Ancestors

10

T h e Ma c y s o f C h i l ma rk , E n g la n d , N a n t u c k et Ma c y A n c est o r s

THE NUMEROUS DESCENDANTS of the Macy Family of Nantucket will be very much interested in a letter recently received by Walter Weston Folger, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, one of our Association's members, which was in response to an inquiry he made to Chilmark, in England. The letter is from Maurice C. Rathbone, County Archivist, and reads as follows:

The will of John Macie of Chilmark, made 24 May, 1575, gives the following relatives: 1. Wife Anne. 2. Sons Thomas (who has seven children), Phillipe, William, Richard. 3. Daughter Anstie. 4. Son-in-law Richard Rogers (who has eight children). 5. Daughters Agnes (Roger), Alice (Andrews). 6. 'John Maycie the sonne of Richard Maycie'. 7. 'Agnes Maycie & Helinge (Helen) Maycie' daughters of Thomas

May eye. 8. 'John Maycie the sonne of Thomas Maycie'. 9. Godsons John Clare, John Snowe.

There is nothing here that assists directly with the parentage either of Thomas Macy (c. 1608-82) or his wife, Sarah Hopcott (1612-1706), whose name is unrecorded in our indexes. There are one or two wills of the seventeenth century, however, the details of which you may care to have, and I give them below:

Richard Macey of Chilmark 1633 1. Daughters, Elizabeth, Mary. 2. Brothers John, George, William. 3. Son Richard.

Alice Macie of Broad Chalke 1648 1. 'Kinsman' William Whitemarshe. 2. Brother-in-law William Whitemarshe the elder.

Richard Macy alias Banston of Chilmark 1679 1. Widow Anne. (Inventory taken by John and Richard Macy alias Banston).

THE MACYS OF CHILMARK, ENGLAND

1 1

John Macy of Chilmark 1689 1. William, son of Dorothy Macy. 2. William, son of William (1) above. 3. Elizabeth, daughter of William (1) above. 4. 'Kinsmen' John Macy senior, Thomas Macy, George Macy. 5. 'Kinswoman' Dorothy Macy (elsewhere Dorothy Macy the elder). 6. 'John Macy'. 7. Margaret, daughter of (6) above.

The parish registers of Chilmark, are not in print, nor have they been deposited in this office. According to the Sarum Diocesan Directory (1959) the living was vacant at that time and may be still, in which case, if you wished to make further enquiries, it might be best to write to the secretary of the Parochial Church Council, F. Flower, Esq., The Cleeves, Chilmark,who should be able to advise you. If a favourable reply were forthcoming and you wished the registers to be searched, Miss T. E. Vernon of Dyer's Leaze, Lacock, Chippenham, undertakes work of this nature from time to time and might be willing to help you.

Mr. Folger adds a note to the above: "In Charles E. Banks' History of Martha's Vineyard, Vol. I, page 112, there is a reference to the will of Thomas Maycie of Chilmark, dated in 1575, which, if extant, was not included in the above compilation by Archivist Rathbone. The reference to which I allude is as follows:

'The adjoining parish of Chilmark, disclosed some early Macy stones in the churchyard. It will be remembered that Thomas Macy of Nantucket, who is said to have been from Chilmark, referred to Thomas Mayhew of Martha's Vineyard as "my honored cousin" (N.Y. Col. Mss., Vol. XXV), and while searching for Mayhew wills, I accidentally found the will of Thomas Maycie of Chilmark, dated 1575, which may serve as the basis of some future investigations concerning the well-known family, whose emigrant ancestor first settled in Salisbury, Massachusetts'.

"Unfortuneately, the parish registers of Chilmark are missing prior to 1653."