{Garnsey Ancestors}
On 17 June 1635, Edmund Munnings, his wife Mary, and their three oldest children, were enrolled in London as passengers on the ship Abigail. The passenger list shows:1
Edmond, Man[n]ing age 40, of Denge, County of Essex, to Dorchester
Mary Moning’s aged 30
Mary Monning’s aged 9
[H]Anna Monning’s [Ezekiel's ancestor] aged 6
Michelaliell [Mahalaleel] aged 3
If those ages are accurate, Edmund was born about 1595, and Mary was born about 1605.
Edmund’s parents have not yet been identified, but Mary was the daughter of Edmund Harris of Tillingham, England, and Edmund and Mary Munnings apparently left their youngest daughter, Rebecca, with her grandfather when they emigrated, because the day after they enrolled in London, Edmund Harris made a will in which he made bequests to "my daughter Mary the wife of Edmund Munnings six shillings and eightpence of lawful money" and to "Rebecca Munninges my said daughter's daughter forty pounds of lawful money of England to be paid unto her when she shall accomplish the age of eighteen years if she stayeth here in old England, but if she shall be fetched away by her said father or any other faithful friends into New England before she shall accomplish the said age of eighteen years, then I will have my executrix do pay the same unto her when she shall be to go that voyage, but if the said Rebecca shall depart this life before the said age of eighteen years or of her going out of old England, then I will that the rest of my son-in-law Edmind Munnings children that be now living shall receive the same to be equally divided amongst them, and if all of them happen to depart this life before the said money shall come to be received, then I will it shall remain unto Thomas and William the two sons of William Blowers equally to be divided between them." [Peculiar Court of the Dean and Chapter of St. Pauls, Wills E:45] 2
The Great Migration article on Edmund Munnings gives his place of origin as Tillingham, Essex, England. This is based on the baptismal record of Edmund’s daughter, Hannah, our ancestor, who was baptized there on 17 June 1635. The other children’s baptisms have not been found, so it is possible that the family lived in another parish for a period, or that Mary was visiting her parents’ home at the time of Hannah’s birth.
The ship Abigail sailed from Plymouth on 1 August 1635, with 220 aboard and with many cattle. She arrived at Boston about 8 October infected with smallpox.3
The Munnings family made their home in Dorchester, where they had three more children, Hopestill, baptised 15 April 1637, Return or Returned born 7 September 1640, and Takeheed, born 20 October 1642.4 On 16 April 1641, "Goody Munnings" was admitted to Dorchester church [DChR 5].2
On 18 January 1635/6, the town of Dorchester "ordered that Edmond Munnings, Joseph Flood, thomas Joanes, shall have each of them 8 acres on Squantum Neck as an addition to their great lots on Roxbury bounds bought of William Hulbert, John Haydon and George Phillips" [DTR 15] On 2 January 1637/8 it "is ordered that Edmond Munnings shall have that part of land adjoining to his house in lieu of Calves Pasture." [DTR 26]. On 18 March 1637/8, "Ed[mund] Munnings" was granted ten acres, three quarters and ten rods in the Nek and the same acreage in the Cows’ Pasture" [DTR 29].2
On 8 December 1651, "Goodman Moninges desireth to have the land about his house recorded" [DTR 29].2
Edmund Munnings wrote his will in 1666 in Dengie, Essex, England, the parish next to Tillingham. Most sources give the date of his return to England as sometime after the baptism of Takeheed on 2 January 1642/3. However, if the "Goodman Moninges" in the Dorchester Town Record referenced above is Edmund Munnings, then he did not leave New England until after 8 December 1651. We don’t know if Mary Munnings returned to England with her husband or remained in New England and died after his departure; but sometime before his will was written on 2 October 1666, he married for a second time, Markiet or Markit, who is mentioned in his will.
There is a Repentance Munnings buried at Tillingham, Essex, England in Sept. 1660, who may be the son of Edmund and his second wife, Markiet.
After the ship Abigail’s passenger list, we have no further record of the Munnings’ eldest daughter, Mary. She is assumed to have died before her father wrote his will in 1666, since she is not mentioned in it. She probably died much before that time since there is no marriage record for her.
