John PICKERING

Abt 1615 - Bef 1657  (~ 42 years)

• Name	John PICKERING
  Birth	Abt 1615	Probably Coventry, Warwickshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Will	30 Jul 1655	Salem, Essex County, MA
  Death	Bef 1 Jul 1657	Salem, Essex County, MA
  Probate	1 Jul 1657	Essex County, MA
  Notes	(1) This John PICKERING is commonly known as John PICKERING of Salem, MA, to distinguish him from John PICKERING of Portsmouth, NH, the patriarch of another line of probably unrelated PICKERINGs. (2) Source: Ellery, Harrison and Bowditch, Charles Pickering, The Pickering Genealogy, Vol. I, 1897, pp. 2-27. (3) Griffeth, Bill, "Breaking Down the John Pickering Brick Wall," American Ancestors Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer 2012), pp. 29-31: My wife Cindy's Paternal Grandmother, Jennie Mae, was a Pickering. Her family extends back roughly 400 years, from the gold fields of Deadwood, South Dakota, through the rolling hills of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and finally to the shores of Salem, Massachusetts, to the immigrant John Pickering (c. 1615-1657). In 1651, John Pickering built a home for his family on what is now 18 Broad Street in Salem, a house that still stands in modified form, and is still owned and occupied by John Pickering's descendants. The Pickering House is the oldest continuously occupied home by a single family in the United States. John Pickering's unknown origins have long frustrated genealogists. He was obviously English. The Pickering name emerged from the moors of North Yorkshire in the eleventh century, and gradually spread out over the rest of England. But John's birthplace was unknown. A mammoth three-volume study of the family in 1897, The Pickering Genealogy: Being an Account of the First Three Generations of the Pickering Family of Salem began with this sentence: ["]No connection between any family of Pickerings in England and John Pickering of Salem has yet been established, and, in fact, no special effort has been made to discover such a connection.["] The book theorized that John was born in Yorkshire, an assumption based on "family tradition." And some Pickering descendants have tried to connect him to Sir Gilbert Pickering (1611-1668) of Titchmarsh, Northamptonshire, a confidant of Oliver Cromwell. But no documentation ever emerged that proved John's birthplace or a relationship with Sir Gilbert. In short, the origins of John Pickering of Salem have long been one of American genealogy's sturdiest brick walls. But we may have found a crack in that wall with the help of two documents. First, an entry in a well-known Boston-based notary's 1650 record book; and second - and most intriguing - a previously unknown 1632 English lease agreement recently uncovered by Cindy's brother in the archives of a museum in England's West Midlands. If both documents refer to the same Pickering family, and I'm going to show why we strongly believe they do, then we may have begun to solve this long-standing mystery. In 2009, my brother-in-law, Bill Haas, decided that we should try to scale the John Pickering brick wall. Bill was relatively new to genealogy and he had yet to lose the optimism new researchers enjoy before it begins to fade after years of encountering false leads and dead ends. I was skeptical. This was, after all, a very old brick wall. Plenty of well-qualified genealogists had no doubt already attempted to scale it without success, bur I played along. Our first step was to familiarize ourselves with John Pickering. He first appeared in Salem town records in February 7, 1637: "Jno. Pickering, Carpenter granted to be inhabitant." A year later, in 1638, John Pickering was commissioned by the town to build a meetinghouse and in March 1644, he was hired to keep a bridge in repair. A family Bible, quoted in The Pickering Genealogy, stated that John married his wife Elizabeth in 1636. They had four children: John Jr. and Jonathan, who grew to manhood, and two daughters who died as infants. In 1651 John Pickering completed construction of the house he built for his family, and lived there until his death in 1657. John and Jonathan inherited the Pickering House. During our early research Bill Haas found this entry, dated August 25th, 1650, in Aspinwall's Notarial Records: ["]John Pickering of Salem did constitute Mr. Thomas Potter of Childsmore his Attorney for him & in his name & to his use to enter & take possession of a certain house neere the Newgate in Coventry & the same to possesse for [t]he use of the said John Pickering (being his proper possession) until further order taken thereabout. Giving him power to commence & prosecute any action at law against any that shall hinder or interrupt him in the possession of the said house.["] William Aspinwall was the Suffolk County Clerk from 1644 to 1651, and thankfully his daily records have survived intact and have been an invaluable resource for generations of genealogical researchers. Bill and I examined in map and found that "Childsmore" (modern spelling Cheylesmore) is a district in Coventry. As it happened, Cindy, Bill, and I were traveling to England in February of 2010 with other NEHGS members to attend a genealogical conference in London, so we added a side trip to Coventry to do some research. We found that Coventry, Warwickshire, is a remarkably resilient city that has seen its share of economic booms and busts over the last six hundred years. It is perhaps most famous for the legend of Lady Godiva and her eleventh-century horseback ride in the altogether through in streets. After visiting local churches and libraries we learned that all of Warwickshire's vital records had recently been collected in a new research center in the Herbert Museum. We set