See also
| Husband: | John + VINTON (1619-1664) | |
| Wife: | Ann + MOORE (1622-1664) | |
| Children: | Eleanor VINTON (1648- ) | |
| John + VINTON (1650-1727) | ||
| William VINTON (1652- ) | ||
| Blaise VINTON (1654- ) | ||
| Ann VINTON (1656- ) | ||
| Elizabeth VINTON (1657- ) | ||
| Sarah VINTON (1662- ) | ||
| Marriage | 1646 | Lynn, Essex, MA, US1,2 |
| Name: | John + VINTON | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Robert + VINTON (1595- ) | |
| Mother: | Jane + STONE (1600- ) | |
| Birth | 1619 | Canterbury, Kent, England |
| Baptism | 24 Oct 1619 (age 0)3 | |
| Bishops Stortford, Herfordshire, England | ||
| Death | 3 Aug 1664 (age 44-45) | Lynn, Essex, MA, US |
| Name: | Ann + MOORE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | George + MOORE (1563- ) | |
| Mother: | Elizabeth + CLARKE (1586- ) | |
| Birth | 1622 | Lynn, Essex, MA, US |
| Death | 3 Aug 1664 (age 41-42) | New Haven, New Haven, CT, US |
| Name: | Eleanor VINTON | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | May 1648 | |
Spouse: Hannah + GREEN
| Name: | John + VINTON | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse: | Hannah + GREEN (1660-1741) | |
| Birth | 2 Mar 1650 | Lynn, Essex, MA, US4,5 |
| Occupation | forgeman | |
| Death | 13 Nov 1727 (age 77) | Woburn, Middlesex, MA, US |
| Name: | William VINTON | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1652 | |
| Name: | Blaise VINTON | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 22 Apr 1654 | |
| Name: | Ann VINTON | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 4 Apr 1656 | |
| Name: | Elizabeth VINTON | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | Jan 1657 | |
| Name: | Sarah VINTON | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 16 Sep 1662 | |
JOHN VINTON — was the ancestor of all persons bearing the name
of Vinton in the United States of America, according to the best of my
knowledge and belief.* My information respecting him is very lim-
ited. I know not when or where he was born ; when or where he
died ; what was his occupation, or what his position in society. He
must have been born on the other side of the Atlantic ; but on which
side of the English channel, it is impossible to determine with cer-
tainty. As he was a young man in 1648, the probability is that he was
born not far from 1620. As a portion of the Vinton family remained
in England, it may be a fair conclusion that his father, or grandfather,
came over from France, and settled on the eastern shores of the island.
This may have been about 1625, or at a still earlier date.
Nor should the obscurity in which his origin and early history is
involved be thought strange. We have the names of all the men who
landed on the Rock of Plymouth in 1620 ; nothing is better known at
present than that whole transaction ; but Winslow, Brewster, and Brad-
ford are the only passengers in the Mayflower who have been traced to
an European birthplace. How few attempts have been successful to
connect beyond any doubt an American with an English ancestor !
Most of the compilers of our Genealogical Memoirs are obliged to stop
this side of the great water. From the nature of the case, it must be
so ; a different result ought not to be expected. If, as we suppose, our
first American progenitor was the son of a poor French refugee, forced
by religious persecution to abandon his native land and take up his
abode among strangers; the absence of all record, the entire lack of
documentary information, is precisely what ought to be expected. And
such is the fact.
The date of his arrival in this country, I have taken much pains to
ascertain ; but without success. I think it must have been previous to
1643, for then the emigration from England almost wholly ceased. I
find him first at Lynn, near Boston, in the year 1648, when his first
child was born. His name then occurs in a Record of Births and Mar-
riages in Lynn, which I found — the original — in the office of the City
* It is obvious ihat from this statement must be excepted a few persons who may have
emigrated to this country within a few years past, as noticed p. 5.
12 THE VINTON MEMORIAL.
Clerk, Salem. This — which is the County Record — is collateral with
Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, in Salem, Gloucester, and
other towns in the Southern portion of the County of Essex, during the
early years of the Colony.
His name does not occur in the List of those who were admitted
Freemen of the Colony from 1628 to 1692.* This deficiency seems
to necessitate the inference that he was not a member of any Congre-
gational Church. Yet there were many respectable and even influen-
tial men in the colony — nay, some, I think, who held office, — who were
neither freemen nor church-members. His foreign descent may have
occasioned some inconvenience, some disadvantage, which might not
exist at a later period. The connection of his family with the family
of Joseph Hills — to be noticed in the sequel — would indicate that he
was a respectable man.
After extensive and diligent search, I find no record of any distribu-
tion of land to him, or any conveyance of land to or by him. Nor do
I find any Will of his, or any Record of Administration on his Estate.
It would not be safe, however, to conclude that he owned no land in
Lynn or elsewhere. The book is lost in which were recorded the
names of the original proprietors of land in Lynn. Mr. Alonzo Lewis,
the historian of Lynn — who has given my ancestor's name a place in
his valuable work under date of 1650, — informs me that few, if any,
of the present inhabitants of Lynn can produce any original title to
their lands. John Vinton, we know, resided in Lynn twenty years or
more ; it is almost certain, therefore, that he was a land-owner. In
those early days, land was divided among all the inhabitants, usually in
proportion to the number of children in a man's family. | The Record
of such a distribution would of course be made and kept by some Town
Officer. Yet in many cases the Record has long since perished. Such
is the fact in Lynn ; and not only so, the earliest Town Records, and
Church Records, too, of Lynn are none of them now to be found. The
Record of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, now in the City Clerk's Office
in Lynn, does not begin till 1675. Records of Town business are not
extant earlier than March, 1706-7. § The fact is similar, or rather
worse, with regard to Maiden. The Town Records of Maiden previous
to 1700, with the exception of a few scraps following 1678, are utterly
lost.
