Dear Fellow Cousins, The emigrant John Fay of Marlboro, Mass., was born in England. He emigrated at the age of 8 years, according to the manifest of the "Speedwell," which has been published with a photograph of the actual manifest page. This article is entitled "A LYST OF PASINGERS ABORD THE SPEEDWELL OF LONDON, ROBERT LOCK MASTER, BOUND FOR NEW ENGLAND" and it was published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 1, April, 1847; reprinted 1992 by Heritage Books Inc. of Bowie, MD. This manifest is one of the few actual primary documents on John Fay. Most of the other sources on him were destroyed in a church fire. So far, I have not found a corresponding Baptismal record for our John Fay, but several people have contributed a number of leads in this matter. Orlin P. Fay cites four other early Fay's in the colonies. His information came from a John J. Fay. Richard Fay resided in Dorchester, Mass in 1634. Henry Fay, a weaver of Newberry, Mass, died June 30, 1655. William Fay, admitted a townsman of Boston, 1643. Thomas Fay of Hingham, Mass., died 1678. (OPF, 1898: 13) A "Thomas Fay brought suit in Es Court in 1638" (Pope, Charles Henry. Pioneers of Massachusetts: A descriptive List Drawn from Record of the Colonies, Towns, Churches and other contemporary Documents/Originally published Boston, 1900/ Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co. Baltimore, MD 1977: 162.) A Nathaniel Fay or Tay married Bathsheba Wyman/Weyman (b. Oct. 6, 1658) (Pope, Ibid, 517-518) Orlin P. Fay and Abner Morse were not able to clarify whether David Fay was or was not the father of John Fay Sr/1. The evidence is very scanty and rests primarily on a deed from Peter Bent. I have not yet found this deed. At least 30 FAY / FAYE / FEY / FEE / FEAY / PHAI (Soundex possibilities) men and women turned up in a search of the LDS files of England between 1600-1700, which was done by one of my informants. I have checked out most of these links in the English Parish Marriage Records, which were published around 1900. I found these records at the Clayton Library, a branch of the Houston, TX Library System. One person has published a report which is floating around that claims that the FAY Family goes back to the time of Emperor Hadrian of Rome. I would just caution you that I have not seen the original line of documents that supports this report, and until I do see the primary documents, I am not going to put this information into my files. I have some grave reservations about the quality of this report, since it seems to lack locations where the documents were found. Having studied European History in depth, I want to be sure that this data was not "made up" for the American genealogist. At least one English FAY Family is known to have lived in the area of Collingsbourne-Ducis, Wiltshire, and four generations of these FAY's are present in some unpublished manuscripts, which an English informant/researcher found for one of my other cousins. This material goes back to the 1400's. There is a line of Fay's in England, who come from this settlement, and who are still living in England today. One of my cousins went to England and found material of Thomas Brigham Sr going back to Holme-Upon- Spaulding Moor, Yorkshire. The line goes back to the 1400's. Thomas was the father of Mary Brigham, first wife of John Fay Sr/1[OPF #1] At present, it seem most likely that John Fay of Marlborough was an English boy of 8 who came to the American Colonies. I would be unsurprised to learn that he was indentured to Peter Bent. The name of his father is still in doubt and may be either David or William Fay. I hope to clarify this link when I make a trip to England in the next couple of years. The material in FENCES OF STONES: A History of Southborough, Massachusetts by Richard Noble (1991) concerning David Fay and John Fay is not documented as to source or location of primary documents. Several persons have attempted to contact Mr. Noble for additional information without success. So far, I have not found any primary documentation as to whether John Fay of Marlborough and his ancestors had any link to France. There are a number of English Fay's from the 12-14th centuries, but linkage up or down to these people has not been found. They are just isolated names in historical documents. Those FAY's who trace descent from John Fay Jr./2[OPF # 2] and his wife, Elizabeth Wellington, are probably descendants of King Edward 1 of England. A published genealogy exists of the lines of former Presidents George Herbert Walker Bush and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt which includes the above mentioned pair of ancestors. These Presidents happen to be cousins. The linkage between the English Fays and those from Ireland, Germany and Canada, has not been adequately researched. For many years, John Fay was claimed by the Huguenot Society as an immigrant from France. However, most of my recent research shows that he was English. The Compendium of American Genealogy seems to be the source of this flawed information. I have 3 published Fay Genealogies: Orlin P. Fay (1898), George Henry Johnson (1913); Mary (Smith) Fay (1987). I am also using the History of the Brigham Family by W. I. Tyler Brigham (1928). [The BRIGHAMS were a family which intermarried with the Fay family many times.] I have a number of individual town histories with genealogies (Barnard and Royalton, VT). These tend to give a very narrow picture of families in a given town. I have seen two unpublished manuscript genealogies on Fay's and have received several dozen personal family stories from other cousins. I have also used Farmer (1969); Savage (1873/1884); Torrey ( 1985) and Virkus (1978) for early emigrants. Cutter (1912) is not indexed, but had some information on the New York Fay's. I hope that this article will help some of you with your research. I will not be able to do any research/lookups at the National Archives until this summer, as I am in the midst of moving my household from Statesboro, GA to Bowie, MD. I will continue to answer as many of your requests in this FAY-D-Digest as I can find time to research in my own materials. It can take up to a full day to do a single request. Please be patient. Sincerely Mary (FAY) Nelson 9 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com