John CRANDALL

 

 

wager2214

 

1609 - 1676

 

 

Father:  James CRANDALL

Mother:  Eleanor ?????

 

Family 1 : Mary OPP

 

 

1.  John CRANDALL

2.  James CRANDALL

3.+Jane CRANDALL

4.  Sarah CRANDALL

5.  Peter CRANDALL

6.  Joseph CRANDALL

7.  Samuel CRANDALL

 

Family 2 : Hannah GAYLORD

 

 

6.  Jeremiah CRANDALL

7.  Eber CRANDALL

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                   ____Nicholas CRUNDALL__

                                                   | (ca1562 - after1605)  m ca1583

                                                   |

                                                   |

___James CRANDALL____|                                                                                                        

|     (1586 - ....)  m ca1615         |

|                                                  |                                                     

|                                                  |                                                      

|                                                  |____Elizabeth ?????_____   

|                                                    (ca1563 - 1605)  m ca1583      

|                                                                                                          

|                                                                                                  

|                                                                                                     

|- - John CRANDALL

|   (1609 - 1676)  m 1649                                                                                                                   

|                                                                                                       

|                                                                                                        

|                                                 

|                                                                                                                       

|                                                                                                   

|                                                                                                          

|____Eleanor ?????___                                                                                                    

 (1595 - 1618)  m ca1615   

 

                                                                            

 

                                                                                                           

 

TIMELINE

 

1609

1610

1611

1612

1613

1614

1615

1616

1617

1618

1619

1620

1621

1622

1623

1624

1625

1626

1627

1628

1629

1630

1631

1632

1633

1634

1635

1636

1637

1638

1639

1640

1641

1642

1643

1644

1645

1646

1647

1648

1649

1650

1651

1652

1653

1654

1655

1656

1657

1658

1659

1660

1661

1662

1663

1664

1665

1666

1667

1668

1669

1670

1671

1672

1673

1674

1675

1676

 

 

 

INDEX

 

PEDIGREE

 

wager2214

 

He was the first Seventh Day Baptist Minister of Westerly, RI, that church being a "branch" of the Mother Church in Newport.  Tradition states that the first meetings of this Westerly branch were at his home. He with John Clarke and Obadiah Holmes 'being the representatives of the church in Newport, upon the request of William Witter of Lynn, arrived there, he being a brother in the church, who by reason of his advanced age, could not undertake so great a journey as to visit the church.' While Mr. Clarke was preaching, the constable came into the house and apprehended them, and the next morning they were sent to prison in Boston. He was sentenced to pay a fine of £5, or to be publicly whipped. He was released from prison upon promise of appearing at next court. Fought with the Indians against the Colonists during the King Philips War, in which he was mortally wounded. A memorial stone was placed at the cemetery at the Elder John Crandall Homestead by the Crandall Family Association on Memorial Day 1991.

 

Jinny Angelis:

 

"Tradition states that he first appears in Salem, MA in 1634/35 and removes to Providence with Roger Williams about 1636. However the first real documentation of Elder John is as a grand juror in Newport, Rhode Island, 8 SEP 1643. Extensive research in both civil and church records of Salem, Lynn, Rehoboth, and Swansea, Massachusetts, as well as in early Providence and Newport, Rhode Island show absolutely no record of Elder John until 1643, even though there is frequent mention of Roger Williams, Obadiah Holmes, and John Clark. He is one of the six purchasers of Misquamicutt (Westerly), Rhode Island, in 1661, and builds his homestead there on Pound Road circa 1665. He was perhaps the first Baptist Elder in the U.S. (according to tradition), later converting to the Seventh Day Baptist faith, holding meetings at his home in Westerly, Rhode Island. He removed to Newport because of the dangers of the King Philip War in 1676, and, while there, he died.

"Buried in the family burial ground on the Homestead (Historical Cemetery #27). Monument erected by CRANDALL FAMILY ASSOCIATION 27 MAY 1991 [link below].

"ABSOLUTELY NO DOCUMEMTATION for the tradition that he is the son of a Sir John CRANDALL & Elizabeth DRAKE of Monmouthshire, Wales. 'The township of "Westerleigh' is certainly very circumstantial evidence, since he was one of the founders of "Westerly", Rhode Island."

 

Lamont-Eldredge Family Records:

 

"Elder John Crandall1 came to Boston 1634/5. Being persecuted on account of Baptist principles, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, 1637, and to Newport 1655. With other founders of Westerly he settled on the Misquamicutt tract before 1665. In 1900 part of his house was one room in the homestead occupied by descendants of the 8th and 9th generations. He died 1676. The name of his first wife is unknown; she died Aug. 1, 1670; his 2nd wife was Hannah Gaylord, dau. of Wm. and Ann (Porter) Gaylord, by whom he had 2 children; she died in 1678."

