Richard Willard 1568-1516

Major SIMON Willard

Richard Willard

Parents
SIMON Willard 1530 – 1584
ELIZABETH Waterman 1532 – 1587

Birth 10 Mar1560
Horsmonden, Kent, , England

Marriage to Catherine Durkin 3 Dec 1590
Age: 30
Cuxton, Kent, England

Marriage to MARGERY Humphrie
23 Sep 1601
Age: 41
Horsmonden, Kent, England

Marriage to Joan Morebread
17 Jan 1608
Age: 47
Horsemonden, Kent, England

Death
2 Mar 1616
Age: 55
Horsemonden, Kent, England

Spouse I & Children
Catherine Durkin 1572 – 1598

Mary Willard 1590 –
Richard Willard 1591 – 1596
Thomas Willard 1593 – 1608
Elizabeth Willard 1594 – 1616
Richard Willard 1596 – 1616

Spouse II & Children
MARGERY Humphrie 1572 – 1608

Margery Willard 1602 – 1655
SIMON Major Willard 1605 – 1676
Catherine Willard 1607 – 1650

Spouse III & Children
Joan Morebread 1589 – 1616

Edward Willard 1611 – 1612
John Willard 1612 – 1613
George Willard 1614 – 1656
Richard Willard 1615 –

Richard WILLARD was born on 10 Mar 1560 in Horsmonden, Brenchley, Kent. He died on 20 Feb 1616. Children:
George WILLARD b: BEF 4 DEC 1611 in Horsemonden, co. Kent, England
Mary WILLARD
*Margery WILLARD b: 6 NOV 1602 in Horsemonden, co. Kent, England
Elizabeth WILLARD
Major Simon WILLARD b: BEF 7 APR 1605 in Horsemonden, Co. Kent England
Catherine WILLARD b: 30 AUG 1607 in Horsemonden, Co. Kent England
Richard was married three times and had 12 children. One of those two children, by Richard's second wife Margery Humphrey, was the original Willard emigrant to America.
i. Simon: b: 1605 in Horsemondon.
ii. George: b: in Horesemonden. George emigrated to Massachusetts with his brother Simon and first lived in Cambridge. He later removed to Scituate where he was a planter. His wife's name is unknown but he had three children.
Richard's will tells us something about what was considered to be valuable personal property during his time, and provides insight into why his son Simon may have emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Richard's will was written on 12 February 1616. In it he bequeathed to "Joan ( also known as Jean Morebread) my (third) wife six pewter porringers six pewter saussers one pewter basson one pewter plattr. ij pewter candlesticks one doubell salte sellar j pewter pote ij pewter cuppes Xij pewter sponnes..."
He had two sons who emigrated to America, Simon, the Stephen ancestor, and George. George received six silver spoons and a silver and gilt cup to be delivered to him after his mother's death. To 10 year old "Symon" he left all the rest of his houses, outbuildings and lands not bequeathed to his stepmother, brothers, and sisters, and made provisions that he should receive them when he came of age. It also instructed that Symon be placed "with some honest man" where he could learn a good trade.
FYI -- The towns of Benchley, Goudhurst and Horsemonden adjoin and a man often held land in two or all three of the townships. The Town of Horsemonden is also spelled Horsmonden.
Richard WILLARD and Margaery HUMPHRIES were married on 23 Sep 1601.
from ancestry.com

Will of
Richard Willard, of Horsemonden, county Kent, yeoman, who made his will Feb.12,1616, which was proved before Edward Pape, vica general, March 8,1616. He bequeathed to the poor of Horsemonden, to his wife Joan, to h er son Francis Morebread; to his son George Willard six silver spoons and a sil ver and gilt cup, to be delivered to him after his mother's death: to his four daughters, Mary,Elizabeth,Margery and Catherine, his household stuff excepting that bequeather to his wife: to his son Richard Wyllard the income from certain lands: to his daughter Elizabeth a sum of money: to his kinsman Thomas Bolde s ome woodland: refers to his late brother Thomas Willards, his brothers-in-law J ohn Tyboull: to his daughters Margerie and Catherine a barn, close, gardens and orchard whi he bought of Wood: to his son Symon Willard all the rest of his me ssuages and lands when he shall come to age: directs that Symon be placed with some honest man where he may learn some good trand and be instructed: gave to s on Richard Willard land purchased of Evenden and Paynter: and in case of Symon' s death before reaching maturity, George was to have the land bequeath to him. John Tyboull was appointed executor and was to sell certain estate and apply the proceeds toward the payment of debts and "the virtuous bringing up of his children." from ancestry.com

