♂Andrew Spaulding

Andrew Spaulding (19 November 1653 – 5 May 1713) was a yeoman and a deacon of the church at Chelmsford, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He was the seventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Andrew Spaulding (1678–1753).

Life

Andrew was born on 19 November 1653. A Spalding family genealogy published in 1897 gives the day and month but the year 1652, and names him as the youngest child of Edward Spalding and his wife Rachel. It says that he succeeded to the family estate under his father’s will. That parentage rests on the genealogy alone. The same genealogy says that he was chosen deacon of the church and held the office until his death. The Chelmsford death records call him “Dea.” when they enter his death on 5 May 1713. He was buried in Forefather’s Cemetery at Chelmsford, where his gravestone gives his age as 59 years and 5 months, exactly his age from 19 November 1653.

Marriage and family

On 30 April 1674 Andrew Spaulding married Hannah Jefts at Chelmsford; the town’s marriage records write her name Hanah Jefes and call her the daughter of Henry, of Billerica. The Chelmsford records name nine children of Andrew and Hannah: a daughter Hannah, who died in March 1677, then Andrew, born on 25 March 1678, Henry, John, Rachel, William, Joanna, Benoni and Mary, who died in July 1698 before her third birthday. The 1897 genealogy gives Rachel’s marriage to Samuel Butterfield on 7 December 1703 and Joanna’s to Josiah Fletcher. Hannah outlived her husband by almost seventeen years and died on 21 January 1729/30.

Will

The 1897 genealogy prints his will, dated 6 June 1712, in which he described himself as Andrew Spalding senior, of Chelmsford, yeoman. He left his wife Hannah his homestead, housing and land, with a four-acre right in the commons, four lots of land outside the Neck field and all his movable estate. The housing and lands were hers to use for her lifetime, and after her death they were to be divided equally among all his children, sons and daughters. His sons, the will explains, had already received their portions “by Deeds of gift” from him. To his daughter Rachel Butterfield he left thirteen acres of upland in the New field, with shares of a lot at Sunkawasset and of the Spruce Swamp. To his daughter Joanna Spaulding he left two cows, a feather bed, the rest of his land in the Neck and seventeen pounds, to be paid to her at her marriage. The two daughters also shared a sixth part of a tract of land in Billerica. He named his wife his “whole and sole executrix” and signed the will with his mark.