Francis and Thomas Kendall in New England

When did Francis and Thomas Kendall come to New England?

Francis Kendall came to Massachusetts during the Great Migration which covers the years 1620-1640. His first documented appearance in America is the orders for the town of Woburn, which was originally named Charlestown Village since the early founders came from Charlestown.[1] That record shows Francis was in Massachusetts by mid-May 1640.

The first documented appearance of his brother, Thomas, was in February 1642/3 in Reading (originally called Lynn Village).[2] That year, the birth of his eldest known child, Elizebeth (spelling preserved), was entered into the town vital records with a date of 17 Feb 1642. The transcribers for the early Reading vital records recorded dates exactly or used the double dating system, so this date was preserved as originally entered and should be considered 17 Feb 1642/43.

While it’s possible the brothers came different months or years, a more likely scenario is that they traveled together as many early immigrants did with friends or family. Both may have settled in Charlestown, as family histories theorize, and moved out to Woburn and Reading as lands became available, or Thomas may have moved to Reading from Lynn.[3]

Records in Charlestown?

To date, no record for either brother has been found in Charlestown or Lynn, though one may eventually surface which could help pin down their arrival date(s). Many family and local histories indicate both brothers were important to the towns in which they resided, and each appears many times in their respective town records as well as county level records. However, they came as young men, and were unlikely to have received town positions of responsibility or to have purchased land immediately after arriving, so it is not surprising they left no trace of living in Charlestown.

Family, town and county histories

Despite the many Kendall family histories, and the Woburn, Reading, and Middlesex County histories which have been printed, not one pinpoints a specific origin for Thomas or Francis with an original record. Given the number of English immigrants who arrived between 1620 and 1640, the English language and customs of the early towns and villages, plus their use of English surnames and given names, it is impossible for Francis and Thomas to have come from any place other than England, so the question to be answered is exactly where in England did they reside prior to immigration?

Clues to origin in town and county records

The Great Migration Directory has no origin for either Kendall brother, though Francis was mistakenly given the location of Westmill, Hertfordshire. Robert Charles Anderson has since corrected this and explained Westmill was the origin of Francis Wyman of Woburn, a location accidentally assigned to Francis Kendall as well.

Some Kendall histories keep the brothers’ origin on a larger scale, stating only England, though others have listed Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Kent, and the ever-popular town of Kendal in Westmoreland (no proof of connection, specified only for the name match).[4] Although more sources could be listed to reiterate and possibly add to these locations, the fact is none of the histories cites an original source that names a parish or verifies a county of origin.

Francis and Thomas did, however, manage to leave some clues to their English origin.

• Francis used his full alias surname, Kendall als. Miles in the record of his marriage to Mary Tidd in Woburn on 24 Dec 1644.[5] The importance of this rare surname cannot be overstressed. Alias surnames were uncommon. No study to date has determined their frequency, but in parishes where they occur in the records, they usually represent a small fraction of the surnames. Many parishes have no example of an alias surname.[6]
• Francis has an age listed in seven colonial Middlesex County court records. In two he stated his age, in the others it was entered by a clerk either from a statement by Francis or a guess by the clerk. Those found so far are (in order):

1. 2 Apr 1662- “about 48” (born approx. 1614)[7]
2. 2 April 1671- “aged 50 years or [there] about” (born approx. 1621)[8]
3. 5 April 1671- “aged about 50 yers” (born approx. 1621)[9]
4. 18 Dec 1672- “aged 51 years or thereabouts” (born approx. 1621)[10]
5. 7 Oct 1679- “age about 62 or there about” (born about 1617)[11]
6. 25 Aug 1684 (first instance)- “aged about sixty five years” (born about 1619)[12]
7. 25 Aug 1684 (second instance)- “aged sixty five years (saith)” (born about 1619)[13]
8. 25 Aug 1684 (third instance)- “aged sixty five years (saith)” (born about 1619)[14]

Two of the 1684 records indicated Francis himself stated his age was sixty-five. Though there are variations in the records that calculate to the years 1614, 1621, 1617, and 1619, they are all within a period of seven years and were given when Francis was well into middle age. In a time when birthdays were usually not celebrated and the only truly important age was twenty-one (for marriage without parental permission, receiving a payable inheritance, and possibly other legalities), it is no surprise an aging Francis did not remember his exact age every time he was asked. Additionally, there is no indication who specified his age except on the two records which have “saith,” so the clerk could have recorded his own guess.

Unfortunately, Thomas left no record of his age in the colonial Middlesex County court records. His wife’s age was recorded in that source three times, in 1660 (age 40), 1668 (age 49), and 1681 (age 62), and each calculation indicates a 1619 or 1620 birth.[15] If her marriage to Thomas was typical, she would have been a little younger than he was. There is no specific evidence of that for this couple, but Thomas was most likely born before 1619.

There is one document of age evidence for Thomas from one of his death records. His death was recorded twice, once in Reading, his town of residence and once in nearby Wakefield, where his death may have occurred. His Reading death record noted only his death date, 22 July 1681.[16] The nearby town of Wakefield recorded the same date, but also gave his age as 63 years. This is the only instance found so far of an age for Thomas in a New England record. From it, his birth calculated to 1618, making him a little older than his wife, Rebecca, and his brother, Francis (abt 1620). Their relationship was verified through the will of Francis Kendall who made bequeathals to his nieces, “the eight children of my brother Thomas Kendall.”[17] Based on the death record, it is most likely Thomas was an elder brother of Francis.

