John² Partridge (George¹) was born in Duxbury 29 Nov 1657, and spent his life and died there 5 Apr 1731. He took an active part in the affairs of his native town, for in the “Duxbury Records” (1642 to 1770) we see that in 1686 he was chosen to serve at the Court of Assistants: from 1695 to 1714 he was many times chosen to act as an agent of the town for the purpose of selling lands, settling boundaries and transacting other business: in 1716 he was a selectman, in 1721 a moderator, and in 1728 a grand juryman, and was a trustee from 1723 until his death. He inherited his father’s lands in Middleborough. Following is a copy of his will from the Plymouth Co. Probate Records, Vol. 6, p. 16:
“Know all men by these Presents that I John Partridge of Duxburough in ye County of Plymouth in New-England, Husbandman, being Aged & under great infirmity of Body, but of perfect mind & memory Thanks be given to Almighty God, Therefore Calling to mind ye Mortality of my Body & that it is appointed for all men once to Dye, Do upon serious Consideration make and ordain these Presents to be my last Will & Testament, in manner & Form following to be & Remain firm & inviolable forever.
“Imprimis, I Recommend my Soul into ye hands of God Almighty the Father of Spirits who gave it, & my Body I Recommend to ye Earth to be Decently Interred in Christian manner at ye Discretion of my Executors herein after named, in hopes of a better Resurrection through my Lord & Saviour who is ye Resurrection & ye Life, and that through ye merits Death and Passion of ye Lord Jesus Christ I shall obtain Everlasting Life, and as touching all such Worldly & Temporal Estate wherewith it hath pleased God to Bless me in this life I give Demise & Dispose thereof in ye following manner & Form
“viz, First I will that my Just Debts and Funeral Charges be payd & Discharged within Convenient time after my Decease
“Item, I give to my eldest Son Samuel Partridge my biggest Bible.
“Item, I give & Bequeath to my son George Partridge his heirs & Assigns forever, all my Right & Interest in that Farm of land in sd Duxborough with all ye Priviledges & Appurtenances thereunto belonging whereon he ye sd George Partridge now Dwelleth, viz, ye whole thereof excepting what parts or parcels thereof hath been heretofore by me disposed by Deeds to ye sd George Partridge my son Isaac Partridge or any other Persons, to be his ye sd George Partridge’s after ye Decease of my loving wife Mary if not before.
“Item, I give to my Daughter Mary ye wife of Jonathan Brewster ye sum of Twenty Pounds.
“Item, I give and Bequeath to my dear and Loving wife Mary ye Bed whereon I now usually lye or lodge with all ye Beding Bedstead & Furniture thereunto belonging, also my second biggest Bible, also one quarter part of ye whole of my moveable Estate that shall Remain after my Debts Funeral Charges & all ye Legacies which are or may be hereafter mentioned in this my last Will or Testament shall be payd or discharged, also one third of what is above willed to ye George Partridge during her life. Also, I give to my sd Wife Mary ye Command & improvement of ye newest & most southerly end or part of my now Dwelling-House, viz, ye lowest Room & chamber therein & ye Cellar under & belonging thereto during ye Term of her natural life.
“Item, I bequeath to my son Isaac Partridge my Third Bible in bigness. And whereas I have by a Deed dated October ye 17th. 1720 under my hand & seal given & granted to ye sd Isaac Partridge all ye Farm of land whereon I now Dwell with all ye appurtenances thereto belonging with other land & medow &c. as by sd Deed may appear, all to be his after my Decease & ye Decease of my sd wife Mary and not before, my Will is that my sd Wife Mary shall have ye use & income of one Third part of ye sd Farm & whatsoever else is granted in sd Deed during ye whole Term of her natural life & that my sd son Isaac Partridge his Heirs and Assigns shall have ye use & income of ye other two Third parts thereof until by virtue of sd Deed ye Possession of ye whole come or fall into their hands. & also ye sd Isaac Partridge to have two thirds of what is above given to ye sd George Partridge during ye life of my sd wife
“Item, I give to my Grand-Son Samuel Partridge my Musquet.
“Item, I Bequeath to my Grandson James Brewster my smallest Gun which his father Jonathan Brewster hath sometime used
“Item, I give to my five Children my whole right & part in ye Forge or Iron Mill in sd Duxborough standing on ye South River with my right in ye Cole house & all other ye appurtenances thereunto belonging, viz, Samuel Partridge George Partridge John Partridge Isaac Partridge & Mary ye wife of Jonathan Brewster, to be equally Divided among them.
“Item, & all ye Rest & Residue of my moveable or Personal Estate that is not disposed of now mentioned before in this my last Will & all ye abovesd Debts charges & Legacys being payd, my will is that it be equally Divided among all my abovesd five Children.
“Finally, I do by these Presents Nominate Constitute & appoint my Dutiful sons George Partridge & Isaac Partridge & my loving Wife Mary Executors & Executrix of this my last Will & Testament, & I do hereby Revoke disanul & make void all other & former Wills & Testaments by me heretofore made, Ratifying & Confirming this & no other to be my Last Will & Testament. In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal this Thirty-first day of December in ye year of our Lord God one Thousand seven Hundred & Thirty 1730.
JOHN PARTRIDGE [seal]
Signed Sealed Pronounced & Declared by ye sd John Partridge to be his last Will and Testament, in ye Presence of
BENJAMIN ALDEN
JOHN HANKS
JOHN WADSWORTH
John Partridge married twice: first, 24 Dec 1684, Hannah Seabury and second, 23 May 1700, Mary, widow of Wrestling³ Brewster (Love² William¹).
