William SHEPARD

Abt 1570 - Abt 1615  (~ 45 years)

• Name	William SHEPARD
  Birth	Abt 1570	Fossecut, near Towcester, Northamptonshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 1615	Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
  Notes	(1) Thomas Shepard's Memoir of His Own Life, annotated and printed in Young, Alexander, Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay from 1623 to 1636, Boston, MA: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1846: My father's name was William Shepard, born in a little poor town in Northamptonshire, called Fossecut, near Towcester; and being a 'prentice to one Mr. Bland, a grocer, he married one of his daughters, of whom he begat many children, three sons, John, William, and Thomas, and six daughters, Ann, Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Hester, Sarah; of all which only John, Thomas, Anna, and Margaret, are still living in the town where I was born, viz. Towcester, in Northamptonshire, six miles distant from the town of Northampton, in Old England. I do well remember my father, and have some little remembrance of my mother. My father was a wise, prudent man, the peacemaker of the place; and toward his latter end much blessed of God in his estate and in his soul. For there being no good ministry in the town, he was resolved to go and live at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, under a stirring ministry, having bought a house there for that end. My mother was a woman much afflicted in conscience, sometimes even unto distraction of mind; yet was sweetly recovered again before she died. I being the youngest, she did bear exceeding great love to me, and made many prayers for me; but she died when I was about four years old, and my father lived, and married a second wife, now dwelling in the same town, of whom he begat two children, Samuel and Elizabeth, and died when I was about ten years of age. But while my father and mother lived, when I was about three years old, there was a great plague in the town of Towcester, which swept away many in my father's family, both sisters and servants. I being the youngest, and best beloved of my mother, was sent away the day the plague brake out, to live with my aged grandfather and grandmother in Fossecut, a most blind town and corner, and those I lived with also being very well to live, yet very ignorant. And there was I put to keep geese, and other such country work, all that time much neglected of them; and afterward sent from them unto Adthrop, a little blind town adjoining, to my uncle, where I had more content, but did learn to sing and sport, as children do in those parts, and dance at their Whitson Ales; until the plague was removed, and my dear mother dead, who died not of the plague, but of some other disease, after it. And being come home, my sister Ann married to one Mr. Farmer, and my sister Margaret loved me much, who afterward married to my father's 'prentice, viz. Mr. Mapler, and my father married again to another woman, who did let me see the difference between my own mother and a stepmother. She did seem not to love me, but incensed my father often against me; it may be that it was justly also, for my childishness. And having lived thus for a time, my father sent me to school to a Welshman, one Mr. Rice, who kept the free school in the town of Towcester. But he was exceeding curst and cruel, and would deal roughly with me, and so discouraged me wholly from desire of learning, that I remember I wished oftentimes myself in any condition, to keep hogs or beasts, rather than to go to school and learn. But my father at last was visited with sickness, having taken some cold upon some pills he took, and so had the hickets with his sickness a week together; in which time I do remember I did pray very strongly and heartily for the life of my father, and made some covenant, if God would do it, to serve Him the better, as knowing I should be left alone if he was gone. Yet the Lord took him away by death, and so I was left fatherless and motherless, when I was about ten years old; and was committed to my stepmother to be educated, who therefore had my portion, which was a ??100, which my father left me. But she neglecting my education very much, my brother John, who was my only brother alive, desired to have me out of her hands, and to have me with him, and he would bring me up for the use of my portion; and so at last it was granted. And so I lived with this my eldest brother, who showed much love unto me, and unto whom I owe much; for him God made to be both father and mother unto me.
  Person ID	I4728	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 1	--- BLAND   d. Abt 1608
  Children	1. John SHEPARD,   b. Abt 1599, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England d. Aft 16 Jul 1643, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England (Age ~ 44 years)   2. Rev. Thomas SHEPARD,   b. 5 Nov 1604, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England d. 25 Aug 1649, Cambridge, Middlesex County, MA (Age 44 years)   3. Elizabeth SHEPARD   4. Mary SHEPARD   5. Sarah SHEPARD   6. Hester SHEPARD   7. Margaret SHEPARD   8. William SHEPARD   d. Bef 1615, Towcester, Northamptonshire, England   9. Ann SHEPARD
  Family ID	F2679	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family 2	--- (SHEPARD)
  Marriage	Aft 1608
  Children	1. Samuel SHEPARD,   b. Abt 1613, England   2. Elizabeth SHEPARD,   b. England
  Family ID	F2680	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024