 

Earl P. Crandall, Web Site Editor:

 

"The stories of the English or Welsh origins of Elder John CRANDALL of Newport and Westerly, Rhode Island are varied. Unfortunately, none of those stories in print is true!!

"There is no documented information about Elder John before his appearance in Newport, Rhode Island in the early 1640's. There are secondary sources that suggest that he had spent some time in Salem, Massachusetts. Since he went back there on occasions, it seems that he may have had some ties there.

"In the 1949 genealogy of the CRANDALL family by John Cortland Crandall, Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island And His Descendants, it is stated (with no documentation!) that Elder John was the son of a Sir John Crandall and Elizabeth Drake. From that point, John Cortland Crandall takes the reader on a "trip" through history, linking the descendants of Elder John back into an ancestry filled with royal connections, right back to Adam and Eve!

"Sadly, many Crandall descendants have accepted this fairy tale for years. Some even get very angry when someone tries to 'undo' this myth with some facts. The biggest fact, and therefore a very major researching stumbling block, is that no 'Sir John Crandall' has ever been found. No 'Crandall marriage' by Elizabeth Drake has ever been found, either. And, since most 'true royal lines' and pedigrees can be traced, where does that leave us, the 'American Crandalls'?

"Several years ago the son of some LDS (Mormon) Missionaries serving in Gloucestershire, England, contacted me. His parents were in a parish called Westerleigh doing some microfilming of the parish records. This microfilm is now available at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and can be ordered for loan at any local Family History Center.

"I go to Salt Lake City frequently, and so the next time I went to the FHL I went to the actual microfilm. It is there, there is no doubt about it!

"In the parish records of Westerleigh (also spelled "Westerley" in some places), can be found a baptism for 'John, sonne of James Crandell baptized 15 February 1617'!

"There is also another child of James Crandell baptized in that parish, a daughter, Anne, baptized in 1621, obviously a daughter of this James and sister of John.

"This is of particular note because: 1) no other Crandalls of that time frame in England appear frequently; 2) the parish name, Westerleigh is most tantalizing, as Elder John was one of the original settlers of Westerly, Rhode Island in 1661;
and 3) the parish of Westerleigh is in Gloucestershire, not too far from Monmouthshire, thence not too far from the Welsh border, which fits some of the "traditions" about Elder John coming from Wales.

"Although still only very circumstantial, it appears that this is indeed OUR ELDER JOHN!"

 

Ken Franckling,  "A Gift Born in Frustration," The Boston Sunday Globe 21 JUL 1991:

 
"R.I. couple at odds with town, gives farm to Indian Tribe

". . . Tired of battles with the town over rights of way through the property and unable to pay $7,629 in overdue taxes, Arlene and Irving Crandall on July 9 gave all their land to its original owner: the Narragansett Indians. 'I just ran out of money and was tired of being harassed all the time,' Arlene Crandall said. . . Family records show elder John Crandall, a merchant from Newport, built his farm on land received in 1659 from the Indians' sagamore or area commander, Sacco. . . Arlene and Irving Crandall still live in the house Elder John Crandall built in 1665. Under the terms of the July 9 land transfer, the Narragansetts agreed to pay all back taxes and give the Crandalls and their heirs lifelong rights to occupy the family homestead. . . Family records show Elder John Crandall died of infection from a wound suffered in the Great Swamp Fight of Dec. 19, 1675, when, it is believed, he fought with the Indians against a force of 1,100 soldiers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Plymouth colonies who slaughtered many Narragansetts and some Wampanoag refugees in the Indians' winter quarters in Charlestown. 'The Crandalls were among several families who fought alongside the Narragansetts and protected my ancestors during this war. That was not uncommon,' (tribal council member John) Brown says."

 

In a letter from Samuel HUBBARD to Dr. Edward STENNETT, pastor of a Baptist Church in Bell Lane, London, bearing the date Newport, R.I., Nov. 1676:

 

"Now, dear brother, although we are not destroyed by the Indians, God hath visited this land by taking away many by death - in, in this place, of all sorts. Of the old church, first, Mr. Joseph TORREY; then my dear brother John CRANDALL; then Mr. John CLARKE; then William WEEDEN, a deacon; then John SALMON."

 

LINKS:  http://www.geocities.com/eperry/eljohn.html, http://www.gencircles.com/users/aakarma/1/data/8265, http://www.gencircles.com/users/mcrl/2/data/3465

 

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