The Tenney Page
featuring:
Thomas Tenney
of Rowley, Massachusetts

See also:
Tenney Crest

The Tenney family originated from Rowley, on the Yorkshire Wolds, in the East Riding (a Saxon word signifying third) of the County of Yorkshire, England. It is near the Humber River, and is six miles from its south bank.

Thomas Tenney was born June 25, 1615, in Rowley, County of Yorkshire, England. He was the son of Francis (b.1564) and Jane Tenney, and the grandson of Thomas (b.1534, England) and Jane Tenney (b.1544, England).

Thomas Tenney and Ann Mighill lived originally in Yorkshire, England. They sailed from Hull, England, on the ship "John". They arrived in Boston in December 1638, and spent the winter of 1638-39 in Salem, Massachusetts. Thomas and Ann married fresh off the ship...Dec. 1638 in Salem. In April of 1639, they moved westward from Salem and settled on the shore of Massachusetts Bay, with the Company of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and twenty other colonist families, naming their colony "Rowley" in honor of their English home.

Ann (Mighill) Tenney (possibly a sister of Deacon Thomas Mighill, also a settler of early Rowley) died in 1657 in Rowley around September 26, as that was the day she was buried.  Thomas married, as his second wife, Elizabeth (Northend) Parrat who was the widow of Francis Parrat, also one of the original settlers of Rowley.  When Ann Mighill Tenney died, Daniel, the youngest son of the couple was but three years old.

After the death of his wife, Thomas remarried to Elizabeth Parrat of Rowley, widow of Francis Parrat, to which they had no issue.

Thomas died 20.Feb.1699/1700, in Bradford, Massachusetts.

Thomas Tenney and his wife (Ann Mighill Tenney) had six children:
John, b. 12-14-1640;
Hanna b. 3-15-1642;
Mercy b. 6-17-1644;
Thomas, b. 7-16-1648;
James, b. 8-15-1650
Daniel, b. 7-16-1653.

Information gleaned from:

TENNEY  Tenney, M.J. The Tenney Family, or the Descendants of Thomas Tenney of Rowley, Massachusetts, 1638-1904. Revised, with Partial Records of Professor Jonathan Tenney. (1904). CS/71/T299/1904

Article published by Douglas Richardson, appearing in Vol. 151 of  The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, copyrighted in 1997 .