William Sargent

     William Sargent was baptized on 20 June 1602 in All Saints' Church, Northampton, England.² He married Mrs Hannah (Unknown) Sargent say 1626.³ 20 July 1626 William was made freeman in Northampton. He was a senior baliff in 1632-33. William Sargent was a haberdasher; also a planter and a lay Preacher. His wife Hannah died in September 1632 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, leaving him a widower.⁴ William Sargent married Mrs Marie (Unknown) Sargent say 1633.³ His wife Marie died circa 1637 in England leaving him a widower. William Sargent married Mrs Sarah (Unknown) Minshall in 1637/38 in England. William and Sarah arrived in 1638 to Charlestown, MA, with two daughters (Hannah and Elizabeth).⁵ Possibly William left England to avoid persecution because he was a non-conformist. He was a member, like his father, of All Saints Church in Northampton. Owing to the Puritan spirit prevailing in the early 17th century many of the forms and ceremonies were discarded. But when Bishop Laud, later Archbishop of Cantebury, who hated the Puritans, came to power he ordered them restored and censored the people. We do not know whether William was marked for punishment. His father Roger had been Mayor of Northampton and his older brother Joseph was mayor after William's departure. The family was of the minor gentry. No clue of the English ancestry or place of residence survived among his descendants. We don't know the name of their ship. Not until 1885 was the seventeenth century diary of Thomas Lechford published,(which must mention William).

William was admitted to the church in Charlestown 10 Mar 1638/39; Sarah 1 week later.⁵ William was admitted freeman in 1639 in Mass Bay Colony (Charlestown).⁵ In 1649 the new town (Mystic Side) was set off from Charlestown, and called Malden. William was a lay preacher 1648-1650 until a minister was apointed. William's farm was on the southerly slope of a hill-afterwards called Belmont Hill in Malden (now called Everett). It was on both sides of what was afterwards the Newburyport Tpke, later called Broadway. Part of his house was standing until 1890.⁵

By 1656 William and Sarah had moved to Barnstable, MA, with their family. He was made a freeman of Plymouth Colony 1657. He was a preacher in Barnstable - said to have followed Reverend John Lothrop. He was associated with Reverend Richard Bourne in Christianizing the Mashpee Indians. Richard Bourne married his daughter Ruth. He seems to have been a prominent man in Barnstable as he had been in Malden. His name in Middlesex County Court files 1661 as plaintiff to recover the rent of his farm in Malden. William Sargent left a will dated 9 March 1679/80 in Plymouth, MA.⁶ He died on 16 December 1682 in Barnstable, MA, at age 80. Inventory of his estate was taken on 3 March 1682/83. £309.14.9 The House and land at Maulden according to the information we have from John Searjeant, besides what John Sarjeant hath added to it £176.00.00.¹