Bissell Family History

 

 

                     [------ Richard Wright, b. Abt 1596

                     [

[-----  Abigail Wright (Sharpe Clapp Holbrook), b. Abt 1623

[                    [   OR WAS SAMUEL'S MOTHER JANE MARTIN, THOMAS'S FIRST WIFE????

[                    [------ Margaret

[

[

[------- Samuel Clapp, b. 1642, Scituate, MA, 8th Great-grandfather

[                   [

[                   [                                         [------- Richard Clapp, b. 1528, Dorchestershire, Eng.; d. Abt 1608

[                   [                                         [

[                   [                    [------ Nicholas Clapp, b. Abt 1575, Venn Ottery, Sidbury, Devonshire

[                   [                    [                    [

[                   [                    [                    [------- Christian Clapp, b. Abt 1540

[                   [                    [

[                   [------ Deacon Thomas Clap [GMD] , b. 1597, Devonshire, Eng., 9th Great-grandfather

[                             d. 20 Apr 1684, Scituate, MA

[                                        [

[                                        [------ Elizabeth Pile, b. Abt 1580

[

[

Jane Clapp, b. Nov 1689, 7th Great-grandmother

[                   

[                   [------ Thomas Gill [GMD] , b. 1616; d. 1678, Hingham, MA

[                   [

[------- Hannah Gill, b. 10 Nov 1645, Hingham, MA

[

[                    [------ Margaret, d. 28 Jun 1653, Hingham, MA

[                    [

[------ Hannah Otis, b. 1618, Eng; d. 24 Jan 1675/76, Hingham, MA, 9th Great-grandmother

  [

  [------ John Otis [GMD] , b. 1581, Somerset, Eng., 10th Great-grandfather

            d. 31 May 1657, Weymouth, MA

 

 

Notes.

 

Updated NEHGS Great Migration Series, 2004, says Abigail Wright married (1) Robert Sharpe bef. 1640; married (2) Thomas Clapp about 1657; and married (3) William Holbrook about 1696.

 

Abigail Wright's father was Richard Wright, per R.C. Anderson's The Great Migration Begins, V. III, p. 2072-74.  Richard Wright is estimated to have been born in about 1596 and he arrived from an unknown origin in 1630 and resided in Lynn, MA.  He moved to Boston, then Braintree in 1639; Rehoboth in 1643; Boston again in 1649; Ipswich in 1652; Twelve Mile Island (on the Connecticut River) in 1662; and Podunk (now East Hartford) in 1666.  He apparently also returned to England in 1649 then back to New England by 1649.  His occupation, according to Anderson, was as a steward (caretaker of an estate of land) and gentleman farmer.  He was admitted as a member of the Boston church in 1630.  He was made a freeman 14 May 1634.  He apparently did not own much land but preferred to lease large estates from wealthier colonists, which is why he moved so much.     

 

Richard's first wife (and Abigail's mother) was Margaret, who died after 1623 but before 1643.  Abigail was born about 1623.  She married Robert Sharpe, then Thomas Clapp, then William Holbrook.  Wright has been characterized as one of the leaders and perhaps main organizer of Rehoboth.  See 1992 article by Gale Ion Harris, TAG 67:32-46.

 

Samuel Clapp and Hannah Gill were married 14 Jun 1666 in Scituate.  Samuel’s brother Eleazer was killed by Indians in 15 March 1676 along with other Bissell ancestors in Pierce's Fight of King Philip's War. 

 

John Otis was the Great-great grandfather of American Revolutionary war figures and Bissell Notable Cousins James Otis, Mercy Otis Warren and Samuel Allyne Otis.