The Immigrant Ordway - James

The story of James Ordway, the immigrant to America, and his wife, Ann Emery, is well documented in many sources, some of which will be used here to tell his story. 

Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire, Vol. II, Lewis Publishing Company, 1908, p.832
"ORDWAY
The family of this name came early to Massachusetts, and did yeoman service in preparing the way for future generations.  The same pioneer work was repeated by later members in New Hampshire.  An ancestor of the Concord family fought in the Revolution, and many of the Ordways have been prominent in war and peace.
Tradition says that James and Abner Ordway, supposed to be brothers, and probably a sister, Sara, came to this country between 1635 and 1640 from England or Wales."
(Abner was presumably the older brother.  Sara married in 1654 Richard Fitz/Fitts and died in 1667 without having children.  When her husband, Richard, died, he left legacies to his brother-in-law, James and James' daughter, Jane.)
"James Ordway went with other pioneer settlers to Cocheco,now Dover, New Hampshire, in 1641, but afterwards returned to Newbury, Massachusetts.  He was a farmer and the owner of several boats employed in lighterage service in Newbury for many years, and was, after the death of his wife, with one of his children, as late as 1704, mention of his being made in that year in the diary of Rev. Samuel Sewell. 
In 1648, he married Anne Emery, daughter of John Emery, from Romsey, England, but then of Newbury, Massachusetts and from James and Anne Emery Ordway probably descended nearly all now bearing that name in this country.  Anne died March 31, 1687.  Her gravestone is still standing in the old cemetery at Newbury port.  The eleven children of James Ordway were as follows: Ephraim, James Jr., Edward, Sarah, John, Isaac, Jane, Hannah, a child unnamed, Anne and Mary."

From New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, Series 3, Volume IV, Lewis Publishing, New York, 1915, p.1660.
"ORDWAY - James Ordway, the immigrant ancestor of all the Ordways of early New England, was born in England in 1624.  He himself deposed that he was about forty-five years old in 1669.  He settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, of which he was a proprietor in 1648, and his descendants have been numerous in that town and adjacent towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  He married November  25, 1648, Anne, daughter of John Emery, another pioneer of Newbury.  She died March 31, 1687. Children: Child died June 18, 1650; Ephraim, born April 25, 1650; James, April 16, 1651; Edward, September 14, 1656; John, November 17, 1658; Isaac, December 4, 1660; Jane, November 12, 1663; Hannah, December 2, 1665; Ann, February 12, 1670; Mary, April 5, 1671."

Dean Smith, in The Ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, 1990, thoroughly studied the Newbury records and the parish registers in England to flesh out the story of James Ordway.  Smith found the baptismal record of 5 August 1621, for James in St. Peter, Bengeworth, Worcestershire, England. 
In Newbury, MA, James was a land owner, a participant in many public meetings and he held a bench in his church.  He did some farming, owned livestock, served on the jury and various committees, was a witness in several court trials, and in general, was a good citizen of Newbury.  He could not read or write and used a "JO" as his mark.

p. 83 - "James Ordway served in the militia with Captain Gerrish.  His allowances for a gun, horse, powder and horn, cheese and bread, ammunition, saddle, bridle and cloth were paid and the records survive.

After Ann died in 1687, James married the widow Joanna Davis Corliss, who had lost her husband, George, just one year prior.  No record has been discovered for James' death although it is thought he lived to be at least 91. 

 Located in the First Burial Ground, Newbury, MA - memorial stone to James and Ann Ordway, although they are not buried here.

Ann Emery Ordway appears very seldom in the records except for when she appeared as a witness in the witch trial of Elizabeth Morse.  Ann had lost a child just after neighbor Morse had been in the house and touched him.

"Ann came forward to testify against her neighbor: 
Ann Ordway, Aged about 50.  This Deponent saith, I had a childe aged about 7 or 8 years taken suddenly sick: So continued about three weeks and then I perceiving amendment in ye childe because hee could turn himself in ye bedd after this time, goody Morss came to visit him.  She stroak't upp his head, presently after I did apprehend ye Child grew worse and could not turn him in ye Bedd and in a Sore and Solemn condition continued untill hee dyed and this thing have laide heavy upon mee ever sinse.  Taken on oath, Jan. 7th, 1679."  (Suffolk Files #1870) 

Elizabeth Morse was reprieved by the governor, but again brought before the general court two years later.  William Morse, her husband, petitioned the court, answering all the sundry charges against his wife and responding to Ann Ordway thus:
...To goodwife Ordway.  Hir child being long ill, my wife coming in and looking on it, pitting of it,  did feare it would dy, and when it dyed Israell Webster, our next neighbour, heard not a word of it, nor spoken of by others, nor any of ye family, but hir conceite, now brought in...(dated 14 May 1681, History of Newbury, p. 128." 
Luckily for Elizabeth Morse, governor Bradstreet saved her life and Newbury did not give up its first victim to the witch hunts of the time. 
Ann Emery Ordway is buried at the First Parish Church of Newbury.

