Family:John Morse and Annis Unknown (3)

Evidence Not Sufficient to State Without Qualification that Annas, Wife of John Morse, Was Sister of Francis Chickering

"Morse-Chickering Correction.—In volume 83, page 290 of The Register, when giving the family of Samuel Morse of Dedham, I stated that his son, John of Dedham, married Annas' sister of Francis Chickering of Dedham. This marriage was taken from the Morse Genealogy by Mr. J. Howard Morse and Miss Emily W, Leavitt, and I did not verify the same, as it had no bearing upon the parentage of Samuel Morse and his English ancestry, with which my article was concerned. Recently Mr. Jacobus wrote to me and queried this marriage, whereupon I made a study of the question, which convinces me that it is most doubtful if Annas, wife of John Morse, was a Chickering. Miss Leavitt based her statement upon the fact that John Morse in his will (printed in The Register, vol. 8, p. 278) called Francis Chickering 'my brother'.

The account of the English ancestry of the Chickerings (The Register, vol. 69 pp. 226-229) and the will of Henry Chickering of Ringesfield, co. Suffolk, father of Francis Chickering, dated 11 July 1626, proved 7 July 1627 (cf. The Register, vol. 63, p. 282), fails to disclose a sister of Francis Chickering named Annas. Francis did have a sister, name unknown, who was married to one Nicholas Wolnough, when their father Henry made his will. It is, of course, possible that her name was Annas and that she married secondly John Morse but this seems a rather remote possibility and the chances are greatly in favor of some other combination to make John Morse call Francis Chickering 'my brother'. Their wives may have been sisters or again they may have been merely 'brothers' in the church. At any rate the evidence was not sufficient to justify Miss Leavitt in stating without qualification that Annas, wife of John Morse, was sister of Francis Chickering.

Ogunquit, Maine
G. Andrews Moriarty, F.S.A"^[3]

1. ↑ (II) John Morse, in American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. (New York: The American Historical Society, Inc., 1916-1933)
   35:82, 84, 1928.

   He married, probably in Dedham, Annis or Agnes Chickering, who died in September, 1691, sister of Francis Chickering. … References: Morse-Burke "General Armory." Bardsley: "Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames." Morse and Leavitt "Morse Genealogy." Medfield: "Vital Records." Sturbridge: "Vital Records."

2. ↑ Samuel Morse, in Anderson, Robert Charles; George F. Sanborn; and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635. (Boston, Massachusetts: NEHGS, 1999-2011)
   5:173.

   John Morse … m. by 1637 Annis ----- (eldest known child b. Dedham 3 June 1637 [DeVR 1]). (In 1946 G. Andrews Moriarty argued that she was not Annis Chickering [NEHGR 100:79].)

3. ↑ Morse-Chickering Correction, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   100:79, 1946.