Giles Payson
Deacon of Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he married Elizabeth Dowell in April 1637 and died in 1688/9, aged 78. Father of Elizabeth (Payson) Foster, wife of Hopestill Foster.
Life
- c. 1610Bornc. 1610/11
From his age at death. He was 26 on the Hopewell list of April 1635, which gives about 1609.
- 1637Married Elizabeth Dowell
- 1688Died28 Jan 1688/9, Roxbury, Massachusetts
"Giles, Dea., Jan. 28, 1688-9, a. 78 y." (2:609). Mollie and Roberts have him dying at Dorchester.
documentedproven
Family
Pedigree
Notes
Deacon, of Roxbury. He came from Nazeing, Essex, on the Hopewell, William Bundick master, in April 1635, listed as “Giles Payson 26” after the Nazeing families (Hotten p. 46; Roberts, History of the AHAC 1:162). John Eliot’s list of Roxbury church members reads “Giles Paison, a single man. he maried or sister Elizabeth Dowell” (Boston RC 6:82). He was made a freeman on 18 Apr 1637 (“Gyles Pason,” Records of Mass. Bay 1:373), and joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1647.
A Roxbury land survey lists “Giles Pason his house barnes, and lott fiue accers,” six and a half acres in the great lots, seven acres on the Dorchester bounds and salt marsh (Roxbury Land Records, no. 37, Boston RC 6:31). Roberts says his farm “was one of the first cut up into house-lots in Roxbury. It contained Forest and Dudley streets, and Mount Pleasant Avenue” (1:162).
He was chosen deacon in January 1671/2: “or brother Giles Pason was elected & called to ye office of a Deacon & ye Sabbath following he was solemnly ordained by prayer and impositio[n] of ye hands of ye Elders,” 14 and 21 Jan 1671/2 (Danforth’s record, Boston RC 6:210). In an agreement settling a highway dispute with Thomas Cheney, “with a great dale of loue and condeseadaney … the said Deacon Payson doth freely giue throw his land” a way to Cheney’s lot; it was dated 10 Jan 1672/3 and acknowledged 21 Aug 1677 (Boston RC 6:7-8).
Open questions
- The Great Migration sketch of Giles Payson has not been read.
Mollie's typescript
Mollie says he came from Nazing, Essex, in the Hopewell in 1635, settled at Roxbury and was a deacon there; her chart gives his marriage to Elizabeth Dowell in 1637 and his death on 28 Jan 1689.
Giles Payson (1) from Nazing, Co. Essex, sailed in the Hopewell, Capt. Bundock, Master, in 1635 and settled first in Roxbury, then removed to Roxbury where he was deacon in the church.
p. 122 →
Checked against the records
- DisprovenElizabeth Payson was born 9 Feb 1645
Born 4 Feb 1644/5 at Roxbury: "Elizabeth, d. Giles, Feb. 4, 1644" (Roxbury vital records). Her father, Deacon Giles Payson, died at Roxbury, not Dorchester, on 28 Jan 1688/9, aged 78, and her second husband was Edmond, not Edward, Brown.
Read it in the book, p. 122 →