John Wild Sr.

d. 1732

Died 1732

Children include John

Where John Wild came from is not known. A descendant writing in the Boston Transcript in 1922 said: "John (1) Wild, the first of our family of whom we have information, came from England an unmarried man, but the time and place of his birth, and when he came to New England and settled in Braintree, Mass., are unknown." A 1914 family history places him in South Braintree by 1688 and married in 1690.

His wife was Sarah, born Sarah Hayden at Braintree in 1668, according to later genealogies. Their five children were recorded at Braintree: John on 30 October 1691, Samuel on 18 March 1693, William on 26 August 1696, Jonathan on 27 September 1698 and Sarah on 28 October 1700.

The family belonged to the South Church of Braintree, the church of the town's middle precinct. When Samuel Niles became its minister in 1711, Sarah Wild was on his list of the women in full communion, meaning the members admitted to the Lord's Supper. John joined later. Niles wrote "John Wild Senr and Mary French were both admitted into full Communion April 6 1718". His eldest son had been admitted in 1715 as "John Wild Junr". Those two words are how the church book tells father and son apart until 1732.

His sons married in the precinct. Samuel married Bethiah Copeland in February 1716. William married Anna White on 2 December 1717, and after her burial on 13 December 1718 he married a Ruth. Jonathan married Sarah Randall of Weymouth on 29 July 1719. His daughter Sarah married a Newcomb.

Sarah Wild died in January 1725 after a long illness. That May a John Wild married Mary Hollis at Braintree, and he was probably the widower.

He made his will on 28 June 1727, "being very weak & low in Body". He called himself a husbandman, that is, a farmer. He owned a homestead on both sides of the road, a cedar swamp and a fifth share in a sawmill. He lived five more years. Niles entered his burial in the church journal: "John Wild Senr buried October 24 1732". The will was proved at Boston on 27 November 1732.

Children

John Wild 1691-1776

Sources

Journal of Rev. Samuel Niles, 1697-1777, p. 230 (image 85), South Church of Braintree records, RG5302. Congregational Library & Archives, In Copyright, Educational Use Permitted.

Journal of Rev. Samuel Niles, 1697-1777, p. 250 (image 105), South Church of Braintree records, RG5302. Congregational Library & Archives, In Copyright, Educational Use Permitted.

Index to the Probate Records of the County of Suffolk, Massachusetts (1895), vol. 3, via archive.org (indextoprobatere03geor). Public domain. Will: Suffolk probate 6323, FamilySearch 3:1:3Q9M-C9Y5-5X74.

Records of the Town of Braintree 1640-1793 (Bates, 1886; archive.org recordsoftownofb00brai), births and marriages; Journal of Rev. Samuel Niles, 1697-1777, South Church of Braintree records, Congregational Library & Archives, RG5302 (congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com, item 4387), with the library's 2018 transcription (item 79322), pp. 223, 226, 230 and 250; Suffolk County probate 6323 (FS 3:1:3Q9M-C9Y5-5X74); Index to the Probate Records of the County of Suffolk (1895), vol. 3; Braintree town book, birth of John Wild (FS 3:1:3QS7-9979-4435); Boston Evening Transcript, answer 9347, February 1922 (FS 3:1:3Q9M-CSQS-19HX-W); Reynolds, Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York, vol. 1 (1914), pp. 475-476; C. T. Bass, Descendants of Deacon Samuel and Ann Bass (1940; archive.org descendantsofdea00bass).

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Cite: Heirology, "John Wild Sr. (d. 1732)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-wild-sr-1732-545995.