Our Family
 Genealogy Pages

Edward BANGS

Male Abt 1591 - Bef 1678  (~ 87 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Edward BANGS  [1
    Born Abt 1591  [1
    Gender Male 
    Died Bef 05 Mar 1677/78  Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Person ID I949  Sturgis
    Last Modified 6 Jun 2005 

    Children 
     1. Rebecca BANGS,   b. Abt 1636, Plymouth, Plymouth County, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location
    Last Modified 14 Oct 2018 
    Family ID F161  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Married Bef 1635  Eastham, Barnstable County, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Last Modified 14 Oct 2018 
    Family ID F162  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • From: The Great Migration Begins

      ORIGIN: Unknown (but see COMMENTS)
      MIGRATION: 1623 on the Anne
      FIRST RESIDENCE: Plymouth
      REMOVES: Eastham by 1645
      OCCUPATION: Innkeeper ("Liberty is granted unto Edward Bangs to draw and sell wine and strong waters at Eastham, provided it be for the refreshment of the English, and not to be sold to the Indians," 6 October 1657 [ PCR 3:123]; an account of liquor brought into Eastham dated 28 November 1664 included "Edward Bangs, six gallons of liquor" [ PCR 4:100]).
      FREEMAN: In "1633" Plymouth list of freemen in proximity to those admitted on 1 January 1632/3 [ PCR 1:4]. In list of 7 March 1636/7 [ PCR 1:52]. In Plymouth section of list of 1639, annotated as gone and added to list for Eastham [ PCR 8:174, 177]. In Eastham portion of list possibly dated to 1658 [ PCR 8:201]. In Eastham list of 29 May 1670 [ PCR 5:278].
      EDUCATION: Signed his will and several deeds.
      OFFICES: Deputy to Plymouth Court for Eastham, 7 June 1652 [ PCR 3:9]; Plymouth grand jury, 7 March 1636/7, 5 June 1638, 2 June 1640, 1 March 1641/2, 7 June 1652 [ PCR 1:54, 87, 155; 2:34; 3:9]; Plymouth petit jury, 4 October 1636, 3 January 1636/7, 3 September 1639, 3 December 1639, 3 March 1639/40, 3 August 1641, 6 September 1641, 7 December 1641, 1 March 1641/2, 6 June 1643, 7 November 1643 [ PCR 1:44, 7:4, 13, 14, 16, 22, 23, 25, 28, 35, 36]; committee to lay out land, 3 January 1627/8, 1 February 1640/1 [ PCR 12:14, 2:7]; committee to divide meadow, 1 July 1633 [ PCR 1:14]; committee to assess taxes, 5 January 1634/5, 1 March 1635/6 [ PCR 1:33, 38]; Plymouth representative to committee to reunite Plymouth and Duxbury (but he did not serve), 14 March 1635/6 [ PCR 1:41]; committee to allocate hay ground, 20 March 1636/7, 2 October 1637, 1 June 1640 [ PCR 1:55, 67, 153]; committee to lay out highway, 1 February 1640/1, 24 February 1652 [ PCR 2:7, 3:61]; coroner's jury, 30 October 1667 [ PCR 4:169]; Eastham highway surveyor, 1 June 1647, 4 June 1650, 3 June 1651 [ PCR 2:115, 155, 168]; Eastham treasurer, 1646-1665 [ Bangs Gen 11]. In Plymouth section of 1643 list of men able to bear arms [ PCR 8:189].
      ESTATE: In the 1623 Plymouth division of land "Bangs" [no first name] received four acres as a passenger on the Anne in 1623 [ PCR 12:6]. In the 1627 Plymouth division of cattle "Edward Banges" was the thirteenth person in the twelfth company [ PCR 12:1].
      In the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 Edward Bangs was assessed 12s. [ PCR 1:10, 27]. Included in the undated list of Purchasers [ PCR 2:177].
      On 20 March 1636/7 "John Banges" was assigned hay ground at Saggaquash (jointly with Edward Doty) [ PCR 1:56, presumably a simple scribal error]. On 2 November 1640 granted ten acres of meadow in the South Meadows [ PCR 1:166]. On 7 September 1641 "Edward Banges is granted a parcel of fourscore acres of upland about Warren's Wells" [ PCR 2:25]. On 17 October 1642 "Whereas fourscore acres of upland are formerly granted to Edward Banges at Warren's Wells, he now desiring to have some land near his house, it is granted that he shall look out a parcel of land, which upon view shall be laid forth for him, and to be deducted out of the 80 acres he should have at Warren's Wells" [ PCR 2:48].
