Rowland Stebbins of Springfield - Sources for the Father of Rowland Stebbins

I do not have anything helpful to add.

See:

John Insley Coddington, "The Stebbing Family of Co. Essex, Enland and Rowland, Martin, Edward and Editha Stebbing or Stebbins of New England" in The American Genealogist (1955) Volume 31 pages 194 and 196.

Coddington also published an article in the same journal Vol 30 p 193-204 regarding Edward Stabbing.

He was son of Thomas baptized 5 Nov 1592 in Bocking Essex. He married there on 30 Nov 1618. He was the brother of Martin Stebbins and probably cousin of Edward Stebbins and his sister Editha (Stebbins) [Day Marnard] Holyoke. Frank Farnsworth Starr and James Goodwin found his baptism records in St. Mary's Chuch in Bocking, Essex. This is the same church where the Fitch and Goodwin families originated who also came to Connecticut. The records are reviewed in TAG. No wills or other records were found that would enable us to reconstruct his family beyond his sibling and his father named Thomas whose birth and death are unknown. His mother's name is also unknown. The parents of this Thomas are likewise unknown.

He is treated by Robert Charles Anderson in Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume 6 pages 494-98. His cousins are treated in The Great Migration Begins and in Hale House p 509-11 and 644-5 by Donald Lines Jacobus. Previous treatments include two volumes published in 1904 by Robert Stebbins Greenleee "The Stebbins Genealogy." And by Frank Farnsworth Starr "Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut" Vol 2 pp 21-28.

You can access The American Genealogist on AmericanAncestors.org. The Great Migration is available there as well as on Ancestry.com.

Here's a direct link to the TAG article above. Subscription required:

https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/american-genealogist-th...

And the Great Migration Sketch:

https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/great-migration-immigra...

Here are some OCR'd segments from the TAG article above:

starting atpage 193, dated Octob er 1955 by John Insley Coddington, F.A.S.C., ofWashington DC

THE STEBBINS FAMILY OF COUNTY ESSEX, ENGLAND,
AND ROWLAND, MARTIN, EDWARD AND EDITHA
STEBBING OR STEBBINS OF NEW ENGLAND.
"Reference is made to five accounts of the four above-named members of the Stebbing family of Essex, England, who settled in New England in the 1630's. These accounts are, first, the large and excellent work by Ralph Stebbins Greenlee and Robert Lemuel Greenlee, THE STEBBINS GENEALOGY, 2 Vols., Chicago, 1904; secondly, the account of Rowland Stebbing (or Stebbins) in Frank Farnsworth Starr, VARIOUS ANCESTRAL LINES OF JAMES GOODWIN AND LUCY (MORGAN) GOODWIN OF HARTFORD, CT, 2 Vols, Hartford, 1915, Vol 2, pp 21-28; thirdly, the (very brief) account of Editha (Stebbing) (Day) (Maynard) Holyoke in Charles Edwin Booth, ONE BRANCH OF THE BOOTH FAMILY, New York, 1910, p 181; fourthly, the much better and more complete biography of the said Editha and of her husbands, Robert Day (1), John Maynard (1) and Elizure Holyoke (2) in Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgard Francis Waterman, HALE, HOUSE AND RELATED FAMILIES, Hartford, 1952, pp 509-511 and 644-645; fifthly, my articles, "The Family of Frances (Tough) (Chester) (Smith) Stebbing, Wife of Edward Stebbing, of Hartford, Connecticut," in THE AMERICAN GENEALOGIST, ante, Vol 30, pp 193-204.
Most of THE STEBBINS GENEALOGY is concerned with the descendents of Rowland Stebbing or Stebbins, who came to America with his wife Sarah on the ship FRANCIS of Ipswich, county Suffolk, which sailed from Ipswich "the last of April" 1634. Rowland Stebbing settle briefly at Roxbury, MA., then at Springfield, MA., and later removed to Northampton, MA where he died 14 Dec 1671, leaving four children, from whom the majority of those who bear the name of Stebbins in America are descended. But THE STEBBINS GENEALOGY also contains (Vol2, pp 1117-1119) a section of Martin Stebbins, who settled at Roxbury, MA by 1639, later moved to Boston, and died there about October 1659; and a section (vol 2 pp 1005-1014) on Edward Stebbing, who came to New England before 29 March 1632, settled at "New Town" (later Cambridge), moved in 1636 to Hartford, served as deacon of the church there, and died there, in 1668. THE STEBBINS GENEALOGY also includes (vol 1, pp 13-50) a section entitled "Stebbins in England," in which there are many interesting and valuable items, such as an outline of the history of the parish of Stebbing in Hinkford Hundred, county Essex, from which the family undoubtedly derived its surname; pedigrees of the gentry families that successively held the manor of Stebbing; Stebbing, Stubbing and Stybbing, extracts from the Parish Registers of several parishes in Essex, Suffolk and London; full copies of the wills of four Stebbing residents of Essex and abstracts of the wills of thirteen Stebbing residents of Suffolk, and the like. But the compilers of this fine genealogy were not so fortunate as to discover the parishes in which Rowland, Martin, Edward and Editha Stebbing were baptised.
The renown American genealogist, Frank Farnsworth Starr, while working for the late James J Goodwin of Hartford, found the records of the baptisms of Rowland and Martin Stebbing in the gragmentary Parish Registers of St. Mary's Church, Bocking, Essex County. The Bocking Registers also contained references to the Fitch and Goodwin families whe settled in Connecticut, showing that a number of residents of Bocking joined the Puritan emigration to New England in the 1630's. Mr. Starr subsequently edited the Parish Registers of Bocking and they were printed in a very small edition at Mr. Goodwin's expense. After pointing out that the existing Registers are sadly lacking in cointinuity (the Baptisms began in July 1561, with gaps from March 1571 to May 1583, from April 1588 to October 1592, from October 1599 to October 1602, and from 1639 to 1655; the Burials began in November 1558, with gaps from August 1580 to September 1583 and from 1627 to 1655), he lists the following seven Stebbing records

