Henry Garnzey (1620-1692) and Hannah Munnings (1629-1686)

{Garnzey Ancestors}

Click here to go to a condensed version of this biography

Henry Garnsey and Hannah Munnings are Ezekiel's immigrant ancestors on the Garnsey line. They are Bethiah Garnzey’s great-great grandparents. We think Henry was born in England about 1620-1625, but we don’t know the exact time or place, nor the ship on which he immigrated to New England. He settled in Dorchester, south of Boston, and “Many of the settlers of Dorchester MA came from the West Country of England, and some from Dorchester, Dorset, where the Rev. John White was chief proponent of a Puritan settlement in the New World”¹ (See the Historical Background Section of the Tour Guide for more detail.) The first mention of Henry Garnzey we know of comes from the Records of the First Church at Dorchester, p 16, which says,

“Info of Elder Topliff,

Mr. Phillips in Leeds Lane Sold to m^r Garnsey.

Mr Garnsey in Leeds lane Sold to m^r Stoughton.”⁵

No dates are given.

We know that on 3 January 1655/6 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Henry Garnsey was elected “Bayliffe”, which is especially interesting, since he was not a freeman at that time. Evidently, he had been there long enough for them to trust him with this office. (A Bayliffe was an enforcement officer of the court, who collected taxes, levied fines, and if necessary, (im)pounded and sold the offenders goods to recover the money owed.) In 1655, his own rate (tax) for the year was £40-9s. 11d. In 1656/7, he was appointed Constable. He was a chosen fencewalker in 1661, and Constable again in 1667 and 1678.⁴ The office of Constable was an important one and the badge of office was a black staff from five to five and a half feet long with five or six inches at the end tipped with brass.

According to the Letter of Administration granted to his widow, Elizabeth, after his death, Henry Garnsey was a tailor.⁴

“The early Dorchester Town Records were destroyed in a fire, so we have no record of births, marriages or deaths, or of what else Henry may have been doing at that time. It is necessary to consult the church records for information about Henry’s wife and family. The earliest mention of a wife is found in Records of the First Church of Dorchester, Mass. P. 22 "Hanah, ye wife of Henry Garnsey admitted ye 22 of ye (2) 60." i.e. 22 April 1660.⁴ Evidence that Hannah Garnsey’s maiden name is "Munnings" comes from the probate records of her brother, Mahalaleel Munnings, who left property to his "nephew, John Garnsey". Mahalaleel Munnings was a prominent merchant who had moved to Boston by 1659 and died 27 Jan. 1659 "being drowned in Mill Creek at Boston in ye night."⁵ The 19 March 1661 inventory of his estate included "half a colt at Henry Gernsey house, fifty shills."[1] Henry Garnsey and Hopestill Munnings witnessed the will.

"1 Oct. 1707 - "...John Marion of Boston, cordwainer, Atty of Hopestill Munnings of Burnham, Deng hundred in the Co. of Essex in Old England, Dredger and atty of John GARNSEY of Rehoboth in the Co. of Bristol in New England, yeoman, both the Nephews of Mahalaleel Munnings late of Boston aforesaid merchant, deceased, As by letters of Atty made to him the said John Marion by the aforesaid Hopestill Munnings and John Garnsey ... granted to Timothy Thornton of Boston ... all such part and parcel of a certain Messuage or Tenement Land and Edifices, buildings ... lying Scituate at the Northerly end of Boston near a place commonly called Merr's Point whereof the aforesaid Mahalaleel Munnings dyed Seised in his own ... right not heretofore disposed of, which of right doth belong unto the before named Hopestill Munnings and the Aforesaid John GARNSEY, this first day of October Anno Domini Tne Thousand seven Hundred and Seven" ... Acknowledged at Boston by John Marion 13 Dec 1707, red 17 July 1711, (Suffolk Co. Deeds 26: 37.)

"Note: Hopestill was a son of Mahalaleel's bro, Hopestill, b. 15 Sept 1668 in Engl. in Dengie, Essex, and John GARNSEY was a son of Mahalaleel's sister, Hannah [Munnings] GARNSEY. b. 1648 prob. Dorchester, MA. EGC)"⁴

Hannah Munnings was born 6 January 1627/28 in Tillingham, Essex England,⁶ the second of seven children of Edmund and Mary (Herris) Munnings. Hannah immigrated to Dorchester with her parents in 1635, aboard The Abigail. According to the passenger list, she was 6 years old. The ship arrived in Boston "infected with smallpox." The Munnings settled in Dorchester.

