Name: John Hand
Born: 1611
Place: Stanstede, Maidstone, Kent, England
Died: 24 Jan 1660
Place: Easthampton, Long Island
Buried:
Married: 1633
From Mayflower Pilgrim descendants in Cape May County, New Jersey,
1921:
Page 12
...the whaling industry brought the New England emigrants here.
Dr. Maurice Beesley in his "Sketch of the Early History of the County of
Cape May" says: "The original settlers or those who were here previous to
the year 1700 were principally attracted (as authors heretofore quoted
sufficiently corroborate) by the inducements held out by the whale fishery;
and Long Island supplied the principal proportion of those who came prior to
that time. The names of those who were known to be whalers (collected from
the secretary's office, Trenton and Cape May records, given in note) were:
...Henry Stites, Thomas Hand, and his sons John and George...
Page 337
The several branches of the Hand family of Cape May County are descended
from John Hand, who was at Lyim in Massachusetts Bay Colony as early as
1636, and removed to the whaling settlement at Southampton, Long Island,
before 7 March, 1644. He married Alice Gransden, and had nine children,
(Nash's Fifty Puritan Ancestors), as follows: — John, born about 1633;
Stephen, born about 1635; Joseph, born 1638; Mary, married before 1657,
Charles Barnes; Shamgar, moved to Cape May, and died there about 1727;
Benjamin, born about 1644, died in Cape May County; James, born in
Easthampton, died there 13 March, 1733; Thomas, one of the Cape May
whaleman, born 1646, drowned off Cape May, 2 October, 1814, a daughter,
probably Alice. The following line of descent continues this ancient Cape
May family through ten generations to the present time:
JOHN HAND, an arrival in Massachusetts Bay before 1636, married Alice
Gransden, and had THOMAS HAND, born 1646, died 1714, married Katherine...
This email was posted to familysearch.org by "Thomas Hand_1" in 2018. It
was written by Sydney Smith to "hand" in 1999.
From: Sydney Smith
To: hand
Date: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 11:54 AM
Subject: john hand
Sydney G. Smith B.A.(Hons)
GENEALOGIST
FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH
Ref: 99/2616/2 27th Oct. 1999
James Hand Esq.,
157 E. Pearl St.,
Wellsville, NY
14895-1138
It is before this date (1634/35 - John's baptised date - HE) that the
account I have compiled differs, from yours. For one thing, you show that a
John Hand married an Alice Gransden in Tonbridge in 1633.
However, I can categorically say that this DID NOT take place there. In
fact, there are no other references to the name Hand at all in the entire
registers, so clearly John Hand (Snr.) must have come from elsewhere.
Regarding his birth c. 1610, in Stansted, again, I can categorically say
that HE WAS NOT baptised in this place. Nor were any other children called
Hand recorded in the Stansted parish records, and in fact, there is no
reference at all to the name in that place in the early 1600's. Where that
story of the early family came from, I do not know, but it is clearly
wrong.
I decided to do my own checking first for the marriage of John Hand and
Alice Gransden before 1634/5 and John Hand's birth c. 1610. As you will
see, I came up with two very different possibilities to the account that you
sent. The main "find" which almost fits with what you have is the marriage
of John Hand and Elizabeth Gransden less than a year before John Hand was
baptised in Tonbridge .... from my own marriage index which covers every
known marriage in the whole of Western Kent:
John Hand married Elizabeth Gransden 24th Apr. 1634 at SUNDRIDGE
In fact, this is the ONLY "John Hand" marriage I can find in the whole of
the county, and even if I had not known of the surname Gransden, I would
have been assuming that this marriage is that of the parents of John, born
in Tonbridge 8 months later. Sundridge is just four or five miles west of
Tonbridge and this must be the marriage of John's parents. The main problem
we have of course is that the name of the bride is not Alice as shown on
your notes. There may be an explanation for this. First, I have not
managed to check the original Sundridge registers and have so far only used
a transcript at the Society of Genealogists Library. It could be therefore
that the bride's name was Alice and not Elizabeth.
I note that you mention John Hand's will in which he names his wife, Alice.
However, is it possible that Alice may have been a second wife (after
Elizabeth had died.) Perhaps because it was known that John's wife was
originally called Gransden, it has simply been mistakenly assumed that this
was the Alice Gransden who was born in Tonbridge in 1613? I do not know the
answer to this, and as I said, it could be that Alice's name was recorded
wrongly as Elizabeth either in the transcript, or even in the originals at
the time. (I have come across so many errors, even in the original records,
but naturally, I need to check the original marriage entry in the Sundridge
register to see what it says.) Whatever the answer, I am convinced that the
marriage I have found in Sundridge in April 1634 is that of the parents of
John Hand, born in Tonbridge, and therefore your earliest proven ancestors.
The next stage therefore was to search the Sundridge parish register
(transcript) hoping to find a baptism of a John Hand circa 1610. I am
pleased to say that I did locate such a baptism. Once again, however, what
I found does not tie in with your account of the very first character on the
"tree". It could be that this family below is not the one you are looking
for, but I would have to say that based on the usual research methods, one
would normally assume that this baptism found in 1609 would be the same
character who married 25 years later in 1634. i.e. 4th June 1609 John, son
of Steven Hand, bapt. (at Sundridge)
At first, I discounted this character, for the father's name was not John.
However, on further reflection, especially when I noted that the emigrant
John Hand named his second son, Stephen, and knowing just how much of the
account that you sent is wrong, I thought I ought to investigate further.
There is no further mention of the name Hand in the registers after this
date. (11 Dec. 1639 - Herb) Nor is there any mention of John Hand in the
records after he married in 1634, presumably had one child in Tonbridge in
1635, and then left for America. His disappearance in any of the records
(in Sundridge and Tonbridge) does seem to tie up with his appearance across
the Atlantic, in the late 1630's.
If this John Hand is indeed your ancestor, however, it does mean that his
father was STEVEN HAND and not John Hand as all your old notes imply.
If the pedigree which I have noted in Tonbridge and Sundridge is yours, it
does mean of course that your earliest ancestors in Kent were actually
Steven Hand and Ann Buckland, who married in 1600. (and NOT the first John
Hand as shown in your notes.) As mentioned earlier, I was very interested to
learn that the second son of John Hand, the emigrant was actually named
Steven. John named his first son after himself (John); I believe that John
might well have named his second son after his own father. It certainly
seems a plausible explanation, even if it does completely re-write your
family tree!
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