Thursday, June 27, 2019

St. John - Sension Family: What I know or think I know

The St. John - Sension story becomes more and more frustrating as I dig into it. Genealogy research can do that to you - constantly!! Were Mathias Sension, his uncle Matthew and cousin Mathias all in America? Was Samuel St. John's father Mathias II or Mathias, son of Matthew?

Here's what I know and think I know.

Robert Leigh Ward's  Two Contemporaries Named Mathias Sension was published in the Oct. 1977 issue of The American Genealogist, [Vol. 33, #4, p. 241-3]. In the article, Ward established that there were two Mathias Sension residing in London during the early 1600s.

One lived in the parish of St. Botolph's Bishopsgate, London, was a shoemaker and married a woman named Sarah. Mathias and Sarah had three children baptized at the parish church, William [23 Aug 1629], Elizabeth [1 Nov 1631] and Sara [1 Sep 1633].

The other Mathias resided in St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, London, was a chandler by trade and married a woman named Mary. Further research would reveal that she was Mary Tinker. The parish registers turned up a baptism for two sons, Thomas [24 Oct 1631] and Marke [10 Jun 1633]. There was also a James Sension in the same parish. He married Anne and they had 8 children. Like Mathias, James was a chandler.

Ward concluded that it was the second Mathis who settled in Massachusetts and later Connecticut.

Mathias' marriage record was located in New Windsor, Berkshire, England. On 1 Nov 1627, he married Mary Tinker, daughter of Robert Tinker and Mary Merwin. Their eldest son, Mathias was baptized at New Windsor on 30 Nov 1628.

The St. John Genealogy [1907] claims that Mathias and Mary were in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1631/2. With sons born in London in 1631 and 1633, that was highly unlikely.

Dorchester records do place Mathias there in 1634, when he was made a freeman on 3 September of that year.

Mathias and Mary had at least three more children in America, possibly four. Samuel [c1639]. Mercy [c1645] and James [c11649] were probably born in Windsor, CT. A Sarah Senchon died in Windsor in 1647. Robert Charles Anderson's Great Migration 1634-1635 R-S article on "Matthew Sension" [p.232] suggests that the Sarah Sension who died in 1647 was the daughter of Mathias and Mary, born circa 1636.

The Sensions were in Dorchester from 1634 until 1640, then moved to Windsor, CT from 1640 until 1648, Wethersfield, CT from 1648 until 1654 and Norwalk, CT from 1655 until his death in 1669.

[to be continued]

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