Ayer Family

• Name	Ayer Family
  Gender	Male
  Biography	The following is from "New England Heritage of Rousmaniere, Ayer, Farwell and Bourne Families" by Rosalie F. Bailey. There is no reason to doubt that the emigrant John Ayer of Haverhill, Massachusetts, who died in 1657, was a Wiltshire man, but did he belong to the Eyer family of Bromham in that England county? Our theory is that he did, but a conclusive answer must wait until a wider search locates the baptisms of his elder children, especially of son Peter, or other proof. To help the reader, only the prevalent spellings of "Ayer" in the American family and of "Eyre" in the Wiltshire family are used here. Actually this surname had forty-three recognized spellings in England, starting with E, H, A or I, or even with the prefix "Le," and at least seventy-five variants in early New England records. Found as early as 1208, it has its roots in middle English [BOLD:] eyr, [:BOLD] old French [BOLD:] eir, [:BOLD] Anglo-French [BOLD:] heyr [:BOLD] and Latin [BOLD:] heres, [:BOLD] all meaning heir. When surnames were first adopted--perpetuating a characteristic of a person, his origin, parentage or other descriptive term--many individuals were locally known as "the heir," thus giving rise to unrelated families with this surname. As a result, the John Eyres of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England were almost as common as John Smiths, and it would be hopeless tackle directly the English origin of John Ayer of Haverhill, Massachusetts. We must approach this problem, then, through his relative John Evered alias Webb, whose name is far less common and for whom there are direct clues. The term "alias" at that time was the joining symbol between two family names, similar to the hyphen today. John Evered alias Webb registered as from Marlborough, Wiltshire, on the passenger list of the [BOLD:] James of London [:BOLD] when he and Stephen Evered alias Webb embarked at Southampton about April 5, 1635; they enrolled among "laborers and husbandmen" to conceal their means. John said he was about 46 years old when testifying in the fourth month of 1659 in the Middlesex County Court of Massachusetts. He was a Boston merchant and spent his last days with wife and servants on the province's frontier at Dracut, or "Draw-cutt upon Merrimack" as he put it in his will dated 1665. This he signed with his full double name, though he also appears on Massachusetts as Webb and as Evered. (His family in Wiltshire likewise used three forms.) In this will he named as cousins the elder children of our John Ayer. Wiltshire origin is thus indicated for the Ayer family of Haverhill. Previous genealogists may well have gone astray in assuming that this interfamily relationship was through John Ayer's [BOLD:] wife [:BOLD] Hannah and that her maiden name was Evered alias Webb. Research has disclosed no Hannah in that family at so early a date. Our theory, a new one, is that the relationship was through John Ayer's [BOLD:] sister [:BOLD] Rebecca and that she is to be identified with John Evered Sr.'s wife Rebecca, whose maiden name is not yet known. This theory is summarized on the accompanying chart. . [BOLD:]EYRE FAMILY IN WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND[:BOLD] . New Theory of the Ayer-Evered Relationship Eyre of Bromham, Eng. (?Richard, d. 1566) Robert Everett of Draycot widow ANNE m. 2nd--Pryor & d. 1605 formerly of Ramsbury, Eng. | d. 1581-84 wife Alice | | | | |-----------------------| | | | ? | JOHN AYER or EYERS REBECCA EYER---m----JOHN EVERED SR. of Draycot bp. 1596 ad Bromham b. c1591 b. c1587. living 1641 --probably-- inherited m. c1608 (probably) Rebecca c1638-9 to America a house at He & son John sold a house nearing 60 yrs old, 1654 Devizes at Devizes d. 1657 Haverhill, Mas | widow Marie bur. 1673 m. 1620-1623 HANNAH--- | | | | |---------------------|----| | to America 1635 | John, Jr -| | | Robert | | | Rebecca | named as JOHN EVERED alias WEBB Stephen Webb Thomas | cousins by: bp. 1612 at Bromham returned & PETER | son of "John & Rebecca" d. 1643-67 at Nathaniel-| of Boston & Dracut, Mass Draycot, Eng. etc d. 1668 CAPITALS denote individuals discussed in the Origin. The picturesque map reproduced here shows northern Wilthsire around 1600, the period in which we are interested. On the west border is the famous city of Bath, and inward about a score of miles is Brohman (Brumh'm on the