Came to Massachusetts in 1635
Kirk D. Ransom from the La Mance book, Chapter XXIV
"The Pierce Family"
"Line of Sanford
and Mary King-Pierce"
[starting on page 160]
Mary, the third daughter of Samuel and Deborah Greene-King,
[Mary6, Deborah5, James4, John3, James2, John1] married Sanford
Pierce6, the son of Olive Greene-Pierce5, [Samuel6, Olive5, Ebenezer4,
Ebenezer3, John2, John1]. The Greene-Pierce descent of both has
been traced {in previous chapters}, also the La Valley-King descent
of Mary. The Pierce family also has its history, interwoven in
part with others, and will be given here, before the personal
story of Mary and Sanford is begun. I have confidence in the pedigree
as her given. It is the result of close comparison and study of
very old records, which are, however, as I am free to admit, brief
and sometimes confused.
The name was originally Norman French, and was then St. Piere---
(Saint Peter.) The first name-bearer was a devotee of Saint Peter,
who had taken, it is supposed, some special vow or obligation
before the shrine of the saint. The family were of noble blood.
Their coat-of-arms showed two bend sable. It is an old escutcheon,
showing some variation in different lines. They came to England
at the Conquest, or soon after, and there the name quickly corrupted
itself into Pierce or Pirce, written at first Piers or Perres.
The descendants of the younger
sons of the family became reduced to the common rank. It is perhaps but a
coincidence, yet it is
worth noting, that William Langland who wrote the famous poem
of "Piers the Plowman," about 1362, locates his Piers
of the remarkable visions in the Malvern Hills, on the Welsh border.
The first glimpse we get of the line of Pierces we are trying
to trace, is in North Wales about one hundred years after the
date of the poem.1
In the Appendix it is told that a young woman of this Welsh
Pierce family, prior to 1500, married an Ithell. Their son, Pierce
Ithell, had a daughter Mary who married an Englishman, Richard
Wardwell. One of the Wardwell's sons married a Huguenot refugee's
daughter, Meirbe' Lascelle.
The heads of this Huguenot family, Gershom and Meribe' Lascelle,
had another daughter whose name, as near as we can get at the
original form, was Anteress, which would be pronounced An-te-ress,
or An-te-race, with the accent on the last syllable. The name
was handed down in the Pierce family for several generations,
under the forms of Antrace, Antires, Anterace, or Ansutrass, and
particularly as Antress and Anstress. This daughter with the odd
name married a Pierce, whose baptismal name is unknown to us.
We do know that he belonged to the same branch whose blood was
in the Wardwell line into which Merib' (Maribah,) the sister of
Anteress, married.
The French blood thus brought into the Pierce family has markedly
shown itself. The romantic and spectacular side of the Gallic
character has tinged the whole blood of this line. An instance
is the act of old Robert the Emigrant, who brought bread with
him from England, bread that is yet preserved in his family, a
memento as sacred as the Jewish shew bread of the altar itself.
The Pierce of to-day has a French, imaginative, sentimental and
reminiscent side to his character, however, practical he may be
in other ways. Every pathetic or romantic episode in their history
has been preserved, until their chronicler suffers from embarrassment
of riches, so many and so varied are these anecdotes. The Lascelles,
like so many French families, delighted in mellifluous and high-sounding
names. More than any other branch of the family, the Pierces have
preserved this peculiarity. In studying 200 years of early New
England records, the Pierces led any other family whatever in
original, peculiar and poetical names. Pardon, Preserved, Myell,
Suthcote, Val, Backup, and Clothier, Bashabee, Barsha, Squier,
and Lewis-Desabaye-Besayade are a few of these names that now
occur to me. To this day the Pierces largely choose sentimental
names for their offspring.
Anteress Pierce had quite a family. Almost certainly she had
an Ebenezer, Thomas, Michael, and Azrikam, and probably an Edward
and a Stephen. One of her younger children was a daughter who
married ____ King. This daughter's descendants continued the names
of Thomas, Michael, Ebenezer and Edward for several generations.
