Person:Thomas Simmons (3)

Thomas Simmons
b.Est 1602
d.Aft 26 Jan 1649
m. 1628
Facts and Events
Name[1] Thomas Simmons
Alt Name Thomas Symons
Gender Male
Birth? Est 1602
Marriage 1628 to Elizabeth Nash
Death? Aft 26 Jan 1649

Disambiguation

Tingley, Raymon Meyers. Some Ancestral Lines, p. 371-2 fraudulently created records to state that Elizabeth was daughter of Thomas Simmons (Symonds) of Plymouth who in turn married Elizabeth Nash and that Thomas Symonds of Plymouth was son of Moses. The supposed family of Thomas Symmonds of Plymouth is a known fraud. See Anderson's Great Migration Begins 1790 and Great Migration Begins 1683 and Great Migration 2:1:411 Thomas Symonds of Plymouth was a real person but has no known family. But there was also another Thomas Symonds of Braintree/Bost that seems be be conflated here.

There were two men in New England before 1640 named Thomas Simmons or Symonds. The first was Thomas Symonds of Plymouth and Scituate. He arrived by 1633 when Samuel Fuller named him in his will "my two servants Thomas Symons & Robert Cowles." Mayflower Descendants 1:26. The only other records of him includes a court record with Edward Doty in 1641, a right to bear arms in Scituate in 1643 a land transfer in in Scituate on 26 Jan 1649 to Gilbert Brooks. All that is known is he died after that last date, 26 Jan 1649 probably in Scituate with no family. See Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff and David Pulsifer, eds., 12 volumes in 10 (Boston 1855 – 1861) 2:33. 8:191, 12:217-18. This is the man who was the subject of the Tingley-Meyers fraud. His origins are unknown.

There was a second Thomas Simmons/Symonds of Braintree/Boston. He arrived in 1638 and was in Suffolk County when he received a land grant in Braintree see Great Migration Newsletter 10:20. But he is not identical to the man above. Evidence for him can be found in the vital records in see NEHGR 3:248 link:


  • Joan Symons the daughter of Thomas Symons born 8 Nov 1640 died 30 May 1642
  • Thomas Symond died on 15 Jun 1642

Possibly he was related to the John Symons who has a daughter Anne who died in Jun of 1640?

All we seem to know about his family based on vital records is that he had a daughter Joan and he (or a son of the same name died in Boston 15 Jun 1642. The name of his wife is not recorded. Thomas Symonds of Braintree/Boston was listed in a mortgage to Richard Parker in 1640 see Letchford 351. Thomas Symonds of Braintree/Boston was listed in a court case in Colony Record p 282 regarding Mr Eaton's house and "the college" see BCR 1:282 Wikipedia reports that Thomas Symonds of Boston/Braintree was a carpenter who had apparently assisted in the building of the college at Cambridge in 1639 and afterwards - was soon found to be in debt to one of the creditors of the college, John Cogan.The college building itself was poorly erected - Thomas Symonds being the responsible party after Nathaniel Eaton left - and eventually Symonds and at least one of his assistants were thrown into debtor's prison. See: Nathaniel Eaton in Wikipedia which does not cite a source. If true this may explain the deaths listed in vital records for he may very well be the man who died 15 Jun 1642 in debtors prison.

A source for the following is lacking and in all probability is part of the fraud alluded to by Anderson above:

  • The Old Court Record of Plymouth, April 1649, records a complaint against Samuel Nash of Duxbury, that his land was not all fenced and his cattle had run loose. Thomas Simon of Scituate (age 49), Samuel's brother-in-law (having married Samuel's sister Elizabeth) testified that he helped Nash build a fence over two years ago, and that his son-in-law Gilbert Brooks assisted.

A probate record in 1682 in Boston for a Thomas Simmons may or may not be related to either of these two gentlemen.

References
  1. No son Thomas is named in the will per the abstract on the page of Moses who is often, wrongly named as the father of this Thomas. To quote Source:Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, p. 1683, "There was a Thomas Symons in Plymouth by 1633, and several authors have attempted to squeeze him into the family of Moses Simonson, but there is no evidence that he belongs. The most egregious attempt in this direction was perpetrated in 1935 by Raymon Meyers Tingley, who fabricated documents, including an alleged deposition made by Thomas, and managed to make Thomas both son and brother of Moses." (Source:Tingley, Raymon Meyers. Some Ancestral Lines, p. 371-2.) Savage makes the same error when he obviously copies from Deane's History of Scituate and says, "THOMAS, Situate 1646, s. of Moses the first, had Moses and Aaron."