1561 Gulielmus Stebinge sepultus est 28 May
1594 Marinus Stebing filius Thomae baptizamus 28 April
1603 Johannes Leavens et Elizabetha Stebbin nupti 16 June
1618 Rowlandus Stebbing & Sara Whiting nupti 30 November
1624 Gulielmus Stebbing filius Martini Stebbing
sepultus est 3 September
1625 Elizabetha Stebbing filia Rowlandi Stebbing
sepultus est 15 June
The parish of Bocking is bounded on the south by that of Braintree.In this parish, Mr. T homas Hooker, the future founder of Hartford,Connecticut, often preached during his ministr y in Essex, and among theinhabitants of Braintree were Mr. William Wadsworth, Mr. John Talcot t,and the families, who came to New England on the LION in the summer of1632, and accompanie d Mr. Thomas Hooker to Hartford in 1636. The parishRegisters of St. Michael's Church at Brai ntree prior to 1660 haveunfortunately been lost, but, as will be seen below, there were alsom embers of the Stebbing family in Braintree in the 1620's.
Mr. Frank farnsworth Starr also compiled for Mr. James J Goodwin theENGLISH GOODWIN FAMI LY PAPERS, 3 vols., Harford, 1921, which consist of amass of English records collected by Mr . Starr in the course of hissearch for the ancestry of William and Osias Goodwin, of Bocking , whoalso came to New England in 1632, and settled at Hartford in 1636. Herewe find the foll owing references:
Vol 2, p 1148 : Braintree Vestry Book Abstracts, 6 Sept 1619 :Notice given to William S tebbing of a wench intertained at John Beckwithsdwelling on Cursing greene that is supposed t o have a greate belly whichthe Constables have warning to look after.
Vol 2, p 1166 : Braintree Vestry Book, 18 Apr 1625 : The sidesmenof the parish includ e Edward Stebbing and William Wadsworth.
Vol 2, p 1169 : Braintree Manor Rolls, Easter Monday 1628 : Homageincludes Ed(wa)r(d)u s Stebbing.
Immediately to the south of Braintree is the parish of Black Notley,and adjoining the la tter to the southeast is the parish of White Notely.The late C. A. Hoppin once confided to Dr . Arthur Adams that he was surethat Edward Stebbing, the Hartford settler, was born in one o f the twoNotleys. Accordingly, I commissioned Miss Helen Thacker of London toexamine the par ish Registers of both Notleys and abstract all Stebbingrecords. Miss Thacker found that th e Registers of White Notley, whichbegan in 1541, contained no Stebbing entries whatever. Bu t those of SS.Peter and Paul's Church, Black Notley, which commence in 1570 and wereexamine d through 1640, contained the following records :

