John Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants

In 1904 George Homer Partridge (GHP) published his first genealogy of the Partridge family in the New England Historical and Genealogical Society Register and titled it John Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants. This genealogy was published in the 1903 edition of NEHGS Register (vol. LVII) pages 50-58, 184-192, 281-288, and 389-397. This same genealogy was subsequently published in 1904 by the Press of David Clapp & Son in Boston, Massachusetts in book format, being a reprint in part of the original article. The introduction, the index and the frontispiece are new. GHP subsequently published his  Descendants of William Partridge of Medfield, Mass in 1904. John Partridge was the brother to William Partridge.

In both manuscripts it appears that GHP attempted to identify all named Partridge descendants for 4-6 generations. He did not descend down the female lines and rarely mentioned a female Partridge child’s name, though he would often indicate whether they had known children, provide their spouses information, and their eventual residence locations. Most male Partridge’s with known children from generation 1 through generation 4 would be given individual treatment. If the male Partridge did not have children, or the children were unknown to GHP, he treated them with their parents family. Generations 5-6 were treated in the generation 4 Partridge ancestor family, not separately.

Trust Factor

John Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants is a compiled genealogy. You should use it as a starting point for further research. Indeed, on this website I have used it as the basis for the specific Partridge families mentioned in the manuscript, and then added to, corrected, and better sourced those genealogies. In matters of kinship, GHP did well in his research, insuring that he used probate records if available to determine the kinship between parents and children. I do find that when he came up against brick walls, either in last name of wife, or the identity of her parents, he simply left it out of the manuscript. Understand that the ability for research today is much easier then it was in his time. Many of the records for Massachusetts vital records had not yet been published, for example. That required visiting the town at a time when automobiles were in their infancy, or communicating by writing. It appears that outside the confines of the New England Historical Society Library in Boston and other local facilities, he preferred to research by communicating with other researchers of their Partridge ancestry, or a descendant of a particular family. Second hand information is usually unreliable, though the kinship determination, being so close in generation to the descendant, and first hand, is found to often be quite accurate. It’s the details which tend to slip our minds.

Researchers should especially be wary of dates mentioned by GHP. I have found many of them to be incorrect according to the published town records.

The genealogy found within William Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants is incomplete. For instance, Zachariah Partridge family of Walpole, New Hampshire, moved into New York and was lost to GHP, but they exist there in the records and had descendants. The genealogy also misses children in the presentation. Reuben Partridge (1744-) is reported as having eight children, while GHP only provided information on six. In truth he had nine children, and all of them are treated in my presentation.

Known Errors

I will list here the known errors for John Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants. These records will of course be simultaneously corrected in the individual genealogies.

1. Page 18. TABITHA, b. Apr. 30, 1765; m. July 6, 1801, James Johnson, and d. soon after.
   Both the Medway VR and James History of Medway, Massachusetts state the marriage as occuring 6 Jul 1781.
2. Page 34. i. JOSEPH, 5 b. Apr. 26, 1768; d. Oct. 26, 1821; m. Chloe Puffer. Children.
   The History of Medway, p. 50, lists it correctly as 1822. This is reinforced in part by the Medway VR, p. 329, though it improperly lists it under the name of Joshua Partridge. The gravestone which still exists today, clearly defines the name as Joseph Partridge who died Oct. 26th, 1822, aged 54 years, buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Medway.

John Partridge of Medfield, Mass., and His Descendants

Clicking on the images below will take you to the media attachment page for that image. It has the full sized image along with the text of the page as it was presented in the Register. Since I am using the media section of this website as the archive for all existing records I will make no corrections in that section, less it ruin the archival value of the images. You should start with John Partridge (c1620-1706) page for a more accurate, sourced, and consistently updated genealogy.