William Acie1

b. circa 1595

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
     William Acie was born circa 1595 in Eppleworth, Skidby Parish, Yorkshire, England.1 He married Margaret Haiton on 25 March 1620 in Kirk Ella, Yorkshire, England.2 His will was proved on 30 September 1690 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts.1
     
     William Acie came from Eppleworth near Hull, England, and was one of the first settlers of Rowley, Massachusetts2 where he was made freeman 31: 1: 1646 (31 March 1646). He was on the grand jury in 1649-1652, and trial jury in 1658 and 1659, and although his right to serve on any jury in the county was withdrawn in 1660, he again served on the grand jury in 1665 and 1668-1671, and on the trial jury in 1664.3

     Rev. Ezekiel Rogers arrived in New England in 1638 with many of his followers from Yorkshire, and they spent the winter of 1638/39 in Boston. This company was granted a township on 13 March 1638/39, and, on 4 September 1639, the court ordered that "Mr. Ezechi[el] Rogers plantation shall be called Rowley."

     The people of Rowley, it appears, labored together and in common, for nearly five years before any land was alloted.
The survey of the towne of Rowley, taken the tenth of the eleaventh Anno Dni 1643, by Mr. Thomas Nelson, Mr. Edward Carleton, Humphrey Reyner, Francis Parrot, appointed for that purpose by the fremen of the said towne, who also are to regester the severall lotts of all the inhabitants granted and laid out, and to leave thereof a coppy with the Recorder or the Sheire, according to the order of the General Court.
     William Acie, his wife and children, may have been among the eighteen or nineteen Yorkshire families who came to New England with Rogers, but there is no proof. They were, however, with the Rogers Company when settlement was made at Rowley, the number by then having increased to about sixty families. When the land was surveyed in 1643, each freeman or family was granted at least 1½ acres. Those who had contributed to the 800 pounds Rogers paid for his plantation were alloted more. Acie had contributed to that fund, as his grant on Holmes Street, was for two acres:4
To William Acy, one house lott containinge two acrees, bounded on the north side and east end by the streete.5
Additional Data
Master Henery Shawell of Rouly, presented 30: 7: 1651, for a battery upon William Asey of Rowly, taking him by the throat and throwing him against the ------, calling him base rogue and saying he would be hanged for lying. Wit: William Asey and Mihill Emerson.6

In March 1660, "The rights of Joseph Medcalfe, Richard Swan and William Acye, to serve on any jury in the county were withdrawn, on complaint of several of the jury of last Ipswich court that a writing, attested by them, had been given in to the last Court of Assistants, reflecting much dishonor upon said jurors and causing much trouble from their want of attendance, neglect of duty and oaths of jurymen."7

Bond, dated 7 March 1671/72, given by Samuell Bishop of Ipswich to Abell Langley of Rowley, for 106li. 18s., to be paid in wheat and barley at said Langley's dwelling house, to secure him for a debt of 53li. 9s. in wheat, barley and pork. Wit:: William Acie and Sarah Bishop. Acknowledged, Apr. 1, 1679, by Acie before Jo. Woodbridge, associate, and by Sarah Bishop before Robert Lord, cleric. John Acie also made oath to his father Wm. Acie's signature.8

His will dated 22 April 1689, and proved 30 September 1690, speaks of himself as "very aged." It mentions his grandchildren John Brown, Nathaniel Brown and Ebenezer Brown; "grandchild Beriah Brown's daughter Sarah Brown"; son John Acy's three daughters, Elizabeth, Hannah and Margaret; grandson John Brown, "with whom he is at present" was made sole executor.9

Children of William Acie and Margaret Haiton

Citations

  1. [S887] Jeanne Mitchell Jordan Tabb, comp., Ancestor Lineages of Members Texas Society National Society Colonial Dames Seventeenth Century (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1996), 1.
  2. [S888] Julia Locke Frame Bunce, Some of the Ancestors of the Reverend John Selby Frame and his Wife Clara Winchester Dana (n.p.: Printed for private distribution, 1948), 287.
  3. [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, I: 175, 197, 232, 260; II: 111, 168; III: 182, 270; IV: 46, 175, 278, 326.
  4. [S882] George Burbank Sedgeley, The Genealogy of the Burbank Families (Farmington, Maine: The Knowlton & MCLeary Company, 1928), 7.
  5. [S886] Thomas Gage, The History of Rowley, Anciently Including Bradford, Boxford, and Georgetown, from the Year 1639 to the Present Time, 2 vols. (Boston: Ferdinand Andrews, 1840), 2: 128.
  6. [S855] George Francis Dow, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, I:250.
  7. [S855] George Francis Dow, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, II: 198.
  8. [S855] George Francis Dow, Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, VII: 178.
  9. [S888] Julia Locke Frame Bunce, Ancestors of Frame and Dana, 287, citing Essex Court files 49: 93.