Richard SEARS

  General Notes:

Father: John Bouchier SEARS b: 1561 in Amsterdam,North Holland,Holland
Mother: Marie L. VAN EGMOND b: ABT 1564 in of Amsterdam,North Holland,Netherlands

CHILDREN-DEATH-BIOGRAPHY:
GENEALOGICAL AND FAMILY HISTORY of SOUTHERN NEW YORK and the HUDSON RIVER VALLEY, Vol II;1640-1913; Lewis Historical Publishing
Co, 1913; pp 507-510; Brewster, NY Public Library; The several attempts of genealogists to trace the pre-American ancestry of the Sears immigrant have met with many discouraging obstacles and few satisfactory results; while it seems to be pretty well established that the family is one of great antiquity there has always existed a doubt regarding its origin, and there are those who are disposed to place it among the old Holland families and bring forth Dutch intermarriages in support of their reasoning. In these annals no attempt is made to investigate the subject of the origin of the family of the Sears immigrant, for it is not known when or where he was born, and nothing of his parentage, although there are various traditions and vague conclusions regarding his forbears. The family in America is fully strong enough in every material respect to stand forever without the warrant of distinguished pre-American lineage. But in regard to the apparent lack of
earlier data the Sears family is only one in the long list of our best colonial families whose history back of the immigrant is unkown, and the absence of definite knowledge of his ancestors is not to be taken as evidence of doubtful or obscure origin, for the simple truth is that it has been found impossible to trace his lineage in the mother country. (I)
Richard Sears appears in our New England colonial history with the mention of his name in the records of the Plymouth colony tax list in 1633, when he was one of fourty-four persons there assessed nine shillings in corn at six shillings per bushel. From Plymouth he soon crossed over to Marblehead, MA, and was taxed there, as shown by the Salem list, in 1637-38. He also had a grant of four acres of land "where he had formerly planted," from which it appears that he may have been in that plantation at some previous time. In 1639 he joined the colonists under Anthony Thacher and went to Cape Cod and founded the town ofYarmouth. His first house was built on Quivet Neck, and afterwards he built another house a short distance to the northwest of his first house there. In 1643 the name of Richard Sears appears in the list of
inhabitants of Yarmouth "liable to bear arms." He was made freeman in 1652, grand juror in 1652, took the oath of allegiance and fidelity in 1653, was constable in 1660, and representative to the court in Plymouth in 1662. In 1664 Richard Sears, husbandman, purchased for twenty pounds from Allis, widow of Governor William Bradford, a tract
of land at Sesuit. He died in August, 1676, and was buried March 19, 1678-79; but it is not certain that she was his only wife, or the mother of all or even any of his children. Indeed, there is a presumption that he was previously married and that his children may have been born of his former wife.

Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33:
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1633
FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
REMOVES: Marblehead by 1637, Yarmouth by 1639
OCCUPATION: Husbandman.
FREEMAN: Oath of fidelity at Yarmouth, 1639. Propounded for freemanship, 3 June 1652. Admitted a freeman, 7 June 1653. On the 1658 and 29 May 1670 lists of freemen from Yarmouth.
EDUCATION: His inventory included "1 Great Bible and other books" valued at £1 3s.
OFFICES: Deputy (from Yarmouth), 3 June 1662. Grand jury, 7 June 1652. Tax collector, 1 March 1658/9. Yarmouth constable, 6 June 1660.
In Yarmouth section of 1643 Plymouth Colony list of men able to bear arms.
ESTATE: Assessed 9s. in Plymouth tax list of 25 March 1633; omitted from list of 27 March 1634.
On 1 January 1637/8 "Richard Seeres" was included in a Salem rate list for the "inhabitants of Marblehead". On 14 November 1638 "Rich[ard] Sears" was granted four acres at Marblehead "where he had planted formerly".
On 23 November 1664 "Allis Bradford the widow of William Bradford" sold to "Richard Sares" of Yarmouth, husbandman, two tracts of twenty acres each "at a place commonly called ... Sasuet," one of which had been the lot of William Bradford deceased and the other of which had been the lot of Experience Mitchell.
In his will, dated 10 May 1667, with a codicil dated 3 February 1675/6, and proved 5 March 1675/6, "Richard Sares of Yarmouth" bequeathed to "Sylas Sares my younger son ... all my land, that is all the upland upon the Neck where his house stands in which he now dwells ... after mine and my wife's decease," provided that "my son-in-law Zachery Paddock" shall have the house where he dwells and two acres within the above tract "during the life of Deborah his now wife"; also to "the said Sylas Sares" a tract of meadow and half of "my land called Robins as is undivided"; to "my elder son Paule Sares all the rest and remains of my lands whatsoever"; to "Dorothy my wife" all lands and goods during her natural life, she to be sole executrix, and "do entreat my brother Thacher with his two sons as friends in trust" as overseers; to "my son-in-law Zachery Paddock" two acres from land called Robins before it is divided between Silas and Paul Sears, and this two acres, along with the two acres mentioned above, to go to Ichabod Paddock, son of Zachary, at the death of Zachary's wife; witnessed by Anthony Thacher and Anthony Frey; in the codicil, dated 3 February 1675/6, Richard Sears bequeathed to "my eldest son Paul Sares ... the house which I now live in" and various moveables; witnessed by John Thacher and Judah Thacher; on 5 March 1675/6 deposed that he and his brother witnessed the codicil, and that when "my uncle signed this appendix," he asked him [John Thacher] to redraw the will and "to leave out of the new draft the legacy of land that is given to Ichabod Paddock, for saith he I have answered it in another way," but Thacher never did produce this new draft.
The inventory of the estate of "Richard Sares," taken 8 October 1676 and presented at court on 15 November 1676 by "Dorethy Sares the relict of Richard Sares and Paul Sares his eldest son," was untotalled and included "his house and lands," valued at £220.
BIRTH: About 1595 based on age at death.
DEATH: Yarmouth 5 September [1676] "age 81y 4m".
MARRIAGE: By 1637 Dorothy Jones. She was born about 1603, daughter of George and Agnes (_____) Jones of Dinder, Somerset. "Cady [i.e., Goody] Seares was buried the 19th of March [16]78[/9]" at Yarmouth.
CHILDREN:
i PAUL, b. about 1637 (d. Yarmouth 20 February 1707/8 in 70th year [gravestone]); m. by 1659 Deborah (eldest child aged thirteen on 3 July 1672, said to be daughter of George Willard.
ii DEBORAH, b. about 1639 (d. Yarmouth 17 August 1732 "within about one month of 93 years of age"); m. by 1661 Zachariah Paddock (eldest child aged seventeen on 2 February 1678).
iii SILAS, b. say 1641; m. by about 1665 Anna, probably daughter of James Bursell of Yarmouth.
ASSOCIATIONS: Dorothy (Jones) Sears, wife of Richard, was sister of Richard Jones of Dorchester and of Elizabeth (Jones) Thacher, wife of Anthony Thacher of Yarmouth.
COMMENTS: Although the earliest record of Richard Sears in Marblehead is in 1637, he may have moved there as early as 1634, since he is in the 1633 Plymouth tax list, but not in the list of 1634.
On 2 October 1650, with a large number of other men, "Richard Seares" brought an action against William Nickerson for slander.

Richard married Dorothy JONES in 1538 in Duxbury, Plymouth Co, MA. (Dorothy JONES was born in 1603 in Dinder, Somerset, England and died on 19 Mar 1678 in Yarmouth, Barnstable Co, MA.)