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From:
Subject: Edmund Frost, son James
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 14:50:58 EDT

Edmund Frost is the first American ancestor for many of us. For you and
Darlene Frost Kneaves, this is what I've found so far. I believe Edmund:
-was born in Hartest, Suffolk County, England Aug. 28, 1593.
The following two books led me to look at Hartest and dates around 1593:
The Frost
Family in England and America with Special Reference to Edmund Frost and
Some of
His Descendants,Thomas G. Frost and Edward L. Frost (Russell Printing
Co.,
Buffalo,NY,1909) and Frost Genealogy in Five Families, Norman Seaver
Frost, (Frost
Family Assn. of America, West Newton, MA, 1926) reprinted by Higginson
Book Co.
The parish transcripts from Hartest 1556-1784, Family History Library
(FHL) film
0991936 show only one Edmund Frost born between 1556 and 1620, the one
born
Aug. 28, 1593. "Our" Edmund's birth could have been erroneously omitted,
but
I believe this is the right one.
-was the son of John Frost.
The books also point to John as Edmund's father and many trees said he
was born in
or around 1570. The transcripts show only two John Frosts born in
Hartest between
1565 and 1575: May 30, 1568 and March 17,1572. The father of both John
Frosts
was John Frost. The second birth has "carpr." next to John the father's
name,
apparently to differentiate John the carpenter from the John who had
"sexton" in the
margins for a different child's birth. Again, this could be wrong, but I
think one of these
two Johns was Edmund's father. If Edmund was born in 1593, the earliest
his father
could have died was 1592. There was a John Frost sho died Sept.6, 1606
who was "son
of Hen.[ry] of Glemsford. This may have given rise to the
Edmund-born-in-Glemsford,
England belief that I saw in some Frost family trees that didn't have
documentation.
Other John Frosts died Mar. 20, 1607, Feb. 2, 1609, and Feb. 9, 1609.
According to
Hartest: A Village History, ed. Clive Paine (Hartest Local History Group,
Lavenham Press
Lavenham, England, 1999) the last two are son and father, and the
father's will didn't
mention a son Edmund. This means the John Frost who died in 1607 might
have been
Edmund's father.
-was the grandson of John Frost. See information above.
-was married to Thomasine Clench whose parentage is known.
The Frost books and other sources say his wife was Thomasine Belgrave or
Clench.
Neil Thompson reported his research in "The English Ancestry of Thomasine
(Clench)
Frost, First Wife of Edmund Frost of Cambridge, Massachusetts," New
England
Historical and Genealogical Register, July 1999. Microfilmed parish
register records
from the town of Earls Colne, Essex County, England show Reverend Thomas
Shepard
married Edmund Frost and Thomasine "Clenche" Apr. 16, 1634. This is
significant
because Edmund and Thomasine came to America with Shepard. Thomasine was
baptized Oct.6,1608 at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, the 7th of 8 children
of Robert Clench
and Joan Webbe. Robert was baptized at Coddenham, Suffolk County June 22,
1572 with
his twin sister Anne, and died at Witcham, Cambridgeshire before July 12,
1633 when
his will was "proved." Joan was born about 1579, the daughter of Thomas
Webbe and
Susanna Smyth, and died after June 1610 when her oldest child was
baptized. Robert
was a landowner in Bottisham and moved to Witcham, Isle of Ely after
1610. Robert was
one of 13 children of John Clench and Katherine Almott. John was
probably born in
Wethersfield, Essex around 1533, and died in Holbrook, Suffolk Aug. 18 or
19, 1607.
Katherine was born around 1534, the daughter of Thomas Almott and Bridget
of Creeting
All Saints, Suffolk. Bridget's surname was possibly Thorne. John Clench
was a judge
who, according to Thompson, was "a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I who
called him 'her
good judge.'" The judge's father, Edmund's great-grandfather, was John
clenche of
Wethersfield, Essex, whose parents are unkknown. In his will he called
himself a
husbandman, which means farmer, although he owned some land and leased
other land.
Around 1525 he married Joan Amias, daughter of John Amias, "gentleman."
I think some of the Thomasine Clench-Belgrave confusion is due to the
fact that there
was a Thomasine Frost, a descendent of John Strutt (Strut) of Glemsford,
who married
Edmund Rice and immigrated to Sudbury, MA.
-had his first son John in England in 1635.
Books and trees give various dates, but people usually had their first
child about a year
after they were married, and Edmund and Thomasine were married Apr. 16,
1634. I
didn't find a birth of a John Frost around this time in the Hartest
records, but since they
were married in Earls Colne, it may have occurred there. I haven't
ordered the Earls
Colne microfilm yet.
Re: Edmund's son James. I'm not descended from him, but the Frost Family
book says
James was Edmund and Thomasine's sixth child born 9,2,1643 old system
(Apr. 9,
1643). He "settled in Billerica and m. Rebecca Hamlet, Dec. 17, 1664;
she d. Aug. 20,
1666 and he m. Elizabeth, dau. of Thos. Foster, Jan. 22, 1666-7. His
children were
James, b. Aug. 14, 1666; Thomas, b. Oct. 18, 1667; John, b. Nov.14, 1668,
d. Mar.
3,1668-9; Samuel, b. Feb. 28, 1669-70; Elizabeth b.Nov.6,1672, m. Peter
Cornell;
Edmund b. May 14, d.May 18, 1675; Sarah b.July 15, 1678, m.--Howard;
Hannah
b.Jan.31,1680-1; Joseph, b.Mar.21,1682-3; Abigail b.Aug.23,1685,
m.Ephraim Kidder;
Benjamin, b.Mar.8,1687-8, and Mary, who m. John Walker. James the f. was
deacon of
the Billerica church and died Aug. 12, 1711, a.71; his wife Elizabeth,
survived. He was a
soldier against Weymesit Indians, Billerica garrison, 1675." The Frost
Genealogy book
takes James' line through nine generations who lived in MA, NH, and VT,
but none in
Maine (the MA towns are in what is now MA). Darlene - e-mail me your
snail mail
address if you want me to send you a photocopy of the James generations.

Hope this helps the Edmund descendants.
Robin in maryland

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