SAFFRON WALDEN
On Tuesday 12 August, we will spend most of the day in Saffron Walden, a market town in the northwest corner of Essex. Our main objective as a group will be the parish church, one of the largest and most splendid in Essex. After that, you will be free to visit the nearby gardens, castle and museum. You can then explore the many antique and boutique shops in the area between the church and the market square, an area in which whole streets are still occupied by medieval buildings. Finally, you can enjoy the market square itself, Tuesday being a market day, and take lunch in one of the many restaurants in that part of town.

At least four families from Saffron Walden came to New England in 1633, two of whom settled at Roxbury. Three more Saffron Walden families came to New England later in the 1630s, and two of those also settled at Roxbury. The minister at Saffron Walden from 1629 to 1631 was William Bridge, a man of strong Puritan beliefs with many connections among the Puritan clergy of Essex. Given the number of his parishioners who ended up in Roxbury, we might expect that he was strongly influenced by Thomas Weld or John Eliot, although this remains to be demonstrated.

1) Samuel Bass, who was in Roxbury by 1633, married Anne Savell at Saffron Walden on 25 April 1625 and had three children baptized in that parish from 1626 to 1632 [GMB 1:122-27].

2) Thomas Pidge was admitted to Roxbury church among those who arrived in 1633. He married Mary Sothy at Saffron Walden on 1 November 1619. One child of this couple was buried there in 1627, and three additional children baptized from 1626 to 1631 [GMB 3:1464-66].

3) Cotton Flack was admitted to Boston church on 5 January 1633/4, suggesting that he had migrated to New England in 1633. He was baptized at Saffron Walden on 16 October 1577 and married there on 1 July 1611 Dorothy Wright. This couple had four children baptized at Saffron Walden from 1612 to 1621, and Dorothy was buried there on 2 September 1623 [GMB 1:679-80].

4) George Minot settled first at Dorchester, Massachusetts, by 1633. He married Martha Stocke at Epping, Essex, on 6 September 1623, and their first four children were baptized at Saffron Walden from 1624 to 1631 [GMB 2:1267-69]. A brass plaque in his memory has been installed in the north aisle of Saffron Walden church.

5) Walter Desborough had settled in Roxbury by 1634, when his wife was admitted to that church. They had children baptized at Saffron Walden from 1613 to 1618. He may have returned to England, as no record for him has been found in New England after 1641 [GM 2:2:342-44].

6) Adam Mott sailed for New England in 1635 on the Defence and settled first at Roxbury. He married Elizabeth Creed at Saffron Walden on 28 October 1616. They had a son buried at Saffron Walden in 1617 and another son baptized there the following year. Mott resided for some time at Horseheath, Cambridge, before coming to New England [GM 2:5:181-85].

7) Thomas Cornell of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, had children baptized at Saffron Walden from 1623 to 1637 [TAG 35:107, 58:77-78]. Prentiss Glazier proposed that this immigrant was an uncle of William Cornwall of the Essex parishes of Fairsted and Terling, who was in Roxbury by 1633 [TAG 51:115-16].

ROUND CHURCH TOWERS
In future issues of Tour Talk we will have much to say about church architecture. First, we will present the basic features of church construction common to all the buildings we will see. Then, our attention will turn to an exploration of the interior decorations of the churches and the destruction of some of those decorations at various times.

For now, as an example of the modern interest in every detail of church building, we wish only to bring to your attention one architectural feature which, unfortunately, we will not see. All of the thousands of churches built in the late middle ages in England have a tower at the west end of the building, and in well over ninety-five percent of the churches this tower is square. But in about 185 cases, these towers are round. Of these, 126 are in Norfolk, 42 in Suffolk and 7 in Essex, with the remainder scattered thinly across the rest of England. The Essex round towers are in the northeast of the county, well away from the areas in which we will be travelling.

Devotees of this detail of church architecture have formed a society devoted solely to round towers, a society which explores the history of these structures and engages in preservation activities. The Round Tower Churches Society maintains a website which is worth exploring, especially the page titled “Why Round Towers?” Some of the answers to this question are quite amusing.

www.roundtowers.org.uk

REMIGRATION TO OLD ENGLAND
When the Great Migration came to an end in 1640 with the onset of the English Civil War, many New Englanders chose to return to old England, to participate in the events there and to take advantage of the new freedom to practice their religion as they wished.

Susan Hardman Moore, Director of Postgraduate Studies at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, has now published an excellent study of this reverse migration: Pilgrims: New World Settlers & the Call of Home (New York and London: Yale University Press, 2007). She first examines carefully the conditions in old England in the 1620 and the 1630s that led to the Great Migration. Then, she describes the establishment of the New England Way, the organization and practices of the churches that the immigrants established upon their arrival. Finally, she looks at the motivations for returning to old England in the 1640s and the lives of those immigrants who recrossed the Atlantic to their country of birth.

The author makes extensive use of the publications of the Great Migration Study Project in her work. A substantial appendix consolidates data on several hundred individuals who returned to England in the 1640s and 1650s, with information on places of residence in both old and New England and dates of migration in both directions.

Aside from its general interest to students of the Great Migration, this volume has direct relevance to our tour. Moore makes explicit reference to the Laudian policies that led to the migration of Hooker, Eliot, Williams and Weld: “A close connection exists between emigration and the dioceses where the Laudian agenda was most vigorously pursued. The diocese of London saw the greatest concentration – over a fifth of all clerical emigrants – and their displacement began early, concentrated in William Laud’s time as Bishop of London between 1628 and 1633” [p. 23]. Furthermore, Thomas Weld was one of the most prominent of those who went back to England permanently, and Moore devotes much attention to him.

Given the reliance of this volume on the work of the Great Migration Study Project, NEHGS has obtained a supply for sale. If you wish to acquire this book, visit www.newenglandancestors.org/store/browse/product.asp?sku=2175423773 or call 617-226-1212. The book is on sale (10% off) for NEHGS members through February 29.

Bob Anderson
proband@comcast.net

Sandi Hewlett