♀Joan (surname unknown)

Joan (living in 1560) was a woman of Headcorn, in Kent, England, who married William Borden (1510–1557), and the great-grandmother of Richard Borden (1595–1671), who left Headcorn for New England and settled at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. She was the twelfth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son Thomas Borden (1533–1592).

Life

Joan’s surname and parents are not known. William and Joan had eight children, born between about 1533 and 1548: Thomas, Edward, John, Stephen, Elizabeth, Thamasine, Ann and Edmund.

William died before 8 June 1557, the day his undated will is said to have been proved. Joan outlived him and is reported to have been still living on 28 January 1559/60.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son Thomas Borden (1533–1592), Thomas’s son Matthew Borden (1563–1620), Matthew’s son Richard Borden (1595–1671) and Richard’s daughter Mary Borden. They divide in later generations and meet again in Salena Sherman (1806–1842), whose parents Waite Allen (1766–1850) and Batchelder Sherman (1761–1828) both descend from Joan.

Notes

Sources

Joan is known from G. Andrews Moriarty’s pedigree “The Bordens of Headcorn, Co. Kent”, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register 84 (1930), which on page 226 names her as William’s wife and as living on 28 January 1559/60. Her children are known from the same work; their birth years are estimates. The marriage, about 1530–35, came before English parishes began keeping registers in 1538, so no marriage entry survives to give her surname. The January year is Old Style^W, when the year began on 25 March.

After William’s death

An index of English marriages has a “Jone Borden” marrying Henrie Vaughan at Staplehurst, near Headcorn, on 16 June 1561. None of William’s eight children was named Joan, so the bride may be his widow, but nothing ties the entry to her. Two Headcorn burials, of “Johane Borden” on 25 March 1583 and “Johanna Borden” on 5 February 1590, are likewise not identified with her. A Find a Grave memorial gives her death as 28 January 1560; that is the date on which she was last named as living, not a date of death.