. Another theme seemed to recur. It dealt with being forgotten (Written out of history). Looking at what has been written, the first mention of Thomas was by Rev Hubbard who was a contemporary. Of course, he was mentioned in records as we learned from Rev. Felt's review of such. But, there were (have been) many tales told.  
• Back in 2012, we started the What we know post as we read material and received queries pertaining to our research. Why this approach? Having gone through several exercises where we successfully did applications for heritage societies, we had learned 'source' requirements. For issues related to Thomas, there seemed to be more questions than answers as we followed previous work. The attempt at documenting the known state of the matter moved, somewhat, to the FAQ (2015) in an attempt to get the material available in one place with links to discussions and sources. 
• By 2015, we had received queries (Answering questions) with regard to about all of the Gardner families that were involved with the colonial experience. At the time, the notion of "All Things Gardner" came up. Dr. Frank wrote of some families in both of his books (About us/Gardners and Gardners). We started a list of other families in a blog post (Gardners and Gardners - one of our most-read posts) that we heard from or read about. There have been many suggestions about possible relationships between these families. 
• With respect to different views, we will be offering an overview across the board. That is, we will provide links to different sites that are in scope. Too, we will cover stories from the past. As an example, we have found a Thomas/Margaret marriage record. Rev. Felt mentioned this way back in the early 1800s, yet he was ignored. Why is that? One aspect of this will be a timeline of these views. BTW, the 'annals' scroll at our Portal to truth is a first attempt at just that.
• Looking ahead, we have been thinking of the 400th for a while. It was nice reading about the activities related to the 300th (Salem pageant). We think that some momento for Thomas and Margaret is in order this time around. Frankly, building a good web presence for the couple as well as documented research seems to be a good start.  

As we work the next few weeks, there will be renovations done. Hence, we make a little request for pardon. Part of the work will be laying out a longer-term view, including the ToDos, that will help the TGS, Inc. set up for the next decade of work.

Remarks: Modified: 01/03/2026

06/25/2019 - Added in the bullet about houses and who was here or not. Our research has helped us get a coherent story together. But, there are plenty questions remaining to have some consideration, such as Whence. Surely less involved would be getting the first five generations (starting with the first two) documented. We would include collateral families as we tried to show with Dr. Frank's line (WikiTree Profile).

01/03/2026 -- See post, Themes that persist. 

King Philip, Joseph and Ann

August 12 is the 334th anniversary of Wampanoag King Philip's death (execution). The war with King Philip was a major event in New England in the latter part of the 17th century.

John Goff (a Thomas descendant and president of Salem Preservation Inc.) co-authors an article with Julianne Jennings (Strong Woman) that looks at the time and some of the facts.

       On the anniversary of Wampanoag King Philip's death 
       New England’s Second Colonial Armed Conflict: King Philip’s War Remembered 

The two authors ask some interesting what-if questions, such as: what would New England (and the rest of the continent) be like if there had been more peaceful relations between those who migrated here and those already in residence, the American Indians? As we all know from stories of the Pilgrims, things started off peaceful enough.

We know that Thomas and his children had good relations with the American Indians. We mentioned, earlier, John's (son of Thomas) effort on Nantucket.

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The authors also remind us that American Indians, even those who surrendered, were sold, into slavery, to plantations in Bermuda (and the Caribbean). That may not seem to be in character and definitely not something to be proud of.

But, we know from history that the Puritans were not without fault, to say the least, in some of their dealings. Quakers and their children got this same type of treatment.

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We featured Joseph (son of Thomas) and Ann in the February issue of Gardner's Beacon. Joseph and Ann had a house in Salem that had a long and interesting history. Unfortunately, it did not stand the test of time (however, its usefulness has been documented - coming issue on houses). The Joseph and Ann house was built by her father, Emanuel Downing, and had a remarkable structure for the time. Joseph, a captain in the militia, was a casualty in the Great Swamp Fight leaving Ann a widow. She later married Simon Bradstreet after having him sign a pre-nup. Her father, as a lawyer, trained his daughter well. The house became, then, known as Governor Bradstreet's house (such is the way of the world).

Remarks:

02/23/2022 -- Updated PDF for Gardner's Beacon, Vol. II, No. 1 to have links to sources. 

04/23/2021 -- Fixed link to John Goff's and Julianne Jennings' article. 

02/27/2021 -- Changed to using American Indian. 

01/12/2019 -- The article written by Julianne and John is missing. So, pulled one from Indian Country Today. 

12/19/2012 -- Changed article pointer to go to the Salem Gazette.

10/28/2012 -- September issue had a theme of houses.

08/14/2012 -- Drawn and quartered, after the swamp fight.

