John Stone1

d. 1667

7th great-grandfather of Ruth Minerva Fairfield.
9th great-grandfather of Laura Jane Munson.
Family Background:
Fairfield and Allied Families
Appears on charts:
Pedigree for Ruth Minerva Fairfield
     John Stone married second (at least) Ellen (or Eleanor) (—?—) Haskell, widow of William Haskell of Charlton Musgrove, Somerset, after 1630 It is not known if they married in England or America.2 He died between 1667 when the last record of him is found, and 1677 when his son John and his wife are referred to as "John Stone, Sr. and wife Abigail."1
     
     John Stone was living in Salem in 1636, and possibly earlier.1 He kept the ferry from from Massey's Cove where he lived, to Bass River (Beverly) in that year and until 1639. In 1636 he was fined under a law against taking excessive wages, this economic measure being thought necessary in the colony because of the tremendous labor to be performed and the scarcity of hands to perform it. He shared in the land grants of 1636, 1637 and 1639. Several lawsuits are recorded in which he figures - as plaintiff against Richard Hollingsworth (1636), John Luff (1640), and as defendant in cases brought by Thorndike (1640) and Frances Perry (1641) - but the particulars and evidence were not recorded or have not survived. William Bowdich was fined ten shillings in 1641 for misinforming the court and causing John Stone to be unjustly fined.

     Stone was freed from military training in 1650 because of his age and an "infirmity in an arm." In 1653 John Stone, Sr., John Stone, Jr., and Nathaniel Stone brought an action against Ralph Elwood but withdrew it before trial. The latter part of his life was doubtless spent at "Cape Ann side" (Beverly) where, in 1662, he sold seven acres of land to William Dodge, but with use and occupation reserved during the life of "Eelener my now wife."3

     John Stone was married at least twice, as Eleanor is not the mother of the older, and probably not the younger, of the two sons who have been identified with their father in New England. (William Haskell died in 1630).2

Additional Data
Roger Haskell in his will made in 1667 leaves to "my son Marke... land my father in law (stepfather) John Stone liue[s] upon after his decease." In seventeenth-century jargon, "father in law" was the customary phrase for stepfather, as well as for the father of a spouse.2

At Salem Quarterly Court in June 1676, reference was made to an agreement reached 28: 6: 1665 ( 28 August 1665) by the following inhabitants of the field on Cape Ann side (Beverly): William dickse, Samuel Corning, Josiah Roots, sr., Thomas Pickton, John Galley, henery Bayley, John lovet, jr., Thomas Tuck, Richard Stackhouse, hugh Woodbury by William dixey, William hoare by John Galleys, Richard haines, Thomas Chub, John Stone (or his son John Stone), and Raph Ellingwood.4

Children of John Stone

Citations

  1. [S845] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Stone, of Beverly and Arundel," Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), Vol. III, 378, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  2. [S845] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Stone, of Beverly and Arundel," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 378, 379, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  3. [S845] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Stone, of Beverly and Arundel," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 378, citing Essex Deeds, 3: 60, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  4. [S855] George Francis Dow, ed., Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, 9 vols. (Salem: Essex Institute, 1911-1973). Transcribed and Abstracted from the Original Manuscript by Harriet S. Tapley, VI: 147.
  5. [S845] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Stone, of Beverly and Arundel," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 379, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).
  6. [S845] Walter Goodwin Davis, "Stone, of Beverly and Arundel," Massachusetts and Maine Families, Vol. III, 380, originally published in The Ancestry of Sarah Stone (1930).