The history of the surname Emery is ancient. The original usage came to France with the followers of Rollo of Denmark in their invasion of Normandy and then transferred to England at the time of William in 1066. The source of the name is supposedly “from Almarich, Exalted Ruler (of the Gothics); this name was transformed to Amalic, Amaury, Amiery, etc to Amery and then Emery. There are those that feel the specific Emery lineage was brought to England from France by those Hugenots fleeing after the massacre at St. Bartholomew on 12 August 1572. They speak of one Jean Emery who fled from Longue, Champagne “shortly after the massacre”. The French name “Jean” equates to the English name “John”. However, the chronology of our Emery lineage does not quite fit the Hugenot lineage. Our recorded lineage commences with one John Emery who married, on 10 May 1565 (seven years prior to the “massacre”) at Winchester, Hampshire (Hants), Alice Banet. Subsequent Emery generations of Emery were from Romsey, Hants which is located about eight/nine miles southwest of Winchester. Romsey is a rare old town in Hampshire located on the river Esk which was the Aulton river in the early Romas times. Two items that might be cogent to the Hugenot lineage considerations are that many of the Hugenots who fled France settled in the Romsey, Hants area and the name of John’s wife, “Banet” is of French origin. Our John Emery is noted as having been born in Winchester ca 154x and died on 16 June 1594 at Romsey, Hants. The birth and death date and ancestry of Alice Banet is unknown. The only known children of John and Alice Banet Emery are two sons, i.e., John which follows and Thomas who married Tomasine Carter in 1597. The second child is by inference.
References: FH6:1864; FH7:2nd V2:757; PH212:V1:521; TAG:V17:98.

John 2 Emery was born ca 157x at Winchester, Hants. and died 29 June 1627 at Romsey, Hants. He married, in 1597 at Romsey, Hants, Agnes Northend who was born 1576 and died ca 16xx both at Romsey, Hants. That John 2 Emery’s wife was named Agnes is noted in a number of documents. That her surname is Northend is noted in the “Revised Genealogical Records of John Emery of Newbury, Ma.” compiled by Judith E. Burns, 1982. Agnes Northend is noted as being born in 1576 as the daughter of Ezekiel and Edna Halsted Northend. But the known Ezekiel Northend who married Edna Halstead was born in 1622 and married Edna Halstead in 1648. It would truly be a rare coincidence if there was another Ezekiel Northend who married an Edna Halstead ca 157x. There was a John Northend who died prior to 1608 who had a son born in 1575. If Agnes, the wife of John 2 Emery, surname was Northend, then in all probability she was the daughter of John Northend who died pr 1608. The other observation concerning Agnes “Northend” is that Hunsley, Yorks, the location of the Northends, is quite a wee bit of distance from Romsey, Hants.

John 2 Emery is not listed in a subsidy (tax roll) during the time frame of 157x to 1600 which indicates that he owned no land and probably had small personal wealth. One would have to assume that he was a tenant farmer. It is possible that he was a carpenter which was the vocation of two of his sons, i.e., Anthony and John 3. Little else of record is known of John 2 Emery and his family.

John 2 and Agnes Northen Emery had as many as six children. There were three sons, i.e., John, Anthony, and Hugh who were respectively baptized 29 March1599, 29 August 1601, and 06 October 1604. Based on Romsey parish records and chronology, it is possible that there were three daughters, i.e., Mary/Margery born ca 160x and died 1610, Ellin, maybe a delayed twin of Anthony, who was baptized 07 Sept. 1601, and Lydia, who was born ca 161x, and married James Bailey in 1640.
References: FH6:1864; FH7:2nd V2:757; FH21:739; FH117:1; FH118:11-12,16; FH319:23; PH87:1715; PH178:V2:503; PH212:V1:521; TAG:V17:96-99.

John 3 Emery, the first of the three sons of John 2 and Agnes Northend Emery, was baptized 29 November 1599 at Romsey , Hants and died 03 November 1683 at Newbury, Ma. He married first, on 26 June 1620 at Romsey, Hants., Alice Grantham who was born 1599 at West Dean, Wilts. and died prior Sept. 1646 at Newbury, Ma. She was the daughter of Walter and Alianore (–) Grantham of West Dean, Wilts. which is located about eight miles northwest of Romsey. Other sources note that Alice was the daughter of an Andrew Grantham; John Threlfall in his work the “Ancestors of Margaret Brooks Threlfall”, section 1866 makes a strong case for Walter Grantham. John 3 Emery married, as his second wife, on 29 October 1647 at Newbury, Ma., Mary Shatswell Wesbter, widow of John Webster who died 28 April 1694.

John 3 Emery and his brother, Anthony, with their families, set sail from Southampton, England for New England on the 5th of April, 1635 on the ship “James”, William Cooper- Master. They landed in Boston, Ma. on 03 June 1635 and soon after went to Newbury, Ma. Anthony Emery married Francis Porter and they removed to Dover, NH in 1640. John 3 Emery remained in Newbury for the rest of his life where he was quite active in thw community. He was a carpenter by trade which he combined with being an innkeeper. John 3 had an early town grant of half an acre on the Lower Green for a home lot. On 22 December 1637 he was fined 20 shillings for enclosing ground not laid out or granted by the town. On 01 Feb. 1638 the town granted him the land that he had usurped. He was granted an additional 22 acres, 5 rods in 1644 being his own and Henry Palmer’s share of “Dividant land in the great field beyond the new town”. As time went forward, John 3 was engaged in many buying and selling transactions of land, not only in Newbury, but in Ipswich, Rowley, and other locations. Even though John 3 was a carpenter and an innkeeper, he needed land to grow corn; he might have had a tenant farmer working some of his land. As today, there were a number of our Puritan forefathers who also “speculated” in buying and selling land.

John 3 Emery was made a freeman on 2 June 1641. Thereafter he served Newbury in numerous capacities. He was one of three on a committee to value lands in 1644; he served on the County Trial Jury in 1648, 49, 60, 72, 73, 75, 78; he was on the Grand Jury in 1651, 62, 67; he was constable in 1655; Clerk of the market in 1656; a Selectman (a board of town officers chosen to manage certain public affairs) in 1661, and he was appointed to carry the vote to Salem in 1676. He took the oath of allegiance in 1677. John Emery3 was a “solid citizen” not withstanding “usurping a bit of land now and then”. He was too old for service in the King Philip’s war with the French and Indians; but he did donated a new saddle and bridle, a sworded belt, and powder and bullets. He received 2s 6d for “cureing a soldier”.He was noted on the Newbury Church roll in 1670.

John 3 Emery was a courageous man who did not hesitate to back his opinions with action. Lieut. Robert Pike was in difficulty with the colonial government in 1654; John 3 Emery with his son John 4 along with other fellow citizens signed a petition speaking out in favor of Liuet. Pike. The petition so irritated the authorities that a commission was established to examine (and seemingly to intimidate) the petition signers. Neither John 3 or John 4 backed down. On another occasion he signed a certification of William Titcomb’s good character, a man under scrunity. He dissented from the vote in favor of a school and school master in 1658. He headed an agitation and petition about the local military company so vigorously that he admonished by the local court. And most noteworthy, he was brought to court for entertaining Quakers. In this case, evidence was given that two men and two women held a meeting in John 3's house after which the Quakers “were entertained very kindly to bed and table and John Emmerie shook them by hand and bid them welcome”. Both John 3 and his wife said “they would not put Quakers out of their house and used arguments for the lawfulness of it”. In the Parker-Woodman church controversy in Newbury in 1671, John 3 Emery was fined for being an active partisan for Mr. Woodman. John 3 Emery was a real example for supporting “free speech” and having the courage to speak out even when he was speaking out against the “majority” position.

John 3 and Alice Grantham had four children, one son, John 4, and three daughters, i.e., Helena/ Eleanor, Anne, and Alice; all of these children reached adulthood, married, and had families. John 3 and widow Mary Shatswell Webster Emery had two children; a daughter named Ebenezer ( a biblical reference in the Bible) who married John Hoag , had five children, with the family becoming Quakers. The other child, a son named Jonathan, who married Mary Woodman and had ten children. John 3 Emery was quite active in caring for the property of John Webster, his wife’s first husband, and in responding to the needs of the two child by his second wife. It seems likely, judging from his will, that John 3 made provision for the children of his first wife, Alice Grantham Emery, before or at the time of his second marriage.

The will of John 3 Emery was made 11 May 1680 and proved 27 Nov. 1683. To his daughter, Ebenezer Hoag, he gave 1 ½ acres at the end of his home lot. To his son, Jonathan, he bequeathed all of his land and housing in Newbury. He bequeathed his chattels (movable property items) plus 10L to his wife. There was another 10L for grandchild Mary Emerson plus 30L for misc other including and outstanding debts. If there was any residue left, it was to be divided among his six children, i.e., four by Alice Grantham Emery and two by his second wife Mary. His inventory amounted to L263. Considering the property given the first four children, which would not be in the inventory, we could say that our John 3 ancestor would be of the middle class.
References:FH6:932,1864; FH7:2ndV2:757; FH21:739-742; FH117:1-2; FH118:16-22; FH319:23-25; PH7:251; PH19:152-153; PH87:1715; PH178:V2:503; PH212:V1:521-527; PH222:V3:354, V4:361, V7:156; TAG:V17:96-99.

John 4 Emery, the only son and third child of John 3 and Alice Grantham Emery, was baptized 03 Feb. 1629 at Romsey, Hants. and died puior to 26 Sept. 1693 at Newburyport, Ma. John 4 Emery married, on 10 October 1650 at Newbury, Mary (–) whose surname and ancestry is unknown. Mary (–) Emery died 03 Feb/ 1710 at Newbury, Ma. For many years it was stated that John 4 Emery married, on 02 Oct. 1648 at Newbury, Mary Webster, the daughter of John and Mary Shatswell Webster; in effect John 4 had married the daughter of his father’s second wife. Clarence Almond Torry in TAG V17: 96-99 proved that this latter scenario is not correct and that the surname of John 4 Emery’s wife is unknown.

As a child of about six, John 4 came to New England with his parents on the ship “James” which arrived at Boston 03 June 1635. John 4 grew up in Newbury, Ma, where he remained for the rest of his life. We find, in the Newbury town records of 10 April 1644: “There was laid out unto John Emery Junior(John Emery 3 being the original immigrant is consider “senior”) , four score akers of upland, bee it ,more or less, joyneing unto the Merrimack river on the north and running from the mouth of the Artichoke river unto a marked tree by a swamp on the northeast corner, being about one hundred and thirty two rods (one rod is 5 ½ yards) long at the head of the cove, thence about one hundred rods to the southwest corner, thence running on a strait lyne about an hundred and fifty six rods to Artichoke river on the east about eighty rods broad”. Forty acres of this land was a grant of the town of Newbury to John Emery 3, senior, and by him given to his son in consideration of love and affection. The remaining forty acres was bought of Archelaus Woodman for 30 L, it being a town grant to him. This land remained in the possession of John Emery 3's descendants for over 200 years.

John Emery 4 was made a freeman in 1654, was a member of the Newbury church in1670, and signed the oath of allegiance in1678. He was a sargent in the training band. On 22 November 1678, the town: ”granted to John Emery, Junr. Twelve acres of land on the west side of the Artichoke river adjoyneing to his own land, Provided that he build and maintain a corne Mill to grind the Towne’s corne from time to time, and to build it within one yeare and a halfe after the date hereof, And the inhabitants of the Towne to have their corne according to their Turnes before any other Towne.” On 03 March 1679, the following was voted: “Whereas there is some dafficulty about the mill, It was referred to Capt. Daniel Pierce, Richard Bartlet, and Tristam Coffin to treat with John Emery & to perfect the said Bargaine both for the place and other conveiniances belonging there unto & bring it to the Towne the next meeting.” There is no known record of the committee’s action, however, from subsequent developments that arrangements were made for the construction of a dam and the erection of a mill at the mouth of the Artichoke River, and that work was undertaken during the ensuing summer and carried thru its completion. On 31 December 1686, the town appointed a committee “to lay out a convenient highway of such breadth as they shall see thro’ the plaines to Sergeant Emery’s mill.” The mill operated for many years to come. It should be noted that corn was the main produce of early New England; corn was the main currency in the process of buying and selling. For example, in John 3 Emery’s will we see “And also the said Jonathan is to pay fifty pounds in good and merchantable Corne et al”. Having and operating a corn grinding mill was usually a very profitable venture.

On 18 April 1693, being in failing health, John 4 Emery made an agreement with his son Stephen “to tend the said mill or provide one that hath skill to doe it & to be att half the charges to maintain and keep it in good repair all the running geers & Iron work of said mill”. And “the said Stephen Emery is for his pains to have half of the income of the mill & his father, John Emery, the other half during his natural life & after his decease the said mill to be to the said Stephen Emery as his own free and proper estate.” John 4 Emery made his will 03 August 1693 and died a few days later. His inventory amounted to L435 9s 9d. Again, I think that we can assume that Sgt. John (4) Emery was a person of middle class means.

John 4 and Mary (–) Emery were parents of thirteen children, five sons and eight daughters, all born in Newbury, Ma. with the first child Mary being born 24 June 1652 and the last child Josiah being born 28 Feb. 1681, i.e., twenty nine years of child bearing. Another amazing attribute is that they, the children, had an average longevity of sixty three years of age wherein the overall population longevity was maybe forty five years of age. All of the children were married and had an average of 6.3 children per couple. John 4 Emery with his wife and children were certainly doing their share in expanding the population of New England.
References: FH6:466,932; FH7:2ndV2: 757; FH21:875-878; FH117:2-7; FH118:18-22; FH211: 1-2; PH7:251; PH19:153,342-343; PH212:V1:525; PH222:V1:336, V4:321,361 V7:156,V9:165 TAG:V17:96-99;

Mary Emery, the first daughter and first child of John 4 and Mary (–) Emery, was born on 24 June 1652 and died 23 February 1707, both at Newbury, Ma. She married, on 17 March 1671 at Newbury, Ma., Samuel Sawyer-Lt. born on 22 November 1646 and died on11 Feb. 1718 both at Newbury, Ma. Samuel was the son of William and Ruth Bitfield Sawyer of Newbury, Ma.
References:FH6:466; FH117:2-4; FH118:20-21; FH211:1-2; FH294:2,5-6; FH295:12-13; PH7: 654; PH19:153,589-592; NEHGR:V28:191-199;