map). The parish register of Bromham contains two baptisms that we have tentatively identified as those of the American emigrants of John Ayer of Haverhill and John Evered alias Webb the merchant. Northwestern Wiltshire is largely watered by the Bristol Avon River, its arms and two royal forests then almost encircling Bromham and two estates of the knighted Baynton family (Spy and Bromham House visited by royalty). Robert Eyer of Bromham was a woolen manufacturer (clothier), and this industry centered around the river's pure waters and power. Four miles or so away at the woolen manufacturing town of Devizes (the Deuyses), was a wool market--as well as property owned by Robert's daughter Rebecca Eyre and by the John Evered alias Webbs of Draycot Folait. Robert's widow died near the forest at Scend (Send), and from there an Eyre (who witnessed his will) moved to Lechlade to the north, over the border from Marlborough. To the south, off the map, is the heart of Wiltshire, the cathedral city of Salisbury, which gave its name to Salibury, Massachusetts, where our John Ayer first settled. In northeastern Wiltshire lived the Evered alias Webb family, as well as other Eyre families, apparently unrelated (Note 80). The earlier home of the Evered alias Webbs was at Ramsbury, near the Earl of Pembroke's manor and six miles from the market town of Marlborough (Marlingesboro). The later one was seven miles north of Marlborough at Draycot Foliat (Dricote) in Chiseldon parish; this was the home of John Evered alias Webb's forebears for three generations and after it he undoubtedly named Dracut, Massachusetts. These Evered alias Webbs enjoyed a good standing, for "Robert Everard" of Ramsbury was on the subsidy (tax) roll of 1576. Soon after this he settled at Draycot Foliat and was succeeded by his elder son Noah. In the next century some of their descendants resided at Marlborough nearby. In pursuing this double-named family, it developed that Noah's son John preferred the single surname Evered while most of those who lived as late as 1659 changed to the single surname of Webb! Noah's family favored Puritan teachings, for his lagacy to son John included [BOLD:] The New Covenant [:BOLD] by Dr. John Preston, the Puritan divine whose Calvinistic sermons were published under that title in 1629. How logical it was that his family should be drawn to Massachusetts! "John Evered" thus wrote his name 1640 as witness to the will of his father "Noah Evered alias Webb" of Draycot, and he was still living the next year when referred to (as son "John Webb") in Noah's inventory. This John Evered, the eldest son and born about 1587, left a widow Marie Webb (as she called herself in her will), who was buried in 1673 in Chiseldon parish. Very likely she was his second wife: her death occurred almost a century after his birth and his children were born over a twenty-four-year period. The baptisms in 1609 and 1632 of his eldest and youngest children (both girls, the mothers not named) are the only Evered entries on the scanty bishop's transcripts for this parish. Of his property there he paid the ship-money tax of 1635 for the royal navy. In family land transactions he used his double surname, and these are the documentary proof for [BOLD:] this [:BOLD] region that he had a son John: 1616, Aug. 3. Noah Evered alias Webb the elder made a settlement on his son John and half the land in Dracot he had lately bought of Edwarde Rede, Esq. To be inherited by John the son of said John and then by another son Stephen, both being grandsons of Noah. Said John to pay Noah L220 in installments. [1635] easter, 11 Charles I. [Sale, by the customary suit,] of a dwelling, garden and 190 acres in Dracott Foliatt and Swindon by four Evered alias Webbs--Noah Sr., John Sr., John Jr. and Setphen-- for L200 sterling. [1635] Easter, 11 Charles I. [Sale, by the customary suit,] of a dwelling, and garden in Devizes by two Evered alias Webbs--John Sr. and John Jr.