THE LEARNED FAMILY (Learned, Larned, Learnard, Lamard and Lerned) BEING DESCENDANTS OF WILLIAM LEARNED WHO WAS OF CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS, IN 1632. COMPILED BY WILLIAM LAW LEARNED IN PART FROM THE PAPERS OF THE LATE JOSE;PH GAY EATON LARNED. SECOND EDITION ENLARGED. ALBANY WEED-PARSONS PRINTING COMPANY, PRINTERS 1898 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION- This work was begun as early as 1850 by the late Joseph Gay Eaton Larned, then of New Haven, Cm'm. For sev­ eral years he made investigations as to the early history of the family, and obtained information as to the later genera­ tions. Through Mr. H. G. Somerby he obtained most of the entries in the parish register of Bermondsey, which are mentioned on a subsequent page. And from various sources he accumulated a large amount of material to be used in the history, which he intended to publish. He was, from time to time, engaged in this work down to his death, and had been constantly hoping to complete his undertaking. I had frequently corresponded with him and had aided him as far as possible. For this reason, after his death, the papers were sent to me by his widow, Mrs. Helen Larned, with the approval of his sister, Miss Ellen D. Larned. After receiving them I was for a time unable to do any­ thing towards completing the work. When finally under­ taken, the task was found to require more labor than had been expected. None of the materials were ready for the printer. iv PREFACE To FmsT EDITION It was difficult to ascertain exactly what information had been gathered and what was still wanting. I sometimes found indications, that in some matters, Mr. Larned had had information, which I ,vas unable to discover among the papers. In the attempt to supply deficiencies, new subjects for inquiry opened, and thus the labor continued to grow to the present time. Researches for this family history were made in England at my request during a few years past by the late Col. Joseph L. Chester. He became especi.?-lly interested in ~¼ the investigation by his failure to find any traces of the name, excepting those herein mentioned, either in the records of that country or in his own large collections. In a letter written not long before his death, he spoke of, what he called, the mystery; and said that he bore it constantly in mind and hoped some day to find a solution. I am indebted to Miss. Martha E. Stone, of North Oxford, Mass., for a full and careful account of the Oxford families. Mr. George W. Learnard, Jr., of Boston, Mass., has furnished much information in regard to his branch. And Mr. Charles Larned, of the same place, has been of great service in collecting facts from many sources. With­ out his aid the work would be much less nearly complete than it is. Others also have aided, whose names I need not mention. The abbreviations of b. for born, m. for married, cl. for died and s. p. for sine prole hardly need explanation. PREFAOE TO FmsT EDITION V T.hose who have undertaken other similar works will be the most ready to excuse the imperfections of this; imper­ fections of which I am not unaware. I could give it only such fragments of time as could be spared from important duties. Albany, N. Y., December, 1882. W.L.L. MEMORANDUM. In this second edition the numbers, as far as 603, are the same with those in the former edition. After that they are different. Much aid has been received from Mr. George Dimmack, of Cambridge, Mass., and from Dr. Ezra R. Larned, of Joliet, Ill. Albany, N. Y., December, 1898. W.L.L. LEARNED GENEALOGY. In the parish records o:f Bermondsey, County o:f Surrey, England, are found the following entries: Baptised. 1612, Oct. 29, Bethia, daughter of William Larned. 1615, Sept. 15, Mary, daughter o:f William Larnett. 1618, Sept. 30, Abigail, daughter of William Larned. 1621, Mar. 25, Elizabeth, daughter o:f William Larned. 1623-4, Feb. 25, Isaac, son o:f William Learned. Married. 1623-4, Jan. 13, Thomas Ewer to Sara Learned. Buried. 1625, July 26, Mary Larnett, a child. Savage, in his Genealogical .Dictionary, vol. ii, p. 132, says that Thomas Ewer, of- Charlestown, came in the James, from London, in 1635, aged 40, with his wife, Sarah, daughter of William Larned, aged 28, with his children, Elizabeth, aged 4, and Thomas, aged 1½. (See also Hotten's List of Emigrants for the ages and names of Ewer and o:f his chil­ dren.) He united with the church in 1636, and died in 1638. 