      On 7 September 1643 Joyce Wallen, widow, sold to Edward Bangs of Plymouth for ?8 "all that her house and messuage situate and being at Hobs Hole or Wellingsly with the garden place and uplands thereunto adjoining" [ PCR 12:95]. On 22 June 1651 Edward Bangs of Eastham sold to Samuel Hicks of Plymouth for ?3 10s. "a parcel of marsh meadow lying at the high pines on the Salthouse Beach" [ PCR 12:208-09]. On 22 June 1651 "Edward Banges of the town of Nawsett alias Eastham ... yeoman" sold to "Mannasses Kemton" of Plymouth, yeoman, for ?13 forty acres of upland in Plymouth near Browne's Rock, as well as "all the meadow or marsh that is on the island or spot of land commonly called and known by the name of Sagaquas"; "Rebeckah the wife of the said Edward Banges" consented to this deed [ PCR 12:209].
      On 12 November 1666 "Edward Banges and Daniel Cole Sen[io]r of Eastham, yeomen," sold to James Mathews of Yarmouth, yeoman, for ?10 "all the purchase lands that belonged unto and were the lands of Edward Banges and Daniell Cole ... between the two brooks commonly called Bound Brook and Stony Brook ... in Yarmouth" [ PCLR 3:91-92].
      On 23 February 1676 Edward Bangs of Eastham for "my tender love and fatherly love unto my natural son Joshua Bangs" deeded him "all that my messuage, dwelling house and housing and lands, both upland and meadowing, lying and being in the township of Eastham," viz: five acres of upland "granted to me by the town for a houselot," with the dwelling house on it; four acres granted to Daniel Cole Sr. for a houselot; three acres granted to George Crispe for a houselot; four acres and half granted to John Jenkins for a houselot; two acres granted to Job Cole; fourteen acres granted to Ralph Smith; three acres "of meadow granted me by the town"; four acres of meadow at Great Blackfish River; one acre of meadow granted to John Jenkins; all of which parcels "appear more at length in the town book of records" [ PCLR 4:134-36].
      In his will, dated 19 October 1677 and proved 5 March 1677/8, "Edward Banges, aged 86 years," made son Jonathan sole executor and bequeathed to him "all my purchased land at Namskekett," two acres and a half of meadow, "all my purchase land at Pocomett[?]," an acre and a half of meadow "at a place called the acars," one acre at the harbor's mouth, "a parcel of upland and meadow lying at Rock harbour which I had in exchange of John Done," and "all those things which I have at his house"; to son John "that twenty acres of upland at Pochett that he hath built upon," five acres adjoining to the twenty acres, "that land which I have at Pochett Island," two acres of meadow at Boat Meadow, and three-quarters of an acre at the head of Boat Meadow; to son Joshua "the house that I lived in and all the housing belonging to it," twenty-eight acres of land adjoining, three acres of meadow at Boat Meadow, one acre of meadow at Boat Meadow, four acres of meadow at the head of Blackfish Creek, and fourteen acres of upland at Pochett; to son Jonathan's eldest son Edward Bangs twenty-five acres of upland at Pochett Field, one acre of meadow at Rock Harbor, and "half an acre of meadow lying at Great Namscekett which I bought of Daniell Cole"; to "my daughter Howes, my daughter Higgens, my daughter Done, my daughter Hall, my daughter Merricke, and my daughter Attwood, four pounds apiece at my decease, and I give to my grandchildren, viz: the children of my daughter Rebecka deceased four pounds at my decease" [ PCPR 3:2:106].
      BIRTH: About 1591 based on his stated age of eighty-six on 19 October 1677 [ PCPR 3:2:106] (although this may be exaggerated).
      DEATH: Eastham between 19 October 1677 (date of will) and 5 March 1677/8 (date of probate).
      MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1633 Lydia Hicks, baptized St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Surrey, 6 September 1612, daughter of ROBERT HICKS [ TAG 51:58]; she apparently died within a year or two.
      (2) By about 1635 Rebecca ____; she joined her husband as grantor on a deed of 22 June 1651 [ PCR 12:209].
      CHILDREN:
      With first wife

