from Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts
Obadiah Ayer. (John.) . He was the founder of the Ayers family of New Jersey. His father, John Ayer, came from Hampton on ship James for Newbury, April 5, 1635.
Obadiah married, March 19, 1660 (o. 1661), Hannah, daughter of John Pike of Newbury, Mass., removed to New Jersey some time between the years 1665-9 and died there Nov. 14, 1694.
His wife was born April 26, 1643, at Newbury, Mass. She died May 31, 1689. Hannah Pike, the wife of Obadiah Ayers, was the daughter and third child of John Pike of Newbury, Mass....
Among the sixty families that John Pike brought to Woodbridge from that of Newbury was that of his son in law, Obadiah Ayers, which besides the father embraced the wife Hannah and two children, John seven years old and Samuel less than two.
Obadiah Ayers probably reached Woodbridge in the summer of 1669 as he sold his homestead in Haverhill, Mass., to his brother Nathaniel, May 5, 1669, and on the 8th of Aug. of the same year he received a grant of 171 acres. These lands embraced 120 acres of upland to the northward of Langston's plains or farms, 30 acres of marsh on the Raritan meadows, 5 acres of meadow on the north side of the mouth of the Papiack creek and a house lot of 16 acres, bounded on the south by the house lot of his brother.in.law, Richard Worth, on the west by the highway and on the east by a "fresh brook running at the foot of Strabara Hill." ...
He seems to have been a man of affairs, his name frequently appears as grantee and grantor in conveyances of land; in 1684 he was a member of the Grand Jury and in the same year the town authorities laid out for him an addition of 8 acres of upland at Shingle Hill. In this survey his name is inscribed "Obadiah Hayres..."
... and on the 10th of Nov., 1694, four days before he died, he executed his will...
Children:
John. Born March 2, 1663, at Newbury, Mass.
Sarah. Born March 5, 1665, Died in infancy.
Son. Born Nov. 1, 1666. Died in infancy.
Samuel. Born Sept. 13, 1667, at Newbury, Mass.
Obadiah. Born in Oct., 1670, at Woodbridge.
Joseph. Born April 4, 1674.
Thomas. Born Dec. 17, 1672. Died Oct. 13, 1675.
Mary. Born Feb. 16, 1680, at Woodbridge, N. J. Married William Ilsley.
Hannah. Born Sept. 7, 1685.
Sarah. Born Sept. 7, 1685. Died in infancy.