--for L41 sterling. The 1616 settlement gives the relationships of the "sellers" in both 1635 sales. The larger sale links the two younger men to the Massachusetts merchant and his brother; for that very month they emigrated to America from the Marlborough region and would have needed money to obtain a merchant's stock for the New World. (Stephen returned before 1639.) Both must have passed their twenty-first birthday to give good to land under English law, so John--the elder of the two--was born by 1613. This agrees with his Massachusetts deposition indicating birth about 1613 and with the 1612 baptism at Bromham. The smaller 1635 sale eventually served to bring into the family circle the object of our hunt, John Eyre (discussed later). This property at Devizes sold by the Evered alias Webbs was fourteen miles west of marlborough and not in the usual orbit of their family. However, the region has two earlier "Evered" records important to us: John, Sr.'s brother Richard Evered (surnamed Webb in his 1669 will as a Marlborough linendraper, or seller of uncut cloth) was married in 1625 in St. John the Baptist parish, Devizes. And only four miles from here, in Bromham, a John Evered, son of a John Evered and his wife Rebecca, was baptized on February 9, 1611/12. Why was this baby baptized so far from the paternal homestead? To us it seems apparent from the foregoing that the baby's father was that Evered alias Webb who preferred to use the first surname only, so this baptism is primarily important as a clue to the mother. Who is Rebecca, wife of John Evered? Evered was not a family name in Bromham and was not common in Wiltshire; this little group does not again appear on the Bromham church records, nor does Rebecca (surname Evered, or Webb, or Eyre) again appear in records for the parishes of either region associated with these families. So it is our belief: that John Evered (alias Webb), Sr. of Draycot Foliat in Chiseldon had a first wife Rebecca, presumably was the mother of at least Frances baptized 1609 at Chiseldon and John baptized 1612 at Bromham; and that for the firth of this second child she returned to her childhood home in Bromham to have the loving care of her mother, the widow Cicely Eyre. If so, the teen-age bride of John Evered was born Rebecca Eyre in Bromham about 1591 (the parish register has a gap, 1589-91), for in the family group she came between her sisters Anne and Bithiah, who were baptized there in August 1589 and August 1593. Rebecca was one of the two chief heirs of her uncle, William Crosse--a clothier of St. John the Baptist parish in Devizes--whose will dated February 1604 [1605/5] reads in part: To Rebecca Aires, daughter of Cicely Aires, the fee simple of my now dwelling house in Devizes--and if she die without issue, to John Aires, her brother, or if he fails, to next of kin. My sister Cicely Aires of Bromham and her daughter Rebecca Aires to be executors and residuary legatees. This is the Rebecca who was most likely the first wife of John Evered (alias Webb), Sr. She probably died before April 1635 or she would have then joined her husband and eldest son in the Devizes property sale (cited early). For were they not selling her own inheritance from her uncle William Crosse? And this brings us finally to a John Eyre closely related to the Evered alias Webbs--if our theory is correct. Rebecca Eyre and her two sisters had many brothers, most of whom died as infants. The surviving two are entered in the Bromham parish register as John Eire, baptized March 28, 1596, and Zacharias Eire, baptized August 10, 1600, both sons of Robert. These five youngsters were named in the wills of their grandmother Anne Pryor of Bromham, and their uncle William Crosse, and of their own father. Their parents, Robert Eire and Cicely Crosse, were married in the Bromham church on November 30, 1586. He was buried August 8, 1603 as Robert Eire of Hawkstreet, in Bromham. And he had probably been born only a year or so before 1566 when the baptismal register there begins. He had both a brother Richard and a baby son Richard, so a guess--very tentative--is that his father may have been Richard Eire buried January 1, 1566 at Bromham. Robert's mother was Anne, maiden name unknown and first names of both husbands unknown. She was buried at Bromham on June 19, 1605 as Anne Pryor, a widow. Robert's brother Richard Eyre remained in Bromham, raised a family, and died there in 1636. On the other hand, Robert's widow and youngsters do not appear again on this parish register; apparently they left town. This family's approach to life is revealed in the wills of Robert Eyre and his mother and in his room-by-room inventory, made in 1603-5. (Documents for him giver in Note 79.) Her will is typical of a widow, for she meticulously divided her small possessions among her grandchildren and remembered those who evidently had helped