By Jared L. Olar
June 2008-August 2011
Our colonist ancestor JOHN SHAW of Plymouth, Massachusetts, came to America by 1626, but John's wife and children came to Massachusetts after him. Doubt surrounds the identity of the mother of John's children, as he may have married more than once. After settling in Massachusetts, John appears with a wife named ALICE, born circa 1600 probably in England, died and buried 6 March 1654/5 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is not known whether Alice was the mother or stepmother of his children. If she was their mother, then based on the probable age of John's eldest known child, she and John married circa 1621. If Alice was their stepmother, then it was circa 1621 that John married his unknown first wife. In addition, if Alice was John's second wife, then it's possible that he married her in Massachusetts -- indeed, Alice may even have been the widow of another Plymouth colonist for all we know.
On 3 Nov. 1653, John and his wife Alice agreed with Thomas Savory and Annis Savory his wife, all of New Plymouth, that the Savorys' son, Benjamin, aged 9 years old, would live with the Shaws until he was 21, and the Shaws would pay him £5 at the end of his service. If either John or Alice died, Benjamin was to serve out his time with Jonathan Shaw, the son of John Shaw, and Jonathan was to teach him a trade, writing and reading, and give him two suits of apparel. On 4 March 1657, Jonathan was cleared of this engagement by mutual consent of all the persons "that are now alive," which reflects the fact that Alice had died in the interim.
Kenneth L. Shaw III has investigated the possibility that Alice was the widow of another Plymouth colonist when she married John Shaw. He has identified three possible Massachusetts widows named Alice who could be our Alice:
Alice Perkins, born circa 1570-1588, widowed 1 Dec. 1629 in Massachusetts Alice Thorpe, born circa 1570-1588, widowed 15 Aug. 1633 in Plymouth Colony Alice (Garment?) Whitmarsh, born 26 April 1607 in Batcombe, Somersetshire, England (?)
Kenneth Shaw comments, "I have obtained a year of a UNKNOWN SHAW that married a UNKNOWN WIFE in the year 1649 from somewhere in old Plymouth Colony records, I will try and find this source again." Kenneth suggests that this 1649 marriage might be that of John Shaw and his wife Alice. Continuing, Kenneth says, "Alice could be the WIDOW ALICE WHITMARSH in 1644 at Wessaguscus or Wessagusett Colony (now Weymouth), Norfolk County, Massachusetts, New England (I never found a ALICE WHITMARSH death date anywhere)." He also raises the possibility that John and Alice met in 1645 as a result of Plymouth Colony's relief of Wessagusett Colony, which was then threatened by Narragansett Indians. Either John or his son John Jr. was one of the eight men who Captain Miles Standish led to Wessagusett, where they killed four Indians with the remaining Narragansett breaking off their attack and fleeing. Kenneth asks, "Is this how [John] could have met WIDOW ALICE WHITMARSH? Or is she another widow ALICE some where in New England?"
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