John Black

John was born in 1591 in England.

• Birth Notes

  b. 1614

He died at the age of 84 on March 1st, 1675 in Beverly, Essex, MA.

• Death Notes

  d. 16 Mar 1674/1675.  Will: 20 JUL 1675 Administration granted to his son John of Beverley.

• General Notes

  1629 - Came to Salem on "Talbot"
  1629 - First seen with a family
  25 DEC 1637 - granted marsh and meadow in Salem
  29 MAY 1644 - As John Blake, declared a freeman at Boston
  
  Children:
  Elizabeth Black b: 1632 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts
  Persis Black b: 1634 in England
  Lydia Black b: 25 DEC 1636 in Salem, Essex, Massachusutts
  Lydia Black b: 3 JUN 1638 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts
  ? Black b: 29 SEP 1640
  John Black b: 1642 in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts
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  "Gilberts of New England" edited by Geoffrey Gilbert (Victoria, BC, 1959) contains the following notes by C.A. Torrey:
  "John Black, Sr. of Beverly, Mass. died intestate 16 Mar. 1674/5. Adm. was granted 20 July 1675 to his son John, who was ordered to make payments to his sisters Eliza Kimball, Persis Follett, and Lydia Davis. The sister Eliza (Elizabeth) evidently was the wife of Henry Kimball, as he was the only Kimball in Essex Co. who had a wife Elizabeth in 1675 and 1676.
  John Black had 3 daughters baptized in Salem Church: Lydia on 25 Dec. 1636; another Lydia on 3 June 1638; a daughter, not named in the church record, on 29 Nov. 1640. From the probate record it appears that the daughter baptized 3 June 1638 was the youngest, living in 1675. Persis, who married Robert Follett 29 Nov. 1655, was younger than Elizabeth. Quite likely Elizabeth was born about 1632 and Persis about 1634.
  John Black's wife is not mentioned in the Essex County Probate Records, nor in Perley's 'History of Salem, Mass'. Presumably she was the Susanna Black who, with her husband John, joined the church in Charlestown, Mass., 4 Jan. 1634/5.
  As nearly as can be ascertained Humphrey Gilbert's son, John, by his wife Elizabeth Black, was born in or about 1656."
  
  Nathaniel B. Shurtleff's "Records of The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England" (1853) contains the following entry from the court of May 13, 1640:
  "Pl. [plaintiff] The petition of the inhabitants of Salem for some of their church to have Jeffryes Creeke, & land to erect a village there, for Mr Willi: Walton, John Blacke, Willi: Allen, Sam: Orchard, Geo: Norton, et al, compa; what land & inlargement may bee convenient, & is not granted to any other plantation, is granted them; & it is referred to Mr John Winthorpe, Iunior, & Mr Symon Bradstreete, to settle the bounds of the said village."
  
  "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633" by Robert Charles Anderson (1995) contains the following data on John Black:
  "JOHN BLACK
  "MIGRATION: 1629 on 'Talbot'
  "FIRST RESICENCE: Salem
  "REMOVES: Beverly
  "OCCUPATION: Husbandman
  "CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: In list of Salem church members before reorganization in late 1636; membership prior to 6 March 1631/2 implied by freemanship.
  "FREEMAN: 6 March 1631/2
  "EDUCATION: Signed petition of 13 May 1640 [implying he could read and write]
  "Offices: Essex petit jury 27 December 1636
  "ESTATE: 1636, granted 30 acres at Jeffrey's Creek as a freeman of Salem. 25 December 1637, granted three quarters of an acre of marsh, based on a household of four persons.
  "Joined petition of 13 May 1640, made by seventeen Salem men, for land at Jeffrey's Creek 'to erect a village there.'
  "On 28 October 1668 John Black Sr. of Salem, planter, sold to William Browne Jr. of Salem for £6 one acre salt marsh in North Field. On 20 April 1670 John Black Sr. of Beverly, husbandman, sold to 'my son John Black of the same' for £8 houselot & orchard in Beverly ('except two acres of land out of the said lot, which I do give & set over unto my son-in-law Isaack Davis, they to pay rent to John Sr.') and two acres meadow in Topsfield.
  "Administration granted 20 July 1675 to John, so of John Black, intestate; ordered to pay 50s. to each of his three sisters, Eliza Kimboll, Pearcis Follett and Lydia Davis. The inventory, taken 12 April 1675 by Thomas Lathrop and John Hill, amounted to £11 10s., and included no real estate.
  "BIRTH: About 1591 (at Salem Quarterly Court for 9 September 1645, the court exempted from training 'John Black being poor & aged 54; note this would make Black thirty-eight years old in 1629, when we first see him with a family).
  "DEATH: 16 March 1674/5 (from inventory)
  "MARRIAGE: _____ _____; about July 1646 the 'wife of John Blak' gave evidence in court against the wife of Thomas Oliver of Salem.
  "CHILDREN: [as they appear in my record]
  "COMMENTS: John Black of Salem has been assigned wife Susanna, by confusion with the non-existent John Black of Charlestown. Clarence Almon Torrey, in his article on the many marriages of Elizabeth Black, has some other useful comments on the family of John Black (but includes this incorrect information on Susanna).
  "In the 1637 grant of marsh and meadow, Black was recorded with a household of four; this accords nicely with the known family of John Black, his wife, and daughters Elizabeth and Persis."
  
  "The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusett, Vol. III 1675-1681

Details of John's family with Susanna Freeman