Person talk:Grace Ravens (5)

Grace Makin, Grace Ravens and the Shermans [27 May 2011]

It was long thought that Grace, daughter of Tobias Makin, was wife of John Sherman, Thomas Rogers and Roger Porter in that order. Two articles in TAG disproved that theory and identified that particular Grace as Grace Ravens.

Hyde, Myrtle Stevens and Douglas Richardson, "Was Tobias Makin an Ancestor of the New England Shermans?" TAG 61 [Jul-Oct 1985] : 79-82. Wood, Michael J., "The English Origin of Grace (Ravens) (Sherman) (Rogers) Porter and Mary (Ravens) Coolidge of Watertown, Mass.: New England Descendants of Ravens of Dedham, co. Essex," TAG 62 [Apr-Jul 1987] : 65-77; 161-170.

Below is preserved lengthy discussion of this problem which was on the person page for Grace Makin, wife of John Sherman, Thomas Rogers and Roger Porter, who, as it turns out, did not exist.

ORIGINS

Her parents were Tobias and Katherine. They resided at Fingeringhoe, Essex, England. [The wife of Sherman, Rogers and Porter was daughter of Rev. Richard and Elizabeth (Hedge) Ravens.]

In “Ancestry of Rev. John Sherman and Capt. John Sherman” (NEHGR 51:309-315 (1897)), the author reviews the various wills of the time and concludes that Grace was most likely the daughter of Tobias Makin although confusion about her being born a Coolidge remains, and that she married multiple times: [Grace Ravens' sister Mary married John Coolidge who came to Watertown about 1634.]

1. m Rev. John Sherman (who died by 1625) by whom she had two sons -- Capt. John Sherman and Richard Sherman -- both under 21 in 1625.
2. m Thomas Rogers (who died 1638) by whom she had a daughter Elizabeth (who married Daniel Smith) (a 1625 will of Anne Sherman Auger/Anger includes: “I give to the two children of the wife of Thomas Rogers, John Sherman and Richard Sherman, my kinsmen, ten shillings a piece at their ages of one and twenty.” This bequest tells that Thomas Rogers married a widow whose former husband was named ___ Sherman, by whom she had these two children, John Sherman and Richard Sherman.
3. m William Palmer, widower (who died shortly after 1650). Palmer’s daughter Martha, by a former wife, had married Capt. John Sherman. They were married before Thomas Rogers died, for their first child John Sherman was born November 2, 1638.
4. m Roger Porter, widower, who died April 3, 1654, aged 71.*

• For Palmer, Porter, Rogers, Sherman, Smith, see Bond’s Hist. Watertown, pp 384, 407, 412, 430, 439, 865, 913, 934, 936, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1088, 1089, and Mass. Colony Records, Vol. 4, pp 248 and 264.

[Describes the marital career of Grace Ravens except that she did not marry William Palmer. Her son, Captain John Sherman, married Palmer's daughter Martha.]

LAST WILL & TESTAMENT

(See Source #2 for complete text.)

Grace Porter died in Watertown, leaving an undated will proved June 17, 1662, an abstract of which follows:

After devises to her “son John Sherman and to her daughter Elizabeth Smith” (who was her daughter by Thomas Rogers, and widow of Daniel Smith who died 1660), and after legacies to “her grandchildren,” each of whom she names, viz.: to Daniel Smith, who was the son of her daughter Elizabeth Rogers, and to John, Martha, Mary, Sarah and Joseph Sherman, all the children then living of Capt. John Sherman, she directs the residue to be divided equally between “her said son John Sherman, and her said daughter Elizabeth Smith.” “My brother John Coolidge and Lieutenant Richard Beers to be executors.”

My cousin John Sherman to be overseer, to whom “I give as followeth: to my said cousin Sherman the sum of forty shillings, and twenty shillings apiece to each of my said executors, brother John Coolidg and Lieutenant Beers.”

“Witnesses John Sherman and Mary Sherman.”

On one page of the inventory of this residue, a note about the division of Grace Porter’s estate says:

“In case their brother in England shall legally obtain against the estate that they jointly and equally do tender estate for satisfying the same that so neither side may be unequally represented by this award. The 8th of July, 1662, Simon Willard, Richard Russell, Thomas Danforth.”

“Their brother in England” is without doubt the Richard Sherman described in the bequest in Anne Auger’s will, as one of the two children of the wife of Thomas Rogers.

[Accurate assessment, retained on person page for Grace Ravens.]

If Tobias Makin’s will is read with care it will be seen that he does not say that his daughter Grace Sherman is the wife of Edmund Sherman, nor that Richard Sherman the son of Edmund Sherman is his grandchild... Grace Makin called by Tobias “Grace Sherman my duaghter” may very well plausibly be supposed to be our Grace Porter who married first John Sherman, and second Thomas Rogers. His place in the Rogers family is not ascertained.

Here it may be said that John Rogers, the famous preacher of Dedham, owned land in Fingrinhoe where Tobias Makin lived, for in (Vol. 41, page 175 Register) he and his wife Dorothy sell it, and that Rev. Richard Rogers (Vol. 41, page 167 Register) makes “son Makin” one of the overseers of his will, and that a Thomas Makin was one of the witnesses of Ann Anger’s will (403).

Evidently the Rogers and Makin families were intimate, and also acquainted with the Shermans.

It may be noticed that John Sherman and Mary Sherman were witnesses of Grace Porter’s will. They were without doubt Rev. John Sherman and his wife Mary. Grace calls him “my cousin” which is not inconsistent with the theory that Rev. John’s mother might be her sister; cousin often meaning in those days nephew and niece. [Rev. John Sherman was the first cousin once removed of Grace Raven's first husband, John Sherman.]

...It is not forgotten that Grace Porter in her will calls John Coolidge her brother, implying she was Grace Coolidge before marriage, but though a strong point, it may not be thought to be conclusive. Some evidence has been given against it. She might have called John Coolidge her brother, if his wife, whose family name is not known, should have been a sister of either of Grace’s four husbands. [John Coolidge's wife was Mary Ravens, sister of Grace.]

That Grace Porter was the mother of Capt. John Sherman is a fact. It would be gratifying to know whether she was Grace Coolidge or Grace Makin or some other family, and also to know whether Joan Makin married Edmund3 Sherman (Edmund2, Henry1) and was the mother of Rev. John.ndchildren and "my brother John Cooledge." [Grace Porter was Grace Ravens; Joan Makin married one Richard Stone. "She is a generation too young to be the Joan who m. Edmund Sherman …]--Jaques1724 09:17, 27 May 2011 (EDT)