BAPTISMS
1593 - Ellin Stebbing the Daughter of Willm Stebbing was baptised theXI day of Nobember 15 93.
1594 - Edward Stebbing the sonne of Willm Stebbing was baptised theXXIIII day of Februar y 1594 (1594/5).
1596 - Amy Stebbing the daughter of Willm Stebbing was baptised the 11day of December 1596 .
1598 - Elizabeth Stebbing the daughter of Willm Stebbing was baptisedthe VII day of May 15 98.
1599 - Thomas Stebbing the sonne of Willm Stebbing was baptised theVII day of Marche 159 9 (1599/1600).
1603 - Margret Stebinge the daughter of Willm Stebinge was baptisedthe XVIII day of March e 1603 (1603/1604).
MARRIAGES
1583 - John Lawson and Elizabeth Stebbing were maried the X day ofSeptember 1583.
1584 - Henry Stebbing and Susan Bacon were maried the XIX day ofOctober 1584.
1587 - Henrie Stebbing and Margett Coppin were married the XXIIII dayof March 1587 (1587/1 588).
BURIALS
1585 - Susan the wife of Henrie Stebbing was buried the XV day ofSeptember 1585.
1590 - Dennis the daughter of Thomas Stebbing was buried the XIX dayof November 1590.
1600 - Thomas Stebing was buried the first of September 1600.
1603 - Thomas Stebbyng was buried ye XXI of January 1603 (1603/1604).
1606 - Ellen Stebbinge widdow of Thomas Stebbinge was buried the 26thday of January 1606 (1606/1607).

:Miss Thacker reported the following lacunnae in the Black Notley Registers: in the Marriages, the bottom portion of a page cut out after August 1606; marriages began again in November 1606 at top of next page. Owing to this cut there is also a gap ( on the other side of the page) between August 1608 and March 1608/9. Another cut occurs at top of page after Spetember 1632, and entries begin again in May 1633. This cut causes a gap on the other side of the page from February 1635/6 to April 1636. In the Burials, a page covering parts of 1602-3 was defaced and unreadable; there was a part of 1604 that was unreadable and also a part of 1625.
Miss Thacker was further commissioned to search the Feet of Fines in the Public Record Office in London, to try to find a record of disposal of property in Essex by Rowland, Martin or Edward Stebbing at the time of their emigration to New England. Nothing was found. Moreover, no will was found belonging to Thomas Stebbing of Bocking (the father of Rowland and Martin) or to William Stebbing of Black Notley and Braintree (the presumed father of Edward), and there was no record of the Stebbing family in the Lay Subsidies of Hinkford Hundred, Essex, in the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I or Charles I.
Bearing in mind the limitations of our genealogical data, we may venture to set forth tese brief summaries concerning Rowland, Martin, Edward and Editha Stebbing:
1. ROWLAND STEBBING, baptised at Bocking, co. Essex, 5 Nov 1592, son of Thomas Stebbing of Bocking and older brother Martin Stebbing. He married at Bocking, 30 Nov. 1618, Sarah Whiting, whose baptism does not appear in the existing Register of Bocking. Their five known children were presumably born and baptised at Bocking, but none of the baptisms and only one burial of a child of a Rowland Stebbins appear in the fragmentary Registers of that parish.
Rowland Stebbing and his family sailed from Ipswich, co. Suffolk, on the Francis, "last of April" 1634. The shipping list gives Rowland's are as 40, wife Sarah, 43, and children Thomas, 14, Sarah, 11, John, 8, and Elizabeth, 6. On arrival in New England, they settled first in Roxbury. Rowland Stebbing was one of the early settlers of Springfield, MA., moved there about 1639, and received land in the second division of that town, 24 Dec. 1640. Sarah (Whiting) Stebbing was buried at Springfield 4 Oct. 1649. Rowland had a seat in the meeting-house at Springfield in 1663, and some time after Feb. 1664/5 he moved again, to live with his son John at Northampton, MA., where he died 14 Dec. 1671, leaving a will dated 1 March 1669/70. The inventory of his goods and chattels, taken 2 Jan. 1671/2, amounted to Pounds9-5-2; the inventory of his lands, taken 11 Jan. amounted to Pounds75-3-2; and debts amounted to Pounds 46-2-0 were owing to him (Stebbins Genealogy, vol 1, pp 51-59)."

