Francis WEST b. Abt 1606 Salisbury, Wiltshire, England d. 2 Jan 1692 Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay: Gummer/Maurice/Proude/Keatinge History

Abt 1606 - 1692 (86 years)

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Name	Francis WEST
Birth	Abt 1606	Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Gender	Male
Reference Number	2534465
Reference Number	2568852
Reference Number	60
WWW	https://www.WikiTree.com/wiki/West-1685
Death	2 Jan 1692	Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay
Person ID	I262	Gummer
Last Modified	1 Aug 2024

Family Margery REEVES, b. Abt 1608, England d. Bef 1692, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts (Age < 83 years)

Marriage 27 Feb 1639 Duxbury, Plymouth Colony

Children

	1. Mary WEST, b. 1640, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts d. 30 Dec 1673 (Age 33 years)
	2. Samuel WEST, b. Abt 1643, Duxbury, Plymouth Colony d. 8 May 1689, Duxbury, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony (Age 46 years)
	3. Dr. Thomas WEST, Sr., b. 1646, Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts d. 7 Sep 1706, Homes Hole, Dukes, Massachusetts (Age 60 years)
+	4. Peter WEST, b. 1648, Duxbury, Plymouth d. 20 Feb 1721, Plymouth, Plymouth, Province of Massachusetts Bay (Age 73 years)
	5. Ruth WEST, b. 1651, Duxbury, Massachusetts d. 3 Dec 1741, Windham, Connecticut (Age 90 years)

Family ID F67 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 1 Aug 2024

Photos		Searching for Francis West: How a colonial reprobate became my spiritual guide.
Photos		Since the connection is so dubious, can we please disconnect West-420 and Stitts-4 as the parents of Francis West?

Notes

[[Category:Puritan Great Migration Project Candidate]]
[[Category:Duxbury, Massachusetts]]
== Biography ==
===Origins===The origins of Francis West are unknown. According to his great grandson, [[West-9917| Zebulon]] West, Francis was born about 1606 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England and he left there as a young man, emigrating to Plymouth Colony in New England on the invitation of a Mr. Thomas of Marshfield, Plymouth Colony. He was a single man, a house carpenter by trade, and settled in Duxbury..Mack, Stanley L., comp."Ancestors of Ruth (West) Cartwright" in ''Edward Cartwright (1640-1705) of Nantucket, Mass.'' Duluth, MN: 1936, p. 7. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062884218&view=2up&seq=44 HathiTrust]

===Marriage and Children===In Duxbury, Francis married [[Reeves-581|Margery Reeves]] on February 27, 1639.Plymouth Colony, U.S., Birth, Marriage, Death and Burial Records, 1633-1689. [database on-line] Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. [https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/30473360?h=c8662d Ancestry.com], [https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/217307:48138?ssrc=pt&tid=14305214&pid=302285290120 Ancestry.com]Torrey, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. Page 796 [https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/30473274?h=879fbb Ancestry.com], [https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/172700:3824 Ancestry.com]With Margery, he had five children:
*[[West-1687|Samuel]]
*[[West-1684|Thomas]]
*[[West-1688|Peter]]
*[[West-1689|Mary]]
*[[West-1690|Ruth]]

===Town Records===
"He is spoken of as a carpenter in the Duxbury records and the Plymouth Colony records show that he made a pair of stocks for the town of Duxbury in 1640. In 1640 and 1642, he was a member of the Grand Jury; in 1642, he bought a house and some land in Duxbury (Millbrook) and in 1643 he was on the list of those able to bear arms. He was admitted a Freeman, in Plymouth colony in 1656. In 1658, he was a surveyor of highways in Duxbury; constable in 1661; and in 1662, '69, '74, '78, '80, and '81 was a member of the "Grand Enquest"".Cornwall, Edward E. "Francis West of Duxbury, Mass., and some of his Descendants". Boston: NEHGS, 1906, p. 3. [https://archive.org/details/franciswestofdux00corn/page/n8/mode/1up Archive.org]

===Death===Francis died at Duxbury, Plymouth Colony, New England, on January 21, 1692, at the 'ripe old age' of 86. During the last three years of his life, his son, Peter, cared for him, and his estate at the time of his death, valued at 16 pounds, was left to Peter West.
His inventory heading records his death date as 2 January 1692 and was taken on 14 February 1692 in Duxbury and recorded in Plymouth."Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-JDQV : 20 March 2023), Probate records 1686-1702 and 1849-1867 vol 1-1F > image 88 of 490; State Archives, Boston.

