William CHASE

  General Notes:

Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33:
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Roxbury
REMOVES: Yarmouth 1638
OCCUPATION: Housewright. (On 25 November 1639 Thomas Starr of Duxbury sold to Andrew Hellot of Plymouth a house and land in Yarmouth, and as part of the agreement stated that "The frame of the said house is to be made & set up with a chimney and to be thatched, studded and lathed (daubing excepted) by Will[ia]m Chase"
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admitted to Roxbury church as member #13: "William Chase, he came with the first company, 1630. He brought one child his son William, a child of ill qualities, & a sore affliction to his parents. He was much afflicted by the long and tedious affliction of his wife; after his wife's recovery she bare him a daughter, which they named Mary, borne about the middle of the 3rd month 1637. He did after that remove (intending) to Situate, but after went with a company who made a new plantation at Yarmouth".
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 14 May 1634]. Oath of fidelity in Yarmouth lists of 1639 and 1657.
EDUCATION: Signed his will by mark.
OFFICES: Yarmouth constable, 5 March 1638/9, 4 June 1639. Yarmouth surveyor of highways, 3 June 1657. In Yarmouth section of 1643 Plymouth list of men able to bear arms .
ESTATE: On 8 June 1642, William Chase, in consideration of a debt of £5 which he owed to Mr. Stephen Hopkins, mortgaged to Hopkins "all that his house and lands in Yarmouth containing eight acres of upland and six acres more lying at the Stony Cove".
As part of the settlement of disputes over Yarmouth land, made on 14 May 1648, it was ordered that "Mr. Hawes shall enjoy 8 acres of upland or thereabouts, in the West Field, which he bought of Goodman Chase" and "there was granted also to John Darby to have six acres of meadow in the Easteren Swan Pond Meadowe, in lieu of 4 acres due to William Chase, for a debt the town owed him" .
In his will, dated 4 May 1659 and proved 13 May 1659, "William Chase of Yarmouth the elder, being aged," bequeathed to son Benjamin one heifer calf and two steer calves; to son William "who hath had of me already a good portion, the sum of five shillings ... if he demand it"; and the residue to wife Mary, including "this my dwelling house, the land and all appurtenances thereunto belonging, as also half of my lot of land at the Bass Pond which I bought of William Palmer" and "my orchard and land I bought of Goodman White," and at her death she to have one third at her dispose and the other two parts to son Benjamin .
On 6 October 1659 Plymouth court ordered Robert Dennis "according to the last will and testament of Will[i]am Chase deceased" to "make division of his estate according to the tenure thereof, viz: to Benjamin Chase, son of the said William Chase, two parts of three thereof, and the other remaining third part to Will[i]am Chase, Junior, the eldest son of the said Will[i]am Chase, deceased".
The inventory of the estate of William Chase was taken 14 September 1659 and contained only moveables; the inventory was not footed.
BIRTH: By about 1595 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Yarmouth between 4 May 1659 (date of will) and 13 May 1659 (probate of will).
MARRIAGE: By about 1620 Mary _____; she was admitted to Roxbury church as member #29: "Mary Chase, the wife of William Chase. She had a paralytic humor which fell into her backbone, so that she could not stir her body, but as she was lifted, and filled her with great torture, & caused her backbone to go out of joint, & bunch out from the beginning to the end of which infirmity she lay 4 years & a half, & a great part of the time a sad spectacle of misery. But it pleased God to raise her again, & she bore children after it".
In October 1659 a coroner's jury "having made search and inquiry, according to our best light and understanding, into the cause of the death of Mary Chase, viz: of our town of Yarmouth, do with joint consent present, the day and year abovesaid, that we can find no other but that she died a natural death through inward sickness, as is evident to all men naturally".
CHILDREN:
i WILLIAM, b. say 1620; m. (1) by about 1645 _____ _____; m. (2) by about 1672 _____ _____. (See COMMENTS below.)
ii MARY, b. Roxbury about 15 May 1637; bur. Barnstable 28 October 1652 ("Mary daughter of Goodman Chase the elder").