Also please note that the father Thomas is not the same man as Thomas Francis Stephens who had a wife Ellen. That Thomas Francis Stephens left a will and it does not name sons Martin or Rowland. So it is a different Thomas:

The will of Thomas Stebbing of Black Notley (wife Ellen) is below.

[transcribed by Charlou Dolan]

Film 94,395: Commissary Court of London, Essex, & Herts, original will, 35:366

Will of Thomas Stebbing of Black Notley

In the Name of god amen the twenty six daye of Desember Anno D'm 1603 And on the Firste yere of the Raigne of our Soveringne Lord Jeames by the grace of god Kinge of England Frannce and Ireland defender of the faith &c and Scotland the seven and Thirteth I Thomas Stebbing of Black Notley in the conntye of Essex Husbandman beinge of P'fect mynde and memorye thankes be geven vnto Almightye god for the same Doe make and ordeyne this my p'nte Testament conteyneinge herein my last will in mann'r and forme followeinge That is to saye Fyrste and princypallye I comend my Soule into the handes of Almightye god my maker and my body to the earth to be buryed at the discrecon of my Executor hereunder named.

Item I geve and bequeath vnto Ellen my wyfe one of my mylche kyne.

Item I geve to Marke Stebbinge my sonne Twelve pence of lawfull money of England./.

Item I geve and bequeath vnto Phillip Kellogg my wyves sonne Tenne shillings of lyke money to be payd vnto him within one yere next after my decease and alsoe one Brasse Potte./.

Item I geve and bequeath to everye of the children of my daughter Elizabeth Lawsonne late wyfe of John Lawsonne deceased that shall be lyveing at the tyme of my decease tenne shillinges to be payde vnto them at their several ages of twenty and one yeares or dayes of marriage That is to saie at which of these twoe tymes doth Fyrste and sonest happne./.

Item I geve and bequeath to Ellen Stebbing and Amye Stebbinge the Daughters of my Sonne Willyam Stebbing Sixe shilling and eighte pence [6s 8d = 1 noble, an old English coin] apeece to be payd vnto them at their severall ages of Twentye and one yeres./.

Item I geve and bequeath to Dennys Stebbinge the daughter of the said Marke Stebbinge my sonne Tene shillinges to be payde vnto her at her full age of twentye and one years./.

Item I geve and bequeath vnto Mathewe Stebbing my Sonne Twenty Shillinges to be payde vnto him w'thin one yere after my decease./.

Item I geve and bequeath to my Kindsman Richard Palmer Tenne shillinges to be payde vnto him w'thin one yere nexte after my decease./.

Item I geve and bequeathe to my Godsonne Thomas Stebbing sonne of my said sonne Willyam Stebbing tenne shillings to be payde vnto him at his full age of Twenty and one yeres./.

Item I geve and bequeath to Annys Kellogg Daughter to the saide Phillipp Kellogge Tenne shillinges to be paid vnto her w'thin one yere next after my decease./.

Item I geve and bequeath to Robert Kellogge Sonne of the saide Phillipp Kellogge Tenne shillings to be payde vnto him at his full age of Twentye and one yeres./.

Item I geve and bequeath to Henry Stebbing my sonne all those fower mylch Kyne w'ch he nowe hath in his owne possessyon./.

