Person:William Raymond (10)

Captain William Raymond/Rayment in New England

William(1) Raymond, younger brother of … John, was the son of George Raymond, or Rayment, of St. John's Parish, in Glaston, co. Somerset, England. The will of the latter man dated June 26, 1651, and proved October 30 following, speaks of William(1) as being then in New England, but he must have come over very lately for he deposed on December 28, 1697, that he had come to this country about 1652. He was many years younger than his brother John(1), for a number of depositions of his own place his birth about 1637-9.^[1]

Capt. William(2) Rayment (George(1)) was born, presumably in Glastonbury, about the year 1637, as he was stated to be sixty in 1697 and seventy-two at his death in Beverly on January 29, 1709. As he was in New England in 1651, he must have emigrated as a boy of fourteen, with his brother and sister. He, himself, testified on December 28, 1697, that he came to New England "about the year 1652." … William Rayment had a notable military career. After serving in King Philip's war and being in action in the Narragansett Fort fight, he was appointed lieutenant-commander of the Beverly and Wenham troop by the General Court in 1683, and in 1690 commanded a company in the Canada expedition. He was a deputy to the General Court in 1685 and 1686, and in the local government served as selectman in 1670, constable in 1674 and as juryman in 1667 and 1676. He lived on a farm purchased from James Bette in 1662, on the side of Beverly toward Wenham.^[2]

Captain William Rayment's Will

"His will, made December 8, 1705, and proved February 25, 1708/9, made very definite provision for the care of his wife Ruth. He then left legacies to William, Daniel and Paul, sons of his eldest and deceased son William, to his second son Edward, to his youngest son Ebenezer, to Hannah, only child of his deceased son George, to his eldest daughter Hannah, widow of Nathaniel Haywood, to his second daughter Abigail, wife of John Giles, to his daughter Mary, wife of Josiah Batchelder, and to his youngest daughter Ruth, wife of Jonathan Batchelder. His wife and sons Edward and Ebenezer were named executors, and his friends and cousins Cornet Lot Conant and Nathaniel Rayment overseers [Essex Probate, 310 : 100]."^[2]

The Other William Raymond

"Various erroneous claims have been made in an attempt to show that the unidentified William Raymond, who was resident in Maine in 1631 and, apparently, in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1648, was the father of John(1) and William(1) as well as of Richard Raymond of Salem and of Connecticut. Indeed, he has even been confused with William(1) who was not born until years after the older man of the name came to Maine. This claim is disproved by the English will (of George Raymond/Rayment). However, a similarity of given names in the various families, as well as the common place of residence, suggests the probability that the early William may have been an uncle and the Richard perhaps a cousin of John(1) and William(1), and the evidence that there were other relatives in this country is proved by a reference in 1672 to a "Mary Cook cousins of John Raymond" Junior."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Raymond (William) Family, in Ferris, Mary Walton. Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines: A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Rufus R. Dawes; and A Memorial Volume Containing the American Ancestry of Mary Beman (Gates) Dawes. (Milwaukee, WI: Cuneo Press, 1931-1943)
   II:702-709.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6} Rayment, in Davis, Walter Goodwin, Compiler, and Introduction by Gary Boyd Roberts. Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885-1966): A Reprinting, in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia (plus Thomas Haley of Winter Harbor and His Descendants). (Baltimore, Maryland, United States: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1996)
   III:205-206.
3. ↑ Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts, to the End of Year 1849. (Topsfield, Massachusetts, 1906-07)
   II:539.

   Rayment, William, Capt., (died) Jan. 29, 1708-9, a. abt. 72 y.