2 LEARNED GENEALOGY. In the Rev. John Lathrop's Records of Scituate and Barn­ stable, printed in the N. E. Rist. and Gen. Reg., vol. ix, p. 286, is the following: " Marryed since my comeing to Barnestaple, being Octob. 11, 1639 ""' * * my sonn Tho. and Brother Larnett's daughter, wicldow Ewer, in the Bey, Decemb. 11, 1639." . There can be no doubt, then, that the widow Ewer who was married to Thomas Lathrop was the Sara Learned, who had been previously marTied in England to Thomas Ewer. And since her father is spoken of as " Brother Larnett," we may be con:fident that he was in this country and known to Rev. Mr. Lath1·op at the time of this marriage. vVilliam Learned was here as early as 1632. Thus ·William Learned and his son Isaac, the first of the name in this country, are identified with the ·william and Isaac of Bermondsey parish. There are no other entries of the name in the 1·ecords of Bermondsey parish "than those which are given above. Sarah must have been born about 1607, as she was 285n 1635 when she came over; and there is no record there of her baptism. It would seem probable, therefore, that her father was not living in that parish at her birth. A maniage license was granted by the Bishop of London, June 4, 1612, :for James Rull, of the city o:f Londot'-1 gentle­ man, and .Ann Larned, spinster, daughter of -- Larned, deceased. This is on the authority of Col. Chester. This Ann may have been a sister of William. These are the only traces o:f the name which have thus far been :found in England, either of an earlier or o.f a later date. Col. J ose1}h L. Chester examined his own MSS. collections from Pa1·ish Registers (some 110 folio volumes containing about 400 pages each); the calendars of wills in the General LEARNED GENE.A.LOGY. 3 Registry, from 1383 to 1700; the various lists of names at the Public Record office the British Museum and Herald College, without finding the name. The name does not appear in the army lists of the civil war period, though that of Learner does., "Larner's Twelve Songs of Zion," mentioned in vii Harleian Miscellany, 73. Col. Chester also examined, with the same want of success, the lists of wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, the calendars of the local registries covering Essex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Bei·kshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, ,Viltshire, and the portion of Kent included in the diocese of Rochester, and the parish registers of Ware and the indexes at the Public Record office; the registers of the oldest dissenting churches, and of the old French churches, now deposited in the office of the Registrar General, and many other lists of names. In the lists of the French emigrants who were naturalized the name is not found; nor is any found which is like it. Nor was there any French name in England, at the date of the Bermondsey records, which could be translated into Learned. J\.tlany French refugees settled in Bermondsey and engaged in leather manufactures .. The name is not found in the dirnctories of the present day, either of London or of the counties in England·; or in the poll lists, or indexes to county histories. Frequent examinations of lists of actions in courts of law in England havE:J failed to find it. There has been a belief that the name was French. Per­ haps this has arisen from the circumstance that the name begins with Le, or with L; thus suggesting L'.A.rned. Judge Charles David Larned, born in 1798, a grandson of Gen. Ebenezer Larned, says that William was a German and a 4 LEARNED GENE.A.LOGY. man of properly; and that there is a tradition in the family that he was a Huguenot; that his home was on the Rhine in the territory which recently belonged to France and now be­ longs to Germany; that he fled from persecution and went to Holland and thence to England. In the Christian names 0£ his children there is no indication 0£ French or of Holland descent. It is impossible to say what confidence can be put in this tradition. But there seems to be nothing to justify the belief of a Fre'.Q.ch origin, so far as any thing can be learned from the names 0£ the French emigrants to England. Yet the absence of the name from any Eng­ lish records appears to indicate a foreign origin. The fact that James Hull would seem to have been ignorant of the Christian name of his wife's father may also be a slight indication 0£ this. William, the emigrant, wrote his name Learned. The variations in the spelling in the Bermondsey parish register and the spelling in Rev. Mr.