Descendants of Thomas Tenney

THE TENNEY FAMILY, OR THE Descendants of Thomas Tenney, OF ROWLEY,, MASS. 1638-1890. BY M. J. TENNEY.· BOSTON, MASS.: AMERICAN PRINTING AND ENGRAVING CoKPANY. 1891. COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY M. J. TENNEY. THE TENNEY FAMILY. DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF BY A DAUGHTER. PREFACE. We sincerely mourn our loss in the death of Prof. Jonathan Tenney of Albany, N. Y., who had given forty years of unwearied labor to the Tenney Record, in compiling the genealogy of most, if not all, the American branch of the family, in anticipation of a general history. To meet a personal need, this book on the Tenney family has been the work of something over two years, having been compiled from historical, town, and family records. I would express my sincere thanks to Lieut. E. A. Tenney, Mr. L. Tenney Peck, and many others, for their kind and valuable assistance; and I trust that charity may bear with any imperfections in this work, as entire freedom from error or omission is a success not to be expected. Our name, like many others, is spelled in several different ways. The progressive form has been adopted in this brief work. For the Tenney "Coat of Arms" we are indebted to Lieut. E. A. Tenney of La Crosse, Wis., who has carefully investi gated the matter (at his own expense), and submitted the result of his research, with the electrotype, to Prof. Tenney and men learned in heraldry, receiving their approval, which services we gratefully accept. HAVERRILL, MASS. EXPLANATORY NOTES. The first numbers indicate the individual. The Roman numerals indicate the generation. The last numbers indicate the parent. The star(*) indicates those persons whose genealogy can be traced. THE TENNEY FAMILY. OUR ENGLISH HOME. Our English home was Rowley, on the Yorkshire Wolds, in the East Riding (a Saxon word signifying thz'rd) of the County of Yorkshire, Eng land. It is situated near the great waterway, the river Humber, an estuary of the German Ocean, and is six miles from its south bank, twenty miles from Spurn-Head-it-the-Sea, and three hundred feet elevation above the sea. It is 53° 34 1 north latitude, o0 10' west longitude, ten miles from the great commercial port of Hull, which lies on the north bank of the river Humber, and is the third port in England in size. It is six miles south west of Beverly, to which union of churches it belongs. The parish has five hamlets: Little Weton, where the chief part of the inhabitants live, Riplingham, Hunsley, Bentley, and Rowley, which has a church (St. Peter's) and a rectory, but no inhabitants except the rector, Rev. Henry C. T. Hildgard, and his family. He has been in charge of the parish for thirty-one years. The church and rectory are reported by him to be in good repair at this date (1883). The parish is strictly agricultural and contains 5,760 acres. The church is situated a few rods north of the road, one-half mile from the station on the Hull & Barnsley Railway, and about thirty-one miles southeast of the old Roman capital, York. ' The records of this parish do not date back of 1638, the time that Rev. • Ezekiel Rogers emigrated to America with twenty families and settled on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay, naming their colony "Rowley," in honor of their former English home. · Thomas Tenney and his wife Ann formed one family of this company. In the absence of records it is quite reasonable to suppose they sailed from Hull, a seaport only ten miles distant from the parish to which they belonged, as we have seen. Rev. Ezekiel Rogers was a man of learning, very devout, possessed of much zeal, and felt keenly the religious persecution of King Charles' order to the clergy to read in church the "Declaration of Sports," in which the King directed that no hindrance should be thrown in the way of those who wished to dance or "shoot at the butts" (a target) on Sunday afternoon. IO THE TENNEY FAMILY. Puritan Rogers, aggrieved at this and other persecutions, gathered to him in the parish of Rowley a company of twenty families for the purpose of emigrating to America, and succeeded in leaving England in the autumn of 1638. They arrived at Salem, Mass., in December, 1638, where the com pany deci~ed to remain during the winter and seek a settlement. In April, 1639, the company were joined by forty families, making sixty families. A settlement was made at Rowley, M;i.ss. The place was probably selected on account of its pleasantness, its nearness to the river, and the abundance of thatch that grew upon