Edward Mitchelson
Edward Mitchelson was at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by 1636. The records spell his name Mitcheson, Michason, Michelson, Micherson and Mitchinson. About 1635 or 1636 he married Ruth Bushell, who had come over in the Abigail in 1635. The Shepard genealogy of 1886 says he came "probably from Buttercrambe, or that vicinity," the Yorkshire village where Ruth had lived in the household of Sir Richard Darley.
In 1637 he was appointed Marshal-General of the colony, and he held the office for the rest of his life. Lucius Paige's History of Cambridge (1877) calls it an office "similar in many respects to that of High Sheriff." The marshal served the colony's courts: he carried out their orders and collected what they imposed. The General Court set his fees in November 1637.
In 1639 he bought from Major Simon Willard the estate at the south-east corner of Dunster and Winthrop streets. On 29 October 1650 he bought the estate of Major Samuel Shepard, on the south side of Harvard Street, running from Holyoke Street to Bow Street. That was his home from then on.
He was close to Thomas Shepard, the first minister of Cambridge. His wife had lived in the same Yorkshire house as Shepard's first wife. Shepard died on 25 August 1649, and on 3 September Edward Mitchelson and Daniel Gookin took the inventory of his estate. It came to £544 5s 7d, with £166 3s 6d owing to the estate. They listed seven acres of broken land in the home lot, five in Little Neck, ten acres of meadow at Alewife meadow and sixteen of Rocky meadow. Inside the house they listed eight Turkey-work cushions, a great chair, a great needle-worked chair and a small one, and a horseman's coat lined with haircloth. Shepard's will left ten pounds to his wife, "Ruth Mitchinson the Elder."
He and Ruth had five children. Ruth was born on 8 November 1638 and Thomas in September 1639. Bethia, born 6 December 1642, married Daniel Weld. Edward, born 11 November 1644, graduated from Harvard in 1665, became a physician, and was lost at sea in 1666 with Captain Scarlet. Elizabeth, born 29 August 1646, married first Theodore Atkinson Jr. and then Henry Deering of Boston. His wife died on 15 June 1664, about fifty two.
In April 1668 the General Court took away his fees for public use and voted him a salary instead. Its order is quoted in full below. He died on 7 March 1680/1, aged seventy seven, still in office. His son-in-law John Green, husband of his daughter Ruth, was sworn in his place on 3 June 1681.
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Cite: Heirology, "Edward Mitchelson (1604-1680)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/edward-mitchelson-1604-1680-8e8cbf.