Richard Pedrick - Jean Merritt Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

A paucity of helpful records (especially in comparison to that of Richard's brother, Joseph, and his wife, Sarah Martin) exists for this family. There are practically no death records.

"Jean Merritt" who married Richard Pedrick was a frustrating brick wall for a long time before I discovered the article above. The Merritts were a well-documented family in Marblehead, and I knew that Jean had to be one of this family. The problem stemmed from her baptism record, which identified her as "Jane." Circumstantial evidence is reliably strong that Jane Merritt was indeed the Jean Merritt, daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Ashton Merritt. For starters, I have since run across a few instances of the names "Jean" and "Jane" being used interchangeably, even within this extended family. Jean's sister Elizabeth Pearce (Pierce) had a large family, as did Jean. The clues lie in a few similarities in the naming of the two women's children. Several of Elizabeth's children have names in common with Jean's. Although most are names given to children by many in their time: John, Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Rebecca, Jane, Mehitable (not so common), Jean, Anna, Martha, and Nathaniel, the first standout is the very unusual name "Ruhamah" given to girls in both families. In addition, Jean had a son whom she named John Pierce Pederick. John Pierce was the husband of Jean's sister, Elizabeth.

Richard and Jean had numerous children, several of whom grew to adulthood and had children of their own, although the numbers of children each of them had are not nearly as numerous as seemed to be the custom of the times. It's impossible to know whether there were other children for which there are no records or whether Richard and Jean's children just kept their families relatively small is not known. At least two of their sons-in-law died after the birth of their first child. Two of their children, Rebecca and John Pierce Pedrick, have no records after their baptism, and the marriage of their daughter, Jean, to Alexander Millar is only an unverified possibility. These three children (if you include Jean) may have died young or moved out of the area.

About the Children

• Richard Pedrick, Jr., a fisherman, and Mary Goodwin married in 1749. Probate was administered for a Richard Pedrick with a wife Mary in 1752. I believe this record to be that of Richard, son of Richard and Jean, because I can find no other records for the marriage of a Richard Pedrick to a Mary, and their childbearing records with only one child would be consistent with a marriage in 1749 and the death of one spouse at the end of 1751.


• Jean Pedrick, the second Jean born to her parents, may have married Alexander Millar of Great Britain. No further records for either could be found. Did she relocate with him to his home country?


• Mary Pedrick and her husband John Adams were our direct ancestors and have their own family group page. John was a Revolutionary War patriot who was a seaman on board the privateer brig "Fancy" when it was captured by the British in 1777. The crew was taken by the British to a prison in England where he remained until the end of the war. After he was released, he resumed his fishing trade. He also owned a store that was continued by his widowed daughter, Mary, and his single daughter, Meriam, after his death. (Their home and the building that housed the store are still standing in Marblehead today).


• Nathaniel like his older brother Richard married a woman named Mary, had one child, and then died not long after.


• Elizabeth Pedrick's husband James Valentine was a Revolutionary War patriot. He sailed on the privateer brig "Fancy" with John Adams, the husband of his wife's sister, Mary. The men on board were taken to prison in England, and James died there.
  


• Ruhamah Pedrick married the son of her Aunt Elizabeth Merritt Pierce's nephew by marriage Isaac Surriage. Isaac was the brother of Agnes, who acclaimed local fame when she went to work as a young teenage maid in Marblehead's Fountain Inn and captured the heart of Lord Charles Henry Frankland, who was visiting from his ancestral home in England to oversee the building of the fort. They lived together for many years, possibly having one son. Because of the difference in their rank, he did not marry her early on, and she faced social ostracism on both sides of the Atlantic. During this time, they built a beautiful estate in Franklinton where they could live in luxury and peace. She finally gained social acceptance in both England and Boston when they married. They bought a beautiful house in Boston and spent alternate seasons at Franklinton and Boston while in the Colonies. He was appointed to a position in Lisbon, Portugal and they lived there for many years. They returned to Franklinton in 1763 and lived there until he died at age 52 while on a visit to his home in England. After his death, Lady Agnes remained at Franklinton until the outbreak of the Revolution. She spent those years entertaining and interacting closely with her nieces and nephews. She was guardian to her sister Mary's children. At the start of the Revolution, as the widow of a British aristocrat, she was a Loyalist and believed life in England would be safer for her. While at her Boston home awaiting passage to England, she witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill from her window. She spent many years with the Frankland family in England until she married a wealthy banker in Chichester in Sussex, where she died at the age of 55 in 1783. Isaac and Ruhamah Surriage both died in Franklinton, and although I can't discover whether they were heirs of part of their aunt's estate, I have to assume that their presence there was related to her or their Surriage cousins in some way.
  

Proof of Relationship

The genealogical records and vital records are our best proof of relationship for our direct ancestors in this family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is basically complete. A later search might discover new information from records not yet found.