Mary FERRIS

Mary married Lieut. Jonathan LOCKWOOD in 1665. Jonathan (son of Robert LOCKWOOD and Susannah NORMAN) was born on 10 Sep 1634 in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts; died on 12 May 1688 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Jonathan LOCKWOOD, Jr. died on 09 Nov 1689 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
2. Robert LOCKWOOD was born in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA; died between 7 May 1731 - 23 Jan 1732 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
3. Gershom LOCKWOOD
4. Joseph LOCKWOOD was born in 1675 in Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA; died in 1759 in Poundridge, Westchester, New York, USA.
5. Still John LOCKWOOD was born about 1674 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA; died in 1758 in Greenwich, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
6. Sarah LOCKWOOD was born in 1678.
7. Abigail LOCKWOOD

Mary married Thomas MERRITT after 1688. Thomas was born about 1634. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
"Connecticut Ancestry": Jeffrey Ferris was born in England say about 1610, and died at Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut probably about November 1666. Various reports circulate on the internet giving his birthplace in England in an assortment of places usually Leicestershire, and some of these give his father as one Richard Ferris, born in 1585. None of these reports has been confirmed or substantiated for this present compilation....

He was married (at least) three ties, but none of the marriages seem to have been recorded in Connecticut records. The death of his first (?) wife, probably the mother of all of his children, was recorded at Stamford, but her name has not yet been determined. She died at Greenwich on the 31st day, 5th month(July) 1658, during the time of the epidemic of what is thought to have been malaria that claimed so many Stamford lives in that time period. the Stamford record of her death is partially lost because the original page is deteriorated, but Donald L. Jacobus transcribed the entry in 1933 as "( )ne wife of Jeffrey Ferris." No further identification or explanation has been found.

The Rev. Elijah Baldwin Huntington, Stamford's first historian, while not naming Jeffrey's first wife, reported a tradition regarding her that may or may not eventually be confirmed by future researchers:
"Tradition invests the emigration of this (Jeffrey Ferris) family to this country with the hues of romantic adventure - the ancestress, high born, following her plebian lover out into this western world, to share with him here the fortunes which English aristocracy would not allow there."

Jeffrey married second, possibly in December 1658, Mrs. Susannah (Norman) Lockwood, born say 1615, the daughter of richard Norman of Salem, Massachusetts, and widow of Robert Lockwood who died in Fairfield before 11 September 1658 when his inventory was taken. Robert Lockwood was at Watertown during the period 1634-1646, and the couple must have been acquainted at that time and place. She had 11 children from her first marriage, 10 of whom were living in 1658, and many of them were young enough to move to Stamford with her when she married Ferris. Susannah (Norman) (Lockwood) Ferris died at Greenwich on 23 December 1660.

Jeffrey Ferris' third wife was Judith (Feake) Palmer, daughter of James Feake and widow of Lieutenant William Palmer. She had four young boys with her when she joined Jeffrey's household. His will set aside ten pounds apiece "to her four children that is to say this four boyes which I brought up and kept." After Jeffrey's death in 1666, she married as her third husband, John Bowers, and used his name in 1667 when receipting for her share in the settlement of Jeffrey's estate.

He was in America by 6 May 1635 when he was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, presumable a resident of Watertown at the time. he joined with other Watertown residents in their establishment of Wethersfield, Connecticut, probably later in that same year of 1635. He recorded his homestead in the Wethersfield land records on 26 April 1641, prior to selling a portion to William Comstock in that same year. he continued to hold land in Wethersfield until 1645, when he disposed of the remainder of his property there to John Deming. An early Glastonbury historian found by analyzing the Wethersfield Land Records that Jeffrey Ferris owned land in the eastern portion of Wethersfield at Naubuc Farms, on the east side of the Connecticut River at what is now Glastonbury.

In 1640-1641 he joined with those other members of the Watertown/Wethersfield party who went on to become the founders and settlers of Stamford, and his name appears on most of the surviving lists of the earliest Stamford residents. He then purchased land in greenwich from William Hallett and moved there about 1650. His connections with both Stamford and Greenwich constituted almost a dal citizenship, considering the different jurisdictions that controlled these two towns during their infancy.....

According to historian Jeanne Majdalany, Jeffrey Ferris was the operator of Stamford's town mill in the early years, and his sons were probably a great help in this endeavor.

Paul Prindle transcrived the will of Jeffrey Ferris in full for his book, "Gillespie Ancestors". The following excerpts provide us with information on his children and grandchildren that cannot be found anywhere else: "my sonn James Fferris...my sonn Jonothan Lockwood...my daughter Mary Lockwood...her husband Jonothan Lockwood...my son Peter Fferris his three children...my sonn Joseps two children...

Jeffrey married Mary ?. Mary was born about 1612; died on 31 Jul 1658 in Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]