His first wife, Hannah, was a daughter of Samuel² and Patience (Kemp) Seabury, and was born at Duxbury, 7 Jul 1668. By tracing her ancestry, through the aid of Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary, and Winsor’s History of Duxbury, back through the families of Kemp and Thacher to the Rev. Ralph Partridge (whose youngest daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Thacher), we arrive at the only way up to the present time by which the descendants of George Partridge can claim relationship with that notable personage, about whom so much has been written.
The Rev. Ralph Partridge had been a minister of the Established Church in Sutton-near-Dover, in the County of Kent in England, but had been driven out through the severity of Bishop Laud and had come to America after a stormy passage of eighteen weeks, arriving in Boston in 1635 or 1636 in the company of the Rev. Nathaniel Morton. The following description of Mr. Partridge is taken from Cotton Mather’s Magnalia, Vol. I, page 404.
THE LIFE OF MR. RALPH PARTRIDGE
“When David was driven from his friends into the wilderness, he made this pathetic representation of his condition, ”Twas as when one doth hunt a Partridge in the mountains.’ Among the many worthy persons who were persecuted into an American wilderness for their fidelity to the ecclesiastical kingdom of our true David, there was one that bore the name, as well as the state, of an ‘hunted partridge.’ What befell him was, as Bede saith of what was done by Fœlix, Juxta nominis sui Sacramentum.
“This was Mr. Ralph Partridge, who for no fault but the delicacy of his spirit, being distressed by the ecclesiastical setters, had no defense, neither of beak nor claw, but a flight over the ocean.
“The place where he took covert was the colony of Plymouth and the town of Duxbury in that colony.
“This partridge had not only the innocency of the dove conspicuous in his blameless and pious life, which made him very acceptable in his conversation, but also the loftiness of an eagle, in the great soar of his intellectual ability. There are some interpreters, who understanding ‘church officers’ by the ‘living creatures’ in the fourth chapter of the Apocalypse, will have the ‘teacher’ to be intended by the ‘eagle’ there for his quick insight into remote and hidden things. The church of Duxbury had such an ‘eagle’ for their partridge when they enjoyed such a teacher.
“By the same token, when the Platform of Church-Discipline was to be composed, the Synod at Cambridge appointed three persons to draw up each of them, a Model of Church-Government according to the word of God, unto the end, that out of those the Synod might form what should be found most agreeable, which three persons were Mr. John Cotton, and Mr. Increase Mather and Mr. Ralph Partridge. So that in the opinion of the reverend assembly this person did not come far behind the first three for some of his accomplishments.
“After he had been forty years a faithful and painful preacher of the gospel, rarely, if ever, in all that while interrupted in his work by any bodily sickness, he died at a good old age, about the year 1658.
“There was one singular instance of a weaned spirit, whereby he signalized himself unto the churches of God. That was this: There was a time when most of the ministers in the colony of Plymouth left the colony, upon the discouragement which the want of a competent maintenance among the needy and froward inhabitants gave unto them. Nevertheless, Mr. Partridge was, notwithstanding the paucity and the poverty of his congregation, so afraid of being any thing that looked like a ‘bird wandering from his nest’ that he remained with his poor people till he ‘took wing to become a bird of Paradise’ along with the winged seraphim of Heaven.”
While a diligent search of the records fails to disclose any relationship between Ralph and George Partridge, the fact that the name is quite unusual, that they both came from England at or about the same time, settled in the same town and seem to have possessed similar characteristics, lends color to the idea entertained by many students of genealogy that they were near relatives. In any event, the descendants of John Partridge and Hannah Seabury are descendants of Ralph on the maternal side as shown above.
John Partridge had seven children, five by his first wife and two by his second. They were:
- Sarah³ Partridge born 21 Sep 1685, died 18 Nov 1685.
- Samuel Partridge born 10 Mar 1686/7, died 19 Oct 1744 in Preston, Connecticut. Married 15 May 1710 in Preston, Deborah Rose, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Allyn) Rose of Preston. She was born in 1688 and died 3 Jan 1770, having lived her entire life in Preston. Eight children.
- George Partridge born 17 Aug 1690, died 24 Jan 1768; resided his whole life in Duxbury. Married 1st, 18 Mar 1712/13 Lydia Keen, daughter of Josiah and Lydia (Baker) Keen; married 2nd, 09 Dec 1734, Hannah Foster, daughter of John and Hannah (Stetson) Foster. Hannah died 17 Dec 1778 in Kingston, Massachusetts. Four children by first wife, two by second.
- Mary Partridge born 02 May 1693, married 06 Mar 1708/09, Jonathan4 Brewster (Wrestling³ Love² William¹). They removed to Windham, Connecticut. and were living there in 1733. Two children
- John Partridge born 27 Dec 1697, died 09 Sep 1780, married 27 Sep 1722, Anna Fitch, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel and Ann (Abel) Fitch of Lebanon, Connecticut. She died 11 Nov 1748, æ. 47. Three children.
- Benjamin Partridge born Mar. 5, 1700/1.
- Isaac Partridge born 02 Mar 1704/05, died 26 Jan 1794; married 10 Mar 1729/30, Grace Sylvester, daughter of Isaac and Ruth Sylvester; resided his entire life in Duxbury. Four children.