Was John Burroughs, born 1609, Great Yarmouth, John of Enfields father?

In this post, I will attempt to support a theory that John Burroughs of Enfield (1651-1693) was in fact born in Salem Village to John Burroughs of Great Yarmouth in 1651.

Two lines of Burroughs in America have attempted to claim John Burroughs of Yarmouth/Salem Village, the cooper born in 1609, as their ancestor. They are the Burrows family of Plymouth Massachusetts and the Burroughs family of Newtown Long Island. Both groups have some pretty significant problems with the claim. From the Burroughs DNA project,  it has been shown that these three lines are all separate genetically from each other. That is to say, they are not related. Please read the page, The Slovak Yankee discredits the claims to John of Yarmouth.

Here is what is leading me to believe that John of Enfield was probably born in Salem Village or that general area in 1651.

1.) From Francis Olcott Allens’ ” the History of Enfield Connecticut” Vol. I  he makes it clear that almost all of the original settlers of Enfield came from the greater Salem area. This fact is repeated in a second source; “The Annals of Salem” page 224  Fresh-Water Brook  (Enfield) – This was the name of territory which anciently belonged to Springfield,  It was set off by the parent town in 1681, an was mostly settled by emigrants from Salem. A search of the early records of Salem and Essex County between 1670 and 1680 turned up four references to a John Burroughs in Salem, all between 1672 and 1681. Our John first appears in the Enfield records in 1681.  The fact that a John Burroughs, born in 1651, was a resident of Salem Village, the area from which the founders of Enfield originated leads me to beleive that John of Enfield, in fact lived in Salem village from at least 1672 until 1681, before emigrating to Enfield.

2.) The most significant source implying that John was a second generation resident of Salem is the petition John Burroughs signed in 1679 in support of James Bayley as Minister to the Salem Village flock. Point 3 of this document states that “there are but about 11 or 12 church-members amongst us and about 50 freeholders with the church-members, living on their own land, all Englishmen and most of them town-born children. John Burroughs signiture is on this document.

3.) The two records in which this John Burroughs of Salem states his age, both line up correctly with John Burroughs of Enfields age.

4.) My conclusion is based on pure common sense, about 200 families lived in the greater Salem Village area in 1640-1650. One family carried the surname Burroughs and his name was the same, John Burroughs with his wife Anne. This John would have been 41 years old when John of Enfield was born. Well within the norms of fathering children. John and Anne basically disappear from the records after 1644. Other genealogist have taken this to mean they either relocated or died. The first significant fact suggesting John and Anne Burroughs no longer were part of the Salem community was a redistribution of John of Yarmouth land in Salem. This information  comes in September of 1656 from a land deed. (On 1 9 mo. 1656, Phillip Cromwell sold land to Francis Skerry that is partly described as “one acre of it was Richard Leache Sr.’s and 1 1/2 acres that was John Leaches and 1/2 acre Robert Leaches situated between land of Robert Fuller and an acre of land of John Burrows on the West butting on the North River.” [Essex County Deeds 1:81]) This is five years after the birth of John of Enfield in 1651. Any record of the sale of John of Yarmouths lands has yet to be found, can we  assume that it was simply redistributed by the town?  If both John and Anne had in fact died, then what would have become of young John of Enfield?

5.) I have found a record of a young (age 9-10) John Burroughs, working as a boat boy on a ship operating out of Boston Harbor in 1661. I do not know if this is our John Burroughs or not. 

• Horsham.-In Suffolk Deeds, Lib. 3 folios 365 and 366, there are recorded two executions of John Horsham, master of the “ship Sampson no in Harbor of Boston, burden ninety Tonnes or thereabouts,” against “Thomas Langly merchant & ouno’ of 15-16^th therof,” in satisfaction of a judgement granted him by a “Speciall Court Sitting In Boston, 27 Aprill, 1660 For So much due, for his oune & Companys, wages, for Service donne in sajd ship” and “for money” by him dis-burst on said ship” Then follow the executions of “George Robinson mate,” ‘Charles Barnaby Chirurgeon,” “ John Burrowes boatswajne,” “Robert Boyd gunner’” “Richard warrington mariner,” “Henry Terry Cook” and “John Touler Cooper of sajd ship” against the master, all recorded at the request of said John Horsam, 14 May 1660.

Here are some Facts concerning the Immigrant John Burroughs who arrived 1637 Port of Boston

1.)    John BOROWE/BURROWE  came over in 1637 on the ship Mary Anne.  He was a cooper from Yarmouth, age 28 and with him was his wife Anne, age 40.  The ship landed in Boston, but the passenger list says that John and Anne were bound for Salem.  No children were listed with them.

1. Source order: 10-15 May. Examinations of passengers to New England on the Mary Anne of Yarmouth, Mr. William Goose:
2. John Borowe of Yarmouth, cooper aged 28 and Anne his wife aged 40, to Salem to inhabit.

2.)    Source: A History of Salem Massachusetts, Sidney Perley, 1924 Salem Mass.

1. P.313 Map of lots
2. P.314   lot 62. John Burrows
3. P.443 Mr. John Youngs, Thomas Oliver, Samuel Greenfield, John Borows, Frances Felmingham and Mathew Smith were received as Inhabitants… John Burroughs was a cooper, and came from Yarmouth, England, in the Mary Ann, at the same time, aged twenty-eight, with his wife Ann, aged forty, He was allowed five acres of land.
4. P.449-450 At a town meeting November 8, 1637… (p-450)  John Borowes was granted five acres of land in addition to the five acres already granted to him.
5. P.460-462 The following list, in the handwriting of Roger Conant, occupies two leaves of the town records.  It is apparently a record of the division of the marsh and meadow ordered to be assigned and laid out to the families as a town meeting, Dec. 25, 1637. The figure before each name gives the number of persons in the family. The figure after each name gives the amount of land to which each one was entitled, as one acre, three-quarters, one-half. Families consisting of three persons or less apparently had at first three quarters and afterward only two quarters; of four or five persons three quarters of an acre; and of six or more persons an acre… P462    2. Jo: Burroes   2
6. P.158 March 25, 1644, the town made several changes in the surveyors of the fences in some of the fields…; and John Burroughs in the field where George Williams “is,” in place of Thomas Weeks.

3) John appears to have tried Virginia first:

http://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/constance.htm

Passengers on Ship Constance from London England to Virginia 1635, 24 Oct 1635

Aboard the Constance, Clement Campion Master bound to Virginea.
Burrows John 18

http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tova_constance1635.shtml

The Mary Ann 10-15 May. Examinations of passengers to New England on the Mary Anne of Yarmouth, Mr. William Goose:

Borowe John 28, Cooper from Yarmouth, bound for Salem

Borowe Anne 40 Burges [—] 26, servant for John Gedney

Here is the source of John on the Mary Anne

10-15 May. Examinations of passengers to New England on the Mary Anne of Yarmouth, Mr. William Goose: John Borowe of Yarmouth, cooper aged 28 and Anne his wife aged 40, to Salem to inhabit.