At 10:49 AM 01/04/1999 EST, Ray Montgomery (scruffynerfherdr@juno.com) forwarded: >Robert J. O'Hara wrote: > >> The Massachusetts immigrant Thomas DUTTON was apparently born abt 1621 >> in Cheshire, England, and died 22 Jan 1697 in Billerica, Massachusetts. >> He m Susannah PALMER in 1647 in Billerica. In starting to investigate >> this ancestor I have found a number websites (for example >> http://www.web-ster.com/miked/html/d0002/g0000166.htm#I1933) that trace >> Thomas Dutton's ancestry back into the Medieval period through the >> "Duttons of Dutton" in Cheshire. Does anyone here happen to be familiar >> with this line, and can anyone tell me if this is solid or just some >> family historian's fancy from the 19th century? (For all I know the >> Mass immigrant may in fact not be linked to the Dutton family of >> Cheshire at all; that may be where the imagination came in). Pointers >> to recent sources (confirming or debunking) will be welcome. Many >> thanks. [snip] Dear Ray: The line of the Massachusetts Duttons is often traced back to the Duttons of Cheshire, through a line that (depending on where you get it) starts with Thomas Dutton who m. Susannah Palmer, and goes back through his father John whose father was Sir Ralph. None of these connections is proved. PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG! <grin> I would dearly love any solid evidence that Thomas' wife's maiden name was Palmer. I do have a Palmer will, reported in NEHGR, in which a Palmer refers to a relative named Susanna Dutten. (I don't have my sources at hand, and I may be misreporting the will's spelling "Dutten," but the substance is correct.) Since the Duttons of Reading, Massachusetts, are in the ancestry of Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet, one would think that if the evidence were available it would have been reported. In fact, the latest version of the Personal Ancestral File for the Prophet specifically *removes* the surname Palmer from Thomas Dutton's spouse, as undocumented. This was only after a lively battle between a member of the PAF staff(?) and a persistent, but mistaken, submitter, according to the notes that accompany Susannah's PAF record. The record is now "locked" against further correction without a review. By the way, I too have seen Susannah reported to have married Thomas in Billerica in 1647. That is not possible. The town was not charted by the Massachusetts General Court until almost a decade later, in 1655. Thomas removed from Reading to Woburn in circa 1658, and from Woburn to Billerica in 1669. It is possible that he married Susannah in Lynn, but that is conjecture on my part--nothing more. Thomas' father John is supposed by some to have had a wife, Mary Neeld/Nield, but not only was this Mary most likely married to the John Dutton who settled in Pennsylvania, but I recently read evidence that she married a Neeld/Nield *after* the death of her husband John Dutton. Again, my sources are not readily at hand, but the burden of proof is on making the connection. I have Thomas' birth circa 1619, based on Edward F. Johnson, compiler, "Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages 1640-1873," (Woburn: Andrews, Cutler, & Co., 1890), Part III Marriages, pg. 284 in a footnote under surname Tottingham, "In the suit of Capt. Johnson vs. Ensign John Carter, Dec. 1658 ... witnesses were ... Thomas Dutton [aged] about 39 ..." citing "County Court Records, Vol. I., page 161. Dec. 1658." I have his death at 22 January 1686/1687, after Cutter. I would give miscellaneous body parts to be shown primary evidence of the ancestry of Thomas Dutton of Reading, Woburn, and Billerica, Massachusetts in the late 17th Century. I have been looking for a quarter century, and have UNlearned more than I have proved. Hopefully this mournful trend can be reversed. Darrell Darrell A. Martin formerly of the Dutton District in Springfield, Vermont currently in exile in Addison, Illinois darrellm@sprynet.com