John Bridges - Bridge father and son??

Here are a couple of sites that quote the 1992 Richardson article

https://www.sargentrivia.com/g0/p41.htm#i818

http://woodswell.com/family/genealogy/p165.htm

Douglas Richardson, "The Heath connection: English origins of Isaac and William Heath of Roxbury, Massachusetts, John Johnson, Edward Morris,", New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg. 146 (1992):261-278 (1992). Hereinafter cited as "The Heath connection."

Probably online at AmericanAncestors.org

It is not clear to me how he’s getting Grace born and where.

If her parents were early settlers of Roxbury, wouldn't they be written about somewhere in the history of Roxbury? I don't find any Betts there, so maybe she WAS the daughter of someone who had remarried. Or since she was married in Boston (which I know Roxbury is part of), maybe she was from another part of Boston?

This is interesting:
https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist00morr/page/2

Grace Burr?
https://archive.org/details/genealogicaldic03savarich/page/235

The compiler doesn’t like Burr. He is inclined to Betts or Bell.

There are some points to think about from this study.

- it does not appear Edward Morris (originally Morrison ?) returned to England after emigrating as a child. Therefore Grace was met & married in Roxbury for sure, which means either she emigrated as a child, was born here, or emigrated as a widow Betts (or Bell). But if she was a widow one might expect some property settlement in his will she brought to her second marriage, reference to “brothers” etc.

Origins for Roxbury families was County Essex, and Woodstock CT was a daughter of Roxbury. Different set of proprietors etc from the Widow Betts of New Haven, or the Bridge family of Cambridge (originally the New Towne).

There are some prominent & studied families mentioned: Ruggles, Johnson ... the Geni trees should be good for them as I know at least two curators from those families. :). There’s also a Geni project for First Families of Roxbury, take a look !

There is a Thomas Bell family on Geni.

You want to also look for Church Records. “Grace” (which sounds Puritan to me) is an easier Name than the ubiquitous Mary & Elizabeth.

If she was an emigrant perhaps she was serving in a household of one of Edward’s associates. I think this less likely. Or since we don’t have a Betts family in the area, or the compiler would have mentioned, an orphaned relative (cousin, step daughter, sister ...).

At this period it was Roxbury or Dorchester, and that Charles River was a big dividing line. It’s all about the property as the settlements expanded. Big fights! Church schisms!

Study Edward Morris and his origins. Man on the move, lots of kids, no nasty mentions in records. His wife was “of his sort.”

I just googled “Waltham Abbey Betts” and came up with a location in Nazeing, Essex, which is associated with My Favorite Puritan, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Eliot_(missionary)_

The early Bell families

https://www.accessgenealogy.com/genealogy/other-bells-of-new-englan...

About Thomas Bell of Roxbury

https://books.google.com/books?id=WZoiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA39&lpg=...

Tree for Thomas Bell of Boston

Thomas Bell, of Boston

Good suggestions. I'm about to max out on this! (at least for tonight!)
Who is "the compiler" that you mentioned?

Compiler, first link

A genealogical and historical register of the descendants of Edward Morris of Roxbury, Mass., and Woodstock, Conn.
by Morris, Jonathan Flynt, 1822-1899. Publication date 1887

2nd link is to Savage, who did an amazing heroic job with his dictionary of everyone, but has to be double checked against other sources.

In general, a family historian delves into more detail & analysis that what the encyclopedians did. Many caveats of course, but you’ve been hitting good ones. You’re lucky; my Reade historian is just terrible.

OK, right, I see "the compiler" on that link now - hadn't paid attention to that before, as I skimmed to the Grace Bett part..
I'll have to look into this further later. Thanks.