Her sons Thomas, William, John and Michael King came to America
in 1635, and a great-grandson, John King the Buccaneer, came to
R. I. in 1665, a child of 11 years. Buccaneer John was the great-grandfather
of Mary King-Pierce herself. So that by her and Sanford Pierce's
marriage were united her remote Pierce-Ithell and Lascelle-Wardwell
blood, and his Pierce and equally remote infusion of Lascelle
blood. Each was of course of Greene blood also. So these several
small trickles from the parent streams, re-united, became something
of a current itself.
In the next generation a large number of allied families,
Waites, Hills, Wardwells, Lazells (Lascelles), Slocums, Brownells,
Kings and Pierces came to the Colonies, seeking religious freedom.
From the early records, General Ebenezer Pierce's careful Pierce
genealogy, and from the New England Historical and Genealogical
Register, it appears that the Pierces among these may be subdivided
into several groups of presumable brothers, the first descendants
in each group cousins to those of the others, and all of course
grandchildren to Antress Pierce and her husband. Only one group
concerns this history, save that Thomas Pierce of Woburn deserves
mention as being the ancestor of President Pierce.
The group in which we are interested consists of four brothers
-- so the best authorities consider them -- John the Patentee,
Robert, Capt. William and Capt. Michael. Three of these were men
of distinction in their day. They were grandsons of Anteress Pierce,
and sons of Azrika Pierce and his wife Martha.2
Besides these are three, evidently closely related to them
and believed to be a brother's children. These are John the Emigrant,
of Watertown, Daniel of Watertown and Newbury, and Richard of
Rhode Island. It is thought these three were the sons of a Jeremiah,
but of his name there is no absolute certainty.
Before passing on to Richard of Rhode Island's line, let us
glance at the history of his three then-famous uncles. John the
Patentee, (who may have been an uncle instead of a brother to
the others.) was a merchant of London. He was the owner of the
historic Mayflower. An association of merchants, with John Pierce
at their head, secured a patent in 1620 from the Virginia Company
for the use of the Mayflower colonists, who then expected to settle
in Virginia. When the Mayflower returned in the spring of 1621,
with the news of the change of base, John Pierce obtained a new
grant or patent to Plymouth Colony, dated June 1, 1621. He himself
started for the new world in the shop Paragon, but it proved unseaworthy
and put back. He then sent the patent on the ship Good Fortune,
which reached Plymouth Nov. 11, 1621. In remained in London, **
16 footnote follows **So say all authorities but one, I find no
trace of him in America.]} but used his means and ships in building
up the colony.
He put his brother -- so Gen. Ebenezer Pierce styles him --
Captain William Pierce as master of first one and another of his
shops. A year from the time he first visited Plymouth, Captain
William owned 13 slaves. Doubtless he owned many more as his fortunes
increased. In a letter of 1638, which has been preserved, is this
language:
"The ship Desire, Capt. William Pierce, returned from
the West Indies after a 7-month voyage. The brought cotton, tobacco
and negroes from Providence, [one of the West Indies islands,]
and salt from Tortugas." And yea a historian of those days
speaks of him as "A godly man, and a most expert mariner!" Doubtless
he was a good man, for these things did not trouble
men's consciences then.
Pope in history says that up to 1640 Capt. William crossed
the ocean oftener than any man then moving. He made many voyages
between England and Virginia or to the West Indies. Twice he essayed
to go to Plymouth, but each time had to put back because of a
leaky vessel. This was in 1621 and 1622. In 1623 he came in the
Ann, in the Charity in 1624, in an unregistered ship in 1625,
in the Mayflower in 1629, and in the Lyon or Lyon's Whelp in 1630,
1631 and 1632, making seven voyages to Plymouth within ten years.
He brought a great many of his kindred over in his ships, also
Rev. Cotton, Roger Williams and other eminent men.
