The NEHGS recently published a new book by Gary Boyd Roberts documenting the Mayflower lineages of 500+ notable people who have Mayflower lineages.
My checks on the lineages show that the ones I have checked mostly (for a exception see below…) confirm to my own research. However, I do note a few missing lineages… something in his introduction he admits might be possible.
I was pleased to see that he has incorporated the recent discovery that DNA evidence has shown that John Sprague Jr. is actually a Fuller and is likely a grandson of Dr. Samuel Fuller of the Mayflower:
“An article in Mayflower Descendant 67 (2019): 117-149 argues persuasively from DNA evidence that the father of John Sprague, Jr. (ca. 1655-1727/8) of Duxbury, Mass., and Lebanon, Conn., was not John Sprague (ca. 1610-1676), husband of Ruth Bassett, but a member of the Mayflower Fuller family, almost certainly Samuel2 Fuller, son of Mayflower passenger Samuel Fuller and Bridget Lee.”
I find this interesting as it then gives Sir Winston Churchill a Mayflower lineage. Richard Webber who is the leader of the Guild’s Sprague project mentioned to me recently that this ascertainment no longer gives him a biological Sprague ancestor!
My Mayflower research is primarily focused as part of my study the the Hall families of colonial New England (https://www.albionseed.com).
One of the famous Hall descendants whom I had tried to find a Mayflower lineage is Senator Willard Mitt Romney of Utah. Unfortunately, I believe that Gary’s Romney Mayflower lineage has a problem.
Richard Warren – Elizabeth Walker
Nathaniel Warren – Sarah Walker
Sarah Warren – John Blackwell
Alice Blackwell – William Spooner
—
Mary Spooner – Mark Haskell
—
Joanna Haskell – Samuel Wing Jr.
Martha Wing – Philemon Duzette
… down to Mitt Romney
All of the records that I have seen seem to show that the Joanna Haskell who married Samuel Wing was the daughter of Ephraim Haskell and Mehitable Tobey.
In the Mitt Romney Ahnentafel published by the late William Addams Reitwiesner (http://www.wargs.com/political/romney.html), Ephraim is shown as the father of Joanna.
To sort this out, I needed to further research the Haskell family. The Haskells originally settled in what is now Essex county, Massachusetts, before 1650. However, several family members removed to the Plymouth colony in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod in the late 1600s.
In particular, Roger Haskell (1680, Beverly – 1740, Rochester), son of Mark Haskell and Mary Smith, married Joanna Swift of Sandwich in 1708/9 in Sandwich. They had several children in Rochester including Mark (1709-1785) and Ephraim (1711/12-1774).
Mark [Jr.] of Rochester married first Mary/Marcy Spooner, d/o William Spooner and Alice Blackwell, of Dartmouth on 21 Dec 1730 in Dartmouth. They had (see Warren Silver book, part 3) Joanna in Rochester in 1737, who was not mentioned in her father’s will.
Ephraim married Mehitable Tobey of Sandwich in 1738 in Rochester. They had also had a Joanna but in May 1740.
Samuel Wing married in 1759 in Rochester Joanna Haskell. Joanna (Haskell) Wing died in Windsor, Connecticut in August 1769. The evidence that Joanna was the daughter of Ephraim and not Mark is the inscription on her headstone:
“Mrs Joanna Wing wife of Sam’ll who died ___ Aug 1769 in the 29th year of her age”
Joanna (d/o Ephraim) Wing would be 29 in 1769 whilst Joanna, d/o Mark, would be 32.
As Gary Roberts used the Silver Books as one of his primary sources, and Mehitable Tobey is not a Mayflower descendant, the correct Joanna is not in Silver books.
I would appreciate your comments.
