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Facts and Events
| Name |
Thomas Bliss |
| Gender |
Male |
| Birth[5][8] |
Est 1588 |
Northamptonshire, England |
| Marriage |
22 Nov 1614 |
Daventry, Northamptonshire, EnglandHoly Cross Church
to Dorothy Wheatley |
| Marriage |
Feb 1632/33 |
Daventry, Northamptonshire, Englandto Abigail Southam |
| Marriage |
|
to Unknown _____ |
| Immigration[6] |
Abt 1638 |
New England |
| Occupation[5] |
|
Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United Statesblacksmith, surveyor and farmer |
| Death[2][4] |
Oct 1647 |
Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, United States |
References
- Hoppin, Charles Arthur. The Bliss book. (Hartford, Connecticut, United States: not identified, 1913)
pages 146, 151, 155.
He is mentioned in the 1617 will of his father, John Blisse, although Hoppin assumes the son of John Blisse to be Thomas Bliss of Hartford, Conn., even though he could not find the baptisms of any of Thomas of Hartford's children in Preston Capes (he considers a possible explanation for the lack of baptisms to be that Thomas was excommunicated).
Hoppin, having allocated John's son Thomas to be Thomas of Hartford, assumes that Thomas Bliss of Rehoboth was the son of John's brother William, based on the circumstantial evidence that Thomas of Rehoboth was married and had his children baptized in Daventry, William's home town, and was considered to be of Daventry at the time of his marriage in 1614. There is no record of the baptism of Thomas son of William in Daventry, whereas there is a record of the baptism of William's son William. William (the purported father of Thomas) left no will, so there is no documented evidence that William had a son named Thomas.
According to the 1982 Genealogy of the Bliss Family in America, by Aaron Tyler Bliss, Thomas Bliss of Hartford was not from Northamptonshire. Thus, the simplest solution is that Thomas of Rehoboth was the son of John Blisse (as indicated by Aaron Tyler Bliss), and that he moved to Daventry from Preston Parva before 1614. Possibly he went to assist at the forge in Daventry, after his uncle George died in 1609.
The assumptions that Thomas of Hartford was from Preston Parva, and that Thomas of Daventry and later Rehoboth was therefore the son of William, are flaws in an otherwise well-researched and well-reasoned book.
- ↑ Hoppin, Charles Arthur. The Bliss book. (Hartford, Connecticut, United States: not identified, 1913)
pages 177-78.
'The last Will and Testament of Thomas Blise ... made the seventh Day of the eighth month; 1647 the said will allso Exhibbited unto the Court holden at new Plymouth the eighth of June 1649, ...
unto my soon Jonathan my house and home lot ...
my four Children ...
my eldest Daughter and her husband Thomas Wellmore ...
to my Daughter Mary and her husband Nathaneell harmon ...
unto Nathaneell the son of my sonninlaw Nicolas Ide ...
unto Nicolas Ide ...
An Inventory of the goods and chattels of the late deceassed Thomas blise taken The 21 of the eight month 1647.'
- Bliss, Aaron Tyler; John Homer Bliss; and Charles Arthur Hoppin. The Bliss family in America: including the compilations of Judge Oliver Bliss Morris of Springfield, Massachusetts, Sylvester Bliss, esq. of Boston, Massachusetts, and John Homer Bliss of Norwich and Plainfield, Connecticut--being a corrective reprint and revision of the latter's book which was published in 1881, and also an undate through the year of 1981--with a complete history of the family from its beginnings in the approximate year of 1180, as originally researched by Charles Arthur Hoppin, author of "The Bliss book," 1913, (herein corrected), and containing histories and genealogies of all of the various branches bearing the surname as far as they can be ascertained. (Midland, Michigan: A.T. Bliss, 1982)
1:20-21.
This book identifies 3 Bliss immigrants to New England:
- Thomas Bliss of Hartford, Conn. (died Dec 1650 or Jan 1651 in Hartford)
- Thomas Bliss of Rehoboth, Mass. (died Oct 1647 in Rehoboth)
- George Bliss of Newport, R.I. (died 31 Aug 1667 in Newport)
The book indicates that the latter two were brothers, sons of John Blisse of Preston Capes, Northamptonshire (the son of William Blysse), while the ancestry of Thomas of Hartford, who married Margaret Hulins (or Hulings) of Rodborough, Gloucestershire, England about 1617, is unknown.
