Robert Rand

Robert, probably the son of Robert Rand of Woodend, lived at Lynn.

King Philip's War. In January 1676, at about twenty-two, he probably marched with the recruits Capt. Samuel Brocklebank of Rowley took to the Narragansett army after the fight at the fort. They went through a storm "that bit some of them by the heels with the frost," then followed the Narragansetts north on the "Hungry March," killing and eating their horses, and came back to Boston (Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 200-201, 206). On 24 Mar 1675/6 "Robert Rand 01 10 00" was credited under Brocklebank, about five weeks' pay, for the winter march alone (p. 207). The company went on without him: Brocklebank wrote that his men had been in service "since the first of January at Narraganset, and within one week after their returne were sent out again" to Marlborough (p. 207), and he was killed near Sudbury on 21 Apr 1676. In the same company was John Burrill of Lynn (1657-1721), later Speaker of the House, the first cousin of Tabitha Ivory, whom Rand would marry; his right was claimed in 1733 by "Ebenezer, brother ... Ebenezer Burrill, Esq." (pp. 207, 422). Philip Kirtland, credited in the company on 24 July 1676, may have been kin: Rand's sister Mary married Nathaniel Kirtland (source, pp. 13-14). John Stanwood of Gloucester and his brother Philip were credited in the company that July, probably for the Marlborough garrison. Half a century later, when the Narragansett townships were granted to the soldiers and their heirs, "Robert Rand, son" claimed his father's right at No. 3, later Amherst, New Hampshire (p. 422).

On the last day of January 1683/4 he married Tabitha, daughter of Thomas Ivory; his brother Zachariah married Anna Ivery two months later (record). Their children were born at Lynn: Robert (6 Oct 1686), probably the Boston joiner, through whom he was the grandfather of Susanna (Rand) Ellingwood; Zachariah (1688), who lived a week; Zachariah (1689); Hannah (1691); Thomas (1693), who died at three weeks; Mary (1695, m. Thomas Rhodes); John (1697/8, died 1699/1700); and Lois (1700).

He died on 6 Dec 1717, "in his 64th y.," as his gravestone has it.

Open questions

• His probate (Essex, 1717/18), which should name his son Robert of Boston, joiner.
• The soldier's first name, left blank in the 1733 list: the Narragansett claims (Mass. Archives vol. 72).

Research: Woodbury, Rand–Cheever–Ivory and Slater lines behind the Ellingwoods.