At first he lived in Virginia, where he had a plantation of
200 acres at James City. Here his first wife, Mrs. Jone (Jane)
Pierce, died. She left a daughter Jane, who married Hohn Rolfe,
the widower of Pocahontas, the Indian princess who saved Capt.
John Smith's life. In 1632 he removed to Boston. Here he was of
great influence, and made for them their first Almanac in 1639.
In 1641 he attempted to land a ship-load of colonists on the Island
of Providence, one of the Bahamas. The inhabitants resisted the
intrusion, and in the battle that followed he was shot, the 13th
of May, 1641.
Captain Michael Pierce, the third prominent one of the brothers,
was an Ensign under Captain Miles Standish. In 1669 he was made
Captain. He was easily the greatest Indian fighter of the King
Philip War. But close to Rehoboth, Mass., near the Pawtucket River,
he was hemmed in by a host of red men, on March 26, 1676. He had
only 52 white men with him and 11 friendly Indians. In the fearful
massacre that followed only three of the sixty-three escaped.
Thus dearly he sold his life on that Sabbath day's fight, so long
ago. The family of Richard (his nephew) have his battle handed
down in their memories, and tradition could be no more positive
than theirs that they are nearly related to him. Richard Pierce's
line was exceedingly proud of their near relationship to Captain
Michael, and named after him for five generations.
Richard 5 the Emigrant3 , came to Massachusetts, probably
about 1635. His wife was Elizabeth ____. Richard was one of those
who thought the Massachusetts authorities exercised tyranny in
religious matters. He accordingly went to Portsmouth, R. I., and
became a Friend or Quaker. His descendants of the particular line
we are tracing, went to Prudence Island, or Chippacursett, as
the Indians called it. Together with the Hills, who were relatives,
the Allens and Sanfords, they were the leading families of that
island, until the Revolutionary War. The British in vain tried
to buy hay or provision from the Prudence Island farmers. They
were so stanch a band of patriots that not one would part with
provender for the British army, even at double price.
An English officer attempted to overcome the scruples of Hon.
John Allen, of this island. The Hon, John, who was hot-headed,
exploded with wrath, and refused in a taunting way to have anything
to do with the redcoats. Wallace, the British officer in command,
in reprisal for the insult, sent troops with orders to burn every
house, barn and haystack on the island, from end to end. The order
was carried out to the letter. Allen's family were thrust out
in their night clothes, and of their household possessions saved
only some silver teaspoons that Mrs. Allen snatched up as the
soldiers drove her out, and thrust into her bosom. Samuel Pierce,
Senior, great-grandson of Richard the Emigrant, and grandfather
of the Sanford we are tracing, was turned out of doors also, his
house, barn and hay burned, and his cattle taken. He left the
island at once, and none of the family ever returned. He saved
a few small articles in his flight, and they are yet kept as heirlooms,
including some of the garments, a teapot with the date of its
making, 1746, stamped on it.
Richard the Emigrant's line were mostly seamen. In a hundred
years' time no less than six were sea captains, and as many were
drowned at sea. They were all salve-holders. The records would
indicate that, next to the Tripps, they were collectively the
largest slave-holders in the colony. One reason was that many
sailors habitually made trips to Africa, trading New England products
for slaves and gold dust. These slaves cost them but a trifle,
and they could afford to own plenty of them. Some of the family
died on the African coast, on slaving expeditions. The brother
of Captain Daniel in our tracing line being one of them.
The close of the seventeenth century were the balmy day of
the Buccaneers, those sea rovers who made it a matter of conscience
to despoil Spanish possessions, and take the booty captured for
their own. Spain was a hated nation. So far from considering themselves
pirates, those free-booting ancestors thought it a feather in
their cap to board Spanish vessels, and to take Spanish towns
in the West Indies. The Prudence Islands Pierces had their full
share in all this.
