DEERING

1. GEORGE-

George was a bicuit baker in Dartmouth.

Dartmouth, Devon

Issue-

·  I. Andrew- bpt. 21 Feb. 1587 St. Saviour, Dartmouth

·  II. Marie- bpt. 30 Sept. 1590 St. Saviour, Dartmouth

·  2III. THOMAS- bpt. 1593 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, m. 19 Jan. 1618/9 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, ELIZABETH PASSE

·  ?IV. John-

·  ?V. George-

2III. THOMAS (GEORGE 1)

bpt. 1593 St. Saviour, Dartmouth
m. 19 Jan. 1618/9 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, ELIZABETH PASSE

St. Clement's Church- Dartmouth

Issue-

·  ?3I. ROGER- bpt. 1619 St. Saviour, Dartmouth

A few other entries for Deerings from Dartmouth in the parish registers:

Henry- bpt. 16 Aug. 1639 Dartmouth, son of George
Samuel- bpt. 1 Apr. 1640 Dartmouth
William- bur. 20 Feb. 1653
Thomas- m. 29 Dec. 1662 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, Mary Lee
Ambrose, widow- m. 15 Nov. 1663 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, Robert Grinswood
Ann- m. 23 Nov. 1675 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, John Nichols
John- m. 18 Dec. 1694 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, Martha Fawn
John- m. 21 Feb. 1703/4 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, Elyzabeth Mills

3I. ROGER (GEORGE 1, THOMAS 2)

?bpt. 1619 St. Saviour, Dartmouth

m. 30 Aug. 1647 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, JOAN/SARAH PALMER (m.2. William Crafts (d. before 1696), d.c.1713), d. of Clement Palmer and Sarah Pettigrew
d. 26 June 1676 Kittery

Roger may have been the son of Thomas Deering of Dartmouth as there is a baptism at St. Saviour's in 1619, however, the given name and part of the date are illegible. George of Scarborough and Roger are undoubtedly related, however, it seems unlikely that George was his father as no connection between the two, other than the similarities of names, has been found and George was probably a bit too young to be Roger's father.

Foss St.- Dartmouth

It certainly is understandable that this family wanted to leave the area as the town was under seige in 1643 when it was captured by Prince Maurice after a month's fierce resistance in heavy rain. Supposedly there are bullet holes in the tower of St. Saviour's church from the battle. This seige was made entirely with local resources organized by the Mayor and the councillors who spent the town's money sending Thomas Newcomen (the grandfather of the inventor of the steam engine) to London to buy 36 barrels of gunpowder. The guns were mounted on the top of the recently enlarged tower of St. Saviour's as well as St. Clement's Townstal. Henry Penny, a blacksmith, supplied the ironwork for the forts and the locals brought anything they could to made road blocks. Sir Thomas Fairfax's attack on the town to recover it for Parliament took place in Jan. 1645/6 after it had been occupied by Royalist forces for two years. There is a 50 page book of expenses claimed by the town's occupants after the war ended listing all they had spent to help fortify it as well as everything they had lost because of the war. The defense of the town was rather amazing as in 1628 a muster of all the inhabitants showed only 140 men, 30 firearms of all sorts, 4 swords, 26 halberts and 40 bills.

Dartmouth Castle

Roger was a shipwright and mariner from Townstall, Dartmouth where he was taxed from 1649 until 1663 and also in 1671-2. Suits in the Dartmouth courts up to 1663 show that he was a shipbuilder there before coming to Piscataqua. Most likely he built ships here and sailed them back to England for sale there. He was called "mate Dearing" in 1665 and in the probate records from Dartmouth 20 May 1679 when his widow was about to come over he was called a mariner. Roger was undoubtedly in Dartmouth in 1671 when King Charles II arrived on the Royal Yacht "Cleveland" on his "down channel" cruise and was entertained by the Corporation in the Butterwalk, an event commemorated in St. Saviour's by his royal coat of arms placed in the center of the other shields on the gallery.

