James Converse

Father of Maj. James Converse. Born in England, he came to New England as a boy with his father, Deacon Edward Converse, in Winthrop's fleet of 1630, and went with him from Charlestown to Woburn (source). On 24 Oct 1643 he married Ann, daughter of Robert Long of Charlestown; their ten children were born at Woburn between 1644 and 1661: Anna (1644, died an infant), James (16 Nov 1645), Deborah (1647, m. John Pierce), Sarah (1649), Rebecca (1651), Lydia (1653, d. 1655), Edward (1655), Mary (1656), Abigail (1658) and Ruth (1661) (source; source). The town knew him as "James Convers, Senr., familiarly distinguished in the Town Records as Ensign or Lieutenant Convers" (Sewall, p. 175).

King Philip's War. When the war opened he was probably the ensign of Woburn's company: "WOBURN. John Carter. [Capt.] William Johnson. [Lieut.] James Converse. [Ensign]" (Soldiers in King Philip's War, p. 474). In late 1675 the three officers very probably pressed the town's men for Capt. Nathaniel Davenport's company in the Narragansett levy, rather than march themselves. Woburn's return begins "From Woburn. John Carter, William Johnson, James Convars, John Cutler, William Peirce, John Baker, Zachariah Snow ..." (p. 172), and Sewall counts "thirteen soldiers ... impressed from Woburn" (p. 113). Davenport was killed at the Narragansett fort on 19 Dec 1675, and three Woburn men of his company were wounded there (p. 171). Capt. John Carter was the father of Hannah Carter, who had married the Ensign's son James in 1668/9. In Woburn itself, on 10 Apr 1676, Indians killed Samuel Richardson's wife Hannah, their son Thomas and their infant daughter (Sewall pp. 119-120).

As "Ensign James Convers" he was probably a selectman of Woburn in 1674-79 and 1680-88, while his son, the later Major, served as "Serg. James Convers" (Sewall p. 579). He sat for Woburn at the General Court in several sessions from 1679/80 to 1689 (Sewall p. 584), and was named "Ensigne James Conuers" to a committee on the petition of a Charlestown man, "a wounded souldjer" (Mass. Bay Records 5:511). Savage notes that he "was a lieut." Ann died in 1691, aged 69, and he lived on to 1715, dying at Woburn "aged 95," nine years after his son the Major (source).

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin.

Open questions

• Whether the ensign of 1675 was this James or his son: the Woburn town records (manuscript, vol. 2) and the impressment return (Mass. Archives 68:67-100).