- ↑ Bowen, Richard LeBaron. Early Rehoboth Families and Events. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (1942-1945)
99:236.
'7 Oct. 1647 - Thomas Blise of Rehoboth made his will; proved at Plymouth, 8 June 1649, ...Inventory ... taken ... on 21 Oct. 1647 [Plymouth Colony Wills, vol. 1, pp.67, 8].'
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bliss, Aaron Tyler; John Homer Bliss; and Charles Arthur Hoppin. The Bliss family in America: including the compilations of Judge Oliver Bliss Morris of Springfield, Massachusetts, Sylvester Bliss, esq. of Boston, Massachusetts, and John Homer Bliss of Norwich and Plainfield, Connecticut--being a corrective reprint and revision of the latter's book which was published in 1881, and also an undate through the year of 1981--with a complete history of the family from its beginnings in the approximate year of 1180, as originally researched by Charles Arthur Hoppin, author of "The Bliss book," 1913, (herein corrected), and containing histories and genealogies of all of the various branches bearing the surname as far as they can be ascertained. (Midland, Michigan: A.T. Bliss, 1982)
page 32.
"... was born in about 1588 probably in the village of Preston Parva, Northamptonshire, England ..."
His occupation is given as blacksmith, surveyor and farmer.
- ↑ Hoppin, Charles Arthur. The Bliss book. (Hartford, Connecticut, United States: not identified, 1913)
page 157.
The year is implied by giving the ages of the children at the time of emigration.
- The following notes describe a re-evaluation of a baptism record for one of Thomas' children. However, it should be noted that they refer to information (a supposed marriage between Nicholas Ide and Martha Bliss) that has been established to be a fabrication. See source for Thomas's third marriage, to the mother of Nicholas Ide, for the argument that Nicholas Ide was Thomas' step-son, not his son-in-law as the following notes present.
According to the Bliss Family History Society in England, Martha was Thomas Bliss's daughter. Here is the article:
Descendants of Thomas Bliss (c1588-1647) of Rehoboth, Mass. will be delighted to hear that a long-standing problem about his relationship with Nicholas Ide has now been resolved.
For many years it was presumed that Thomas’s wife Dorothy (Wheatley) died shortly after arriving in New England and that Thomas remarried a widow Ide who had a son Nicholas. He was mentioned as 'son in law' in Thomas Blisse's will of 1647, but it was assumed that he was in fact Thomas's step son.
In February 1999, while comparing entries in Ty Bliss's Genealogy etc. with our own records, I discovered some discrepancies concerning the children of Thomas and Dorothy. All their known children were baptised at the church of Holy Cross, Daventry, England. It was obvious that there were errors, either in our transcripts of the parish register or the records on which Ty had based his genealogy.
I wrote to Northants Record Office requesting printouts of the doubtful entries in the Holy Cross PR. I also asked the archivist to confirm her interpretation of the entries in case the photocopies were difficult to read.
The photocopies were indeed almost illegible but, with the archivists confirmation of each event, we are satisfied that we now have true records of the family in Daventry. In this issue we only have space to mention the resolution of the major discrepancy.
The child of Thomas & Dorothy Bliss who was baptised Dec ? 1622 was Martha not Nathaniel.
Following the baptism, Nathaniel (no 19) disappears from Ty's genealogy. However, a footnote in Ty's book says Nicholas Ide was married 16th May 1647 at Springfield, Mass. to Martha, whose surname is supposed by some to have been Bliss. It now seems perfectly clear that Martha [Bliss]Ide was the child born to Thomas and Dorothy Bliss at Daventry. Nicholas Ide was therefore truly Thomas Blisse's son in law, as stated in his will.
- ↑ Birth year estimated at halfway between his father's birth and his own marriage. He was probably born in either Daventry (where his father was born) or Preston Parva (where his father was a blacksmith and later died).
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