Modified: 02/23/2022

Great House (Cape Ann)

TL;DR -- The house will get continued attention. 

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Talk of serendipity. Rather, it's just paying attention. We have been too busy of late to do proper research but are now back in action. One of our goals is to fill in the generations post Thomas and Margaret up to about 1900. It was the 5th generation that bore the brunt of the Revolution with guidance from the 4th gen, if you would. Then, two generations this way is when we saw the blooming of the area (Salem and Boston) with international trade really taking off. 

At the same time, we saw western movement as the middle of the country filled in. Of late, we have looked at plenty of families scattered all over the landscape. And, looking closely resulted in a more full view of the issues of being on the frontier. One huge group sort of points to a little movement, say from North Carolina to Tennessee, as sufficient to cover the rest. That is not so, as we will bring forth. Things were much more shaky the further west one went. Boone, himself, got to the eastern side of Missouri. That was near the Mississippi River. It's a long way from there to Oregon, though there are tales of the old guy going out to the Yellowstone area and back (we'll look at that more closely). 

But, we digress. Earlier, we put a descendant's list out which had not been verified (almost a decade ago). It was suggestive of research to be done, say. So, we're starting from that point where we split the list by child. The last one was Samuel (child #6). Today, Miriam came up. She married John Hill. One of their daughters married a Dow. 

So, we remembered that we have referred to a Dow several times, namely George Francis Dow. This was in the context of the Great House (Cape Ann). There are several posts of early dwellings (The 1st year) which precipitated the Wikipedia article.  After finding the obituary on George Francis Dow (at the site of the American Antiquarian Society), we found his parents (and will look further). But, his wife was Alice G. Waters who did a bibliography for The Diary of William Bentley (mentioned here, a few times: example). 

So, seeing Waters got the notion of how this all relates to Thomas Franklin Waters (writer on Ipswich among other topics). As well, TF Waters was an editor of The Massachusetts Magazine spearheaded by Dr. Frank. So, there are things to pursue in the vein. 

Now, back to the gist of the post. We found this post on GF Dow in the Streets of Salem (Donna Seger's) blog. It has better pictures than I have seen before. Note, the Wikipedia article was started in 2012. As well, the post has pointers to further information. 

Crafting a Colonial Salem
Streets of Salem

Higginson saw the house and wrote of it. So did Anne Bradstreet. Endicott played host to Winthrop as that late arriving group stopped by Salem long enough to express displeasure with the little area. Anne Bradstreet wrote of her shock about the situation. Back in jolly old England, they were told of good houses, paved streets (of gold), and such (tongue-in-cheek). 

Oh yes, Thomas' or Margaret's house? Or Conant's? It was put up by the original crew from material brought over. They didn't have time (or the tools) to do all of the fabrication work. There was one remark that we saw about the material (for the house) having be prepared for transport. When Conant went over to Massey's Cove, the Gardners had Cape Ann to themselves? When Winthrop enjoyed his feast, his crew had gone over to Cape Ann to pick strawberries. Many tales to consider.  

You know, all of the western movements (there were several, and we have the families and their histories to study) faced something similar. And, it was more than just the sod houses of the prairie. 

An aside: many genealogists have no clue, it appears to me, that their paper chase bears little on the reality (essence) of people's lives. How can we correct that lack of insight? 

Remarks: Modified: 11/10/2020

10/11/2020 --  

Henry Gardner, the Loyalist

The last post, we wrote about Abigail, wife of Silvester. This was of the George of Rhode Island family. That suggested a re-look at the Gardner book (1907).

pgs 218-220
Thomas Gardner (planter) and descendants ...
F.A. Gardner, MD. 1907

Dr. Frank wrote of Henry and Weld Gardner, both Loyalists. Why caps? We think that we need to hear about the other side of the story, again, and will help facilitate another, personally filled out, look at those early moments. We all know that ex-post-facto considerations throw out a whole lot of detail.

The History of Massachusetts site wrote about General Gage a few years ago (Was General Thomas Gage Born to Lose?). They looked at his family history which is unusual in several ways. For one, it is nice to be able to have that ability to trace the past, as such following of links back is not typical.

There have been many other studies. One of note deals with houses in Salem. In particular, this look at William "Old Billy" Gray who was mentored by Henry and Weld's grandfather. General Gage and Hon. William Browne, Esq (whose house Gray obtained later - see page 4) dallied while the patriots met in their subversive manner.

Expect further posts on this matter.

Remarks: Modified: 09/15/2021

10/12/2016 -- Comment at History of Massachusetts.

09/15/2021 -- We will look at Loyalists and houses and families.