Notizen zu dieser Person
Thomas, his wife Elizabeth, five sons and one daughter, came to America in the great emigration, under the leadership of John Winthrop, in 1630. He is listed among the passengers of the ship "Lyon" as Thomas Williams (The Winthrop Fleet of 1630, Banks) and continued to use the name "Thomas Williams alias Harris" in later records. The Lyon sailed from Bristol, bringing emigrants from the western counties of England, making port in Salem in the latter part of May 1630 some two weeks before the arrival of the governor in the "Arbella." His name first appears in colonial records on September 18, 1630, (Thomas Williams), as a member of the jury of inquest, regarding William Bateman, who died from illness at Pullen Point in Boston harbor, after a voyage from Plymouth. On October 19, 1630, as "Thomas Williams alias Harris", Thomas applied to the court to be made a freeman of the colony and was admitted as Thomas Williams on May 18, 1631, taking the required oath. On that same day the court recorded that: "Tho: Williams hath undertaken to sett opp a fferry betwixte Winnisimmet & Charlton, for which hee is to have 3d a person, & from Winnettsemt to Boston, 4d a person." Winnisimmet later became Chelsea and is where the family lived. Thomas died before September 1634, when his widow married William Stilson, who took over the ferry. Many years later, on June 15, 1680, Stilson, aged about eigthy years, testified that "Thomas Harris lived at Winnisimmet, about forty nine years since & was wont to transport persons over the Rivers, to Charlestowne & Boston till he died, and after that I married his Widdow, and kept the fferry as my predessors did." (Middlesex County Court, 1671-1680, p. 297) Why Thomas Harris used the double surname Williams alias Harris has never been ascertained. It is possible that, after the death of his father, his mother married a Williams and the sons were commonly called by the name of the step-father. It may also be that he was apprenticed as a small boy to a Williams and went by his master's name, that relationship was often much stronger than a purely business one. There is also the possibility that for some personal reason affecting his proposed emigration it was advisable to assume a new name. Elizabeth ________ (Williams alias Harris) Stilson died in Charlestown February 16, 1670 at the age of ninety-three, which would place her date of birth at 1578 or 1579. Stilson (tweny years her junior) survived her remarried Mary, widow of Major francis Norton. In his will, dated April 12, 1688, Stilson devised as follows: "I give and bequeath unto John Harris, Thomas Harris, William Harris, Daniel Harris and Anna Maverick, Relict widow of Elias Maverick, Deceased, the children of my first wife, to each of them five shillings, to be paid them Six months after my Decease" (Middlesex Probate File No. 21376) It is evident from the above that by this time the family had revereted to their rightful surname Harris, rather than Williams or a combination of the two.
William B.
