Person:Mary Freeman (9)

Note: this Mary is the second child of name Mary born to Edmund Freeman. The first Mary, b. England 16 Apr 1630, died prior to emigration to New England in 1635 and is not listed in passenger lists for this family.

Court records show this Mary and Edward Perry married at least by spring, 1653/4. If she waited until she attained majority (18) to marry, as was typical, this suggests she was born in late 1635 or early 1636.

This Mary is the center of a genealogical controversy regarding Edmund Freeman. No record of her birth has been found and she is not mentioned explicitly in her father's will. Most people infer her existence from the fact that Edmund called Edward Perry his son in his will and treated him more or less equally with his actual sons. For example, see Source:Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, II:580.

However, after searching unsuccessfully for any evidence of a daughter Mary Freeman, the author of Source:Ferris, Mary Felton. Dawes - Gates Ancestral Lines, p. 350, concludes this about Elizabeth Perry, the second wife of Edmund Freeman, Sr.: "She may have been a widow Perry and may have had a son Edward, for Edmond in his will called Edward Perry his son. It has sometimes been assumed that this man was called son because of his having married a Mary (Freeman?), surmised daughter of Edmond, but careful study reveals no evidence of the existence of such a daughter and leaves the stepson theory the more tenable."

However again, Source:The ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley his wife Emma Arabella Bosworth, p. 26-7, points out that Elizabeth, the second wife, is named in passenger lists of 1635, which indicates she was married to Edmund before leaving England. So if Edward was her son from an earlier marriage, we would expect the young Edward to be listed in the passenger lists, also. But he is not (nor any other step-children), suggesting that Mary was indeed a daughter of Edmund Freeman. --Jrich 10:30, 24 November 2008 (EST)

Comment on "Note:" in the first paragraph above. The St. Mary's Parish Register (FHL film 0918480, page 30) lists the birth of Mary Freeman, 16 Apr 1630, as the daughter of Thomas Freeman.

The above analysis by Ferris is interesting. Homer Worthington Brainard (The American Genealogist, XVII:2:92, "Prence Freeman of East Hampton, Connecticut") lists Edmund Freeman's second wife as Elizabeth Perry. He bases this on the marriage of Edmund Freeman Jr., to Margaret Perry. Brainard, however, shows Edward Perry married to Mary Freeman and says that Mary and Margaret "were probably daughters of Elizabeth." The conclusion by Ferris and Brainard's identification of Elizabeth as the widow Perry, have not been widely accepted by other genealogists who have researched the family, op cit Anderson.

Brainard also makes the statement, "Mary and Margaret have been given as children of Edmund Freeman and they were certainly members of his household in Sandwich." Margaret's marriage record lists her maiden surname as "Perry." Mary's maiden surname "Freeman" is inferred from the imprecise language of Edmund Freeman's will. But as Ferris suggests the imprecise language could mean step-son as well as son-in-law. In another article in The American Genealogist, 61:85ff, by Leo Garman entitled "The Wife or Wives of John Webster (?1692-1777/81) of Rhode Island," Mr. Garman points out that the term "son-in-law" as used in this early period could also refer to "step-son".

If the marriage of Edmundus Freiman and Elisabetha Raymer in Shiley, Sussex, on 10 Aug 1632. (Anglicizing the Latin of the original, this would be Edmund Freeman and Elizabeth Raymer.) is the Edmund and Elizabeth Freeman who sailed to New England on the Abigail in 1635, then Edmund's second wife was not Elizabeth Perry. Mary, the wife of Edward Perry, could have been the daughter of Edmund and Elizabeth Freeman as is commonly stated.

However, in 1984 Henry J. Perry, published a different hypothesis in The Second Boat (5:1:15ff, May 1984). He suggests that the Mary Freeman who married Edward Perry was the Mary Freeman, daughter of Thomas, baptized in Pulborough, 16 Apr 1630. St. Mary's Parish Register in Pulborough also records the burial of Bennett, wife of Edmund Freeman, 12 Apr 1630, and the burial of Nathaniel, son of Edmund Freeman, 12 Sep 1629. Anderson op cit reports that scattered about the passenger list of the Abigail in 1635 were Thomas Freeman, aged 35, and Marie Freeman, aged 50. Henry J. Perry raised the possibility that Marie Freeman's age was misstated. That it should have been "aged 5," and that she was the daughter of Thomas. Since nothing further is known of Thomas, that he may have died during the smallpox epidemic on board the Abigail. --Bill Wright 10:29, 25 November 2008 (EST)

1.   The American Genealogist (TAG). (Donald Lines Jacobus, et.al.)
   XVII:2:87ff, Oct 1940.