SIMICN CROSº Yº EMICRANT ºCR DAVIS CRC Sº ·paddiqs low suoqsoouu siq put ſuuuºſuuſ ol!! Kqso10 uouiſs qounųo siųn u I (INVIÐNGH ‘ALNQOO XIHOV ‘HOOVN-ĐNICIIVAIS-NO-SHINTOH LW HOHQ HO SIMON CROSBY THE EMIGRANT: HIS ENGLISH ANCESTRY, AND SOME OF HIS AMERICAN DESCENDANTS BY ELEANOR DAVIS CROSBY Author of “WILLIAM HOOPER, 1635 ° “DOLOR DAVIS, 1634—RICHARD EVERETT, 1636,” Erc. * BOSTON PRESS OF GEO. H. ELLIS COe 1914 tº Iºw, wºff O. S 7 | 3. c. 5 /4// CONTENTS. PREFACE INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - - - - - - CHAPTER I. THE ENGLISH ANCESTRY OF SIMON CROSBY THE EMIGRANT CHAPTER II. THOMAs CROSBY, FATHER OF SIMON THE EMI GRANT 19 CHAPTER III. SIMON CRosBY THE EMIGRANT . 43 CHAPTER IV. SIMON CROSBY OF BILLERICA. 66 CHAPTER V. EARLY CROSBYs IN BILLERICA 92 CHAPTER Two of THE CROSBY FAMILY IN BILLERICA DUR ING THE REvoluTIONARY PERIOD . 110 CHAPTER VII. THE FIRST MERCHANT IN THE FAMILY 131 CHAPTER VIII. THE PRESENT-DAY CROSBYs of THIS LINE OF THE FAMILY 138 PREFACE. This work on Simon Crosby the Emigrant, of Cambridge, Mass., is rendered chiefly important to those who bear the name of Crosby in America because here for the first time it has been possible to show whence came to this country the ancestor of the great majority of American Crosbys. Simon Crosby of Cambridge has always been known as the Emigrant to those who have made a special study of this subject, and while, strictly speaking, his father, Thomas Crosby, might be entitled to be known as the Emigrant be cause he belonged to a prior generation, but because he came to America at a later date than his son it has been thought advisable to continue the usage of the past, which has always known Simon of Cambridge as the Emigrant, and thus cause less confusion to present and future readers of this book. During the past thirty-six years those records that per tain to the descendants of Simon Crosby that are here set forth were slowly collected from time to time. No attempt has naturally been made to give a complete history of the Crosby family in America, for as time goes on the name be comes more and more familiar; but that immediate branch of the family with which I am connected by marriage, alone has been the subject of interest to me. In so far, however, as nearly all the Crosbys in America are descended from some one of the generations here dealt with, it is hoped this vi PREFACE work will have an interest much wider than the scope which was originally intended for it. For such records as relate to the family in America I am indebted to the usual sources of genealogical data, too fa miliar to workers in this field to need special mention here. The records contained in public libraries and the New England Historic Genealogical Society are known to all. Town records have been carefully examined, and in many places special references are given. I am indebted to the services of Mr. J. Gardner Bartlett, a trained genealogist, for the research in English records which established for the first time the connecting link between the Crosbys of America and England, and for most of the material relating to the line in England, and the place in York County whence they owed their origin. Mr. Bartlett made a careful and painstaking search of York County records. To Mrs. Susie C. Tufts I am indebted for some references to records of the family in America. My son, Sumner Crosby, has furnished a general introduction and has revised the book. My earnest wish is that this book may prove of interest to those who delve in the dark recesses of the past as they relate to one family, and be a stimulus for further work to future Crosby genealogists. For those who are interested in the bibliography of the Crosby family in America, I will say that the earliest attempt to compile an extensive genealogy of the Crosbys in America was made about fifty years ago by Professor Howard Crosby, D.D., Chancellor of the University of New York, and Pro fessor Alpheus Crosby of Dartmouth College and Salem, Mass. In a visit to England, Professor Howard Crosby also obtained some notes on English Crosbys, but he se cured no data on the ancestry or place of origin of Simon Crosby, the Puritan colonist of Cambridge, Mass. These PREFACE vii gentlemen did not complete their work, and their proposed genealogy was never published. In 1877, Judge Nathan Crosby of Lowell, Mass., a brother of the above-named Professor Alpheus Crosby, published a 143-page volume, giving the descendants of Josiah Crosby, born at Billerica, Mass., 24 Nov. 