The family soon lost their Quakerism. During the Revolutionary
War 48 Pierces of R. I., nearly all lineal descendants of Richard,
Senior, enlisted in the army. Not a few of them were officers.
Richard's son, Richard Jr.7, had
by his first wife Joyce, a son Daniel8.4 This Daniel was married in 1708
to Patience (Patty)
Hill, a distant cousin. Patience was the daughter of Johnathan
Hill, the uncle of Ann and Susanna Hill who married "Wealthy" John
Greene and Usal Greene. One of the oldest sons of Daniel and Patience Pierce
was Samuel, Senior, whose house was burned
by the British. In 1744 this Samuel married Hester or Eater Wiley.
(The name is written both ways.) Their third son, Samuel, Jr.,
was born April 13, 1752. He married Olive Greene5, [Ebenezer4,
Ebenezer3, John2, John1]. As her grandmother was probably a Pierce,
she was a cousin on the Pierce side and a very distant one on
the Lascelle-Wardwell side."
________________end of extract. Other sections of this chapter
are shown under each individual._______
from the La Mance book, page 165:
...Their third son, Samuel, Jr., was born April 13, 1752.
He married Olive Greene 5, [Ebenezer 4, Ebenezer 3, John 2, John
1]. As her grandmother was probably a Pierce, she was a cousin
on the Pierce side, and a very distant one on the Lascelle-Wardwell
side.
Samuel and Olive lived mostly at
Bristol, R. I. Here she died, July 14, 1786, in child-bed, at 35 years of
age. The solid silver "name" spoon, an heirloom in the family,
was doubtless presented to an Ebenezer Greene and Caleb Hill, the one the
brother
of Olive, the other Samuel's great-uncle. It must always descend
to an E. C. Pierce. The only sons that survived were Daniel, Caleb
and Sanford. The last was evidently named for their fast friends,
the Stanfords of Prudence Island. Sanford married his distant
cousin, Molly King. [Deborah Greene-King5, James Greene4, John3,
James2, John.1]"
from the La Mance book, starting on page 165:
Sanford was the oldest child of
Samuel Jr. and Olive Pierce. He was born May 10, 1773. His wife, Molly King-Pierce,
was two
years his senior, having been born June 29, 1771. They were married
in West Greenwich, R. I., which was her home, probably about 1797.
What was known as the Military Tracts of Northern New York had
been thrown open to settlement on advantageous terms. After living
in Mass. for about a year they went to this region and settled
in Onondaga County, in that part of Pompey afterwards called Fabius.
It had only been surveyed in 1794, and bears, panthers and wolves
abounded. Deer were so plentiful that the settlers had venison
as commonly as we now have beef. Here they remained for 24 years,
then removed to a new settlement just being made at Palermo, in
Otsego County. Ebenezer, their "home son," having moved
to Northern Indiana in 1837, Sanford and his wife went to him,
and died at his home, -- Mary (Molly) Sept 9, 1838, and Sanford
June 29, 1849.
Mary, the wife, was a slender, petite woman, with a fair,
expressive face and beautiful eyes. She had the quick wit and
bright way of her French grandmother, Marie La Valley-King. She
had her supersensitive, nervous organization as well. A shock
left a mental cloud for some years upon her in the latter part
of her life.
Sanford and Mary had five children,
all of whom lived to marry. Catherine remained in N.Y. The others all moved
to La Grange Co.,
Indiana, and died there."
__________________end of extract
par of Ebenezer Pierce son of Sanford Pierce b 10 May 1773
d 29 Jun 1849 married 1797 to Mary (Molly) King b: 29 June 1771
d 9 Sep 1838. Sanford Pierce was the son of Samuel Pierce b 13
Apr 1752 Prudence Island and Olive Greene b 1751 West Greenwich
RI d 1786 Bristol RI. Mary King was the daughter of Samuel King
and Deborah Greene. Deborah and Olive Greene go back to John of
Quidnessette through is sons James and (Lt) John Clark.
from the La Mance book, page 166:
He was born Oct 19, 1801. He taught school at Pompey Hill,
the winter he was 19. The next spring the family moved to what
is now Palerno, then an unbroken forest.* (*His mother, Mrs Pierce,
rode on horseback, with a feather bed tied on behind her and carrying
a baby in her arms. It was hardly as stylish a mode of traveling
as a modern automobile jaunt, but it answered all purposes then.)
