Person:William Pontus (1)

William was in the 1633 Plymouth list of freeman ahead of those admitted 1 Jan 1632/3. He appears on juries and in land records at Plymouth through the 1630s and 1640s.

Legacy

In his will, dated 9 Sept. 1650 and proved 4 Mar 1652/3, William names his "eldest daughter Mary" (who received his house and land), his "other daughter Hannah" (had already received her port), and "son-in-law James Glasses", named executor. Testimony regarding his probate also names son-in-law John Churchill, and Hannah, his wife, who had received one third of William's part of his meadow. Mary Glass was by then a widow.^[4]

1.   Davis, William T. Genealogical Register of Plymouth Families
   1895.
2.   Plymouth Register of Marriages and Burials for 1652.
3.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862).

   PONTUS, WILLIAM, Plymouth 1633, in 1643 not in the list of those able to bear arms, i. e. under the age of 60, d. 9 Feb. 1653, have. made his will 9 Sept. 1650, leav. two chl. only, with very small est. Mary wh. had m. 31 Oct. 1645, James Glass, and next, 1657, Philip Delano; and Hannah, wh. had m. 18 Dec. 1644, John Churchill, and next, 25 June 1669, Giles Rickard, and d. 22 Dec. 1690.

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 William Pontus, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

   Origin: Leiden, Holland. Migration: 1632 (and perhaps as early as 1629 or 1630). First Residence: Plymouth
   Birth: By about 1685 based on date of marriage (1610). (Comments also note absence from 1643 list of men able to bear arms, suggesting birth before about 1683.)
   Death: Plymouth 9 Feb 1652/3 [PCR 8:14]

5. ↑ Great Migration notes "Pope says that Pontus was 'from near Dover, England' but the marriage record says only from England, and then adds (as translated) 'living in the Marendorp near Douveren,' which may explain the confusion."