1730, and briefly tracing the latter's ancestry back to Simon Crosby the Emigrant, of Cambridge, Mass. About four pages of miscellaneous Crosby items in England, which had been obtained by Professor Howard Crosby, also appear in this book; but no data are given as to the parentage or place of origin of the Emigrant Simon Crosby. In 1898, Ernest Howard Crosby, Esq., of New York (son of Professor Howard Crosby before mentioned), from papers left by his father and his own researches, compiled a genealogy of the descendants of William Bedlow Crosby of New York, born 7 Feb. 1786, which appeared in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 29, pp. 183–190, and vol. 30, pp. 5–10, 73–79, and 146–152; this genealogy was later reprinted as a 24-page book. In this work the ancestry is traced back to Simon Crosby of Cambridge, Mass., and a few notes on English Crosby's are given; but Mr. Crosby stated that “every attempt to fix the place of Simon’s English home has been unsuccess ful.” In 1906, the Crosbys of Brattleboro, Vt., printed a pam phlet relating to their family, compiled by Mrs. Fannie (Crosby) Rice, but no data are given relating to the an cestry of Simon Crosby the Emigrant. In 1912, Simon Percy Crosby, Esq., of St. Paul, Minn., published a 212-page volume he had compiled, principally of the descendants of Oliver Crosby, born in Billerica, Mass., 17 March 1769. The line is traced back briefly to INTRODUCTION. During the space of thirty-six years my mother has de voted her spare time to the compilation of the records of our branch of the Crosby family, and during that time so much material had been gathered from the usual public and private sources of information that it was deemed advisable to publish a book giving the facts collected a permanent shape for future generations of one branch of the family. But on the eve of publication one last attempt was made to unravel the mystery surrounding the ancestry of the Crosby family in England. For up to that time no one had been able to say whence came Simon Crosby the Emigrant to America, and all investigators of the subject had abandoned it as hopeless. However, one slight clue held out some hope, and upon this Mr. J. Gardner Bartlett, an expert genealogist of the New England Historical and Genealog ical Committee, was commissioned to try to penetrate the mystery which surrounded the past, and that neither the clue nor Mr. Bartlett’s efforts were unavailing is shown by the fact that now for the first time it is possible to trace the family back to 1440. The clue referred to was the reference in the Cambridge Proprietors’ Records of 1645 to the grant of six acres in small farm lots to one “Owld Crosby,” and later, in 1646, of a grant of six acres of wood lots to Thomas Crosby. As Thomas Crosby died in Rowley, Mass., in 1661, at the age of eighty-five, he might well have been thought to be old viii PREFACE Simon Crosby of Cambridge, Mass.; but Mr. Crosby se cured no knowledge of the ancestry of the Emigrant, and states, “I visited Great Britain in 1910, and again in 1912, and tried to ascertain from what resources I could get reliable information concerning our ancestry; but I found nothing more than had already been obtained.” Besides the four foregoing works, short accounts of various branches of the New England Crosby family may be found as follows:– Crosbys of Massachusetts, in Paige's History of Cam bridge, Mass., p. 519; Hazen's History of Billerica, Mass., Part II, pp. 27–32; Freeman’s History of Cape Cod, vol. 2, pp. 213 and 365; Stearn's History of Ashburnham, Mass., pp. 656–660; Ward's History of Shrewsbury, Mass., pp. 255–258; and Early Rowley Settlers, in Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. 20, pp. 230–231; Crosbys of New Hampshire, in Cutter’s History of Jaffrey, N.H., pp. 257–260; Dow’s History of Hampton, N.H., pp. 651– 652; Saunderson's History of Charlestown, N.H., pp. 245–247 and 315–318; Ramsdell’s History of Milford, N.H., pp. 650–660; and Secomb's History of Amherst, N.H., pp. 547–551; Crosbys of Maine, in the Bangor His torical Magazine, vol. 1, pp. 81–83, and vol. 2, pp. 105– 112, and in the Maine Historical and Genealogical Re corder, vol. 4, pp. 153–160; Crosbys of Putnam County, N.Y., in the New York Genealogical and Biographical Records, vol. 18, pp. 87–88, and vol. 32, pp. 111–116, 161– 163, 225–228.* *None of these records gives any data on the ancestry of Simon Crosby the Emigrant of Cambridge, Mass.-E. D. C. X INTRODUCTION in 1645, at the age of sixty-nine.