The Butterwalk- Dartmouth

The Royal Yacht "Cleveland"

Shipbuilding has a long history in Dartmouth and when the Spanish Armada sailed to attack England in 1588 the men of Dartmouth outfitted two ships of war to join the English fleet and ten more ships left from the Dart financed by the local gentry and merchants. The Spanish flagship "Nuestra Senora del Rosario" was captured by Sir. Francis Drake off Torbay and towed into the Dart with 200 of its crew who were used as slave labor in the garden of Sir John Gilbert at Greenway until ransomed by the Spanish. John Davis sailed from Dartmouth in 1601 with five ships and 500 men to establish the East India Company. The Pilgrims sailed the "Mayflower" and the "Speedwell" into Dartmouth on their way to the New World where they stayed for 11 days while local shipwrights repaired the "Speedwell". As we known the "Speedwell" had to be abandoned and the "Mayflower" set off alone on it epic voyage to Plymouth. A bit later Francis Champernowne of Kittery, Kingswear and his cousin Nicholas Shapleigh came here to the new world bringing with them the name of Kittery to bestow on their settlement. Dartmouth grew rich from the Newfoundland fish trade and the merchants built the New Quay, the Butterwalk and part of Southtown with their profits. This evolved into a triangular trade with goods from Dartmouth going to Newfoundland, dried fish from Newfoundland to Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean, and Port wine, oranges and dried fruit being brought back to Dartmouth. It was a busy port so it wouldn't have been unusual for somebody like Roger to ship out and go back and forth from Dartmouth to Kittery on a regular basis.

St. Saviour's church- Dartmouth

Roger was first mentioned on this side of the pond when he was a witness to a mortgage with his brother-in-law John Jackson on 4 Nov. 1663. There is no record of land ownership, however, a deed from 5 June 1669 describes a parcel of land as lying "between the land of John Bray and Roger Deering". On 1 July 1673 Roger was in a Maine court for not going home to his wife and in Oct. of that year he signed a petition regarding the selection of a minister. Joan was evidently in England when Roger died in Kittery in June 1676. Probate records in Dartmouth dated 20 May 1679 state that she was preparing to leave for Maine with two of her children, Sarah and Joseph. Most of her children were already in Kittery and the administration of his estate was granted to his eldest son, Roger "at Pischataqua" on 4 July 1676. Joan and the children sailed on the Hannah & Elizabeth with her brother-in-law John Jackson and arrived in August 1679. Joan kept a tavern on Kittery Point before and after her marriage to William Crafts. William's license to keep an ordinary was renewed on 26 May 1685 and after his death in 1696 Joan continued the business. The tavern was near the meeting house at Kittery Point.

On 23 Feb. 1691 administration was granted to "William Crafts and his wife on the estate of John Deering deceased, sone of the said Crafts and his wife." On 20 Jan. 1727/8 Mary Deering, age 78, deposed that "thirty-three years past Joan Crafts lived in the house where John Hix and his mother, Sarah Hix, now live, and that about fourteen years past the said Crafts died in Possession of said house, reputed to be the estate of Joseph Deering."

Issue-

·  I. Roger- bpt. 2 Oct. 1648 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, m. Mary ______ (b.c.1649), d. 15 May 1718 Scarborough

·  II. Jonathan- bpt. 22 Sept. 1651 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, bur. 1690 Dartmouth

·  4III. JOANNA-bpt. 22 Sept. 1651 Dartmouth, m. JOSEPH COUCH (m.2. Catherine ______, inv. 22 Jan. 1713 Kittery), d. after 1677

·  IV. Clement- bpt. 16 Feb. 1653/4 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, m.c.1679 Joan Bray (will 20 June 1707(1) executors of the estate were Joseph Couch and Sir William Pepperill), d. before 1695

·  V. Sarah- bpt. 9 Jan. 1657 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, m. Dennis Hicks

·  VI. Thomas- bpt. 4 Nov. 1659 St. Clement, Townstal, Dartmouth, m.1. 29 June 1682 St. Saviour, Dartmouth, Hannah Vine, 2. Elizabeth ______ (d. 1737), d. 1723

·  VII. Joseph- m. Mary Bray (living 28 Oct. 1752), d. Oct. 1719 Kittery

·  VIII. Jezreel- bpt. 29 Dec. 1662, bur. 1663 St. Saviour, Darmouth

Ref:

The Dartmouth Archives- a Dartmouth History Research Group Project-
Genealogical Dictionary of Maine & New Hampshire- p. 191
Parish registers for Dartmouth

"Old Kittery and Her Families"- pp.337-8

Return to Home Page