James Ordway's burial place is unknown.  One theory claims he was lost at sea.  Thanks to J. Ordway Lamourex for these photos, 1999.

                                                       

More Travel Back into the Ordway Line

In previous posts, I've traced down the Ordway ancestry from my grandfather down to Moses Ordway of Tunbridge, VT. 
One can see how the migration has gone so far from Vermont to Ohio and Michigan.  In the next generations, the migration will go from England to Massachusetts to New Hampshire to Vermont.  Much of this history is well-documented in New England vital records and historical books and manuscripts.  My plan here is not to document all of these in this blog, but rather just to trace the ancestry and to tell some of the stories of the ancestors

Moses Ordway Jr, father of that record-breaking family of 22 children in Tunbridge, VT, was the son of another Moses Ordway, my gggggg-grandfather and his wife, Hannah Hadley.  Moses Sr. was born in Newbury, MA, on 20 Sept 1714 and Hannah in Gloucester, MA, on 8 Nov 1714.  The couple were married in Newbury on 29 Nov 1735.  (Newbury has an excellent collection of vital records from the times.) 

Moses Jr was the second son of eleven children they had, all born from 1736 - 1764, just prior to the Revolutionary War.  At the time of his death on 28 May 1792, Moses Sr. lived in Plaistow, Rockingham County, NH which was very near to Newbury and was probably part of MA at one time.

Map pins: On the Atlantic coast is Newbury, Massachusetts and directly west of that in the corner of New Hampshire is Plaistow.  Moses Jr. traveled west to Tunbridge, Vermont.

The earliest generations of our Ordway line have been documented in the book, The Ancestry of Samuel Blanchard Ordway, 1844-1916, by Dean Crawford Smith and published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1990.  The stories that follow were referenced in that book and were not researched personally by me beyond that.

Moses Sr. was the son of James Ordway (Jr.) and his second wife, Sarah Clark.  James, born 16 April 1651, first married the widow of Thomas Bartlett, Tirzah Titcomb Bartlett in 1690.  Tirzah died in 1695, after having two children with James Ordway - James and Lydia.

  James Jr. then married Sarah Clark who was born 7 Sept 1675 in Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts.  Together, they had four more children: Johanna (Joanna), John, Mary, and my ancestor, Moses.  James and Sarah Ordway lived in Newbury, MA, and all their children were born there.  In a 1688 survey of the town, James was noted to own 2 horses, 4 oxen, 4 cows, 30 sheep, a dwelling house and a malt house.  It is also known that he owned a Negro man named Jupiter because Jupiter's ownership was passed on in James' will.  Records in Newbury also name James as a member of Captain Thomas Noyes' company of a local militia in Essex County as one who owned "snow shoos and megginsons." (Snowshoes and moccasins)  James's three brothers were also named as snowshoe men.
The date of James' death is murky, but was probably in 1721 or 1722, based on his will which has survived.  In the will, he gave his wife Sarah 1/3 ownership of Jupiter, a life tenacy of 1/2 of his new home, 1/2 the produce from his son, Moses', land and 1/2 the produce of son John's land. 
John received 1/2 the barn and 1/2 the land where one house stood and some other plots of land.  He was directed to manage his mother's estate until Moses turned 21 and to provide 5 cords of firewood each year to his mother.  John also received 2/3 "of my negro man call'd Jupiter."
James died when Moses was but a child of seven or eight, but still Moses gained 1/2 the lands of the homestead, 1/2 of his father's new house and the other half of the house when his mother died.  He inherited his father's farming tools and some other miscellaneous plots of land.  When he turned 21, he was to take over from his brother, John, in supplying five cords of firewood to his mother each year.


So, our Ordway line from my grandfather back would be: Frederick,
Lemuel, Richard, Harrison, Aaron, Moses Jr, Moses Sr, James Jr, and now the immigrant to America, James Ordway Sr.

