Person:John Liscum (16)

John's parentage and birth have been variously reported, although not with adequate proof. Reports include:

Biographies of Notable Americans (1904) refers to "Captain" John Liscom, and states that he was born 16 April 1720 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, son of Peletiah and Ann (Bradley) Liscum. Vital Records for Gloucester provide no evidence of a John Liscom (or variant of Liscom name) born in Gloucester at that time, nor of any other childern (or any other record) of a Peletiah Liscum married to an Ann Bradley in the appropriate time period. The most likely source for this attribution of John's parents may be the widow of a grandson or the widow of a great-grandson, both sufficiently distant in time and relationship to be less than reliable.

Salem, Massachusetts has also been suggested as a birth place with a birth date of 20 October 1724 and John Luscombe and Mary Earle suggested as his parents. The first such suggestion seems to have been in the Boston Evening Transcript, Genealogical Columns, 26 August 1908 in a letter that romanticized "Captain" John Liscom of Salem and Newport and Mary Earle and asked for information about their descendants. The suggested relationship from the Boston Evening Transcript, along with unspecified "family sources" were used by a much later descendant to maintain John and Mary Earle Luscumb's parentage of John Liscom in an Ancestral File submission. John and Mary Luscumb did have a son named John, John Luscomb did move to Newport, although as a joiner seeking employment not as a Captain, and Mary (Earle) Luscomb was warned out of Salem, but there is as yet nothing more than speculation to suggest that Mary and her children actually moved to Newport or to connect John Luscomb the son of John and Mary Luscomb with John Liscom the wife of Rachel Day. More research is needed to ensure that another Luscomb family, long-time residents of Newport, are not being confounded with the Salem family, particularly since at least two of John and Mary's sons remained in Salem. As well, more than speculation is needed to ensure that John Liscom is, in fact, a member of the Salem family who changed his name.

Stoughton, Norfolk, Massachusetts, where a John Liscom son of John and Joannah Liscom is listed with a birth date of 1 Aug 1730 (See Original Records, Stoughton as one of several sources), has also been suggested as the birth place and parentage of the husband of Rachel Day. Again, more information other than similarity of name is needed to connect this John Liscom to the husband of Rachel Day, particularly since Stoughton was an agricultural rather than a maritime community.