WILLIAM SARGENT
 ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1632
FIRST RESIDENCE: Ipswich
REMOVES: Newbury, Hampton, Salisbury, Amesbury
OCCUPATION: Seaman.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to a Massachusetts Bay church prior to 22 May 1639 implied by freemanship.
FREEMAN: 22 May 1639 (as "Mr. Willi[am] Sergent") [MBCR 1:375].
EDUCATION: Signed his name to his will and to deeds.
OFFICES: Essex grand jury, 13 April 1652 [EQC 1:251]. Petit jury, 8 April 1662, 24 June 1662, 13 April 1669, 12 April 1670 [EQC 1:377, 385, 4:128, 235]. [Some of this service may belong to William Sargent of Gloucester.]
Sworn clerk of the train band of Salisbury on 8 April 1651 [EQC 1:223].
ESTATE: "It is ordered that no person whatsoever shall go to plant or inhabit at Aggawam, without leave from the court, except those that are already gone, viz. ... "Willm Srjeant" [MBCR 1:103]. In a grant at Ipswich in 1634, William Sargent received twelve acres of land [ITR].
"Willi[am] Sergant" was in the list of petitioners, mostly Newbury men, headed by STEPHEN BACHILER, who on 6 September 1638 were granted "liberty to begin a plantation at Winnacunnet [Hampton]" [MBCR 1:236]. "Will[iam] Sargent" was in the section of married men in the list of first comers to Hampton [GDMNH 55].
On 7 November 1644 John Severans of Salisbury, planter, sold to William Sargent of Salisbury, planter, twenty acres of upland in Salisbury on the west side of Powwos river [NLR 3:5].
On 25 March 1647 Anthony "Colebie" of Salisbury, planter, deeded to William Sargent of Salisbury, seaman, a dwelling house and house lot in Salisbury between Jarred Haddon and Henry Browne [NLR 1:19].
On 16 December 1652, William Sargent of Salisbury sold to John Browne of Hampton, the meadow and upland adjacent to Aquilla Chase and widow "Bristos" [NLR 1:21]. On 15 April 1659 William Sargent of Salisbury sold to John Woodin of Salisbury upland in Salisbury near the "Pawwaus River above the falls" [NLR 1:84].
On 1 November 1666, William Sargent of Salisbury, seaman, gave for "natural affection" to his son Thomas Sargent thirty acres of upland in Salisbury abutting the Merrimack River [NLR 2:157]. On 22 October 1669, William Sargent of Amesbury gave for "natural affection and other considerations" to his "beloved son Thomas Sargent" six acres of marsh granted to him by Salisbury, and a sweepage lot of salt marsh in Salisbury at a place called "ye beache" being lot number 8 containing three acres and four rods, being half the lot of marsh between two islands called "Barnss Iland" and "Ware Iland" [NLR 2:153]. On 9 October 1669 William Sargent of Amesbury, planter, gave for "natural affection and other considerations" to his "beloved son William Sargent" a great lot of upland containing two hundred acres in Amesbury, a lot of upland in ox common containing eight acres, a lot of upland west of the great pond containing forty acres, a lot of upland in "burchin meadow hill" containing forty-five acres "which I bought of Edward Goe"; the last division of three acres in the pond meadow (all the foregoing in Amesbury); and half his first division of the higledee pigledee lots of salt marsh in Salisbury [NLR 2:153].
On 4 March 1670/1 William Sargent of Amesbury, seaman, sold for £2 10s. to William Sargent Jr. of Amesbury, planter, two acres of upland at the Indian ground in Amesbury; wife Johana Sargent made her mark to this deed [NLR 2:201]. On 23 April 1672 William Sargent of Amesbury, yeoman, sold to Isaac Green of Hampton 2 acres of salt marsh called Hall's farm [NLR 3:25]. On 1 July 1673 William Sargent Sr. of Amesbury, with the consent of his wife, "Janna," sold to Thomas Wells of Amesbury ninety-five rods of land in Amesbury, part of his houselot [NLR 3:5]. On 1 October 1673 "William Sergent ... of Almsberry in Norfolke senior and mariner" mortgaged to Nathaniel Williams of Suffolk County eight acres of upland in Amesbury that Sergeant had by exchange with Richard Currier [ILR 3:284]. On 24 February 1673[/4] William Sargent Sr. of Amesbury, seaman, sold to Caleb Moody of Newbury, maltster, for £5 1s. "my second division higledee pigledee" lot of salt marsh containing three acres in Salisbury [NLR 2:312].
Among parcels sold by William Sargent Jr. on 18 October 1696 to Henry Deering, was a great lot of upland given by his grandfather [unnamed] to his father William Sergeant, "containing by estimation 200 acres in Amesbury amongst the great lots" [ELR 10:58].
