ENGLISH ORIGINS OF THE LINCOLNSHIRE LINES
written by Sam Waite-Behling
This article was written from the findings of The American Genealogist
(TAG) Vol. 67, No. 4, October, 1992, "Judith At the Island: Judith
(Smith) Fisher, the Waite Family of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and
Their English Origins" by Edwin G. Sanford.
A THEORY
For further information please see the DNA Test Results Page where DNA
testing results data seems to lend credence to this theory.
The articles begins:
A recent article about the 1640 church trial of Richard Waite, a Boston
tailor, caught my interest when there was a mention of a woman who was
referred to only as "Judith at the Island" (James F. Cooper Jr., "The
Confessions and Trial of Richard Wayte, Boston, 1640," William and Mary
Quarterly, hereafter Wm. & Mary Quart., 3d ser., 44|1987|:310-32."
[Note: I highly recommend this article as well.]
This was quite striking because the phrase "at the Island" was commonly
understood in New England in 1640 to mean Aquidneck Island, i.e., the
"Island of Rhode Island". ...The two towns then comprised by Aquidneck
Island Portsmouth and Newport probably had fewer than five hundred
people in 1640. ...Of all the known people living on that island, there
was only one person there in 1640 with the first name Judith. She was
Judith (---) Fisher, the wife of Edward Fisher. Following the basic
assumption that the Judith mentioned in the trial at Boston was the same
person who married Edward Fisher of Portsmouth, R.I. a great many other
facts seemed to fall into place.
The author goes on to show that "Judith at the Island" had earlier been
in Boston, associated with Richard Waite. While many people in Boston
were named Judith, only one was a known follower of Anne Hutchinson and
had been charged by colonial authorities with antinomianism. She was
Judith Smith or "Judye Smith", maid-servant to Edward Hutchinson. Judith
Smith's expulsion from the Boston church occurred less than three weeks
after Anne herself had been thrown out.
Judith Smith also had an association with Richard Waite's brother,
Gamaliel, since Gamaliel was also a servant of Edward Hutchinson. When
the Hutchinson party was banished from Boston, Judith, then a single
woman, probably had no choice but to go to Rhode Island with her
employer. Shortly afterwards she apparently married Edward Fisher.
Edward Fisher and Thomas Waite, both of Portsmouth, were associated
together for more than 25 years. The author cites records showing that
they were granted houselots on adjoining lands and served as jurymen
together, and more. Edward Fisher participated in taking Thomas Waite's
inventory.
Eventually the author concludes that "it would be logical to look for
their origins in Alford, county Lincoln, long known as the origin of the
Hutchinsons. It should not have been surprising to find upon examining
the Internation Genealogical Index that the names of Richard and
Gamaliel, as well as a Thomas Waite, and a Judith Smith of the right
years were actually there. The preponderance of these facts seems to
point to the origins of the Waits of Boston, Thomas Waite of Portsmouth
and Judith (Smith) Fisher of Portsmouth. The IGI has a number of
inaccuracies in its records of these families, and the entries below
come from Reginal Charles Dudding, ed., The Parish Registers of Alford
and Rigsby in the County of Lincoln Collated with and Supplemented by
the Bishops' Transcripts, A.D. 1538-1680 (Lincoln Rec. Soc. Pubs., Par.
Reg. Sec., 3 [Horncastle, 1917|). (Rigsby-with-Ailby was a small
chapelry attached to Alford; its register was kept separately, but only
Bishop's Transcripts are available for the relevant period, except for a
few Rigsby entries in the Alford register.)"
-
TAG (The American Genealogist) Vol. 67, No. 4, October 1992 "Judith
at the Island: Judith (Smith Fisher, the Waite Family of
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and Their English Origins"; Edward
G. Sanford; pp. 193 -200
-
"The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1633", Robert Charles Anderson;
New England Historic & Genealogical Society, Boston, MA, 1995; Vol.
III, pp. 1896 -1899 [Gamaliel Wait]
-
NEHGR Vol. 73, Oct. 1919; "Thomas Waite of Portsmouth, R.I. and Some
of His Descendants", G. Andrews Moriarty, Jr., A.M.; pp. 291 302.
...I look into this mirror and see a thousand mirrors
behind me: My mother's face, between bright curtains, watches the damp
garden. My father sits under a lamp with his eyes closed."
Elmaz Abi-Nader
New Year's Morning
The Poetry of Arab Women