      i JOHN, b. say 1634; m. Eastham 23 January 1660[/1] Hannah Smalley [ PCR 8:28; MD 7:17]. (If his deed to George Partridge, recorded in 1657, is correctly dated 21 June 1652, then he was probably born as early as 1631, which would also push back the date on which his father married Lydia Hicks [ MD 12:83-84].)

      With second wife

      ii REBECCA, b. say 1636; m. Eastham 26 October 1654 Jonathan Sparrow [ PCR 8:15].

      iii SARAH, b. say 1638; m. about 1657 Thomas Howes [ MD 6:233].

      iv JONATHAN, b. say 1640; m. (1) Eastham 16 July 1664 Mary Mayo [ PCR 8:56]; m. (2) by 1719 Sarah _____; m. (3) Eastham (int.) 23 July 1720 "Mrs. Ruth Young" [ MD 28:111] (widow of John Young and daughter of Daniel Cole).

      v LYDIA, b. say 1642; m. Eastham 24 December 1661 Benjamin Higgins [ MD 8:12].

      vi HANNAH, b. say 1644; m. Eastham 30 April 1662 John Doane [ MD 8:89].

      vii JOSHUA, b. say 1646; m. Eastham 1 December 1669 Hannah Scudder [ PCR 8:58].

      viii BETHIA, b. Eastham 28 May 1650 [ PCR 8:15]; m. by 1669 Gershom Hall [Bangs Gen 27-28, reproducing original Barnstable deed of 1 April 1729 in which Samuel Hall, Jonathan Hall and Mary Chess sell land in Eastham "that descended to us by the right & title of our honorable deceased mother Bethiah Hall wife of our honored father Gershom Hall which said right descended to her our said deceased mother from her honored father Edward Bangs deceased our honored grandfather"].

      ix MERCY (twin), b. Eastham 15 October 1651 [ PCR 8:15]; m. Eastham 28 December 1670 Steven Merrick [ PCR 8:57].

      x APPHIA (twin), b. Eastham 15 October 1651 [ PCR 8:15]; m. (1) Eastham 28 December 1670 John Knowles [ PCR 8:57; NEHGR 79:293-95]; m. (2) by 6 March 1677 Stephen Wood Jr. [ PCR 5:220].