Dec 29, 1821, he was one of the principals to a double wedding,
when Rachel McQueen became his wife, and his sister Catherine
became the wife of Ephraim McQueen. Four children were born to
them in their little cabin in the clearing, Polly (Mary), Seymour,
Atelia and Clark. Mrs. Rachel Pierce died Sept. 15, 1832, in her
31st year.
His second wife was Julia Arabella Collins, who was born May
26, 1816, in Windham Co. Vermont. She outlived her husband nearly
thirty-eight years, dying in Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Oct. 26,
1902, in her 87th year. She was more than an ordinarily capable
woman, level-headed and energetic always. She was a capital hand
at rehearsing stories of pioneer life. It was as good as a novel
to hear her relate, when the western fever attacked her husband,
how in 1837 they made the overland trip from N. Y. to Northern
Indiana, with some other families. They were seven weeks on the
road. There were twenty-six in the company, three of them babes
under three months old. On the way, sixteen of the twenty-six
came down with the measles, to say nothing of a score of other
haps and ills.
A log house was hastily built in
the deep woods. Here this girlish wife watched over the brood of six little
ones, and quaked
in her shoes each time an Indian showed his dusky face. One time
Schomack, the old Pottowatamie Chief, granted and patted Mrs.
Julia on the shoulder, patronizingly complimenting her to her
husband by repeating, "Nice squaw! Nice squaw!"
Once when Eben - the name her husband usually was called -
was away from home, six Indians stalked into the house. They helped
themselves to the bread in the bake-oven, and as they were not
given anything else one of them shook his fist in the young wife's
face. She expected to be killed, but he made signs they would
leave if she would give them what they took to be a piece of dried
venison. She gave it to them. The first to taste it made a horrible
face, while the others burst forth into derisive hoots. The supposed
venison was dried beef's gall, about the bitterest thing on the
face of the earth.
Eben Pierce was a man of sound
judgment and irreproachable life. He died of small-pox Jan 20, 1865, at his
home near Wolcottville,
Indiana."
_____________end of extract
may be known as Franklin E. Pierce?
one record has birth date as 04 Jan 1837
from the La Mance book, page 169:
"Rev. Frank was ordained a Baptist minister in 1869,
and preached for some years in Indiana and Vermont. Is not now
in charge of any work, although he occasionally preaches. His
home is at Ellendale, North Dakota. None of his children live
there. "It almost takes a state for a child," as their
father says, as they are scattered in Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Minn.,
and S. Dakota. ..."
From: History of Providence County,
Vol I & II
Ed. by Richard M. Bayles; W.W. Preston & Co., NY. 1891
Biographical sketches, "Town of East Providence" Volume
II
p. 172-73: Galen PIERCE, son of
Jeremiah and Candis (Wheeler) Pierce, was born in 1824 in Rehoboth, Mass.,
and was educated
in the district schools. He was first employed as clerk in a grocery
store for C. C. Godfrey in Providence, where he remained two years,
and was for four years clerk for I. T. Tillinghast in same business,
whom he afterward bought out and carried on the business for himself
for 37 years at India Point. He came to East Providence about
1878, and was for a few years interested in the grocery business
under the firm name of Pierce & Rich. After giving up the
grocery business he was in the dry goods and shoe business three
years, then retired and gave the business to his son, W. B. Pierce,
who still carries it on. He has served in the town council. He
married first Phebe Barney, of Providence. His present wife is
Emily F., daughter of Samuel Wilmouth, of East Providence. His
father was a carpenter by trade and carried on a large business
for a number of years.
