♀Margaret James

Margaret James was a yeoman’s daughter of Hingham, in Norfolk, England, who married Edward Gilman and whose son Edward took the family to New England in 1638. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by five separate lines of descent, through her son Edward Gilman (1587–1655).

Family

Margaret was a daughter of Robert James, a yeoman of Hingham, and was probably born about 1561. Her brothers were Henry, Samuel, Leonard and John James. She married Edward Gilman, a yeoman’s son from Caston, about five miles from Hingham, probably about 1581, and the couple made their home at Hingham. Seven children of Edward and Margaret are known: Bridget, Edward, Robert, Mary, John, Margaret and Sarah, the last two baptized at Hingham on 1 August 1602 and 4 December 1608.

When Robert James made his will on 6 March 1601/2, he called Edward Gilman his son-in-law, apparently forgave debts Edward owed him, and left 20 shillings to his “bellchilde”, or grandchild, Bridget Lincoln, the wife of Edward Lincoln. He was buried at Hingham on 11 January 1602/3.

Her brother’s estate

In January 1608/9, after the death of her brother Leonard James, administration of his estate was granted to his brothers Henry and Samuel James, to Edward Gilman as the husband of his sister Margaret, written “Margaret Gylman als James”, and to Robert Jenepy, Leonard’s brother-in-law, while Leonard’s children were under age.

Death

Edward was perhaps the Edward Gillman buried at Caston on 15 May 1621, and Margaret perhaps the Gilman widow, her given name left blank, buried at Hingham in 1639.

Lines of descent

Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) descends from Edward Gilman and Margaret James by five separate lines of descent, all on her father’s side, through Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975). Every line runs through their son Edward Gilman (1587–1655). The nearest is eleven generations up, and four others are twelve generations up. The lines come together again in Elizabeth Gilman (1727–1806), whose parents Caleb Gilman (1678–1766) and Susanna Folsom both descended from them; in her son Nathaniel Dudley (1763–1844), whose parents Elizabeth Gilman and John Dudley (1725–1805) both descended from them; and in Nathaniel’s daughter Sarah Dudley (1795–1839), whose parents Nathaniel and Anna Smith (1764–1825) both descended from them.

Notes

Her name

Her name comes from the administration of her brother Leonard’s estate in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk act book, which names “Edwardo Gylman marito Margaret Gylman als James”, Edward Gilman the husband of Margaret Gilman alias James, sister of the deceased. Together with her father’s will naming his son-in-law Edward Gilman, it identifies her as the wife of Edward Gilman of Hingham, as set out by Robert Battle in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (2023). Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Abel Lunt (1963), knew no name for Edward’s wife. A Hawes wife sometimes given to Edward belongs to his son Robert, who married Rose Hawes in 1611.

Dates and the James family

Her birth “about 1561” and the marriage “about 1581” are Battle’s estimates. Her father’s will, his burial and her brothers follow Battle’s abstracts of the Hingham register and the Norfolk probate records; he found Robert James’s own origin “a mystery”. The administration act is headed the fourteenth day; Battle gives 18 January 1608/9. It calls the widow Margaret, but her name was Sarah. The murder, the curate’s hanging and Sarah’s burning follow Battle, who cites the account printed in 1609 and Francis Blomefield’s history of Norfolk; a later conveyance calls her “attainted of petty treason of death of said Leonard”.

Burials

Davis and Battle both offer the Caston burial of 1621 and the Hingham widow’s burial of 1639 as possibilities only. Davis dates the widow’s burial 28 November 1639; Battle gives 13 December 1639.