Thomas Emerson

Also Goodman Emerson Sener

Of Ipswich, and probably the Thomas Emerson baptized at Bishop's Stortford, England, in 1584 who married Elizabeth Brewster there in 1611. Ralph Waldo Emerson descends from him through Rev. Joseph Emerson of Mendon. Probably the father of Elizabeth (Emerson) Fuller.

Family tree →Migration map →
01

Life

  1. 1584
    Born
  2. 1611
    Married Elizabeth Brewster
  3. bef. 1666
    Died
    before 3 May 1666, Ipswich, Massachusetts

    Inventory of "Goodman Emerson Sener deceased," 3 May 1666 (Ipswich Emersons); will proved 10 May 1666. The printed probate abstract dates the inventory of "Goodman Emesonne, Sr., deceased" "9: 3 m: 1666," that is 9 May 1666 (Probate Records of Essex County 2:37). W. H. Fuller's "died ... May 1, 1681" is wrong. Mollie has "D. Ips. May 1, 1666", two days before the inventory.

    compiledprobable
    Sources· 2 found
02

Family

Parents
Not known
03

Pedigree

documentedcompiledinferred
04

Notes

Of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, and Ipswich, where he came about 1638. Arrival on the Elizabeth and Ann in 1635 is family tradition. Historic Ipswich says that in 1638 Samuel Greenfield sold him “a farm of one hundred and twenty acres previously owned by Humphrey Wise” at Labor in Vain. He also had six acres at Turkey Shore from Henry Wilkinson, where he and Elizabeth “lived in the house he built there for ten years,” selling it in 1648 to Daniel Ringe. Historic Ipswich calls him “a baker by trade”; The Ipswich Emersons (1900, p. 22) argues instead that the baker was his son Thomas Jr., who died in 1653 and whose death prompted the will.

His will of 31 May 1653 leaves his son James £40 “if he shall Come ouer into this Country (or send by a certayne surtifficate of his being liueing).” A later memorandum cuts this to £5 on the same condition, so James was apparently still in England (Probate Records of Essex County 2:34-37). He signed “Thomas Emerson [seal]”; the witnesses were Robert Lord and Daniel Hovey. The inventory of “Goodman Emesonne, Sr.” (9 May 1666) totals £251 3s. It includes “books and bibels, 2li.,” “the great carved chest with nine payer of sheets,” “a steell mill,” and “too perces and bandelears.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson descends from him through Rev. Joseph Emerson of Mendon (Ipswich Emersons, entry 601); Harriet Low and the poet were about fifth cousins once removed, which Mollie (p. 109a) has right.

The 1900 book’s descent from Ralf Emerson of Foxton is conjecture. Ralf was granted arms in 1535; he was not “knighted,” as Mollie says.

Open questions

  • When did he die? The Ipswich Emersons dates his inventory 3 May 1666; the printed probate abstract has “9: 3 m: 1666,” 9 May, which the colonial tree follows. The page keeps “before 3 May 1666” until the original is checked.
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 was at Ipswich by 1638, when he was granted eighty acres and bought the 120-acre Turkey Shore Farm, where he built a mansion that he sold in 1648; he was a commoner in 1641 and a selectman in 1646.

    Thomas Emerson was in Ipswich probably in 1635, but is first mentioned in 1638 when eighty acres of land was granted to him. In the same year he received a deed for 120 acres from Sam'l Greenfield, a weaver
    p. 109 C. →

  2. Quoting Moncure Conway, Mollie calls him a thrifty farmer and baker at Ipswich, whose will made General Denison overseer of his estate.

    Thomas became a farmer and a baker at Ipswich, was thrifty and made money. His will states that Gen'l Denison was to be overseer of his estate.
    p. 109 D. →

  3. Mollie enjoys Conway's tribute to him as the gentleman who made bread for men in the wilderness, and quotes his will's bequests to his daughter Elizabeth Fuller.

    When his monument is built, let his coat-of-arms be carved quartered with a loaf, over the words, 'He made bread for men in the wilderness". ... The compiler likes this democratic attitude toward the "baker".
    p. 109 E →

Checked against the records

  • Unlikely
    Thomas Emerson was probably a grandson of Ralf Emerson

    Conjecture. The Ipswich Emersons (1900) offers the descent from Ralf Emerson of Foxton, Durham, without proof, and Ralf was granted arms in 1535, not knighted as the Conway quotation has it. Thomas was baptized at Bishop's Stortford on 26 July 1584.

    Read it in the book, p. 109 C. →
  • Proven
    Ralph Waldo Emerson descends from Thomas Emerson

    Confirmed. Emerson descends from Thomas through Rev. Joseph Emerson of Mendon, a brother of Elizabeth (Emerson) Fuller (The Ipswich Emersons, 1900), so he and Harriet Low were about fifth cousins once removed. The others named here have not been checked.

    Read it in the book, p. 109 E →
05

Connections

Famous kin
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882
    Essayist, poet and lecturer, leader of the Transcendentalists
    Ralph Waldo Emerson is the fifth cousin, four times removed, of the centre of this tree.
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