Daughter Hannah married Henry Garnsey by about 1647 in Dorchester and remained in New England.4
There is a marriage record for a Rebecca Munnings and Edmund Madocks in Boston on 14 January 1651[/2] [BVR 34]. Both The Great Migration and The Garnsey, Guernsey, Gurnsey Genealogical Dictionary assign this marriage to the daughter of Edmund Munnings. If that is correct, daughter Rebecca, left in England with her Grandfather Herris, either came to New England at some point, or she died and Edmund and Mary had another daughter, Rebecca, whose birth is unrecorded. The first option seems the more likely.
Mahalaleel may have returned to England with his father and was probably the person who came to New England on the Speedwell in 1656.4 He was a Boston merchant who dealt largely in English goods. He married Hannah Wiswall by about 1655. 2 On the 9th of the 8th month 1659, Mahaleel Munnings was dismissed from First Church "unto ye second church at Boston", and d. 27 (12) 1659, being drowned in Mill Creek at Boston in ye night (Dorchester Church Records).4
Hopestill and Takeheed also returned to England, probably with their father, and lived in Dengie and St. Lawrence, both in Essex, England.
Return Munnings lived in Boston. He would only have been 11 in 1651, and we don’t know if he went to England with his father and then came back to New England, or if he remained in New England with his mother or another family member. But on 9 December 1664 he married Sarah Hobart in Hingham, Massachusetts. On 13 April 1689, "Return Munnings of Boston …, cooper, next brother and right and lawful heir of Mahalaleel Munnings, late of Boston, merchant,’ sold land in Boston "late in the tenure and occupation of Hannah Overman, formerly the widow of said Mahalaleel Munnings" [SLR 26:36].2
In Edmund’s will, written 2 October 1666, "Edmund Munnings of Denge (sic) in the County of Essex" bequeathed to Markeit my wife ten pounds…and the household stuff which her father gave me"; to Return my second son twenty pounds to be paid by my executor within one year after demand be made of it"; to "Takeheed my third son forty pounds to be paid by my executor within six months of my decease"; to "Hann[ah] my eldest daughter ten pounds to be paid within one year after demand be made of it"; "my executor [to] pay tunto Rebecca my second daughter ten shillings"; "Hopestill my eldest son" to be executor; "if it shall happen that I leave my wife Markit with child and it shall live to accomplish the full age of [illegible] years then my last will is that my executor shall pay to it ten pounds" [PCC 95 Carr; Waters 10-11].
Denge is the spelling used in Edmund’s will. However, "Denge" is a beach in Kent, England, where interesting sound detection devices were erected for surveilance during WWII. "Dengie" is the correct spelling of the town in Essex next to Tillingham where the birth of Hannah Munnings is recorded. The births of the children of Hopestill Munnings, Edmund’s son, are recorded in the Dengie Parish Records, the place Edmund was living at the time he wrote his will.
Children of Edmund and Mary Munnings are:
Mary, born about 1626 in England.
Hannah (our ancestor), christened 6 January 1627/28, Tillingham, Essex England; married Henry Garnsey by about 1647 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; died 17 Aug 1686, Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Rebecca, born about 1630 in England
Mahalaleel, born about 1632 in England, married Hannah Wiswall, died 23 May 1659, Boston.
Hopestill, born 15 April 1637 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, married Sarah Smith 13 October 1659 in Tillingham, Essex, England.
Return, born 7 September 1640 in Dorchester, Massachusetts; married Sarah Hobart 9 December 1664 in Hingham, Massachusetts.
Takeheed, born 20 October 1642, Dorchester, Massachusetts; died about April 1685 in St. Lawrence, Essex, England.
Children of Edmund and Markiet Munnings:
Possibly, Repentance Munnings, buried in September 1660 in Tillingham, Essex, England.
The Garnsey, Guernsey, Gurnsey Genealogical Dictionary p xxv says
"Mention of the Munnings Family may be noted in the "Fourth Report of the Record Commissioners of Boston." On pp 15, 20, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 33, 80, 81, 82, 99, 106, 120, 148, 153, 304, qne 305 (q.v.)
Planters of the Commonwealth … passengers to Boston and the Bay Colony, the ships they came in; their English homes and the Places of their Settlement in Massachusetts, 1620-1640 by Charles Edward Banks.
The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Vol 5, M-P pp 190 – 195.
"Hull. Diary", in American Antiquarian Society Proceedings and Public Record Office MS and Drake Founders, etc. 28, 31-38
The Garnsey, Guernsey, Gurnsey Genealogical Dictionary pp xxv – xxvi
NEHGR 5:244