Source:Leslie Mahler. English Origins of Edmund Quincy of Boston and His Servants, Thomas and Katherine (Greene) Meakins

  Featured Page: Week of November 31, 2009

The registers of Thorpe-Achurch were declared lost in 1885, when in fact they are available and have been microfilmed and are available at the Family History Library. The author investigated in response to Thomas Meakins' entry in The Great Migration which noted the marriage of Thomas Meakins and Katherine Greene in Thorpe-Achurch, and found a number of entries related to the Quincy and Meakins families.

The author found in the registers at Thorpe Achurch:

• Baptism for Judith, daughter of Edmond Quinsey, on 3 Sep 1626
• A child of Edmond Quinsey baptized elsewhere on 16 Mar 1627/8.
• Marriage of Thomas Meakins of Oundle and Katherine Greene of Achurch daughter of Henry Greene"
• Allen Meakins, bp. 2 Dec 1610, bur 2 Feb 1610/1
• Mary Meakins, bp 9 Feb 1611/2
• Eleanor Meakins, bp 9 Jul 1615, bur 2(7?) Sep 1615
• Ann Meakins, bp 22 Sep 1616 at Lilford in schism, bur 23 Oct 1616
• Ellen Meakins, bp 7 Jun 1618
• Joseph Meakins, bp 28 May 1620

The author notes the common speculation that Thomas Meakins' wife Katherine was the sister of Thomas Bell who died in London in 1672, who mentions "Thomas Makins, my sister's son, in New England." Bell was from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk and was a well-to-do merchant, while Katherine was a servant from Northamptonshire. Moreover, Thomas Bell was much younger than Katherine, about the same age as her son. "The obvious conclusion" is thus that Thomas was not Katherine Meakins' brother.