The Bell Families

https://archive.org/stream/bellfamilyinamer00week#page/9/mode/1up

- Thomas of Charlestown in 1655
- Abraham of Charlestown in 1647
- James of Taunton in 1650
- Thomas of Roxbury (returned to England), daughter Sarah b 1640 & son John b & d 1643
- Thomas of Boston in 1637 (family already linked, children b starting 1638)
- John of Sandwich in 1643
- John, passenger of the Hopewell in 1635
- Francis of Stamford in 1640

——

No Grace anywhere. And children seem to have been born later than her estimated 1635 Birth date.

So if she’s a Bell, looking at a relative or solo emigrant?

I looked at that same book and did a search on "Grace" - nothing.
With no Bells or Betts in America that would fit with Grace, I'm thinking she must have been an immigrant, maybe a child or household helper brought over by another family. I've been searching for clues in England, too, the Waltham Abbey, Nazing, Essex area and have found nothing.
I looked more at Thomas of Roxbury, but if the dates are correct, that wouldn't work even if Grace was an unlisted daughter.

So where did her birth date & place of

Birth: August 30, 1634
Roxbury (within present Boston), Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Come from ? (I unlocked the fields).

Vital Records of Roxbury and Boston need to be “visited,” also First Church.

Nice Biography about Thomas Bell of Roxbury & London

Private User14/forest-hills-and-the-bell-bequest-to-roxbury-latin-school.html

“Thomas Bell returned to England in late 1647. He took with him his wife Susanna and their four children, three of whom (all daughters) were born in Roxbury; their son Thomas, then age fourteen, had lived there almost his whole life. They settled back into the London merchant community, and by 1651 lived in Seething Lane in the ancient parish of All Hallows Church, between the Tower of London and the commercial center of Cornhill. Their children grew up to be merchants and the wives of merchants (Moore, p. 104). One of their neighbors after 1660 was the diarist Samuel Pepys. He and the Bells survived both the plague of 1660 and the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Thomas Bell was part of that great number of Puritans who returned to England, a phenomenon not well known. ...”

There is in fact a book published recently about the returning Puritans.

I’m wondering if any of the geography & affiliations resonate with Edward Morris.

Let’s try that link again ... it’s getting stuck.

The page is called

Thomas Bell's Bequest to Roxbury Latin School and Forest Hills. From the Jamaica Plain Historical Society

https://www.forest-hills-and-the-bell-bequest-to-roxbury-latin-scho...

More Disputed family (sigh)

Thomas Bell Biography says Katherine Meakins was his sister, Anderson disagrees:

Katherine Meakins

From https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Katherine_Greene_%281%29

“Thomas Makins, my sister’s son, in New England” is mentioned in the will of Thomas Bell (who returned to England from Roxbury in 1648), made 29 Jan 1671 in London (NEHGR 38:63), leading to the frequent citation of Katherine’s last name as Bell. However, Thomas Bell was a wealthy merchant from Suffolk (Great Migration 1634-5, p. 1:237), while Katherine and Thomas first appear as servants of Edmund Quincy, from Northampton. Also, Thomas Bell was much younger than Katherine, more the age of her son Thomas.[2] So possibly this reference is to Sarah, the wife of Katherine's son Thomas, and their son Thomas. However, the will also refers to "the other child of my said sister, whose name I remember not". However, Sarah had more than two children born before Thomas Bell left Roxbury, unless this ignores the daughters, and refers to Sarah's other son Joseph. Possibly, it refers to a completely unrelated "Thomas Makins"?

Just in case there might be a naming pattern clue

Grace Morris’s daughters
1. Grace 2. Elizabeth 3. Margaret 4. Martha

Sons
1. Isaac 2. Edward 3. Ebenezer 4. Samuel

Edward Morris parents: Thomas & Grissie [Hewsone]

VR of Roxbury - births

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015037392142;view=1up;...

I see there's no Bett or Bell in the Roxbury VR, which (if that is complete, and who knows) supports my theory that she was an immigrant and came with another family or as a single girl? (Did women come alone back then?).

Edward was born in Great Armwell, Hertfordshire, which according to Google maps is 7.3 mi from Nazeing and about 10 miles from Waltham Abbey. Maybe they knew each other in England and she followed him to Roxbury.

