♂Matthew Borden

Matthew Borden (about 1563 – 1620) was a yeoman of Headcorn, in Kent, England, and the father of Richard Borden, who crossed to New England and was among the first planters of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1638. Matthew was the tenth great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Richard Borden (1595–1671).

Early life and first marriage

Matthew was the son of Thomas Borden, a yeoman of Headcorn, and was christened at Frittenden on 30 September, probably in 1563. His mother, whose name is not known, was buried at Headcorn on 20 May 1581.

In February 1584, when he was a husbandman of Headcorn, Matthew married Eleanor Taylor, a widow of the nearby parish of Biddenden, under a Canterbury marriage licence dated 21 February. Matthew’s daughter, Marie, was christened at Biddenden in 1585. His son Thomas, probably by Eleanor, was christened there on 1 September 1588, and was buried at Headcorn on 6 November 1611, at twenty-three. Eleanor was buried at Biddenden on 22 February 1591/2, entered as “Ellen the wife of Mathew Borden”.

Second marriage

Matthew Borden and Joan Glover married at Smarden, in Kent, on 10 July 1592; a study of the Smarden church records published in 2023 gives the same year, which fits the will her father made in April 1593, where she is already “Joane Borden my daughter”. Joan was the daughter of John Glover, a mercer^W of Smarden.

The couple had eight children between 1593 and 1607. The first, Joan, was christened at Headcorn on 29 April 1593 and buried there six weeks later, and the eldest son, John, christened in 1594, also died young. Richard, the future settler of Portsmouth, was christened at Headcorn on 22 February 1595/6, and Mary, William, Amy, Edward and a second John followed between about 1598 and 1607.

Headcorn

Matthew held lands in Headcorn, Smarden and Bletchenden, was taxed in 1597–98, and served as a churchwarden in 1598. By the end of his life he was styled a yeoman, a rank above the husbandman he had been at his first marriage.

He made his will on 26 September 1620, when Joan was still living, and was buried at Headcorn on 4 October 1620. His youngest son, John, inherited land in Smarden.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his son Richard Borden (1595–1671) and Richard’s daughter Mary Borden, who married John Cook. 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 Matthew.

Notes

Sources

Matthew’s life is drawn from G. Andrews Moriarty’s pedigree “The Bordens of Headcorn, Co. Kent”, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register 84 (1930), built from the Kent parish registers, wills, marriage licences and tax lists, and from Clifford L. Stott’s “Joan Glover, Mother of Richard Borden of Headcorn, Kent and Portsmouth, Rhode Island”, in the same journal, 177 (2023): 155–157. Moriarty prints Matthew’s christening at Frittenden on 30 September with the year blank and supplies “about 1563”; he gives the lands, the tax of 1597–98, the churchwardenship, the will of 26 September 1620 and the burial of 4 October 1620. Stott adds that the licence of 21 February 1584 calls Matthew a husbandman of Headcorn and Eleanor a widow of Biddenden, and that her burial is in the archdeacon’s transcripts of Biddenden. The marriage entry itself is not known; the date given here for the first marriage is the date of the licence. Marie’s christening at Biddenden in 1585 comes from a FamilySearch index of English christenings, which names Matthew as her father; Moriarty does not list her. Moriarty gives Thomas as probably the son of the first wife, who was Eleanor.

The date of the second marriage

A FamilySearch index of English marriages gives “Mathew Borden” and “Joane Glouer” at Smarden on 10 July 1593; the date followed here is 10 July 1592. Stott, working from the archdeacon’s transcripts of Smarden (the parish has no surviving register before 1632), gives 10 July 1592 in his text; his summary prints 10 July 1595, which cannot be right, since their son John was christened in 1594. The year 1592 is the one the other records support: Eleanor was buried in February 1591/2, the infant Joan was christened as Matthew’s daughter in April 1593, and Joan’s father’s will of 14 April 1593 already calls her Joane Borden. The February years are Old Style^W, when the year began on 25 March.