==Research Notes==
=== Disputed Origins===
In the early 1900s, there was a proliferation of "genealogists" connecting the colonial ancestors of their clients with British and European royal families, typically not verifying the results with original records. In the West family, Francis West of Duxbury was said to be the son of [[West-420|Francis West]], Esq.,West, Joseph A. ''Francis West of Duxbury, Mass., and Some of His Ancestors and Descendants, Including the Descendants of Chauncey Walker West, Late of Ogden, Utah, and Abraham H. Hoagland, Late of Salt Lake City, Utah.'' Ogden, Utah: [s.n.], 1911. pages 18 - 27 (digital pages)[https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062021803&view=2up&seq=19&skin=2021 HathiTrust] a Deputy Governor of Virginia Colony (and sometimes acting Governor) whose father was the 2nd Baron De La Warr and whose mother, Anne Knollys, was the granddaughter of Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn and mistress of King Henry VIII. Henry VIII may have been the father of Anne Knollys’ mother, Catherine Carey, Wikipedia article, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Knollys,_Baroness_De_La_Warr Anne Knollys, Baroness de la Warr] and therefore the great grandfather of Francis West, Esq. of Virginia.
That Francis West of Duxbury was a son of the De La Warr Wests has been largely dismissed. [[West-420|Francis West of Virginia]] and his wife [[Unknown-517493|Margaret]] were removed as the parents of Francis West of Duxbury on this profile in June 2020. Francis West of Virginia was dropped from the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180122210048/http://www.jamestowne.org/added-and-dropped-ancestors.html Jamestowne Society's list] of Qualifying Ancestors because "primary records do not exist as far as we know for his children".
RichardsonRichardson, Douglas. ''Royal Ancestry, A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families'', Volume ?, page ? states that Francis West of Virginia had a son Francis. Francis West of Virginia married his first wife ''before'' 1625/6. He would have been 40 years old in 1626 so presumably his marriage could have been as early as 1606 when he was 20 years old. The 1606 birth date for Francis of Duxbury is approximate and there are no known records of his birth.
Francis of Virginia left a will that was dated 17 December, 1629Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, UT: the author, 2013), vol. V, page 356 WEST 15.iv., Francis West, Esq. and in it he refers to his son Francis as being under 21 years, making his son's birth year after about 1608, not that different from the 1606 ''approximate'' birth date of Francis of Duxbury. The will was proven on 28 April 1634.
Carlton Prince West, in his 1987 manuscript "[http://history.vineyard.net//franwest.htm A Survey of the Descendants of Francis West of Duxbury]" extensively discusses whether or not Francis West of Duxbury was a son of the De La Warr Wests of Salisbury. He begins by saying that no proof from any primary source has been found.West, Carlton Prince. ''A Survey of the Descendants of Francis West of Duxbury''. Winston-Salem, NC: 1987. [http://history.vineyard.net//franwest.htm Vineyard.net]

Other points in the manuscript are:
:Francis West of Virginia did visit New England in 1623 to investigate a dispute over fisheries, but there is no evidence that the visit led to further associations.
:It is unlikely that the son of a prominent family in a "landed society" would have become a carpenter, or would have taken on any kind of trade.
:Even though no proof from any primary source has been found to establish a connection between Francis of Duxbury and Francis of Virginia, there is also no proof that a connection is impossible.
The 1987 manuscript also discusses, among other things, the issues of the birthplace of Francis West, whether he was a West or a Weston, and the origins of his wife, Margery Reeves.
''''Great Migration Directory''' p 365: West, Francis: Unknown; 1640; Duxbury [PCR 1:164; DuTR 1; NEHGR 60:142; Martha’s Vineyard Hist 2:Tisbury:25-27, 3:500-8].
==Sources==

:See also:*WEST Surname DNA Project - Y-DNA Classic Chart at 'Family Tree DNA' [https://www.familytreedna.com/public/WESTDNA/default.aspx?section=yresults FamilyTreeDNA website]
*West, Curtis. ''Searching for Francis West.'' St. Paul MN: Whistling Shade (journal), 2006. [http://www.whistlingshade.com/0603/francis_west.html Whistlingshade.com] Also shown in the images for this profile.
*Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 9 October 2022), memorial page for Francis West (1608–2 Jan 1692), {{FindAGrave|25354234}}, citing South Yard Cemetery, Tolland, Tolland County, Connecticut, USA; Maintained by C & N Rasmussen (contributor 46971876) .
*Banks, Charles Edward. ''The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts''. Boston: G.H. Dean, 1911. page 25. (page 488 in the digital version) [https://archive.org/details/historyofmarthas00bank/page/n487/mode/2up?q=%22Francis+West%22 Archive.org]
* Cutter, William Richard, [https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofma12amer/page/432 ''Encyclopedia of Massachusetts.''] New York: The American Historical Society, Inc. Volume 12, page 432.
* Jones, Electa F., [https://archive.org/stream/newenglandhisto25unkngoog#page/n293/mode/2up "Ancestry of the Jones Family, Stockbridge, Mass."] ''The New England Historical & Genealogical Register.'' Boston: Thomas Prince, Printer and Publisher (1852) Pages 279-282. (The page numbers were misprinted, as 279, 280, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, and 282. Francis West is mentioned near the bottom of the second page numbered as 280.) Archive.org.