Sometime after 1642 when his son, Takeheed Munnings, was born in Dorchester, Edmund Munnings returned to England permanently, where he died in Dengie, Essex, between 2 October 1666 and 28 July 1667, the dates his will was written and probated. His younger children returned to England with him, but Hannah Munnings, her older sister and at least two of their brothers lived in New England until their deaths. About 1647, Hannah married Henry Garnzey. She would have been about 19 years old at the time of their marriage.

Hannah and Henry had two sons, John, and Joseph, who survived them. In a 1712 letter, son Joseph notes "my honored father deceased nearly twenty years ago, and left surviving only two sons,…" There are no records to tell us if there were other children who died. The church records indicate that these two sons were both baptized in the First Church of Dorchester, 29 (2) 1660, "ye elder being about 12 years old and the other about a yeare & halfe younger". (1^st Ch. R. p. 170 [191]). This was about two weeks after their mother was admitted to the congregation. Note that the boys were both old enough to be of a "reasonable age." Later, the entry for the baptism of Elizabeth Ryder, the granddaughter of Henry’s second wife, Elizabeth Lane Ryder Garnsey, specifies that "Elizabeth Ryder, ye granddaughter to Goody Garnsey, baptized ye 9^th of June," she then owning ye Covenant."

To have "owned the covenant", she must have also been "at an age of reason." This may indicate that the family had Anabaptist leanings. Further suggestion of an Anabaptist connection is that the will of Hannah Munnings Garnsey’s nephew, Hopestill Munnings, instructs the executors of his estate in England to "sell houses, land and goods and distribute (proceeds) to the poor of the church of Anabaptists in aforsed hundred." The Anabaptists were a sect that required that baptismal candidates be able to make their own confessions of faith and so rejected baptism of infants. They were considered to be at the extreme end of the reformation spectrum. Any perceived connection with them might have delayed acceptance into the Congregational Church, and therefore Henry’s ability to become a freeman.

Henry Garnsey, took the oath of allegiance in 1679 with his son, John, but Henry was not made a freeman until 1690.² Since he died in 1692, that didn’t leave him long to enjoy his freedom.

Henry had contributed to the church bell in 1675, and was elected tithingman in 1681, but when Henry was finally admitted to "full communion in First Church" on 8 May 1686, it was noted in the record that this was "notwithstanding his opinion for Prelacy". A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy, especially a bishop. Being admitted to full communion would have finally opened the way for him to become a freeman.

Hannah Munnings Garnsey, the wife of Henry, died at Dorchester on 17 August 1686, the same year Henry was admitted to "full communion". After her death, Henry married Elizabeth Lane Rider, the widow of Thomas Rider, who survived him and was made the executrix of his estate.

Henry Garnsey died in Dorchester Massachusetts on the 13 August 1692.²

1692 Probate Records for Henry Garnsey (1620-1692) Estate [page 65]1692 Probate Records for Henry Garnsey (1620-1692) Estate [page 65]

May 16, 1712, when the Garnsey "homestead" was sold by John and Joseph, Joseph’s son, who acted as his representative, described the property as "a parcel of land in Dorchester, New Grant, in the Twelve Divisions, that is to say, one third part of the Lott of Number 40 containing 68 acres upon the Plat bounded upon Tolman’s Lion and Ledbetters Lot No. 10 westerly, and on John Bearse’s Lot No. 12, northerly, and partly on James Humphrey’s Lot No. 38 and partly on Mr. Howard’s Lot No. 35 Southwardly and partly on Joseph Farnsworth’s Lot No. 62 and partly on a common swamp, easterly or however otherwise it may be reputed to be bounded …"⁴

Sources

1. Wikipedia Article on Dorchester, MA

2. Report of the Record Commissioners of Boston, V. XXI: 122.

3. http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/01/amanuensis-monday-1692-probate-records.html

4. The 2005 Garnsey Guernsey Gurnsey Genealogical Dictionary by Judith Young Thayer pp xxi – xxvi and pp 134-136

5. Records of the First Church at Dorchester, in New England, 1636-1734

6. The Great Migration Vol 5 p 192