Fifteenth Generation

16772. Robert Esq RAYNESFORD²³ was born about Feb 7, 1566/67 in Epping, co. Essex, England. He was christened on Feb 7, 1566/67 in Epping, co. Essex, England. He died on Apr 15, 1629 in Staverton, co. Northampton, England. Robert was "aged 21, 1604"; was baptised at Epping, Co. Essex,

9 January 1565/6; is 6th child of his father; is "of Staverton."
The pedigree

states that he sold Drayton in 1608. He made his will 10 October
1628.

Staverton is nearly 10 miles west of Northampton and perhaps 15
miles SE of

Coventry. A Drayton House shows as an "antiquity" on modern maps
about 29

miles NE of Staverton (but is not known to be the property sold
by Robert)

www.ezonline.com/aem/gen/d0010/g0000011.htm#I1215



According to the Centennial History of Boston, 1880, He was an

elder in the church and the head of a respectable family. He was


disarmed by the government for being supportive of Anne
Hutchinson.

The Boston "Book of Possessions" compiled about 1645 contains
the

names of the owners of land at the time. It was published by the


City, being the second report of the Record Commissioners.
"Edward

Rainsford" appears on the list.

There are no other Rainsford's listed. He was a selectman of
Boston

from 1962-69.

His name "Edward Ransford" appears on the first Covenant dated
at

Charlestown, August 27, 1630 which reads as follows: In the Name
of

the Lord Jesus Christ, and in obedience to His Holy will and
Divine

Ordinance: Wee whose names are hereunder written, being by His
most

wise and good Providence brought together into this part of
America in

the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite ourselves into
one

Congregation, or Church, under the Lord Jesus Christ our Head,
in such

sort as becometh all those whom He hath Redeemed and Sanctified
to

Himselfe, doe hereby solemnly and religiously (as in His most
holy

Proesance) Promisse and bind our selves to walke in all our
wayes

according to the Rule of the Gospell, and in all sincere
Conformity to

His holy Ordinances, and in mutuall love and respect each to
other, so

neer as God shall give us grace.

This indicates that he was early a church member at Boston. A

separate entry dated the 15th of the 10th month, 1633 (that
would be

December, I believe). "Elisabeth Ransford, ye wife of our
brother

Edward Ransford" was admitted as a member of the Boston Church.

Edward Rainsford was also one of the Founders of Old South
Church

in 1669. The comment to the list in the Memorial History of
Boston is

that "Many or most of them already belonged to the First Church,
but

none except substantial men would be named in such an
enterprise.

Most of them resided at what was then the South End. Our Essex
and

Boylston streets were the limit of the town, except such few
houses as

were on the

high-road to Roxbury i.e. Washington Street.



An Ann Rainsford married Samuel Hough, of one of the most
prominent

Boston families about 1675 and had two sons who died before
middle

age.



According to the Genealogical Dictionary: "Edward Rainsford,
often

Ransford, Boston, 1630, came in the fleet with Winthrop by
Hutchinson

I. 260, called brother of chief justice Rainsford, which so
strongly

do I suspect to be erroneous that gladly would conjecture be
offered

of its possible cause, were it in my power, was freeman 17 April
1637,

a deacon

and ruling elder of the first church and one of the founders of
the

third, indignant at the artifices practised to bring Davenport
from

New Haven, died 16 Aug. 1680. He by first wife had Mary and
Josiah,

b.1, both baptised 17 June 1632; the mother died the same month
and

Josiah died in September following and by second wife Elizabeth
had

John, born 30 June, baptised 27 July 1634; Jonathan, baptised 23
Oct.

1636; Ranis, 4, baptised 10 June 1638; Nathan, 24 July, baptised
1

Aug. 1641, died before his father; David, baptised 1 Sept. 1644,
died

28 Nov. 1691; Solomon; Edward; Elizabeth; and Ann, born 1 Feb.
1652;

all except the first son named in the will, made 3, probated 28
Aug.

1680, though Jonathan and Nathan are mentioned as dead yet the
latter

probably without issue, as his share is given to Edward and the

children of the other are named, Jonathan,

Dorothy, and Mary. His widow Elizabeth, who died 16 Nov. 1688
aged

81, is named executrix and he calls his daughter Mary Parcyfull,


meaning possibly Percival, but where the husband was is unknown.


Ranis Belcher, wife of Josiah, Elizabeth Greenough, second wife
of

William and Ann Hough, wife of Samuel of Boston. Edward, Boston,
a

fisherman, came in the Abigail from London, 1635, aged 26, whom
I dare

not deny, though I must not assert, to be the same as
preceeding."



According to NEHGS NEXIS, Vol. XII, No. 5, p. 156, Edward
Raynsford is

a royal descendant, citing Register 139 (1985): 296-301.







Marie was granddaughter to two aldermen of London, Stephen
Kirton and

John Sadler, great-granddaughter of a Sheriff of the city,
Nicholas

Leveson, and was both niece and great niece of Lord Mayors: Sir

Nicholas Woodruff and Sir William Hewett. Her baptism is not
among

those of children recorded to her parents at St. Andrew
Undershaft

between 1560 and 1567 or at Thorpe Mandeville between 1573 and
1577,

but the pedigrees show that she was mother of Robert's children
as

listed below, and she was alive on April 20, 1634 when named in
the

will of her son John Raynsford as "my loving mother Mary
Raynsford,

widow."



Marie was granddaughter to two aldermen of London, Stephen
Kirton and

John Sadler, great-granddaughter of a Sheriff of the city,
Nicholas

Leveson, and was both niece and great niece of Lord Mayors: Sir

Nicholas Woodruff and Sir William Hewett. Her baptism is not
among

those of children recorded to her parents at St. Andrew
Undershaft

between 1560 and 1567 or at Thorpe Mandeville between 1573 and
1577,

but the pedigrees show that she was mother of Robert's children
as

listed below, and she was alive on April 20, 1634 when named in
the

will of her son John Raynsford as "my loving mother Mary
Raynsford,

widow." E Robert Esq RAYNESFORD and Mary KIRTON were married on Dec 14, 1602 in Croyden, England.

16773. Mary KIRTON.Children were:

8386	i.	Edward RAINSFORD.
	ii.	Elizabeth RAYNESFORD.
	iii.	John RAYNESFORD.
	iv.	Richard Sir RAYNESFORD.
	v.	Robert RAYNESFORD.
	vi.	Anne RAYNESFORD.