Working on Wednesday: Adam Mott (1596 - 1661), Tailor*

The first record we have of my maternal 11th great grandfather Adam Mott is his marriage to Elizabeth Creed which took place in Saffron Walden* on October 28, 1616. The couple had five children--their youngest child (and only daughter) Elizabeth who was born in 1629 is my connection to them.

We don't know how soon after her daughter's birth Elizabeth died or where, but Adam married again, this time in Horseheath, Cambridgeshire**, on May 11, 1635, only a few months before their departure for New England. His new wife, Sarah, was a widow with a small child.

Near the end of July, 1635, the Defense sailed from London. Among the passengers were the Mott family who brought on board with them a certificate of Adam and Sarah's conformity to "the orders and discipline to the Church of England" from Cambridge and and had to provide proof of his loyalty to the King.

[The original lists of persons of quality; emigrants; religious exiles; political rebels; serving men sold for a term of years; apprentices; children stolen; maidens pressed; and others who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700 with their ages and the names of the ships in which they embarked, and other interesting particulars; from mss. preserved in the State Paper Department of Her Majesty's Public Record Office, England. Published 1874 by Hotten in London.

Original: University of Toronto]

I found a great explanation (PDF) of what prospective passengers had to do before they were allowed to leave for the New World.

"By the 1630s, migration from England was in high gear, and the government wanted to keep track of this movement for a number of reasons. The king, Charles I, did not want his wealthier subjects, who paid the lion’s share of England’s taxes, abandoning him for a foreign realm. Also, in an age of fierce religious and political division, the king wanted to make sure that England’s overseas dominions were populated by loyal subjects. Thus, in 1634 Charles I told royal officials in London to record information about individuals sailing abroad. The Crown required oaths of allegiance from adult travelers and proof of their conformity with the English Church (usually referred to as “oaths of allegiance and supremacy” on the passenger lists). Some passengers carried with them letters from justices of the peace and ministers in their hometowns attesting that they met these conditions. Others, particularly those headed for Virginia or the Caribbean, took these oaths as their ships prepared to sail."

The Defense arrived in New England and the Mott family first settled in Roxbury where Adam and Sarah were admitted a members of the church. About a year later the family removed to Hingham and moved again to Portsmith, Rhode Island, in 1638, where he remained until his death in 1661.

For an in-depth look at Adam Mott's will and estate inventory, let me direct you to our South Bay neighbor (and cousin of some sort) Randy Seaver and his excellent blog post covering the probate file.****

*Or Taylor as it appears in the records.
**Located in Essex between Cambridge and London, Saffron Walden, designated a Conservation Area in 1968, has some 400 buildings special architectural or historic interest including a number that Adam and Elizabeth would have been familiar with.
***Horseheath is about 8-1/2 miles northeast of Saffron Walden.
****If you're not following Randy's blog Genea-Musings, you're missing out.

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