♂John Hayden

John Hayden (died by 1682) was a settler of Braintree, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, where the town records enter four of his children born between 1640 and 1648. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son John Hayden (died 1718).

Life

John Hayden is said to have been living at Dorchester by 1632, and to have been made a freeman^W of the colony in 1634, which gave him a vote in its affairs. He and his wife Susanna probably married about 1634. By 1640 the family had moved to Braintree, where the town records enter the births of Jonathan in 1640, Hannah in 1642, Ebenezer in 1645 and Nehemiah in February 1647/8, each a child of “John Hoidon and Susanna his wiffe”.

Their children were John, Joseph, Samuel, Jonathan, Hannah, Ebenezer and Nehemiah. The eldest, John, is most likely the John Hayden who married Hannah Ames at Braintree on 6 April 1660. Their son Joseph is said to have been mentally ill, and the colony helped to support him.

Death

John Hayden is said to have made his will on 31 October 1678. It named his wife Susanna and his sons John, Joseph, Ebenezer and Nehemiah, and the children of his son Samuel and of his daughter Hannah, who had most likely died before him. He died by February 1681/2, and his will was proved at Boston on 26 July 1682.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son John Hayden and John’s daughter Hannah Hayden, who married Nathaniel Thayer at Braintree on 27 May 1679, and through Hannah’s son Hezekiah Thayer, whose son Noah Thayer (born 1745) was the father of Mary Thayer (1770–1827). Two of Mary’s grandchildren, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), married each other, so their son Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908) descended from John Hayden through both parents.

Notes

Which John Hayden

Two John Haydens lived at Braintree, father and son. A compiled study of the early New England settlers gives the elder John’s eldest child as a son John, who married Hannah Ames at Braintree on 6 April 1660 and died there in 1718; no record names that son’s parents. A compiled index of early New England marriages agrees on the two men and dates the elder John’s marriage to about 1634. The same study is the source for his years at Dorchester, his admission as a freeman in 1634, and his son Joseph’s illness and the colony’s help.

His will

The date of the will, the names in it, his death by February 1681/2 and the probate date of 26 July 1682 all come from the study’s abstract of the Suffolk County probate record. His son Jonathan, born in 1640, is not named in it.

The Braintree births

The town clerk wrote the dates with numbered months, the year then beginning in March. Nehemiah’s, “(14) (12) 1647”, is 14 February 1647/8, which is why he is given as born in 1648.