Robert Lord
Town clerk of Ipswich and clerk of the court, made a freeman in 1635/6 and a deputy in 1638; he died at Ipswich in 1683, aged 80. His will says he and his wife, probably Mary Waite, had "lived comfortably together in a married condition almost fifty three years." Perhaps a son of the widow Katherine Lord, and probably the father of Robert Lord (d. 1696).
Life
- c. 1603Bornc. 1603
From his age at death, "a. 80 y.," and a deposition of 1662, "Robert Lord, aged fifty-nine years" (Essex Quarterly Courts 2:434).
- c. 1630Married Mary Waitec. 1630
In 1683 his will speaks of "almost fifty three years" of marriage. Mollie has 1630.
compiledprobable - 1683Died21 Aug 1683, Ipswich, Massachusetts
"Robert. Aug. 21, 1683, a. 80 y." (2:620). Will dated 28 June 1683, proved 25 Sept 1683.
documentedproven
Family
- Mother
- Katherine Lord
Felt, Robert "appears to have been son of Widow Catharine Lord."
- Spouse
1 child
Pedigree
Notes
He came to Ipswich about 1635, probably from Sudbury, Suffolk. Freeman 3 Mar 1635/6, at Boston; deputy 1638; town clerk of Ipswich and clerk of the court (Felt). Hammatt (p. 208) describes him as Town Clerk, Clerk of the Court and Register of Deeds “for many years.” He was Representative in 1638 and selectman in 1661 “and many years after,” and in 1645 he sat on the committee “empowered to grant houselots to the settlers.” His High Street house lot was granted on 19 Feb 1637, next to Mr. Humphrey Vincent; Hammatt, writing in 1847, says the property “yet remains a possession of his descendants.” He witnessed the 1653 will of Thomas Emerson (Probate Records of Essex County 2:36).
His will, dated 28 June 1683 and proved 25 Sept 1683, says of his wife, “with whom by God’s good providence we have lived comfortably together in a married condition almost fifty three years,” and leaves her all his estate during her life (Hammatt p. 208). It gives legacies to his sons Robert, Nathaniel, Thomas and Samuel, to his daughters Sarah Wilson, Susannah Osgood, Abigail Foster and Hannah Grow, and to the children of his deceased daughter Chandler.
Mollie’s story of a Robert Lord, an Indian fighter who could never sleep on a feather bed again, is not about him; it apparently belongs to a Maine Lord. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s grandmother Miriam Lord, who married Richard Manning on 30 May 1776 (Ipswich VR 2:301), may descend from him, as Mollie says (p. 106), as nearly all early Ipswich Lords do; that has not been traced.
Open questions
- His father. The 1603 will of John Lorde of Redriffe, clothier, names “two houses in Sudbury,” “father Anthony Lorde” and “brother Robert Lorde” (EIHC 17:73), which suggests Anthony Lord was Robert of Ipswich’s grandfather, not his father as unsourced online pages have it. That brother Robert could be Katherine Lord’s husband; not proved. The Great Migration sketch of Robert Lord has not been read.
Mollie's typescript
Mollie gives his many years as Ipswich's selectman, town clerk, clerk of the court, register of deeds and deputy, and tells of a judge who wept on recognising his "good old London print" on a deed (her story of an Indian fighter who could never sleep on a feather bed belongs to another Robert Lord).
For a great many years he served the town as selectman, clerk, clerk of the court, registrar of deeds, and representative to the General Court. His signature may be found on all the early deeds and papers.
p. 104 →His will left his whole estate for life to his wife Mary, and he died suddenly in his chair in his eightieth year.
in which h mentions his wife, Mary "with whom by God's good providence we have lived comfortably together in a married condition for almost fifty years". ... Robert Lord died, suddenly and quietly, sitting in his chair, in his eightieth year.
p. 105 →He signed, with Thomas Boreman and John Proctor, the Ipswich petition against John Winthrop Jr.'s departure for Connecticut.
The petition of remonstrance against the departture of John Winthrop Jr. for Conn. was drawn up by a committee ... and it was signed, among others, by our ancestors, Thomas Boreman, Robert Lord, John Proctor.
p. 106 →Robert and Mary Lord of Ipswich witnessed one of the documents in Job Tyler's quarrels at Andover.
The witnesses of one of these documents was Robert and Mary Lord of Ipswich, Grandfather' Low's ancs.
p. 136 →As clerk of the court in 1673 he signed the settlement of Philip Stanwood's estate by his widow.
A document in settlement of Philip Stanwood's estate by his widow is signed by Robert Lord, another ancestor
p. 183 →
Checked against the records
- UnlikelyRobert Lord's father was Anthony Lord
More likely his grandfather. The 1603 will of John Lorde of Redriffe, clothier, names "two houses in Sudbury", his "father Anthony Lorde" and his "brother Robert Lorde" (EIHC 17:73). Felt says only that Robert "appears to have been son of Widow Catharine Lord"; his father is unknown.
Read it in the book, p. 104 → - DisprovenRobert Lord served twenty years in the Indian wars
The story is not about him. Robert Lord of Ipswich (c. 1603-1683) was made freeman in 1635/6 and spent his life as town clerk and clerk of the court (Felt). Mollie took the story from a Maine genealogy, and it apparently belongs to a Maine Lord.
Read it in the book, p. 104 → - DisprovenRobert Lord threw a seven-foot Indian champion
Part of the same misattributed story as the feather bed. The Ipswich Robert Lord was a town clerk, not a leader of rangers, and the tale apparently belongs to a Maine Lord.
Read it in the book, p. 105 → - PossibleNathaniel Hawthorne descends from the Lords through Miriam Lord
Partly confirmed. Miriam Lord married Richard Manning at Ipswich on 30 May 1776 (Ipswich vital records), and they were Hawthorne's maternal grandparents. Her descent from Robert Lord is likely, since nearly all early Ipswich Lords descend from him, but it has not been traced.
Read it in the book, p. 106 → - PossibleMary Waite was a daughter of Samuel Waite and Mary Ward
Unproven. This parentage, which would make her a niece of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, author of The Simple Cobler, is found only in online trees and in Mollie's reading of "Candler's Pedigree of Ward"; no record has been seen. One fact fits: Rev. John Ward's widow Susan married Richard Rogers of Wethersfield, Essex, the Waite home.
Read it in the book, p. 107 → - ProvenRobert and Mary Lord of Ipswich witnessed one of Job's documents
Right. Robert and Mary Lord witnessed Job's conveyance to John Godfrey of 18 April 1662 (Brigham's Tyler Genealogy, p. 5), one of the deeds by which Job sold his Andover lands that year.
Read it in the book, p. 136 →