♂Thomas Borden

Thomas Borden (about 1533 – 1592) was a yeoman of Headcorn, in Kent, England, and the grandfather of Richard Borden (1595–1671), who left Headcorn for New England and settled at Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Thomas was the eleventh great-grandfather of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Matthew Borden (1563–1620).

Life

Thomas was probably born about 1533, the son of William Borden and his wife Joan. He and his first wife, whose name is not known, had four children in the 1560s: Thomas, Matthew, Joan and Agnes. Matthew was christened in the nearby parish of Frittenden about 1563. Thomas’s first wife was buried at Headcorn on 20 May 1581.

He is said to have married again at Headcorn on 2 May 1584; his second wife, Margaret, was the widow of a man named Reader. Thomas made his will on 13 April 1587 as a yeoman of Headcorn, and he was buried there on 21 April 1592.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through his 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 Thomas.

Notes

Sources

Thomas’s life rests on G. Andrews Moriarty’s pedigree “The Bordens of Headcorn, Co. Kent”, in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register 84 (1930), which gives his will of 13 April 1587, made as a yeoman of Headcorn, and, on page 227, his burial and that of his first wife. His birth about 1533 is an estimate. The second marriage, to Margaret, the widow Reader, at Headcorn on 2 May 1584, has no marriage record behind it and is given here as probable.

The burial of 1592

A FamilySearch index of Headcorn burials has an entry on 21 April 1592, the date Moriarty gives for Thomas’s burial, under the name “Elner Borden”. The date is kept here as Thomas’s burial, as Moriarty prints it.