THE WILLARD FAMILY MAJOR SIMON WILLARD came from Horsemonden, Kent, England, where the records of the family read as follows : "1610 24 Sept. Henry Sharpe and Jane Ffeylde were married. 1615 19 Sept. Jane Ffield Sharpe was buried. 1614 16 Oct. Mary Sharpe daughter of Henry christened." Richard Willard married [Life and Times of Major Simon Willard] Catherine, who died at Horsemonden, March 1597-8, buried March 11 . He married (2) Margery _____, who died Dec. 1608; buried Dec. 12 ; (3) Jan. 10, 1609-10 Widow Joan Morebread, who died Feb. 1616-17, was buried February 25, "1616-17. An' Dni Anno 3 Jacobi 1605 vijth day of April Simon Willarde sonne of Richarde Willarde was christenede. Edward Alchine, Rector. Richard Willard died Feb. 1616 ; buried Feb. 20. Will proved, March 14, 1616." Simon Willard and Margery Willard were children of the second wife, and Margery came with Simon to New England ; married Captain Dolar Davis. Margery Willard, born at Horsemonden, 1602 ; baptized 1602. George Willard, who accompanied them to New England, was a half-brother, son of the third marriage. The Willards came to New England, arriving May, 1634 ; settled in Cambridge. "In 1635, at the house of the Rev. Peter Bulkley, Mr. Simon Willard, Mr. John Jones, Mr. Spencer and others did purchase of squaw Sachem Tahaltaman a tract of land six miles square. That said Willard and others did pay for said land in wampumpeague, hatchets, hoes, knives, cotton cloth and shirts." [Barker's Hist., Collection 1839]. "Sept. 3, 1635 Upon some inquiry of the Indians who lived to the North West of the Bay, One Captaine Simon Willard, being acquainted with them by reason of his travel, became a chief instrument in erecting this town. "Wishing to be near Rev. Mr. Bulkeley, Simon Willard obtained from the Great and General Court a grant of six miles square at Musketaquid on condition he would settle twelve families there. He went there in 1635 and led a busy, active, vigorous, public life; became an extensive trader with the Indians. Clerk of the Writs, Surveyor of arms, Deputy, Military Commander, Commissioner, Judge of the County Court, Major, Sergeant Major, second only in office to the Sergeant Major, General Assistant. He was commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts Bay force, sent against the Niantics, a tribe of Narragansett Indians under the Sachem Nioriquet, whose chief seat was the corner of Rhode Island which bordered on Connecticut." [Henry Crane's Melton, Mass., pp. 24, 25]. Of the settlement of Concord, Ridpath says: [History of United States, Ridpath, p. 130] "One little company of twelve families led by Simon Willard and Peter Bulkeley, marched through the woods until they came to some open meadows sixteen miles from Boston, and there laid the foundations of Concord." In 1654, Simon Willard was made Assistant for Massachusetts Colony, which office he held to 1675. [Palfrey's New England, Vol. II, p. 389]. He sold his estate in Concord in 1659, and removed to Lancaster, where he was established in 1660, but about 1671 or 1672 Major Willard made another remove to a large farm at Womacricus near Ayer, Mass. His dwelling place there was the first burnt by the Indians, on March 13, 1676. On August 2, 1675, Major Simon Willard, who had been in command of a Middlesex County regiment for twenty years, at the head of forty-six dragoons, with Captain Parker of Groton, marched to the rescue of Brookfield, Mass.; where the Indians were massacring the inhabitants, thence to Hadley, Mass., and did not return to headquarters at Boston until the last of August. John Fiske [Beginnings of New England, Fiske, pp. 216, 217] gives the following account of the rescue : "That noon (August 5, 1675) the gallant Simon Willard, ancestor of two presidents of Harvard College, a man who had done so much toward building up Concord