William FLETCHER

Notes:

Name:
William b. in Chelmsford, Feb. 21, 1657; adm. freeman, Mar. 11, 1689; m. Sarah Richardson, Sept. 6, 1677, who d. Jan. 30, 1748, age 88; received a lieutenant's commission from Gov. Dudley, at Boston, 1704; d. 1713; a large landholder, and man of property, as shown by his will registered 1713.

William married Sarah RICHARDSON on 6 Sep 1677. Sarah was born about 1660; died on 30 Jan 1748. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
William, b. in England, 1622; came with his father to Concord, Mass., when he was eight years old. He was admitted freeman May 10, 1643. He m. Lydia Bates in Concord, Mass., Oct. 7, 1645, and in 1653 settled in Chelmsford, Mass.; of which he was one of the first inhabitants, and held the office of selectman, to which office "he was chosen Nov. 22, 1654. This first publick meeting was holden at his house."

On the court files of Middlesex County his name frequently appears. In 1665, as petitioner for a road; same year, a bill of costs for is servant being put in house of correction; same year, bill of costs for suit against William Shaw. In 1663, as appraiser of an estate. In 1671, "Motion to court by William Fletcher of Chelmsford. His sister Cary, on her death-bed, desired him and her husband to take care of her children. Willing to be engaged for the child Sherybiah Kebby." In 1673, as commissioner for Chelmsford.

The birth of his dau. Lydia only is found on the Concord records,-- the birth of a Fletcher that is recorded in America.

A letter dated Feb. 15, 1676, "from the committee of the militia of Chelmsford," reads: "To our honord governor and counsail in Boston, mercy and peace: May it please yor honours." (Here represents the alarming condition from Indian outrages and depredations, and requests held.) Signed by Sam. Adams, Samuel Fletcher, William Fletcher.

His tract of land embraced what is now the city of Lowell; and a part of his land, a farm near the meeting house in Chelmsford, remains s it has been for more than two hundred years in possession of the family, and is now occupied by William.

He d. Nov. 6, 1677. His widow Lydia d. Oct 12, 1704.

William married Lydia BATES on 07 Oct 1645 in Concord, Masachusetts. Lydia died on 12 Oct 1704 in Prob. Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Robert Fletcher, the immigrant ancestor from whom are reckoned the generations recorded in the following pages, was born in 1592, as appears from the record of his death found upon the town records of Concord, Mass. The part of England whence he came has not been certainly ascertained. One circumstance has indicated Shropshire. The family tradition makes it Yorkshire, one of the northern counties of England. The name has been, and still is, common there. Re. Elijah Fletcher of Hopkinton, N.H. (b. 1747, d. 1786), the first, so far as we know, who made genealogical collections of the family, believed that our great ancestor came from Yorkshire; and that account was gathered when Robert's great-grandchildren were living. He settled at Concord, Mass., in 1630; in which year seventeen ships arrived in Massachusetts Bay and at Plymouth, swelling the number of settlers to 21,000. He was then thirty-eight years of age, and had two sons, Luke and William, and it may be supposed a wife, and his daughter, Cary. It was said by Gardner Fletcher, that the tradition in his branch was that Robert had a brother William, who came at the same time. The only traces found of a William who could have bee brother of Robert are two; one from the records of Middletown, Conn.: "Reb. Samuel Stow, m. Hope, dau. of William Fletcher, Esq., of Chelmsford, 1649;" and the other relates to William of Saco, Me.. It was five years later that Concord was organized, the twentieth town incorporated within what are now the limits of Massachusetts, and his name appears in the earliest records of that town. In the court files of Middlesex county his name frequently occurs as petitioner for bridges, as juryman, &c. He was a wealthy and influential man, and died at Concord, April 3, 1677, age 85.

Robert married ? UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]