the river banks. In colonizing they formed a community under the direction of their spiritual leader, Rev. Mr. Rogers, known as Rogers Plantation, afterward called Rowley. In 1852, a letter written by a lawyer residing near Rowley, England, gives the following description of the place: "It is a hamlet con taining about a dozen houses, and some fifty or sixty inhabitants, who are engaged in agriculture. It has neither trade nor institutions. With two other hamlets, Hunsley and Bentley, it constitutes a parish. It is delightfully situated on the top of high hills called Yorkshire Wolds. It is noted as having a good church preferment, the living being worth about fifteen hundred pounds per year, and is almost a sinecure as to labor performed. Hence the gift is sought by clergy who desire leisure and good pay. It is said that Rev. Ezekiel Rogers was a leading divine in Eng land in his day and held a charge at Rowley. It was probably a more important place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries than now, rela tively. The only church there is a very old, dilapidated structure, probably the successor of the one occupied by the learned and pious Rogers until be became a Puritan dissenter and left England for the New World with many of bis flock." Later letters give record of the "church· restored by the rector on his coming there to reside . • . with the hope of a chime of bells and a west stained window from the descendants of the Rogers emigrants." GENERATION I. THOMAS TENNEY, a member of the Reverend Ezekiel Rogers' com pany from Yorkshire, England, arrived at Salem, Mass., in December, 1638, and settled at Rowley, Mass., in April, 1639. (Gage's Hist. Rowley.) In a deposition taken at Ipswich; Mass., 4 May, 1680, Mr. Tenney testifies i_n relation to an ox pasture in Rowley, and at that date he gave his age as about sixty-six years. (Ipswich Deeds, 4: 329.) This would have made him twenty-four years old when he emigrated to America with his wife Ann, who was mentioned in the will of Deacon Thomas Mighill of Rowley, Mass.,as "sister Ann Tenney." (Early Settlers of Rowley.} The said will was dated IJ June, 1654. Mrs. Tenney was buried 26 September, 1657. He GENERATION I. II married 24 February, 1658, his second wife, Elizabeth, widow of Francis Par rat of Rowley. It does not appear that they had children. Mrs. Elizabeth Tenney received by bequest of Reverend Ezekiel Rogers £10 in 166o-1. In the survey of the town of Rowley in 1643 an acre-and-a-half house-lot on Homes street was registered to Thomas Tenney, "bounded on the south side by John Hase!tine's house-lot, and the east end by the streete." (Gage, 123.) It was bounded on the north side by the two-acre house-Jot of Rob ert Haseltine. This lot is now owned and occupied by the Primes, having been purchased of Daniel Tenney by Mark Prime in 1701, and has had a store thereon ever since'. It is now bounded on the south by the home stead of George B. Blodgette, Esq. The house erected by Thomas Tenney, Senior, was torn down by Captain Daniel N. Prime in 1838. "In a Survey of the Several Gates or Commonages belonging vnto The Severall Inhab itants of the Town of Rowley as They are now in possession," taken 4 Feb ruary, 1661, are the following entries to Thomas Tenney and his wife, Elizabeth : - " To Thomas Tenney as to an acre and halfe lot and one gate given by the towne, two and halfe 2-halfe. purchased of francis parrat, one gate . • • • • . I-gate. purchased of the town, one halfe gate . • halfe gate. To Elizabeth Tenney allias parrat, as belonging to francis parrat's two two Acre lot, seaven gates vnsold . • • • . • • 7 Gates. purchased of William hobson Sixe gates . • . • . • . 6 gates." In 1667, by division of the Island marshes, he received land. (Gage, 150-1.) In 1670, by division of Merrimack land, he received land. (Gage, 347-8.) In a division of 1673-4 he received land. (Gage, 138.) There was no settlement on the lot northwest of Simon's Brook until after the day of Thomas Tenney, Senior. (Blodgette.) This lot is one-half mile east of Long Hill, and is now owned by Mrs. M. J. (Tenney) Hathaway. The town records style him Ensz"gn,Marskallin 1653-66; Warner of town meetings, i6,;o-53-6o-61-66; Overseer ofplains, 1656-64-71; Selectman, 166o-61-70; Viewer offences, kigkways, and chimneys, 1669; Constable, 1665-66; Titk ingman, 1680. Several records of intervening years are lost, and there are no records of admission to the church for a period of twenty-six years. The church record may have been lost in the conflagration of Rev. Mr.

Load more