Merrick (Wales) & Massachussetts

[Cristopher Nash]

I'm very hesitant in bringing this up here, since it's if-y in terms
of its appropriateness on this forum, and involves an area of
research that's totally unfamiliar to me and in some ways tastes to
me like pure (unadulterated?) Anjou. It's in fact because I don't
know yet even the basic relevant (re)sources that I'm hoping someone
here with knowledge of the Welsh (&/or, for that matter, the
Massachussetts) background may be able to gauge its problems/worth
before I begin to invest any toil on it.

In 1977 (reprinted in 1979) Robert Joseph Curfman gave the following
(of interest, obviously, to New England researchers) in The Paddock
Genealogy: Descendants of Robert Paddock of Plymouth Colony:

1 Capt. Meurig ap Llewellyn, d. in or aft 1538. Of Bodorgan Castle,
Llanvairian Parish, Anglesey. Yeoman of the Guard or Captain of the
Bodyguard of K. Henry VIII and Captain of the Guard at his coronation
1505; First High Sheriff of Anglesey. Married Margaret ap Roland ap
Howell, da. of Rev. Roland ap Howell

1.1 Rev. John Meyrick, b. ca 1513, Rector of Llandegai (Llandachya),
Wales, bro. of Rowland, First Protestant Bishop of Bangor. Married
Sage Griffith, da. of James Griffith & Maud Lloyd

1.1.1 Rev. William Meyrick, Rector of St David's, Pembrokeshire,
Wales. Married Janet, da. of Ienen ap John ap Ienen ap Llewellyn

1.1.1.1 Rev. John Meyrick, b. 1579. Married Dorothy Bishop, da. of
Matthew Bishop & Elizabeth Young

1.1.1.1.1 Lt. William Merrick, d. 1688/9. Of Duxbury and Eastham,
MA. Passenger of the James 1636. Constable of Duxbury. Married
Rebecca Tracy, b. 1624-7, d. ca 1688/9
da. of Stephen Tracy & Tryphosa Lee

1.1.1.1.1.1 Sarah Merrick, b. 1654, d. 1696. Married John Freeman
(b.1651, d. 1721, s. of Maj. John Freeman (1622-1719) & Mercy Prence
(ca1631-1711) -- granddaughter of Elder William Brewster of Plymouth,
MA (via <--Gov. Thomas Prence & Patience Brewster).

1.1.1.1.1.1.1 Mercy Freeman

Thanks very much for any thoughts.

Cris

--

[Edith Gomez]

Christopher,

I am very interested in the line of Griffith you mention below, James
Griffith & Maud Lloyd, what other information do you have on this Griffith
line? I am a Griffith descendent on my fathers side. I can only go back to
Robert Griffith that was born in 1776 in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland
and died 21 Sep 1856 in Lanark Co., Ontario, Canada. Family members have
said we are related the Griffith's of Wales and Llewelyn. I am trying to
make my records as correct as I possibly can. Any help you can send my way
on this would be greatly appreciated.

Edith

"Cristopher Nash" <c...@windsong.u-net.com> wrote in message
news:a05100300b835380f49b6@[10.0.1.2]...

[David Greene]

Since no one else has responded to the Merrick origin that Dr. Nash has
found
in Curfman's Paddock Genealogy, I'll say that it looks suspicious to me, as
it
does to Dr. Nash. I see, however, nothing absolutely impossible about it; if
it
is false, the fabricator was wise to derive the immigrant from three
ministerial
generations, since clergy families tended to be more mobile.

No origin is indicated for Lt. William Merrick in Meredith B. Colket Jr.'s
Founders of Early American Families, Rev. ed., (1985), nor is any origin
suggested in Mary Walton Ferris's Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, vol. 2 (1931,
or
in Jacobus's Ackley-Bosworth Ancestry (1960). Of course, something may have
been
discovered since these books were published, but if so it has apparently not
appeared in one of the major scholarly journals.

Does Curfman give a source for the Merrick origin? Curfman is still
living--or
was fairly recently--and he might be helpful. Until then, I'd be very
cautious.

DAVId L. GREENE, CG, FASG
Coeditor and publisher
The American Genealogist [TAG]

"Cristopher Nash" <c...@windsong.u-net.com> wrote in message
news:a05100300b835380f49b6@[10.0.1.2]...

