Name origin: The family originally was domiciled in province of Aisne, France, where the name is perpetuated by the village of Merle. The family was knighted both in France and England. The French signification of the name is a blackbird.
b.abt.1525 England; s/o parents ukn
m.abt.1550; ukn
CHILDREN included:
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d.ca.1600; parents ukn
m.Prudence _______
bur. Dec. 22, 1609, Belstead, Suffolk, England
CHILDREN included:
NOTE: The will of John Merrell, yeoman of Wherstead, dated Dec.2, 34th year of Elizabeth (1600), is recorded at Ipswich, Suffolk, England. In it he names wife Prudence, sons John, Michael, Nathaniel and Thomas, and grandchildren: Marie, Martha, and John Children of Nathaniel; Thomas and Anne children of Thomas. Registers of Wherestead and Belstead, south of Ipswich, confirm that the named children and grandchildren were the only descendants born and living at the date of the will. A copy of the will 1600, the church records are found in A Merrill Memorial by Samual Merrill, 1917-1928, reprinted 1983.
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b.1571 Belstead/Wherstead, Suffolk, England; s/o of John and Prudence Merrill
bur.March 17, 1626 Wherstead, Suffolk, England
m.Feb. 27, 1592 Wharstead, Suffolk, England; Mary Blacksoll
b.May 1, 1574 Wherestead, Suffolk, England
d.May 1, 1624 Wherestead Suffolk, England
CHILDREN included:
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b.Aug. 16, 1599 Wherstead, Suffolk, England; s/o Nathaniel and Mary (Blacksoll) Merrill
d.Sept. 12, 1673 Newbury, MA
m.(1)Jan. 24, 1628/9 at Wherstead, Suffolk Annis Bishop
m.(2)July 15, 1633 at Little Wenham, Suffolk, England Elizabeth Vincent
d.July 14, 1662 Newbury, MA
CHILDREN of John and Annis included:
NOTES: John Merrill was admitted as a freeman at Newbury, MA in 1638. At the time of his marriage, John was called "of La[w]ford in the county of Essex Widower." John and his brother Nathaniel arrived in American in the 1630s, residing a year or so at Ipswich, MA prior to moving to Newbury before 1638. Cutter's New York Families, pages 856-857, summarized the descent from Nathaniel Merrill of England to Elizabeth Merrill, wife of Elijah Mason Morey.
From Directory of the Ancestral Heads of New England Families 1620-1700 by Holmes: JOHN, original settler of Newbury, Mass.; freeman 1640.
NATHANIEL, brother of preceding, b.Wiltshire, Eng., 1610, came in 1635 to Newbury, Mass.
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