up camp there and explained to the staff what we were seeking. Cindy was handed a roll of microfilm with old baptismal records, and Bill was ushered to another part of the library. Almost immediately Cindy found a record for a John Pickering born in Chelesmore in 1615. (The family Bible quoted in The Pickering Genealogy cited the same birth year for John Picketing of Salem). The microfilm record turned out to be an entry in the International Genealogical Index compiled by the Mormon Church. While the IGI plays a valuable role in the work of the Church, some submitted entries aren't supported by obvious primary sources. We found that to be the case here, and so, while we acknowledge the existence of this record, we decided not to use it to support our case. Forty-five minutes later, Bill Haas reappeared and announced that he had also found something. After conducting a thorough computerized search of the Herbert's archives he discovered a lease agreement dated June 15, 1632. A staff member retrieved the original document, which Bill briefly studied and photographed. The abstract read: ["]Whereby, in consideration of (BP) 7/10/-, John Pickering (of Coventry, carpenter) lets to Thomas Lole (of Barnacle, Warwickshire, yeoman) a messuage and garden on the eastern side of Much Park Street within New Gate (formerly two messuages and two tofts or gardens) which the former occupies: to be held for ten years at 12 d. per annum.["] Cindy remembered that the pastry shop where we had eaten breakfast that morning was located on Much Park Street. We hurried out of the museum and found that the shop was indeed at the corner of Earl and Much Park Streets. The three of us walked south on Much Park and found that the street extended only 250 yards before it dead-ended. We had hoped to come upon the New Gate mentioned in Aspinwall and in the newly discovered lease agreement, but it was nowhere to be found. We learned later that most of Coventry's gates were torn down long ago. After taking a few photographs, we went back to the museum to review our findings. We now had two documents - the entry in Aspinwall's Notarial Records and the lease agreement - which mentioned a piece of property owned by a John Pickering. But did both documents refer to the same piece of property? When we returned to the United States, I emailed Bill's photo of the original lease agreement to NEHGS researcher Rhonda McClure, and she sent back a transcription or this difficult-to-decipher document. Here is the critical passage in the lease agreement that described the property owned by John Pickering of Coventry: ["]lyeing and being in the Cittie of Coventry in a Certayne Sreete there called [Much]parke [Str]eete on the East Line of the same Streete within the new gate["] And here, once again, is how Aspinwall's Notarial Records described the property owned by John Pickering of Salem, Massachusetts: ["]. . . a certain house neere the Newgate in Coventry.["] Where exactly was this New Gate? We found a 1610 map of Coventry online that showed it on Much Park Street, roughly fifty yards south of where the street currently dead-ends. Could two unrelated John Pickerings have owned separate parcels of land near New Gate in the tiny Cheylesmore district of Coventry at roughly the same time? Possible, yes - but not likely. We believe the two documents refer to the same piece of property. Next we wondered about the identity of the John Pickering who leased the property. If John Pickering of Salem was indeed born around 1615, we felt he would have been too young at seventeen to have executed such an agreement. After we returned to the United States, Bill Haas found a record online for a "John Pickering, carpenter - the same description used on the lease agreement - who served on a jury in Coventry in 1607. At the very least, this additional record establishes the existence of a "John Pickering, carpenter" who would have been old enough to lease property in 1632. Was John Pickering the Coventry carpenter related to John Pickering, carpenter, of Salem? We believe he was; our theory is that they were father and son. In 1650, when the younger John Pickering of Salem appointed the Coventry attorney so secure the the property near the New Gate, the most logical conclusion is that the younger man's father had recently died, leaving the son in control of the property. (We should point out that a search of English probate from that time did not turn up a record for John Pickering.) Have we found the definitive proof necessary to dismantle this brick wall? That remains to be seen. But we believe that together the lease agreement and Aspinwall's entry make a strong case that John Pickering of Salem was from Coventry, England. The brick wall may still be standing, but we believe we have struck a blow that has left it teetering precariously. And I have Learned from my brother-in-law that brick walls should not always he viewed as dead-ends but rather as opportunities.
  Person ID	I31820	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth ALDERMAN,   b. Abt 1615, England d. 30 Oct 1662, Salem, Essex County, MA (Age ~ 47 years)
  Marriage	1636	Salem, Essex County, MA
  Children	1. Lt. John PICKERING,   b. 5 Jul 1637, Salem, Essex County, MA d. 5 May 1694, Salem, Essex County, MA (Age 56 years)   2. Jonathan PICKERING,   b. 10 Feb 1643, Salem, Essex County, MA d. 1729, Salem, Essex County, MA (Age 85 years)   3. Elizabeth PICKERING,   b. Bef 3 Mar 1644, Salem, Essex County, MA d. Bef 30 Jul 1655, Salem, Essex County, MA (Age < 11 years)   4. Elizabeth PICKERING,   b. Bef 31 Aug 1645, Salem, Essex County, MA d. Bef 30 Jul 1655, Salem, Essex County, MA (Age < 9 years)
  Family ID	F13831	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024