[Gryphon801]

The origin is the turn-of-century Merrick genealogy by George Byron Merrick
(1902). As a descendant of Thomas Merrick of Springfield I have tried to
verify or disprove the proposed connection but so far have not been able to do
either. That the line is derived from "second son clergymen" is perhaps the
best thing to recommend it.

[Cristopher Nash]

I'm extremely grateful, David, for your very helpful comments and for
the trouble you've taken in testing some of Curfman's assertions --
and to <gryph...@aol.com (Gryphon801)> for pointing us toward the
George Byron Merrick (1902), whatever the disappointments it may
bring(!) Thanks too to <Port...@aol.com> for having promptly
written to confirm that though the Welsh line may have some
possibilities, the G B Merrick (whose title I don't have) appears to
be Curfman's 'medium' and that, as David Greene suggests, it's not
supported by clear evidence so far as the Merrick emigrants are
concerned.

Interestingly, though Curfman offers - with specific page references
- several venerable sources for the Merrick/Meyrick line (each title
with its code/acronym in the main text), viz. --

Thomas Nichols, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County
Families of Wales (1875)
Burke's Landed Gentry
Burke's Peerage and Baronetage
The Dictionary of Welsh Biography Down to 1940 (Honorable Society
of Cymmrodorion, London 1959)
Leon Clark Hills, The Mayflower Planters at Plymouth, Mass. 1620
(1936/41)
Probate Records, Barnstable, Mass.
JYW Lloyd, The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the
Ancient Nobility of Powys Padog (1885)

-- with their (in some places noteworthy) liabilities - he doesn't
name G B Merrick. Unless, that is, the acronym he seems to have
omitted from his dense 12-page over-all key-list, "MrkGn", alludes to
it....

Just in the hope of some damage-limitation, do you sense that the
details given for 1.1.1.1.1.1, Sarah Merrick, hold, more or less? It
looks as though - failing some 'report' yet to come - the situat's as
I'd imagined, and any attempt to go beyond that does mean
work-from-scratch.

>Curfman is still living--or was fairly recently--and he might be helpful.

David, this sounds encouraging. Would you happen to know any leads
as to where he might be (or have last been) found?

Thanks again, very much.

Cris

>Since no one else has responded to the Merrick origin that Dr. Nash has
>found in Curfman's Paddock Genealogy, I'll say that it looks suspicious
>to me, as it does to Dr. Nash. I see, however, nothing absolutely
>impossible about it; if it is false, the fabricator was wise to derive
>the immigrant from three ministerial generations, since clergy families
>tended to be more mobile.
>
>No origin is indicated for Lt. William Merrick in Meredith B. Colket Jr.'s
>Founders of Early American Families, Rev. ed., (1985), nor is any origin
>suggested in Mary Walton Ferris's Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, vol. 2 (1931,
>or in Jacobus's Ackley-Bosworth Ancestry (1960). Of course, something may
>have been discovered since these books were published, but if so it has
>apparently not appeared in one of the major scholarly journals.
>
>Does Curfman give a source for the Merrick origin? Curfman is still
>living--or was fairly recently--and he might be helpful. Until then,
>I'd be very cautious.
>

--

[David Greene]

Iwould guess that you're right, Cris, that Curfman's "MrkGn" is G. B.
Merrick's genealogy. Certainly the other works you list would not
provide evidence about William Merrick's origin.

Jacobus in Ashley-Genealogy, p. 36, includes, as the 6th child of William
and Rebecca (Tracy) Merrick, "Sarah, b. [Eastham] 1 Aug. 1654; d. 21 Apr.
1696; m. at Eastham, 18 Dec. 1672, John (3) Freeman, b. at Eastham, Dec.
1651, d. there 10 Dec. 1717. (The full bibliographical information on this
work is: N. Grier Parke II, comp., _The Ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley & His Wife
Emma Arabella Bosworth_, edited by [and largely written by] Donald Lines
Jacobus [Woodstock, Vt.: the Compiler, 1960].

Sarah is also included as a daughter of William and Rebecca (Tracy) Merrick
in Mary Walton Ferris's excellent _Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines_, vol. 2
(1931): 585.

I'll see whether I have Curfman's address. If I do, I'll send it privately--
unless someone else has already let you know about Curfman's extancy!

DAVID

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