#6030. 3. AYERS, EYERS. S. B. C., April 23, 1917. You ignore the positive proof I gave that John
(2) Ayers, son of John (1) of Haverhill [MA] and Hannah, his wife, was living in 1692, while Captain
John Ayers, who married Susanna Symonds, was killed by the Indians Aug. 3, 1675. If you have the
proof you state from Essex County records, why don't you give it as I did mine volume and page? In
the first place, Haverhill at that time was in Norfolk County and you will find the old Norfolk and
Ipswich records in the office of the register of deeds, Salem. Also, if you look in "Five Colonial
Families," you will find a full history of the Ayers family of Haverhill, and a correction of this mistake of
Savage and Chase [two authors/compilers who made errors in counfounding
two John AYERS & John AYRES (variant spellings)].
I should judge from the names of their children that the two Johns might have been related.
[Definitely an assumption at this point in time!] It has also been positively stated that John (1)
Ayers married, in Salisbury, in 1643, Hannah Everett (Evered). I would like any authority for his
statement. Of course she was a second wife and not the mother of the first seven children.
John (2) Ayers was married to Sarah Williams May 5, 1646 - three years after his father - and so on
down to Hannah, born Dec. 21, 1644, and Nathaniel, married in 1670, who could have been the only
children of this marriage in 1643.
Captain John Evered, alias Webb, or vice versa, in his will dated Feb. 10, 1665 [?not clear],
bequeathed to his cousins (nephews and nieces) "John Eyers, Robert Eyers, Thomas Eyers, Peter
Eyers, Nathaniel Eyers of Haverhill and the wife of John Arsley of Andevour, and if there be any more
brothers and sisters of that family the Eayres as is before mentioned although not named herein, yet
the same to have equal portion with them as if they were herein nominated." John Webb died in
1668. John Ayres died in 1657, but his wife Hannah lived until 1688 [?not clear].
John Webb, or Evered, in his will calls himself of Haverhill and if Hannah Ayers was his sister it is
certainly very strange that he knew so little about her or her children. He did not name Mary, Obadiah
or Hannah, but in the settlement of his estate in 1670, all were remembered but Obadiah who had
moved to Woodbridge, New Jersey, and a separate settlement with him may be found there.
Webb was doubtless the legal name, as he gave it when admitted to the First Church, Boston, in
1633, a "single man," and when he joined the Artillery Company in 1643. His widow Mary gave the
name Webb when she married Deacon William Goodhue of Ipswich in 1669, "singleman," sometimes
meant widower, and as he called Mary his "now wife," she may have been No. 2, and perhaps a sister
of John Ayers: so it would be very careless genealogy, upon any veidence we have at present, to give
Hannah the surname of Evered or Webb.
E. K. H. M.
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Transcribed by Gloria ODOM.
Paragraphing changed to make it more readable. Brackets [ ] inserted by Gloria.
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