In view of these things, it cannot seem strange that our knowledge
of our first American ancestor is so deficient.
There is one item of information, however, furnished by the files of
the County Court papers in Salem. The Record is as follows: "At a
Quarterly Court held at Salem, 7 m°. [Sept.] 1649, John Vinton and his
wife were presented for scolding and opprobrious words to their neigh-
bours ; fined 5 shillings."
* This Record may be imperfect, as most of our early Records are.
t See Appendix A.
^ I liave made these statements on the strength of the information I received from the
City Clerk of Lynn, tind llev. Parsons (/ooke, pastor uf the first Chnrch in thai city. Mr.
Lewis [Hist, of l.ynn,] fjoes (urtlipr and says : ?' the Town Records ot Lvnii lor the first 1)2
years (IG2 -\)\) arc whully wanting. The earhest Record of the proceedings of the 'I'owii
whicii has becu discovered, commences in tlie year IG9I, and tiie carli' si Parish Record in
lltZ."
FIRST GENERATION. 13
The first impression given by tliis record is not favorable. But when
the difference between those times and ours is considered ; when we
reflect that offences, now deemed venial, and which would now be
passed over without notice, were then objects of legal animadversion ;
when we remember that punishments were at that time often arbitrarily
inflicted, and that some of the worthiest men in the colony were
severely fined for indulging in freedom of speech ; * moderation and
lenity in the administration of government being scarcely known any-
where ; we may safely conclude that the record just quoted raises no
just suspicion against the character of our ancestor. The offence could
not have been flagrant, as the fine was so light. The Record corrobo-
rates the probability that John Vinton and his wife were exiles, or the
children of exiles, from France. Imperfectly acquainted with the Eng-
lish language and usages, and destitute of many outward advantages,
they might be specially liable to injury and imposition from their neigh-
bors ; and this might occasion " scolding " on their part. I dare say I
should have done the same thing in their circumstances. Till better
informed as to the cause of the altercation, I shall think no worse of
them for the fact.
How long the Vinton family continued at Lynn cannot now be deter-
mined. It seems probable that John Vinton, the original emigrant, did
not attain an advanced age. There is some reason to think that he
removed to Maiden, an adjoining town, with his family, about 1676.
His sons John and Blaise appear in Court at Salem in 1675 ; this indi-
cates residence in Lynn. John, his son, was of Maiden in 1677, the
time of his marriage. Sarah, his youngest daughter, appears at a Court
in Middlesex County, in which Maiden was situated, in June 1681. A
daughter of Joseph Hills, of Maiden, one of the most respectable men
in the colony, married a son of the Vinton family, probably between
1675 and 1680. These things seem to indicate a residence of our first
American progenitor in Maiden later than 1675; but the contemporary
Records of that town having perished, there is no decisive evidence of
the fact.
Eleanor, the eldest child, having entered the married state in 1666,
continued at Lynn with her husband ; and probably may have descend-
ants there at the present day. But from the removal of the family of
her father from that place to the present time, no record appears of any
person bearing the name of Vinton in Lynn. It would seem, indeed,
that the abode of the Vinton family in Lynn did not extend beyond
some thirty years, terminating about 1675.
Mr. Alonzo Lewis, the historian of Lynn, informed me in July 1853,
that a certain hill in Lynn is to this day called " Vinton's Hill,"
As already remarked, there is no record of any will of John Vinton
* Rev. George Phillips, Elder Richard Brown and others, of Watertown, were arraigned
before the Governor in 1632, for freely expressing their minds in relation to the conduct of
the Governor and Assistants, who had passed an order to tax the people without their con-
sent. But these were among the best men in the Colony. And it is evident that they were
in the right, while the Governor was greatly in the wrong. Captain William Jennison of the
same place, a little later, was also arraigned for privately expressing his opinion on public
affairs. John Oldham was banished from Plymouth in 1G24 for the free expression of his
opinion on Church Government ; a man of great worth of character. Winlhrop and Hub-
bard speak of Brown's " violent spirit"; Morton calls Oldham " extremely passionate "—
when iheir only offence was a resolute stand against arbitrary power.
14 THE VINTON MEMORIAL.
of Lynn, or of any administration on his estate. If he died during the
tyrannical government of Andros, 1686-9, when, as I suppose, many
wills failed of being recorded, this may be the reason. Yet of many
prominent and wealthy men in the colony, even at a much later date,
no will or settlement of estate, can now be found.
The wife of John Vinton was Ann .
His children, all born, doubtless, in Lynn, were —
2. tEleanor, b. May , 1C48 ; m. Isaac Eamsdell, of Ljiin, July 12, 1666.
3. tJohn, b. March 2, 1650; m. Hannah Green, of Maiden, Aug. 26, 1677.
4. t William, b. last of April, 1652; m. dau. of Joseph Hills, of Maiden.
5. tBlaise, b. April 22, 1654.
6. Ann, b. April 4, 1656.
7. Elizabeth, b. January 1657-8.
8. Sarah, b. Sept. 16, 1662.
The Record in regard to the last child reads — " his daughter Sarah,
born by Ann, his wife," which is not said of the others ; and this omis-
sion, with the increased interval of time between her birth and that of
the preceding child, may leave it uncertain whether " Ann, his wife,"
was the mother of the first six children.
| 1 | "US and International Marriage Records, 1550-1900" (on-line, Yates Publishing, Provo, UT). |
| 2 | "US New England Marriages prior to 1700". |
| 3 | "England and Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906" (On line - Provo, UT). |
| 4 | "MA Town Birth Records" (on-line, Provo, UT). |
| 5 | "MA Town and Vital Records 1620-1988 Record". |