and Lancaster, that he was known as the `founder of towns' was on his way from Lancaster to Groton at the head of forty-seven horsemen, where he was overtaken by a courier with the news from Brookfield.The distance was thirty miles, the road scarcely fit to be called a bridle path, and Willard's years more than three score years and ten; but by an hour after sunset he had galloped into Brookfield and routed the Indians, who fled to a swamp ten miles distant." There were three hundred Indians led by "King" Philip himself. Major Palfrey says, in regard to his rescue : "The distance (30 miles) was great to be carried so quickly, from noon to nightfall, with poor roads, but Willard was at home in the saddle, notwithstanding his seventy years, and he came in time to save his friends another night of sleepless misery. God who comforted the holy apostle Paul by the coming of Titus unto him, so he greatly comforted his distressed servants, both soldiers and town inhabitants, by the coming of the said honored major and those with him." [Palfrey's History of New England, Vol. II, pp. 135, 136]. "February 1676, despite his advanced age, Willard raised a force of troopers and dragoons and was actively engaged in securing and protecting the defenseless frontier towns, until, while at Charlestown, Mass. he took the prevailing epidemic cold, of which disease he died, April 24, 1676, in his seventy-second year. [Dr. Talcott's MSS Records]. Simon Willard married first Mary Sharpe, daughter of Henry and Jane Ffeylde Sharpe, christened at Horsemonden, Oct. 16, 1614. After her death he married Elizabeth Dunster, sister of President Dunster of Harvard College ; she soon died and he married for his third wife, Mary Dunster, a near relative of his second wife. Had eighteen children. CHILDREN SIMEON, b. 1639. SAMUEL, b. June 30, 1640; d. Sept. 12, 1707. JOSIAH, of Wethersfield; m. Hannah Hosmer; d. 1674. DANIEL, b.1650, of Boston. JOHN, b. 1651, of Concord. SARAH, b. July 25, 1652; m. Nathaniel Hawes. JOSEPH, b. 1660; went to England. HENRY, b. 1665 ; m. Mary Larken. JONATHAN, b. 1669; of Sudbury. ELIZABETH, d. y. ELIZABETH, m. Robert Blood. MARY, m. Cyprian Stevens. INFANT, d. y. HANNAH, m. ____ Brentide. MERCY, m. Joshua Edwards. ABRAHAM, d. s. DOROTHY, d. s. BENJAMIN, of Grafton. SECOND GENERATION . Rev. Samuel Willard, born June 30, 1640, settled in Groton and Boston. "The pastor of the `Old South' Meeting-House in 1687 was Rev. Samuel Willard, son of the gallant veteran who had rescued the beleaguered people of Brookfield in King Philip's War. Amusing passages occurred between him and Sir Edmund Andross, in regard to the use of the `Old South.' When Sir Edmund Andross was forced to surrender, he appealed to Mr. Willard and other ministers to intercede for him, but the ministers refused." [Beginnings of New England, John Fiske, pp. 269, 272]. "Lancaster may be said to have established a free public library in 1731, when its people, assembled in townmeeting, voted that Rev. Samuel Willard's Complete Book of Divinity should be bought and kept in the meeting house for the town's use, so that any person may come and read therein as often as they shall see cause." [Free Public Libraries of Mass., Report of 1899, p. 179]. Rev. Samuel Willard had seventeen children. Josiah Willard, son of Major Simon Willard, settled in Wethersfield ; he married Hannah Hosmer, daughter of Thomas Hosmer, March 20, 1657. CHILDREN SAMUEL, b. Sept. 19, 1658; set. in Saybrook. JOSIAH, b. March 13, 1660. SIMEON, set. in Wethersfield. STEPHEN, d. s. THOMAS, set. in Guilford. JOHN, d. s. DOROTHY. HANNAH, b. 1674 ; m. May 18, 1698, Janna Meigs ; d. Jan. 4, 1750. THIRD GENERATION Hannah Willard, daughter of Josiah and Hannah Hosmer Willard, born in 1674 ; married May 18, 1698, Janna Meigs ; died January 4, 1750. (See Meigs family.)

from ancestry.com