In his will, dated 24 March 1670/1 and proved 13 April 1675, "William Sargent of the town of Emsbery," seaman, "being in pritty good health of body..." bequeathed to "my grandchild William Challis" £5; to "my grandchildren: Elizabeth, Lidia, Mary and Phillip Watson Challis" each of them 20s.; to "my grandchildren Dorethie, & Elizabeth Colby" each 20s; to "my grandchild William Sargent" 30s.; to "my daughter Elizabeth the wife of Samuel Colby" £5; residue to "my daughter Sarah" and if she die without children, the housing and lands to be equally divided to "my four children hereafter named i.e.: my sons Thomas & William: & my daughters: Mary and Elizabeth"; "my son Thomas Sargent and my daughter Sarah Sargent" executors; loving "brother-in-law Mr. Tho: Bradbury" and esteemed friend Major Robert Pike, overseers [EPR 2:438-39].
The inventory of the estate of "Willi. Sargent, Senr.," taken 8 April 1675 by Thomas Sergeant and John Weed, totalled £196, of which the real estate totalled £137 10s., including "housing & lands about the house & orchard on both sides [of] the country way," £85; "half the lot in the tide meadows, £16; "a Higledee Pigledee lot in the salt marsh" £25; "a lot lying in ... Lyons Mouth," £5 10s.; "a lot in the great swamp," £2; "a lot in ... Bugmore," £4 [EPR 2:440].
Unmarried daughter Sarah chose to have her "loving brother" Thomas act in her behalf as executor, 14 April 1675 [NLR 3:11].
Although William had married his last wife, Joanna, just a few months before he wrote his will, and she survived him, she was not mentioned, strongly implying that there was a pre-nuptial agreement (of which no record can now be found).
BIRTH: By about 1611 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Amesbury after 24 February 1673[/4] [NLR 2:312] and before 8 April 1675 (inventory).
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1636 Elizabeth Perkins, daughter of JOHN PERKINS.
(2) Amesbury 18 September 1670 Joanna (Pinder) Rowell, born about 1621 (aged 14 in 1635 [Hotten 59]), daughter of Henry and Mary Pinder, widow of Valentine Rowell. She married (3) Amesbury 26 October 1676 Richard Currier and she died Amesbury October 1690 [Pillsbury Anc 119].
CHILDREN:
| i MARY, b. about 1636 (deposed 12 March 1704/5 aged 68 years [Essex General Sessions 3:145 file papers]); m. by 1653 Philip Watson-Challis (eldest known child b. 9 July 1653). |
| ii ELIZABETH, b. say 1641; d. Salisbury 14 September 1641. |
| iii THOMAS, b. Salisbury 11 June 1643; m. Salisbury 2 March 1667/8 Rachel Barnes. (Found not guilty of fathering Sarah Osgood's child, October 1668 [EQC 4:64].) |
| iv WILLIAM, b. Salisbury 2 January 1645[/6]; m. Amesbury 23 September 1668 Mary Colby, daughter of ANTHONY COLBY. (Ordered to be whipped or pay a fine for fornication, 12 April 1670 [EQC 4:237].) |
| v ELIZABETH, b. Salisbury 22 November 1648; m. by about 1668 Samuel Colby, son of ANTHONY COLBY. |
| vi (probably) LYDIA, b. say 1650; d. Salisbury "bet. 1660 and 1662." |
| vii SARAH, b. Salisbury 29 February 1651[/2]; m. Amesbury 22 December 1681 Orlando Bagley. |
ASSOCIATIONS: The William Sargent of this sketch is not to be confused with the William Sargent of Gloucester who was "cousin german" of Thomas Wathing [EQC 1:264].
The convoluted affinity proposed by Hoyt among William of Amesbury, Richard of London, and a ghostly William of Charlestown strains all credulity [Hoyt 310-11].
In his will of 20 June 1663 Theophilus Shatswell of Haverhill named "my brother Wilyam Sargent & my kinsman Lieutenant Philip Challis" his overseers [EPR 1:425]; Philip Watson-Challis had married Mary, the eldest child of William Sargent. Recent research has shown that no sibling of Theophilus Shatswell married William Sargent [NEHGR 150:181-90], and the two wives of of William Sargent have been identified. The most likely remaining solution is that Theophilus Shatswell married a sister of William Sargent.
COMMENTS: William "Sargeant" sued Mr. William Hook of Salisbury for 56s. in corn 26 December 1643 [EQC 1:55]. He acknowledged judgment in favor of Mr. Jonathan Wade 26 September 1648 [EQC 1:147]. Michael Spencer sued him for detaining corn and other goods 2 January 1650 [EQC 1:205].
Hard words were exchanged between the Sargents and their near neighbors, the Martins. Either William Sr. or Jr. was sued for slander by George Martin, who claimed Sargent had called his wife a witch 13 April 1669 [EQC 4:129]. Martin sued Thomas Sargent for saying that his son George Martin was a bastard and that Richard Martin was Goodwife Martin's imp [EQC 4:129].
In 1672 William Sargent and Joanna his wife sued Christopher Osgood for debt due part of the estate of Joanna's late husband, Valentine Rowell [EQC 5:20].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1938 Mary Lovering Holman compiled an account of William Sargent and his family [Pillsbury Anc 1:119-22].
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