Philip Stanwood

Of Gloucester, where he bought Robert Tucker's house in Annisquam in 1654, served as selectman five times between 1657 and 1671, and in 1666 was allowed as the eldest sergeant of the foot company. He died in 1672, leaving his widow Jane as administratrix; his origin is unknown. Probably the father of John Stanwood.

Family tree →Migration map →
01

Life

  1. 1672
    Died
02

Family

Parents
Not known
03

Pedigree

documentedcompiledinferred
04

Notes

Of Gloucester, where his son John was born in February 1652/3. Bought Robert Tucker’s house in Annisquam in 1654, and was fence-viewer that year. Selectman 1657, 1658, 1660, 1670 and 1671. “In 1666 4th mo Philip Stanwood is allowed as the eldest Seargent of the foot Company at Gloucester” (Bolton pp. 11-12, 19-22). Bolton estimates his birth as 1628-30 (inference).

He left no will. His widow Jane was administratrix, and that record “seems to be the only document directly relating to Philip and his family, in existence” (Bolton). Mollie Pfeiffer’s statement that his will named Thomas Riggs executor is wrong.

Bolton found no English origin; Mollie’s Stanswood, Hampshire, is only a guess from the name. Bolton also dismisses the “Sir Ralph Stanwood of Wharton” coat of arms that descendants owned as the work of the Boston arms painter John Cole: “there is neither a Sir Ralph Stanwood, nor in fact any Stanwood, among the lists of baronets”.

Mollie's typescript· 3 passages · 2 claims checked

What Mollie wrote about him in The Holbrook and Low Families, and her claims about him checked against the records.

  1. Mollie says he is in no ship list and was at Gloucester with his wife Jane and son Philip by the end of 1652, when his son John was born; in 1654 he bought a house and land at Annisquam from Robert Tucker.

    Philip Stanwood and his family are not found in any ship list. Th This may mean that they came in privately chartered vessel, as many of the better families did.
    p. 182 →

  2. He was a selectman and an appraiser of estates, and died in 1672, young for one of the family's ancestors; Mollie names Thomas Riggs executor of his will (he left none, the records show).

    His fellow-townsmen evidently considered him a man of parts, as his public career in Gloucester shows: he was selectman 1657,- 1660, 1670-1. ... He lived only twenty years in Gloucester, and died in 1672
    p. 183 →

  3. In 1666 he was allowed as eldest sergeant of the Gloucester foot company.

    In 1666 Philip Stanwood "was allowed as the eldest sergeant in the foot company at Gloucester", and since then no war has arisen that has not called out a goodly number of that name.
    p. 185 →

Checked against the records

  • Disproven
    Thomas Riggs was executor of Philip Stanwood's will

    Bolton's Stanwood history (1899) mentions no will: Philip's widow Jane was administratrix of his estate. Riggs did sign the inventory of their son John's estate.

    Read it in the book, p. 183 →
  • Possible
    The Stanwoods came from Stanswood, Hampshire

    Unproven. Bolton's Stanwood history offers only the likeness of the names; Philip Stanwood is in no ship list and his origin is unknown.

    Read it in the book, p. 186 →
05

Connections

Famous kin
  • Harriet Stanwood Blaine 1828-1903
    Wife of James G. Blaine, Secretary of State and 1884 Republican presidential nominee
    Harriet Stanwood Blaine is the fifth cousin, four times removed, of the centre of this tree.
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