her--servants, schoolteacher and parish clerk. His will is businesslike. He tried to anticipate his wife's problems and his young children's needs and he appointed four men to guide them. As was customary, he left a small legacy to the parish poor. Robert Eyre's inventory in 1603 totaled L317 (excluding real estate, if any). This was a tidy sum for one who died before his fortieth birthday and in a century when the purchasing power of money was great. Robert's youngsters--John Eyre, his brother and sisters--were born into easy circumstances though not with the proverbial silver spoon that Uncle Richard bequeathed to each of his children. Their grandmother Pryor's two servants and their father's pewter, table napkins, candlestick, coverlet and cushions suggest comfort and some attention to style. The books owned by their father and their Uncle Richard are an intriguing item, for neither could write his name; they were perhaps for the children, since Richard's daughter Mary could write and so could Robert's son John if we are correct in believing that he is the Massachusetts ancestor. Robert in his will left a sizable bequest for his sons' education and a small legacy to the local schoolmaster. The house in which Robert Eyre's children were born had two stories, judging from the inventory. It stood in rural Hawkstreet, a hamlet of Bromham parish belonging to a manor of Sir Harry and Sir Edward Baynton. Hence he may have been an hereditary (copyhold) tenant. His livestock suggest a self-supporting homestead, and his mother's stock of rye, a small farm. Horses--rather than a horse--at first seem surprising, but he undoubtedly used them as pack-horses in his business. Sheep as the natural wealth of this woolen center figure prominently in the distribution ordered by both Robert and his mother in their wills. Each owned a loom; in their day looms were such a coveted means of livelihood that an anti-monopoly law of 1555 prevented country clothiers from owning more than one. Robert Eyre called himself a clothier in his will and--not knowing how to write--signed it with a mark that resembled the longtoothed card (comb) used in his industry. He was a textile manufacturer, to use the modern term for clothier. In Tudor and Elizabethan England the woolen industry was the most important in the kingdom, and its industrial heart was in the west country. Here in northwest Wiltshire, clothiers specialized in making undyed broadcloth of fine quality for export. Under a statute of 1552, each broadcloth had to be at least sixty-three inches wide, twenty-six to twenty-eight yards long, and forty-four pounds in weight. These measurements emphasize the size of Robert Eyre's broad loom and of the wording space required by his "organization." Even in that century, a textile manufacturer had to have a talent for organizing, credit proficiency, and capital. In scope, his business could be that of a major industrial capitalist or of a petty capitalist. Robert Eyre's textile business was probably average in size, or somewhat smaller. A sixteenth-century clothier bought his wool, cleansed it, and "put it out" to be carded, spun and woven by craftsmen, usually in their own cottages. If he had sufficient capital and organization, he might buy fine wool from growers in other counties or from leading merchants. Otherwise he himself raised sheep and bought more coarse Wiltshire wool from the small broker (brogger) at a local wool market. Robert Eyre was one of the small-business group, probably buying at Wool Hall in Davizes, but his establishment was large enough to include a separate weaving shed. And his mother may have shared in his business. A clothier had under his direct control the scouring, fulling and stretching of cloth. Wiltshire clothiers usually omitted the final process of dressing their broadcloth. They transported it in heavy ten-piece packs along the Marlborough road to London and sold it for credit at the cloth market in Blackwell Hall to merchant adventurers who had developed a Central European market for undyed undressed broadcloth. Robert Eyre would have fulled his cloth in a local water mill. His inventory shows he had one wool loft for supplies and stretching and another for weighing. Apparently he himself took his broadcloth on packhorses to London to negotiate credit sales, often complicated. This aspect of the business he feared, in his will, might be too difficult