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Planters of Early New England; A Sketch of Roger Mowry Mann's Seventeenth-Century Ancestors; by Bruce Butler; xviii + 391 pp; Hardcover; 8.5x11; Published: 2009; ISBN: 9780806353975; Item # CF9931

Roger Mowry arrived in Naumkeag (later Salem), Massachusetts, in 1628. Roger Mowry was living in Providence, Rhode Island, as of 1650, and his home also housed one of the first taverns in that town. This handsome new book is a detailed genealogy of 162 known or presumed ancestors of the late Roger Mowry Mann (d. 2002) who were living in New England as of 1652. At the same time, Planters of Early New England examines the day-to-day life and important historical watersheds of the first fifty years in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It is thus about the convergence point of genealogy and history, and will appeal to both kinds of readers.

The 113 direct ancestors of Roger Mowry Mann who arrived during New England's Great Migration (1630--1639) settled in 14 of the original 19 towns of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Many figured in the founding of the towns of Salem, Roxbury, Concord, Rowley, Sudbury, Newbury, Chelmsford, Marlborough, Mendon, Bradford, and Hadley. Others were founders of the Rhode Island towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick; as well as Wethersfield, Milford, and possibly Guilford, Connecticut. Authors Marcia and Bruce Butler marshal an enormous number of primary sources to illustrate these ancestors' roles vis-a-vis the development of land, public service, religion, military service, and other aspects of daily existence.

Roger Mowry was the eleventh-generation ancestor of Roger Mowry Mann, and genealogists will find ample references to the Mowry Mann ancestry. The authors devote one chapter to pedigree charts of eleven great-great-great-great-grandparents of Roger Mowry Mann. Elsewhere researchers will find documentation for the pedigree charts of over 250 direct ancestors of Roger Mowry Mann, along with an index of these early planters. Two important and influential participants in the Massachusetts Bay Colony who figure prominently in this book are John Johnson and Hopestill Foster.The authors cover their lineages and contributions in considerable detail. There is also a study of Obadiah Holmes, a well-known Rhode Island Baptist minister. Along the way, readers will encounter a substantial amount of previously unpublished material transcribed from records of deeds and wills from many different towns and counties of New England. As luck would have it, thirty-four Mowry Mann ancestors were direct forebears of the following U.S. presidents: Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, William Howard Taft, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Gerald R. Ford, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Walker Bush. The authors bear witness to these auspicious connections. Boasting a current bibliography and name and place indexes, Planters of Early New England: A Sketch of Roger Mowry Mann's Seventeenth-Century Ancestors is a major addition to the literature of 17th-century New England history and genealogy.