Ancestors

Grisell Jewell

1652-1681 · Braintree MA
Born 1652, Braintree, Massachusetts
Died 1681
Father: Thomas Jewell
Mother: Grissell Fletcher
Children include Dea.

Grisell Jewell was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on 19 March 1652, a daughter of Thomas Jewell and his second wife, Grissell Fletcher. Her father died in the spring of 1654, when she was two. Her mother married four more times: Humphry Griggs of Braintree in 1655, Henry Kibby of Dorchester in 1657, John Gurney of Braintree in 1661 and John Burge at Chelmsford in 1667. Grisell grew up with her brothers Joseph and Nathaniel, her sister Mercy and her half-brother Sherebiah Kibby.

In 1667 and 1668 she was a maid servant in the house of the Rev. John Fiske, the first minister of Chelmsford. Her mother was then living in the same town. The court files spell her Griswold Juel, and the town clerk wrote Grisill and Grisell.

Mr. Fiske sued Joshua Fletcher, his young brother-in-law, "for breaking into his house, and accompanying with his mayd servant." Joshua confessed "crime with Griswold Juel in Mr. Fiske's house." His father, William Fletcher, gave bond for her submission to the court and for his son's. Joshua was fined twenty pounds. Joshua was her first cousin. His father was her mother's brother, and Mrs. Fiske was another of their Fletcher cousins.

On 4 May 1668, at sixteen, she married Joshua at Chelmsford. That December the two of them petitioned the court for leniency, and men of Chelmsford and Concord signed it. In June 1669 their grandfather, Robert Fletcher of Concord, old and blind, petitioned for Joshua as well. Three weeks later, on 9 July 1669, her mother died at Chelmsford.

Her son Joshua was born on 4 January 1677/8, and another son on 23 October 1679. A son William died in March 1681/2.

She died at Chelmsford on 17 March 1681/2, two days before her thirtieth birthday. The register enters her as "Grisell, w. Joshuah". Her son Joshua was four. He grew up to be deacon of the church and the first town clerk of Westford.

Parents

Grissell Fletcher 1618-1669

Thomas Jewell (d. 1654)

Children

Dea. Joshua Fletcher 1677-1732

Sources

Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1914), archive.org vitalrecordsofch00chel, marriages, p. 228
Mary Lovering Holman, "Grissell of the Many Marriages", The American Genealogist 10 (October 1933), p. 70; archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1933-10_10_2
Mary Lovering Holman, "Grissell of the Many Marriages", The American Genealogist 10 (October 1933), p. 73, printing Annals of Mendon, p. 61; archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1933-10_10_2
Winifred Lovering Holman, Robert Fletcher of Concord, Massachusetts Bay, 1627 (typescript, 1930), p. 50; archive.org robertfletcherof00holm
Vital Records of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (1914), archive.org vitalrecordsofch00chel, marriages p. 228 and deaths; Edward H. Fletcher, The Descendants of Robert Fletcher of Concord, Mass. (Boston, 1881), archive.org fletcherfamilyhi00flet, p. 29; Mary Lovering Holman, "Grissell of the Many Marriages", The American Genealogist 10 (1933), pp. 70-73, archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1933-10_10_2; Winifred Lovering Holman, Robert Fletcher of Concord (typescript, 1930), archive.org robertfletcherof00holm

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Cite: Heirology, "Grisell Jewell (1652-1681)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/grisell-jewell-1652-1681-956024.