for his wife and result in unsold stock that would deteriorate. His fear concerned the handicap of a woman in business. He could have had no premonition, since he died in 1603, that James I would bring disaster on this important industry in 1614 by indulging in one of his caprices. The Continental market thus lost was not regained because of the Thirty Years War. Clothiers were unable to sell their manufactures at the very time that their raw material--wool--rose in price, and their workmen were further exploited, if employed at all, when wages were fixed and food prices were rising. The acute depressions in 1614-17 and 1620-23 are highlighted by the petition of Bromham weavers in 1622 stating that with forty-four looms idle, over 800 persons were close to starvation in the parish. How difficult these times must have been for little John Eyre, orphaned in 1603 at the age of seven, and for his younger brother Zacharias and his three sisters. Their widowed mother could scarcely have kept the family business going through the first depression and by the second one she was dead, if she was the widow Cicely Eyre buried October 16, 1619 in Seend parish nearby. Besides depression, this period brought religious adn political strife to Wiltshire. Catholic lined up against Protestant, and Anglican against Puritan, with Puritans here the stronger. Civil war was brewing between royalists and parliamentarians, and dissension within both parties created new tensions and mistrust; the rebels suspected even their own leader, Sir Edward Baynton of Bromham Hall. Caught in this upheaval, may Wiltshire citizens--John Eyre among them?--felt the New World might offer greater opportunity and security. And how does John Ayer of Haverhill, Massachusetts fit into this picture? Very Well. He repeated the names John Robert and Rebecca for his first three children; even if these names are too common to be significant, there was also a grandson by the rare name Zachariah Ayer. Probably Cicely, his mother's name, was too favored by Cavalier families to be retained by him, a Puritan. His son Thomas may have been named for Thomas Eyre, gentleman, of Bromham who was contingent guardian of the orphaned John and Zacharias Eyre under their father's will. John Ayer of Haverhill was born shortly after 1594 and had received some education. The English John Eyre was baptized at Bromham in March 1596 and his education was provided for by his father. A boy brought up in a period of depression and unrest would naturally develop the caution and tenacity which John Ayer the man displayed in a less competitive occupation in Massachusetts. His daring was in pulling up stakes and going to the New World, though over forty and encumbered with a family. Here he gradually accumulated farming lands and then painstakingly distributed them by will. Not far from John Ayer geographically, but further from him economically and socially, was "Mr. John Evered alias Webb" of Boston, Chelmsford, and Dracut, Massachusetts; the then rarely used "Mr." in itself indicates a respected position. In his will he named as chief heirs and "cozens" (cousins) five Ayer men of Haverhill and their sister (children of the deceased John Ayer) and added that "if there be any more Brothers or Sisters of that ffamily of the Eayres," they were to share equally. Obviously he did not know the Ayers intimately. This might be expected of a member of a landed family in another part of Wiltshire who in America had six servants and several thousand acres. Apparently blood was thicker than water with him, for he omitted from his will his wife's son by her former marriage and remembered his own cousins--the nephews and nieces of his mother Rebecca. By way of summary, let's look again at the chart. Of the two Massachusetts settlers, John Evered alias Webb's origin and his father's family are fully proved and we have build up a good case both for his mother's identity as Rebecca Eyre and--through her--for the origin of John Ayer of Haverhill. To confirm this circumstantial evidence, it is hoped that baptisms of John Ayer's children will be found and that John Evered, Sr.'s wife Rebecca will be located in Draycot or her maiden name determined by some record. Meanwhile, the existence of so many contemporary John Eyres prompts the query again: Did the Haverhill settler come from Bromham in Wiltshire?
  Person ID	I844	Our Family
  Last Modified	20 Sep 2016