Christopher PEAKE 12th Gr. Grandfather - The Great Mirgation Begins

CHRISTOPHER PEAKE ORIGIN: Unknown MIGRATION: 1634 FIRST RESIDENCE: Roxbury OCCUPATION: Tanner. CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: "Christopher Peake a single man" was admitted to Roxbury church among those who arrived in 1634 [RChR 80]. FREEMAN: 4 March 1634/5 [MBCR 1:370]. EDUCATION: He signed his will. His inventory noted that "the best of his clothes & books [had been] disposed of to his children." ESTATE: In an early listing of Roxbury estates, Christopher Peake owned an undetermined amount of land and was valued at £6 8s. personal estate [RBOP 4]. He received ten acres in the 20 January 1657[/8] division of the thousand acres at Dedham [RBOP 6]. In the Roxbury list of possessions, compiled in 1652 or 1653, Christopher Peake held nine parcels, the first five of which had been granted to him: "his house and lot thereto, eleven acres"; "two acres of salt marsh in Gravelly Point"; "seven acres and a half"; "in the last division the second part of the three allotments being the eighth lot ... [being] twenty acres and one quarter"; "in the thousand acres near Deddam ten acres"; "ten acres bought of Jeames Morgan"; "three acres of salt marsh "; "an acre of meadow"; and "two acres in bare-marsh" [RBOP 38]. In his will, dated 2 April 1666 and proved 2 August 1666, "Christopher Peake of Rocksbury" appointed "my wife Dorcas, sole executrix," and "Mr Edward Denison & Mr. Thomas Weld, both of Roxsburye," overseers; "rents of my house, lands & moveables to my wife, she maintaining the reparation of that the whole time of her life, excepting a little pasture where I intend to make a tan yard, if God please to let me live"; "that little pasture, being about two acres ... [to] my three sons, Jonathan, Joseph, & Ephraim" equally; "my two daughters, at the day of marriage, if God so dispose of them, both Dorcas and Sarah," £10 each in moveable goods; "after my wife's decease, I bequeath my goods unto my children, Jonathan, Dorcas, Joseph, Ephraim, and Sarah ... my eldest son to have a double portion, the rest of my children to have a part alike"; "my son Jonathan hath already received four acres of land by the Great Pond, which shall be accounted as a part of his double portion, with a cow" [SPR 1:473-74]. The inventory of the estate of Christopher Peake was taken 8 June 1666 and totalled £531 17s. 2d., including £340 1s. in real estate: "a dwelling house and barn with other outhousing and orchard," £80; "5 acres of plowland & meadow upon the foreside of the dwelling house," £50; "3 acres of plowland & meadow behind the house," £27; "1 acre of fresh meadow near the house," £10; "Jonathan Peake's 4 acres, part of 12 acres of the pond lot," £12; "7 or 8 acres more of the same lot with the crop upon the land," £32; "7 acres & ½ about Gambling End with a crop of land [sic] upon some of the land," £31 15s.; "6 acres of meadow near Gravely Point," £30; "10 acres in the 1000 acres near Dedham," £4; "2 acres more or less at Bare Marsh," £6; "21 acres in the middle division," £25 6s.; "12 acres near Rockey Swamp," £12; and "2 acres of pasture more or less where he intended to set up tanvats," £20 [SPR 4:271-73]. BIRTH: By about 1612 based on date of marriage. DEATH: Roxbury 23 May 1666 [RChR 178]. MARRIAGE: Roxbury 3 January 1636[/7] DORCAS FRENCH, daughter of Thomas French [Parker-Ruggles 425-56]. "Sister Peake" was admitted to the Roxbury church 6 June 1652 [RChR 87]. She married (2) after 1679 as his third wife GRIFFIN CRAFTS. She died Roxbury 30 December 1697. CHILDREN: i JONATHAN, b. Roxbury 17 December 1637; m. Roxbury 15 August 1660 Sarah French. ii DORCAS, b. Roxbury 1 March 1639; m. after 1675 and before 1682 John Curtis, son of WILLIAM CURTIS [Parker-Ruggles 426, 465-66, citing SLR 16:342; NEHGR 51:166]. iii HANNAH, bp. Roxbury 12 February 1642[/3] [RChR 114]; bur. Roxbury 5 October 1660 [RChR 177]. iv JOSEPH, bp. Roxbury 23 March 1644[/5] [RChR 116]; living 1666; no further record. v Child, d. Roxbury 13 April 1647 ("a newborn child of Christopher Peake" [RChR 173]). vi Child, bur. Roxbury 10 May 1649 ("buried unbaptized [an infant of] Bro. Peake" [RChR 174]). vii EPHRAIM, bp. Roxbury 11 April 1652 [RChR 119]; living 1666; no further record. viii SARAH, bp. Roxbury 9 March 1655[/6] [RChR 121]; living 1666; no further record. ASSOCIATIONS: Among the debts owed by the estate of Christopher Peake was £97 2s. 4d. to "Sir W[illiam] Peak his brother" [SPR 4:273]. COMMENTS: Although Christopher Peake apparently did not arrive in New England until 1634, he is included here because his wife, DORCAS FRENCH, did arrive in 1633.

The Great Migration Begins Sketches PRESERVED PURITAN Ancestry Chain: Christopher PEAKE 1634 Immigrant b.1612, Sr. Jonathan PEAKE b.1637, Jonathan PEAKE b.1663, Dorcas PEAKE b.1696, Nathaniel SANGER b.1724, Mary SANGER b.1746, Lucretia JEFFORDS b.1766, Amariah RAWSON b.1787, Adaline RAWSON b.1811, Mary DUNN b.1833, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR.