1638 Puritian Migration (Revis)

Our Tale begins in 1600, in King James' (yes THAT King James) England, where the weaver John Hood's wife Ann had a son. They named him John.

Hood is also spelled Hoode, Hude, Hudd, and possibly Horde.

1611: The King James Bible was published

1616: Pocahontas comes to England

1620: Famous Mayflower voyage

1625: 40,000 died of bubonic plague in London

1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector

Halstead, Essex

John Jr. and his son Richard came from Halstead

Longitude: 0.6326° Latitude: 51.94372°

The Domesday Book (c. 1086) shows a fairly large population in the area (117 households) with a high proportion of smallholders, freemen, and a few slaves.

Halstead's name is derived from two Saxon words, signifying "a healthy place" or the place on a hill. A market existed in the middle of the town, making Halstead a place of importance.

From writer William Camden's 1610 travel log: "Hawsted, which was the seat of the familie of the Bourchiers, whence came Robert Bourchier Lord Chancellour of England in the time of King Edward the Third [circa 1350], and from him sprang a most honorable progenie of Earles and Barons of that name."

This view is at the top of the hill on Halstead High Street. The hill is dominated by the tower of St. Andrew's church, built in 1850. The rest of the church is mainly 14th century and our Grandfather John would have been familiar with it.

The area was well-known for its textiles.

Winthrop Fleet Route 1630

John Hood Jr.

Weaver, son of a weaver

b 1600 Halstead, Essex, England

d 1683 Lynn, Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America

Sailed to the colony before 1638 with

wife Elizabeth Beard

son Richard 1625-1695

&

maybe his sister Mary Hood 1607-1674

Mary (listed as Mary Hudd) came over in 1634

as a servant to John Winthrop (the elder) of Boston.

John Winthrop coined the famous phrase "city upon a hill".

Mary married Richard Truesdale.

In the early 1600s, England's government was passing various Acts affecting the weaver trade. It is possible that John was up against some sort of limitation in his profession, which would have factored in to his decision to go to the colonies.

I have been searching ship passenger lists for the years around 1630 and have not found him yet. Unfortunately, many ships' lists do not exist. I was surprised to discover the high number of crossings during 1620-1640. I would estimate 20,000 people took that risky voyage to New England during those 20 years. It was called the Great Migration 1620-1640.

1638: John is living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, listed as a planter. Newtowne, as Cambridge was called until 1638, was laid out in an orderly grid of streets, bounded today by Eliot Square and Linden Street, Massachusetts Avenue and the River. Each family owned a house lot in the village, planting fields outside, and a share in the common land.

Newtowne/Cambridge Map from 1635

One of these house lots was Grandfather John's!

In 1650 he moves to Lynn, Massachusetts (previously known as Saugus).

His father died in 1622 but John waits until 1652 to sell his father's land in England. My theory for the time lapse is that his mother Anne was still living there with her new husband, Thomas Beard. John goes back to old England in 1652 to sell the land. He sold "three dwelling howses or tenements with all thereto belonging in Halstead in the county of Essex in old England." He wrote a letter to his wife during this time and she was still in Lynn.

He moves to Kittery, Maine in 1653 (only six years after its founding) when he returns from England. Kittery was part of Massachusetts at that time. It is the southern most and first town in Maine. The original settlers established fisheries offshore at the Isles of Shoals, where fish were caught, salted, and exported to Europe. Other pioneers were hunters, trappers, and workers of the region's abundant timber.

The town was named after Kittery Court Manor at Kingswear in Devon, England.

The Old Peppernell Mansion in Kittery, Maine, built in 1682.

From

North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000

John Hood of Lynn, Mass., and some of his descendants

by Mrs. Jennie (Hood) Bosson.

John Jr.'s son

Richard Hood

b 1625 Halstead, Essex, England

About 1638 he came to Massachusetts from England with his mother and father

d 1695 Lynn, Massachusetts Bay, British Colonial America

married Mary Newhall (father Anthony)

daughter Rebecka Hood 1662-1745

Richard's father-in-law, Anthony Newhall, gave land for the couple to build a home.

From

John Hood of Lynn, Mass., and some of his descendants

by Mrs. Jennie (Hood) Bosson.

Our line is through the 9th child, Rebecka Hood, & then Rebecka's 4th child, Hannah.

1692 Richard is allowed to sit in the pulpit because he is hard of hearing.

Witches?

1692 Richard and Mary’s two oldest daughters,

Mary and Sara, were accused of practicing witchcraft and imprisoned in Boston.

Scottish Slaves

I found an interesting note about Richard in a book called "New World Immigrants" written in 1979. He bought the services of a Scottish slave who was captured at the Battle of Dunbar by Cromwell's men. Those were indentured slaves, with a time limit to their obligations. Many of them went to work in the nearby Saugus Iron Works.

Rebecka Hood

Richard's daughter Rebecka marries Hugh Alley in Lynn on 9 December 1681.

Rebecka and Hugh have a daughter

Hannah Alley 1689-1730

who marries Edward Revis in Virginia and lives out her days in North Carolina.

There are at least two Hannah Alleys in New England during this time period.

Some family trees online show one who is the daughter of a Hugh and Mary (Graves) Alley and they try to marry her to Edward Revis. That is NOT our Grandmother Hannah. That is our Hannah's aunt, who married William Cox.

Hannah's grandson Harris has his own Tale: "Harris Revis Fought Lord Cornwallis"

Her 2X great-grandson William Revis is mentioned briefly in the Tale titled "Gold Mine!".

Her 3x great-grandson Harris Revis is in the "Frontier Folk" Tale.

Her 4x great-grandson Ezra Revis is in "Growing Up in the 1940s".

My goal in all of the Dead Family Tales is to present stories that would have been told around a kitchen table or campfire during family gatherings.

A new Dead Family Tale is posted every Monday.

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