The rest and resydue of all and singular my goodes chattell cattelles howses Landes T'entes plate redye money Household stuffe and other things whatsoever my debts payde my funerall charges discharged and legacies in this my p'nte Testament conteyned p'formed I doe wholly geve and bequeath to the said Henry Stebbing and Willm Stebbing whome I make and ordeyne my onely Executors to execute & p'forme this my last Testament according to the tenor and true meaning hereof

And I vtterly revoke & disanul all & every other former willes legacyes Executors and overseers by me heretofore made named willed or bequeathed

Provided always and my will and mynde is that Ellen my said wife shall have and enioy all my said household stuffe from and after my decease dureing soe long tyme as she shall kepe her selfe a wyddow./.

In Witness whereof to this my last will and testament I the said Thomas Stebbing have subscrybed & sealed Dated the daye and yere fyrste above wrytt Dated and delyvered in the pre'ce of me John Man John Addames (X) marck and Christopher

Thank you for this, Roland. This information is a great addition to this record.

Kevin

Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society (WMGS)
has some information, see
http://trees.wmgs.org/getperson.php?personID=I4068&tree=Schirado

The information on Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society is also not correct. Don't copy it. As stated above Thomas Francis Stebbins who had a wife Ellen left a will and named all of his children and did not have any sons of this family i.e. Rowland and Martin Stebbins. The father Thomas Stebbins of Rowland and Martin is not the same man as Thomas Francis Stebbins who had a wife Ellen. That Thomas Francis Stephens left a will and it does not name sons Martin or Rowland! So it is a different Thomas Stebbins . The will of "Thomas Stebbing of Black Notley" (wife Ellen) is transcribed above so you can examine it yourself.

Also the site Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society is incorrect again regarding the parents of Sarah Whiting. Please review the above information above. Her parents are unknown and she is not related to the John Whiting who was father to Rev Samuel Whiting of CT. This is simply a conflation of families who happen to have the same surname. And the whole notion of Sarah Smith being her mother is also a conflation with another New England Whiting family that has nothing to do with this family and nothing to do with John Whiting either.

This is the sort of garbage genealogy that is all too common on the Internet. Search peer reviewed journals, books by Fellows of the American Society of Genealogists and all primary sources first. If you can't find anything to back up what is on a website like Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society you can pretty safely conclude is is utter nonsense.

The English origins of Great Migration New England immigrants (1620-1640) are only known for 15% of families. If you have a tree with more English origins than that chances are it is a complete fantasy. And it gets worse with royal ancestry which is why I started this project because 99% of the noble lineages on GENI are absolute nonsense:

https://www.geni.com/projects/New-England-Gateway-Ancestors-of-Prov...

As researchers we have to accept that records establishing the origins for most New England Great Migration families either do not exist or have never been discovered and stop using websites that lack a foundation in quality research as a "source" because they are not.

One good thing about the site WMGS (also, the Allen Public Library's WeRelate site) is they are transparent in their source data, or try to be. So for the Stebbins family they link to https://archive.org/details/stebbinsgenealog01ingree

Which I notice has a 1907 publication date. So that would trigger me to look for more modern studies.

Good work on this discussion.

Actually the source they use (Robert Stebbins Greenleee, The Stebbins Genealogy 1904) is correct. If you look at page 50-1 you'll notice the author correctly states that the parents and origin of Rowland Stebbins is unknown although he posits he came from somewhere near Springfield, Essex where his companion William Pynchon of Roxbury came from:

https://archive.org/stream/stebbinsgenealog01ingree#page/50/mode/2up

But then WMGS tosses in Thomas Francis Stebbins and Ellen as parents anyway. That claim is not made by the source.

Likewise WMGS cites the same source for his wife Sarah but you can see from these pages above the author of the source cited doesn't even include a maiden name for Sarah much less parents of John Whiting and Sarah Smith. So we have a transparent use of a source but the website includes claims that aren't backed up by their source.

The amusing part of this to me is the combination of John Whiting and Sarah Smith as parents for Sarah Whiting wife of Rowland. How did we get here? I didn't go into this before but let's do this.

As mentioned above John Whiting of Boston, Lincolnshire was father of Rev Samuel Whiting of CT the immigrant. Samuel’s mother was Isabel _____. So who is this Sarah Smith? In 1892 the Dedham Register published the will of "John Smith citizen and merchant tailor of London" written on 17 Dec 1655 proved 29 Oct 1656 in which he names his daughter Sarah Whiting and grandson Nathaniel Whiting. The author asks rhetorically "Is this not our Nathaniel Whiting?" without presenting a single shred of evidence to support the assertion that these two men of the same name are identical. The implication being that the immigrant Nathaniel Whiting, miller of Dedham was son of Sarah (Smith) Whiting and an unknown father.

