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An American Family History

Barbara Lothrop Emerson
The children of John Lothrop
and Hannah Howse
  • Thomas Lothrop
  • Jane Lothrop Fuller
  • Anne Lothrop
  • John Lothrop
  • Barbara Lothrop Emerson
  • Samuel Lothrop
  • Thomas Lothrop
  • Captain Joseph Lothrop
  • Benjamin Lothrop
    • and Ann Hammond
  • the Honorable Barnabas Lothrop
  • Abigail Lothrop Clark
  • Bathsheba Lothrop Marsh
  • Captain John Lothrop

    • Scituate was settled in 1627 by Puritan colonists from Plymouth.

    Barbara Lothrop Emerson was baptized on October 31, 1619 in Edgerton. Her parents were John Lothrop and Hannah Howse. 

    She came to America on the ship Griffin with her family.

    She married John Emerson on July 19, 1638. John was born on March 20, 1616/17 in Cadney, Lincolnshire, England.

    John (or perhaps his father of the same name) had some trouble. On January 3, 1636/37 Edith Pitts appeared in court as a witness against John Emerson who was accused of abusing her while she was a servant to Samuel Jackson. On March 5, 1638/39 John Holmes, the messenger was presented for sitting up in the night, or all the night, drinking inordinately at John Emerson's house.

    Her father's recorded her marriage: "My sonn Emmersonn & and my daughter Barbarah marryed at Duxberry by Captain Standige."

    They settled at Scituate. In 1638 John Emerson of Scituate was tried before the general court for abusing his wife and the same year for beating his wife.
    The Griffin left England August 1, 1634 and arrived in Boston on September 18, 1634 with about one hundred passengers and cattle for the plantations. The passengers included the Bartholomew, Cotton, Hammond, Haines, Heaton, Hutchinson (including dissident Anne), Lothrop, Lynde, Magatt, and Symmes families.
    Lady Day Before 1752 the year began on March 25th. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year, not the beginning.
     

    The Haverhill Emersons by Charles Henry Pope

    		  
     

    John Emerson (the name abbreviated as "Jo:") came to Boston in " The Abigail " in 1635; the only note in Hotten regarding him is his age, "20." He settled at Scituate and married a daughter of Rev. John Lothrop; then disappeared from our records. It has been asserted that he was called "baker" in Hotten's list of passengers; but this is incorrect.

    A matter of considerable interest to some persons is the question whether the Massachusetts Emersons were entitled to bear a "coat of arms." We have seen that Thomas called himself "baker" in the deed wherein he conveyed property to his son John and made conditions to which he alluded in his will; so that the ignorant person who carved a coat of arms on the gravestone of Thomas' youngest son, Nathaniel, made a silly blunder.

    The Haverhill Emersons were also "yeomen," as Thomas and his family called themselves; so that no descendant of either of the Massachusetts Emerson families has the slightest reason for using any coat of arms as from Emerson ancestry.

    A yeoman was a man who owned and cultivated a small farm. He belonged to the class below the gentry or land owners. A husbandman was a free tenant farmer. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman.

     

         

    ©Roberta Tuller 2012
    tuller.roberta@gmail.com

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