iii BENJAMIN, bp. Roxbury 18 April 1652; m. by about 1674 Phillipa Sherman, daughter of PHILIP SHERMAN . (Savage and others claim that this Benjamin was born about 1640, which is certainly possible. If we are correct in placing the birth of William as early as 1620, it is not likely that a younger full brother could have been born much later than 1645.)
ASSOCIATIONS: Late in his life William Chase was frequently associated with Robert Dennis and his wife Mary. On 3 October 1654 Robert Dennis acted "in the behalf of William Chase" in settling a debt . Mary Dennis witnessed the will of William Chase, Robert Dennis was one of the appraisers of the estate, and Robert Dennis was ordered to divide the estate. This is merely suggestive, and may only reflect a friendship developed after having resided for several years in Yarmouth.
COMMENTS: Banks derives this William Chase from Wivenhoe, Essex, citing only "Banks Mss."; this is certainly the right area for an early Roxbury resident, but it should not be accepted without further research.
William Chase's appearance as constable of Yarmouth on 5 March 1638/9 implies that he had settled there in 1638 as one of the earliest inhabitants. Eliot's use of the word "intending" to describe the move to Scituate suggests that he was joining with Reverend John Lothrop and his party, who were at that same time making the move to Barnstable, as further evidenced by the burial of his daughter Mary at Barnstable, entered in Lothrop's records.
On 7 October 1639 "Edward Morrell, being sworn, deposeth & sayeth, that Wm. Chase (at his return home from the court when Mr. Mathewes & he were here together) did report that Mr. Mathewes had nothing to say for himself, & that he marvelled how any durst join with him in the fast, & further said that some being then in presence with the magistrates, did hold up his hand, & cried, Fye fye! for shame!". On 1 September 1640 "William Chase, of Yarmouth, is censured (for his miscarriages against Mr. Mathewes, and disturbance of the proceedings of the church, court, & country), to find sureties for his good behavior during the time of his abode there, which is six months, and then to depart the place." "Will[ia]m Chase, of Yarmouth, planter" posted bond of £40, and his sureties were Thomas Starr of Yarmouth, chirurgeon, and Andrew Hellott of Plymouth, gentleman; the bond was renewed, at £20, on 2 March 1640/1
On 2 June 1640 "Nicholas Sympkins, Peter Worden, and Will[ia]m Chase are granted a warrant to attach and divide the goods of one Phillips Woodall, left in the said Nicholas Sympkins hands, who is departed the government some time since, being severally indebted to them & others, and to make satisfaction so far as the said goods will extend, to themselves and others". On 17 June 1641 the "differences betwixt Nicholas Sympkins & Will[ia]m Chase, by consent of both parties, are referred to the arbitrament of Mr. Mayo and Mr. Thom[as] Dimmack, and have entered into an assumpsit of £5 to each other to abide their award; & it's to be ended within a month next coming" . At the same court an adjustment was made to the lands of William Chase, Nicholas Sympkins and Mr. Anthony Thacher, as a result of a fence erected by Sympkins which encroached on land of Chase
On 6 June 1654 the grand jury presented "Will[i]am Chase, Seni[or], of Yarmouth, for driving one pair of oxen in the yoke upon the Lord's day, in time of exercise, about five miles" .
All of the dates for the son William Chase are rough estimates and largely unsupported by contemporary evidence. This William's apparent eldest child, another William, was married by the early 1670s, and would therefore have been born about 1645, which roughly dates the first marriage of William Chase, the son of the immigrant, and also suggests a year of birth for the son of the immigrant. In his article of 1933 John Carroll Chase stated that "it has been claimed that the four youngest children of William Chase were born of his second wife," but no evidence other than this is offerred . The evidence for the list of children for this William is itself slim, and so all dates for this William are subject to alteration.

William married Mary TOWNLEY, daughter of John TOWNLEY and Mary UNKNOWN. (Mary TOWNLEY was born on 5 Mar 1603 in Norfolk, England and died on 6 Oct 1659 in Yarmouth, MA.)