Book Review - Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl

Looking for a good weekend read?
May I recommend...
Heart of Ice by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

The evil, sociopathic Elizabeth Avery, aka Sissy, was the focus of this suspense novel, the third of the Triple Threat series. Elizabeth didn't care who she manipulated or eliminated in order to satisfy her goal and her goal was to marry the handsome and wealthy Ian, a prominent attorney. When her ambition led her to the decision to kill Ian's ex-wife, Sara, and son, Noah, events began to tumble against her.
The Triple Threat in these novels were friends, Cassidy, a Channel Four crime reporter; Nicole, an FBI agent; and Allison, a federal prosecutor. Each of the women struggled with issues in their personal lives, as a sidenote to the crimes they were investigating. Cassidy worried about keeping her status at Channel Four when a young, pretty intern, Jenna, entered the scene. Allison had just had a miscarriage and her wayward sister, Lindsay, had moved in to Allison and her husband's home. Nicole found a lump in her breast and the big "C" word entered her life. All of the women came to know Elizabeth through a fitness class, not suspecting that she had a very dark side.

The author did an excellent job in creating characters, especially Elizabeth. The reader almost immediately senses that this woman is so wicked and completely cold, and I was disgusted by her approach to others and her criminal past. She grew increasingly conscienceless as the story progressed. We are also drawn into the lives of the Triple Threat girls and led to care very much about the personal issues they must cope with, while at the same time focusing on solving crimes.

I felt sometimes the scenes/chapters changed too abruptly and it took awhile to reset the mind to another event and story line. The pursuit of the "Want Ad" killer was a diversion that was not really developed or resolved, and it did at times interrupt the other plot line.

I gave the book a 4 star rating because it was a fun read, but really I knew who was behind all the crimes described in the book, so the suspense level was lower than I expected. I have not read the other two Triple Threat novels, but I would be interested now to follow the three women on some of their other adventures.

*This novel was provided to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers for my review. The review is totally my own opinion.

More Blasts from the Past - Ordway Style

 I'm still digging through boxes and envelopes of old photos - some labeled and some not. 
I've found many of interest, of course, and I'm hoping that someone out there can help with identification on some of these.

The photo to the left was labeled "Grandpa Butch" and that's Fred (aka Fritz) Ordway.
Anyone recognize the house?  Notice that he is standing on what looks like a place for holding horses and stepping up into a buggy or mounting the horse.

 I only recognize two in this photo.  I believe the second man from the left is Bib Gunter, Amasa's brother, and the fourth from the left is Phil Ordway.  I have some other photos with the middle fellow in them, but I don't know who it is.

The newspaper clipping below shows Phil Ordway on the left and little George Delph on butchering day in 1913..

The photo on the left below is Phil Ordway (1899-1990) and his beautiful bride, Bonnie Glick (1900-1947), mother to daughters, Lois (b. 1928) and Phyllis (b. 1937.)  I don't have a wedding date for them, but would guess the mid-1920's.

 This photo was taken on the porch of my great-grandparents, Lemuel and Lizzie Ordway's home before it was enclosed with screens, as I remember it.  On the left is Phil Ordway, in the center is his father, Lem, and Marie Ordway is on the right.  Obviously, lawn care was not a priority in those days!  I am just guessing that this photo was taken in the early 1920's. 

Merry Christmas!

Thanks so much for checking in on my blog.  I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2012.


Coming up  early next year are more book reviews and at least one book giveaway.  Check back the week of January 9th for more info and a chance to win.  I also have more family history and photos to post. 

Thanks again for your support!  Please comment once in awhile or contact me if you have family information on something I have posted.  I would love to hear from you!

 

A Word About the Simple Touch Nook

Last summer, I was lucky enough to win a Nook Simple Touch in a contest, and I'm so glad I did.  The first thing I did was buy a case for it, thinking that the odds of my dropping it or scratching the screen were high.

The Simple Touch is so easy to use, is very, very lightweight, and it fits neatly into my purse .  I thought I would use it mostly to take with me when traveling or when I knew I would have a long wait somewhere (aka airports and doctor's offices.)  

The display is clear and easy to read and navigate.  This photo shows my library and then suggests other books I might enjoy.  It is simple to adjust font size and the screen is totally touch for turning pages and using the menu.  The whole system is so easy that I now have learned how to borrow e-books from the library with it.

I usually turn off the wireless when not loading a book, just because then the battery lasts MONTHS before I have to recharge.  Books are easily purchased at B & N and within minutes after buying, they appear in my Nook.  Every Friday the Nook Blog offers a free book, too.

 I  am disappointed that often e-books are more expensive than their paper copies...just doesn't seem right. I may be interested in upgrading at some point as prices adjust, but for now, this Simple Touch is all I need. I can highly recommend for those looking for a basic e-reader. 

Many Thanks!