So we have two completely unrelated families from two completely different parts of England: One Sarah (Smith) Whiting and an unknown father as possible parents of Nathaniel1 Whiting of Dedham. Two John Whiting of Boston, Lincolnshire and his wife Ellen as parents of Samuel1 Whiting of Lynn. Shake stir and ferment on Internet trees for 20+ years and you get John Whiting of Boston, Lincolnshire with wives Ellen and Sarah Smith and possibly others being as father to every Whiting within a thousand miles of New England!

This is the absurdity of internet genealogy. It is like one huge game of telephone. The information is corrupted more with each copy. And you are spot on about the source being out of date. The fact is I don't think that most people working on 16-17th century New England genealogy and English origins on Internet trees even know that peer reviewed genealogy journals even exist much less where to find them and how to search them.

You're right, peer reviewed journals are not known to many doing family trees, and of course subscription costs are always an issue.

One way to communicate the importance of checking carefully on "first arrivers" is to remember that some of us can indeed track back 400 years on the American continent. And this generation is not the first to have noticed that, so it "has" been studied.

The second is to understand that finding a record in England (easily done thanks to the LDS database at FamilySearch) doesn't mean it's the record for your English colonist.

Great discussion. It's frustrating. I find random people copied my Geni tree to MyHeritage, in large numbers. But my tree usually has caveats, attached or cited sources, and discussion. When I'm wrong I go back and fix it and note the error. And find my 5 years ago error in dozens of trees.

Also, like you both, it's upsetting to see tree constructed with no awareness of geography or of transportation capabilities for the era. And often no logic.

I just recently found out that Rowland is my 11th GG on my mom's Auclair/Daniel side of the family so as I'm reading I'm going back and forth adding and deleting information about the two families Sir Thomas Francis & Rowland's Dad... Now here's what I found out...

1) Essex, England is the major hub for Stebbins, Braintree is the hotspot. Bocking and Black Notley is only an about an hour and half walk depending on route and speed. Only 12 mins by car but since they didn't have cars back then maybe 20 to 30 mins by Horse if your lucky to own one.

2) 1594 Marinus Stebing filius Thomae baptizamus 28 April <--- this comes up twice on Ancestry once for Rowland's brother Martin and secondly for Sir Thomas's son Mathew.

3) Nov 1590 date is the death date for Sir Thomas's son Dennis but it's been stated twice here as 1590 - Dennis the daughter of Thomas Stebbing was buried the XIX day of November 1590 and on Ancestry as a daughter not a son. Unless there was two Dennis that died in the same month and the same year but since we don't have much records to go by it's just guessing.

4) Supposedly Sir Thomas married Ellen in 1591 again that would put either Dennis's born out of wedlock unless the wedding date is more roughly Feb 1590 than 1591.

5) Sir Thomas's daughter-> "I geve and bequeath to everye of the children of my daughter Elizabeth Lawsonne late wyfe of John Lawsonne deceased" this was written in 1603... Ellen & Thomas was married in the 1590's again this would leave one to believe either another child out of wedlock or Sir Thomas had a previous marriage which probably push him more close to 1558 his year of birth and the oldest fin his siblings or he really started young like the rest of my Ancestors like in his teens like 16-18 instead of the normal 20's because you can even throw his sons Henry, William, and Mark into this because the way he describes them they all have familys and William has at least three children according to the date of the will when it was made.

6) And we all know by now the name used, gaven at birth and baptistism sometimes isn't what ends up on the other documents especially depending on how the person writting it down and how their spelling is of the name.

7) Now if are to base it on title alone "Sir Thomas" sometimes it is passed through a death in the family and the next of kin in line gets the property that goes with the title or if the said person marries into title, or it is given through the King for some reason as I found during my researches.

8) illegalimate Children usually don't get the same as the child through marriage which we could also go with and could explain why the name of the mother is missing.

Now that's my Detective Work done until further paper work shows up.