Ancestors

William Chandler

William Chandler was born in England, one of the four small children William and Annis Chandler brought to Roxbury, Massachusetts, about 1637. His father died in January 1642, and his mother married John Dane, who paid his stepfather's debts and brought up the Chandler children.

William settled at Andover, where his brother Thomas and his sister Hannah's husband George Abbot were among the first proprietors. On 18 August 1658 he married Mary Dane of Ipswich, born there in 1638. She was the daughter of Dr. John Dane, the surgeon of Ipswich, who was the son of William's stepfather. Mary bore him eleven children between 1659 and 1679 and died at Andover on 10 May 1679.

Within five months, on 8 October 1679, William married Bridget Henchman, widow of Lieutenant James Richardson and daughter of Major Thomas Henchman of Chelmsford. They had three more children, among them Joseph, born on 17 July 1682.

William was a brickmaker. He also kept the inn on the road from Ipswich to Billerica, under the sign of a horseshoe, and was licensed by the justices at Salem on 17 June 1692. That spring and summer Andover was caught up in the witchcraft accusations spreading out of Salem Village.

He made his will on 15 September 1697 and died at Andover in 1698, aged about 60. In March 1699 the selectmen, Dudley Bradstreet and John Chandler among them, wrote that the town's inn was likely to stand empty and asked that Andrew Peters be licensed in his place. Bridget lived until 6 March 1731. Her pastor, the Rev. Samuel Phillips, said she had reached a hundred.

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Cite: Heirology, "William Chandler (d. 1698)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-chandler-1698-88cde6.