The first Pomeroy in the Colonies - Eltweed Pomeroy
1585–1673
BIRTH Before 4 July 1585 • Beaminster, Dorset, England
DEATH 1673 • Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
1st cousin 13x removed
Extract from Great Migration: Passengers of the Mary & John, 1630
The Mary & John left Plymouth, England March 20, 1630 with her unknown Master, arriving in Nantasket Point, now Dorchester, Mass., at the entrance of Boston Harbor on May 30, 1630, two weeks before the Winthrop Fleet arrived.
These families and passengers were recruited by the Reverend John White of Dorchester, Dorset. Nearly all of the Mary and John 1630 passengers came from the West Country counties of Somerset, Dorset , Devon, and West Country towns of Dorchester, Bridport, Crewkerne and Exeter.
The passengers of the Mary and John 1630 founded one of the first towns in New England, Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1630 and also founded the town of Windsor, Connecticut five years later in 1635.
However, he is not shown on the passenger lists in that article.
Another extract, This time about Eltweed Pomeroy
"The claim has frequently been made that Eltweed Pomeroy was a passenger on the Mary & John, but this seems unlikely. His first appearance in New England records is as a freeman on 4 Mar 1632/3, and this suggests that he was one of several West County immigrants who settled in Dorchester in 1632...."
I suspect that we will never establish which ship he and his family travelled to the newly founded British Colonies of America.
I have seen it claimed that Eltweed was the first Pomeroy to arrive in the British Colonies of America.
Some people mentioned on my website did travel on the earlier Mayflower in 1620, and you can read about one of them, Joan Hurst, here.
However, we are getting ahead of ourselves.
The baptism record has been transcribed as 1585 July 4th; Eltwitt son of Richard POMERYE and it is the first entry in the new book.
more later