      COMMENTS: Mary Walton Ferris argues that the immigrant to Plymouth was the Edward Bangs baptized at Panfield, Essex, on 28 October 1591, but she does not present all the evidence, and the evidence which is printed is not sufficient to prove the origin [ Dawes-Gates 2:61].
      How many wives did Edward Bangs have, and when? Since he was granted four acres in the 1623 land division, some have proposed that he brought with him a wife and at least one child, and that they must have died by 1627, when they do not appear in the 1627 cattle division. However, this is not the only possible interpretation of this record: the other three persons with Edward Bangs may have been servants, or the record itself may be erroneous. Thus, pending discoveries in English records, no wife prior to Lydia Hicks is assumed here. (Although if Edward's claimed age is close to correct, he certainly would have been old enough to have a family in 1623.)
      Both ROBERT HICKS and his wife MARGARET name in their wills grandson John Bangs. John, the son of Edward Bangs, married in 1660, which would be consistent with a birthdate about 1635, thus making him the eldest child of Edward. On 1 May 1660 "George Watson requested the Court in the behalf of his son, John Watson, and his nephew, John Banges," that the records be altered to reflect Robert Hicks as purchaser at Dartmouth, rather than Samuel Hicks [ PCR 3:186]; George Watson had married a daughter of Robert Hicks, which explains the relationship to John Bangs.
      In a deed of 22 June 1651, Edward Bangs is joined by his wife Rebecca in selling land in Plymouth. Thus, she was certainly mother of the twins born later in 1651, and almost certainly mother of all other children except John Bangs. Citing a supposed entry in the Hobart diary, Mary Walton Ferris suggested that Rebecca was daughter of Edmund Hobart of Hingham, but this entry may not have existed, and the identity of Rebecca (_____) Bangs remains unknown [ NEHGR 121:4, 56].
      On 8 November 1638 "Edward Banges, of [Plymouth], yeoman," posted bond of ?20 as surety for John Smith of Plymouth, laborer [ PCR 1:103]. On 5 March 1643/4 he was surety for John Smith of Eel River [ PCR 2:69].
      BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The basic genealogy for this family is Dean Dudley's History and Genealogy of The Bangs Family in America, with Genealogical Tables and Notes (Montrose MA 1896, cited above as Bangs Gen). This volume is basically sound, with complete transcripts of many important documents, including some Barnstable deeds which are probably not otherwise accessible. But there are also the usual idiosyncrasies typical of this author. As an example we are told that "The court at Plymouth granted to Edward Bangs eighty acres of land on condition that he contribute one-sixteenth part toward building a barque of 40 or 50 tons. He is said to have superintended the building of the vessel, being a shipwright by trade" [p. 10]. The Plymouth records state merely that on 23 January 1641/2 Edward Bangs contributed one-sixteenth of the cost of building the bark, and say nothing about any award of land in connection with this contribution [ PCR 2:31]. The grant of land was made at court on 7 September 1641, five months before the contribution [ PCR 2:25]. Beyond this, there is no evidence that he had anything to do with building the bark, or that he was a shipwright. As noted above, he was at times an innkeeper, and was otherwise called yeoman.
      Half a century later Mary Walton Ferris did her usual thorough job on Edward Bangs [ Dawes-Gates 2:61-68]. [1]
    • "EDWARD, Plymouth, b. perhaps 1592, at Chichester, Co. Sussex, came in the Ann, 1623, and m. after 1627, as is presum. Lydia, d. of Robert Hicks, had Rebecca; John; Sarah; Jonathan, b. 1640; Lydia; Hannah; Joshua; Bethia, 28 May 1650; Mercy, and Apphia, tw. 15 Oct. 1651. He had rem. with Gov. Prence, 1644, to Eastham, was a shipwright, and direct. the labor, says a reasona. tradit. on the first vessel built in the Col. tho. earlier ones had been launch. in Mass. was rep. 1647, and sev. other yrs. d. 1677, in his will of that yr. 19 Oct. pro. 5 Mar. 1678, furnish. evid. to us, that all his ch. were then liv. exc. Rebecca, wh. had m. 26 Oct. 1654 Jonathan Sparrow, and left childr. Sarah m. 1656, Thomas Howes; Lydia m. 24 Dec. 1661, Benjamin Higgins; Hannah m. 30 Apr. 1662, John Doane; Bethia m. Gershom Hall of Harwich; Mercy m. 28 Dec. 1670, Stephen Merrick; and Apphia m. the same day, prob. John Knowles, and next Joseph Atwood. No certainty is attaina. as to order of births of most of these ch. " [2]

  • Sources 
    1. [S45] Great Migration Begins, Anderson, Robert C., (New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995).

    2. [S94] Savage, Savage, James.