Conclusion

From New England records, we have specific criteria that can be applied to a search for Francis and Thomas in English records. They are:

• A family with both a Thomas and Francis Kendall, preferably with Thomas being the elder
• A family using the full alias surname of Kendall als Miles or Miles als Kendall or a variation on those combined surnames
• A family where Francis was born about 1620 and Thomas before that, which also makes them old enough to receive land divisions, marry, sign town orders, and participate in New England town responsibilities by the 1640s

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[1] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Woburn Town meetings, taxes 1640-1766: page 2, Francis Kendall, 1640, FHL microfilm #893,363; digital image 38, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 17 May 2023).

Samuel Sewall, M.A., History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass From the Grant of Its Territory to Charlestown in 1640, to the year 1860 (Boston, Massachusetts: Wiggin and Lunt, 1868), 9.

John Warner Barber, The History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 2014 reprint from the 1839 original), 442.

[2] Leoa Parker Howard, The Beginning of Reading and Lynnfield, Massachusetts (Reading, Massachusetts: Reading Chronicle Press, Inc, 1937), 7, 11, 13.

“Massachusetts Vital Records, 1620-1850,” database with images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 9 May 2023), Thomas Kendall children 1642-1663, Reading p. 136.

[3] Leoa Parker Howard, The Beginning of Reading and Lynnfield, Massachusetts (Reading, Massachusetts: Reading Chronicle Press, Inc, 1937), 13.

Hon. Lilley Eaton, Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Mass. (Boston, Massachusetts: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1874), 93.

[4] Helen Schatvet Ullmann, CG, A Mills and Kendall Family History (Boston, Massachusetts: Newbury Street Press, 2002), 103.

William Stickney, Autobiography of Amos Kendall (Boston, Massachusetts: Lee & Shepard Publishers, 1872), 1.

Kendall Laughlin, Descendants of William Kendall of Ashford, Connecticut and Caledonia County, Vermont, A Genealogy, Second Edition (No location or printer, possibly a bound, typed manuscript, 1955), 6.

Irma A. Rich, Kendall Genealogy (Boston, Massachusetts: C.E. Godspeed & Co., 1920), 15.

Oliver Kendall, Memorial of Josiah Kendall (printed by the author, 1884), 1.

Charles Edmund Kendall, “The Kendall Family in America,” typescript copy of handwritten manuscript written by Charles E. Kendall some time after 1937, (https://www.gustafsonfam.com/genealogy/kevin/Charles%20Kendall.pdf), 2.

William Montgomery Clemens, The Kendall Family in America (Hackensack, New Jersey: William Clemens publisher, 1919), 4.

Georgiana de Valcourt Kendall Fellows, “A Short Biographical Sketch of the Kendall Family,” typewritten manuscript, compiled 1919, (www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/21511/?offset=&return=1#page=3&viewer=picture&o=&n=0&q=), 3.

Michael L. Godfrey, Footprints in the Sand: The Godfrey Story, as published by Michael L. Godfrey, no location, (https://books.google.com/books?id=AdjAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA245&dq=Francis+Kendall+Norfolk+England&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1wYW0kr7_AhWDFFkFHRJ8B5cQ6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=Francis%20Kendall%20Norfolk%20England&f=false), 245.

William R. Cutter, Esq, “Kendall Family of Woburn Massachusetts,” NEHGR 39 (1885), American Ancestors (americanancestors.org: accessed 12 June 2023), 18.

[5] “Massachusetts Vital Records, 1620-1850,” database with images, American Ancestors NEHGR

(www.americanancestors.org : accessed 9 May 2023), Francis Kendall & Mary Tidd.

[6] The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland listed less than 10,000 instances of Kendall and its variants in Britain in 2016. Four centuries ago, the name would have been even rarer, particularly if it was coupled with another surname using an alias.

[7] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1662; FHL microfilm 901,001, no item number, Folio 28, Group 2; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 41/1334.

[8] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1671; FHL microfilm 901,001, no item number, Folio 59; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 1239/1334.

[9] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1671; FHL microfilm 901,001, no item number, Folio 59; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 1247/1334.

[10] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1672; FHL microfilm 901,001, no item number, Folio 60, Group 4; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 1313/1334. This age could be taken for 57, but it appears more likely the pen stroke which makes the 51 into a 57 is an errant line, not intended to make the number into a 7.

[11] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1679; FHL microfilm 901,003, no item number, Folio 87, Group 3; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed June 2023), image 198/1061.

[12] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1684; FHL microfilm 901,003, no item number, Folio 109, Group 2; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed June 2023), image 962/1061.

[13] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1684; FHL microfilm 901,003, no item number, Folio 109, Group 2; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 965/1061.

[14] Middlesex, Massachusetts, Colonial county court records, 1636-1798: unpaginated, Francis Kendall, 1684; FHL microfilm 901,004, no item number, Folio 115, Group 2; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 8 June 2023), image 64/1131.

[15] Melinde Lutz Sanborn, Ages from Court Records 1636-1700 (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003), 120, 143; database with images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 June 2023).

[16] “Massachusetts Vital Records, 1620-1850,” database with images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 9 May 2023), Thomas Kendall died 1681 Reading.

[17] “Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers 1648-1872,” database with images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org: accessed 9 May 2023), Francis Kendall 1708.