Notes for John Cary: Notes for JOHN CARY: John Cary, 1610-1681, came to American with one hundred pounds after a dispute with his brothers on the settlement of their father's estate. He was born near Bristol, Somersetshire, England, educated in France, and came to America about 1634. He is said to have been the first Latin School teacher in the Plymouth Colony. He removed to Duxbury and in 1644 married Elizabeth Godfrey; they had six sons and six daughters. He was at Braintree in 1652. John was one of the proprietors of Bridgewater and one of the first settlers when the town was incorporated in 1656. He was the Bridgewater Town Clerk from 1657 until his death in 1681. John Cary was among the most respectable of the first settlers and his family one of the most influential in the town.
There is controversy on who John's father was. The following information is provided by David Carey: Matawadave@aol.com "The parents of John Cary, the Plymouth Pilgrim, have yet to be positively identified. Most theories have been disproved. He was not the son of John Cary and Elizabeth Hereford. Their son John was married in 1613 (when the Pilgrim was about 3 years old) and died in Hackney , Middlesex, England, before 1665. Proof is found in the pedigree submitted by their grandson John Cary, the famous London and Virginia merchant, to the Earl Marshall of England which resulted in confirmation of his right to bear the arms of the noble Carys of Devon (ref. College of Arms, Book of Grants IV) Copies of those documents are filed in the British Library (Stowe MS 670, folio 229) and in the Society of Genealogists Library, London. The theory that John the Pilgrim was the son of Walter Cary and Grace Browne has not been disproved or proved positively. Walter died in 1633, about the time the Pilgrim came to Plymouth after a dispute over his father's will leaving his entire estate to his wife Grace in order to "tie and bind them [his children] the more to be loving and dutiful to their tender and careful mother". John Cary was an adult in 1633 and came to Plymouth the next year. Grace's will in 1668 leaves her son John, "if living" a shilling. That suggests that she and her son John were estranged. These circumstances roughly parallel the family tradition that John Cary came to Plymouth in 1834 following a dispute over his father's estate.
More About John Cary and Elizabeth Godfrey: Marriage: Nov 04, 1644, Duxbury, Plymouth, MA.
Children of John Cary and Elizabeth Godfrey are:
+Francis Cary, b. Jan 19, 1646/47, DUXBURY, MA., d. 1718, Bridgewater, MA.
+John Cary, b. Nov 04, 1645, Duxbury, MA, d. Jul 14, 1721, Bristol, RI.
+Elizabeth Cary, b. Dec 20, 1649, Duxbury, MA, d. 1723, Bridgewater, MA.
+James Cary, b. Mar 28, 1652, Braintree, MA, d. Nov 20, 1706, Bridgewater, MA.
John Cary (b. 1610, d. Oct 31, 1681)
Notes for John Cary: