William Berry 1610-1654

William Berry was born in Norfolk, England, the son of Johan Berry. He was in service to Captain John Mason in 1631, when Mason sent 58 men and 22 women to the Piscataqua River in North America.

The following were returned as belonging to Sandy Beach in 1688: William Berry (his son), John Berry (his son), John Marden, John Foss 1st, John Foss Jr., John Odiorne, Anthony Brackett, Francis Ran, Thomas Ran, WIlliam Wallis, James Randall, William Seavie, James Berry (his son), Samuel Ran, John Seavie, Anthony Libbie, and Jos. 

William Berry married Jane Locke Hermins in 1636 in the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He signed the Glebe Conveyance in 1640. {S7}. In 1640, only seventeen years after the first settling of Portsmouth, Francis Williams, (the governor,) Ambrose Gibbins, William Jones, Renald Fernald, John Crowther, Anthony Bracket, Michael Chatterton, Jno. Wall, Robert Puddington, Matthew Coe, Henry Sherburn, John Lander, Henry Taler, Jno. Jones, William Berry, Jno. Pickering, Jno. Billing, Jno. Wolten, Nicholas Row and William Palmer, the principal inhabitants of Portsmouth, made a deed of fifty acres of land in Portstmouth for a Glebe, or Parsonage.

He became a freeman on 18 May 1642 in Newbury, Massachusetts and is on the list of the first settlers of Newbury.

 He received a lot "upon the neck of land on the south side of the Little River at Sandy Beach on January 31, 1648 that included the area where 'Locke's Neck' is located.

Berry served as a Selectman of Strawberry Bank (which is now Portsmouth, New Hampshire) in 1646. 

·                  Savage, James A., A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, 1860-   1862., (Boston 1860-1862; rpt Baltimore 1955), [Savage], 1:171
·                  The Berrys by the beach : one of New Hampshire's first families / by Sylvia Fitts Getchell.
·                  New England Marriages Prior to 1700,Charles Torrey,New England Historic and Genealogy          Society, Boston
·                  Parsons, Langdon B., History of the Town of Rye, NH From Its Discovery and Settlement to December 31, 1903, (1905; repr. Bowie, MD: Heritage Press 1992), [RyeHist], 269.
·                  Brewster, Charles W., The Selling of the Land, ~186
·                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Berry_(pioneer)

Freeman in Colonial Times

Black's Law Dictionary (9th edition) defines Freeman as 1. A person who possesses and enjoys all the civil and political rights belonging to the people under a free government. 2. A person who is not a slave. 3. Hist. A member of a municipal corporation (a city or a borough) who possesses full civic rights, esp. the right to vote. 4. Hist. A freeholder. Cf. VILLEIN. 5. Hist. An allodial landowner. Cf. VASSAL. - also written free man.^[2]

"Freedom" was earned after an allotted time, or until the person demanding "payment" was satisfied – this was known as indentured servitude, and was not originally intended as a stigma or embarrassment for the person involved since many of the sons and daughters of the wealthy and famous of the time found themselves forced into such temporary servitude.

An indentured servant would sign a contract agreeing to serve for a specific number of years, typically five or seven. Many immigrants to the colonies came as indentured servants, with someone else paying their passage to the Colonies in return for a promise of service. At the end of his service, according to the contract, the indentured servant (male or female) usually would be granted a sum of money, a new suit of clothes, land, or perhaps passage back to England. An indentured servant was not the same as an apprentice or a child who was "placed out."

Once a man was made a freeman, and was no longer considered a common, he could, and usually would, become a member of the church, and he could own land. The amount of land he was able to own was sometimes determined by how many members there were in his family. As a freeman, he became a member of the governing body, which met in annual or semiannual meetings (town meetings) to make and enforce laws and pass judgment in civil and criminal matters. As the colonies grew these meetings became impractical and a representative bicameral system was developed. Freeman would choose deputy governors who made up the upper house of the General Court and assistant governors, the lower house, who chose the governor from among their ranks, and who passed judgments in civil and criminal matters. To hold one of these offices it was required, of course, for one to be a freeman. Thus, the enfranchised voters and office holders were landholding male church members. Women, Native Americans and other non-Puritans were not made freeman.

Initially, any male first entering into a colony, or just recently having become a member of one of the local churches, was formally not free. They were considered common. Such persons were never forced to work for another individual, per se, but their movements were carefully observed, and if they veered from the Puritanical ideal, they were asked to leave the colony. If they stayed or later returned to the colony, they were occasionally put to death.

There was an unstated probationary period that the prospective "freeman" needed to go through, and if he did pass this probationary period of time – usually one to two years – he was allowed his freedom.

A Freeman was said to be free of all debt, owing nothing to anyone except God Himself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_(Colonial)

William Berry (1610 - 1654)

is our 9th great grandfather

Henry Berry (1635 - 1672)

son of William Berry

Henry Berry (1660 - 1692)

son of Henry Berry

Rosanna Berry * (1682 - 1752)

daughter of Henry Berry

Elizabeth Ashby * (1720 - 1758)

daughter of Rosanna Berry *

Benjamin Hardin * (1753 - 1834)

son of Elizabeth Ashby *

Daniel Hardin * (1790 - 1850)

son of Benjamin Hardin *

Martin V Hardin (1834 - 1881)

son of Daniel Hardin *

Nancy Wilson Hardin * (1858 - 1933)

daughter of Martin V Hardin

Walter Scott Bramblett * (1882 - 1978)

son of Nancy Wilson Hardin *

Margaret May Belle Bramblett * (1911 - 1988)

daughter of Walter Scott Bramblett *