From what I've read (somewhere), there's no record of the immigration of either of them. And the geni bio says his name may have been Morrison. It also says, "See NEHGR 146:277 for most recent research." Do you have access to that?

They obviously didn't name their kids after Edward's parents (unless Grissie is a nickname for Grace, but that's also Ed's wife's name). So who knows if they named anyone after HER parents. But I'll look for an Isaac Bett (or the other names) in England.

Oh, the "Thomas Bell's Bequest to Roxbury Latin School and Forest Hills" link didn't work for me, either.

So since Thomas Bell took his children back to England with him, that eliminates him as the father of Grace.

Here's another link to that site:
Private User14/forest-hills-and-the-bell-bequest-to-roxbury-latin-school.html

Weird - the link didn't paste as I copied it! Let me try doing it differently -
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sou...

I did a google search and then copied the link location of the first site of the search. And it worked!

Somehow that link associates itself with a Geni profile. Totally strange & glad it wasn’t just me.

My theory is that Grace was in Thomas Bell of Roxbury’s household. Ward? Sister? Servant? Wife’s relative?

From https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist00morr/page/2

“After his marriage - how soon and in what manner is not known - of land .... in her immediate neighborhood of Thomas Bell’s house ....”

That property and the name could have been Bell on the Marriage register.

Not a smoking gun but definitely smoking.

In other words, isn’t it rather much a coincidence that Edward Morris acquires land next to Thomas Bell after he marries a woman who could have been a Bell?

I don’t think daughter of an earlier marriage, they were wealthier, and probably there are records.

From what I gather of Edward’s career trajectory, he wasn’t born with a silver spoon. He worked his way up. Implies middle class origins. A wife from a rich yet pious man’s household would have been a good fit; these puritans were very interested in matchmaking.

Oops Richardson & Anderson disagree about Edward’s mother, they have her as Prudence Heath; thats Another NEHGS article you’ll want. AmericanAncestors.org

Here’s Edward’s sister, who came over as a Giddings household servant.

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Elizabeth_Morrison_%2825%29

Richardson, Douglas. The Heath Connection: English Origins of Isaac and William Heath of Roxbury, Massachusetts, John Johnson, Edward Morris, and Elizabeth (Morris) Cartwright. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jul 1992), 146:277.

Elizabeth1 (Morrison), bp. at Great Amwell, Herts., 11 Feb. 1623/4; d. at Roxbury, Mass., 6 Oct. 1673; m. by 15 July 1664 (perhaps earlier) Edward Cartwright of Boston, mariner, who d. ca. 10 Aug. 1671, "miscarried in a boat at sea and supposed to be drowned." She is almost certainly the Elizabeth Morrison, age 12, who came to New England in 1635, on the Planter as a servant in the family of George Giddings. No issue.

And here’s uncle Isaac Morrison, also came as a household servant

https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Isaac_Morrison_%284%29

——-

Edward himself came later according to Anderson (which I’m not sure I agree - want to see Richardson).

But we have 2 confirmed siblings as servants, after their father the bargeman’s death.

I’ll bet it’s the mother Heath who had the connections to place her children in good households.

Another suggestion that Grace also came as a servant. But would have to be in the Bell area of origin, or even London; not the Great Amwell area.

These Heath’s take you back, so cool.

To your first post of this last series (Somehow that link associates itself with a Geni profile. Totally strange & glad it wasn’t just me.) -
How does it associate itself with a geni profile? I don't see evidence of that when I click the link. I wonder if it's because I was on Geni when I copied the link? I can delete the post I wrote with that link if you want.

Regarding the rest of your most recent posts - WOW!!! Lots of info to digest!

This site - https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:Edward_Morris_%283%29 - has Edward's parents as Edward Morrison and Prudence Heath (not Thomas Morrison as the father). It also says Edward was born posthumously. So maybe Thomas and Grissie adopted him?