Deacon William COWDREY^[1]

1602 - 1685  (83 years)

• Name	William COWDREY
  Prefix	Deacon
  Born	1602	Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England
  Gender	Male
  Migration	1630
  Noteworthy	Early settler of Lynn, MA
  Occupation	Deacon, Clerk of the Writs, Town Clerk, Selectman, and Representative to the General Assembly of the Colonies
  Immigrant?	Y
  Died	10 Nov 1685	Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts
  Person ID	I42570	Main
  Last Modified	18 Oct 2023

  
  

  Family	Joanna LISENSE,   b. Abt 1610, England ,   d. 6 May 1666, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 56 years)
  Married	17 Apr 1624
  Children	1. Nathaniel COWDREY,   b. Abt 1639, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts ,   d. 16 Jun 1690, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 51 years)   2. Mathias COWDREY,   b. 30 Sep 1641, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts ,   d. 25 Mar 1663  (Age 21 years) + 3. Bethia COWDREY,   b. 17 Apr 1643, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts ,   d. 7 Nov 1673, Charlestown [Boston], Suffolk, Massachusetts  (Age 30 years)   4. Hannah COWDREY,   b. Abt 1645, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts ,   d. 8 Jun 1684, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts  (Age ~ 39 years)
  Last Modified	10 Feb 2017
  Family ID	F29954	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  m2 Also (alice) on 2 Dec 1666 s/o George Cowdrey of England. William Cowdrey is listed among the earliest settlers in the town of Lynn, later Reading, Massachusetts, in Lilley Eaton's history of Reading: "[T]he following persons, with their families, were inhabitants at or about the year of incorporation [1644] ... William Cowdrey, who settled on Cowdrey's hill." William and his wife Joanna appear on a list of names of the brethren and sisters of the church at Reading 1648-1650. In 1649, William was chosen as "clerk of the writs," an office which "included among its duties the recording of the action of the town as well as the record of writs, issued for trial of small causes." He lived on the site of the late Quannapowett House on the Common. [2, 3]

  
  

• Sources

  [S68] FULLER, Genealogy of some Descendants of Thomas Fuller of Woburn, William Hyslop Fuller, (1919). [S170] COWDREY Genealogy, aka Cowdery, Cowdray: William Cowdrey of Lynn, Massachusetts, 1630, and his descendants, Mary Bryant Aversion Mehling, (Frank Allaben Genealogical Co, New York, c1911). [S171] Reading, Mass, Genealogical history of the town of: including the present towns of Wakefield, Reading, and North Reading, with chronological and historical sketches, from 1639 to 1874, Lilley Eaton, (A Mudge & Son: Boston 1874).