rom Frederic William Dillingham’s application to Sons of the Revolution:
Edward Dillingham of Bitteswell, Leicestershire, England who settled at Plymouth, 1632, Ipswich 1634, Saugus 1636 and Sandwich 1637 in the colony of Plymouth on or about the 2d day of April 1637. He was born in 1595, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. From other notes of FWD: Edward Dillingham, Deputy of Sandwich 1643 d.1667 Edward Dillingham, Gent, was freeholder of Bitteswell in 1630. Wife Drusilla d.Feb 6, 1656 (another note says wife Ursula d.Feb 9, 1656) Apr 3 1637 ten men including Edward made record of settlement at Sandwich. Number of families from Lynn, Duxbury and Plymouth. Mr Dillingham had 8 acres of meadow in Sandwich. Edward and brother John came in the fleet with Winthrop in 1630. Were first in Boston, then Ipswich. [This is wrong; John came in 1630, Edward in 1632. ED] Another note cites New England Historical and Genealogical Register Dillingham, Edward, Lynn, Witness at Salem Court in 1637, joined in the founding of Sandwich, propr. 3 Apr 1637. Wife Ursula d. Feb 9, 1656. Will, May 1, 1666 probated 5 June 1667 was in the form of a deed of gift to his two sons Henry and John. Property in his hands whose owners, specified, res. in Bitteswell and other places in Lancashire, Eng. Another note, probably by Dean Dudley, refers to Savage’s Gen Dec New England Edward Dillingham came to Lynn Mass from Bitteswell in the County of Leicester England where he had an estate. [This agrees with my conclusion that Edward Dillingham Gent Freeholder was also Edward Immigrant. See my notes under The Rev Henry Dillingham. ED] The exact date of his arrival is not given but we find him in Lynn in 1636 and in 1637 he removed to Sandwich. He was a Rep to the Gen [unreadable] 1642. Had two sons, Henry and John, the latter born in England in 1630. [Another source gives Henry's birth as 1627 ED] His will is dated May 1 1666 probated Jun 1 1667 an abstract of which is printed in the New England His + Gen Reg Vol VII p 225. Statement of Frederic W Dillingham to accompany his application for membership in the Order of Founders and Patriots of America (OFPA) gives authorities for dates etc in his application. Unfortunately the application itself is mostly missing and the actual data is missing.
From a letter from FWD to George Halsey Thompson, Registrar of OFPA ... As to his coming to this country Savage says Edward and John were probably brothers but Richard Saltonstall in a letter to Governor Winthrop 1636 says they were brothers. This in a letter to me from Dean Dudley. Savage further says they were relatives of Richard Saltonstall and Samuel Appleton. Dudley in another letter to me says they were brothers and came in the same ship. You know how badly Winthrop’s papers were scattered and destroyed but there is a fragment which says John Dillingham came in the Abigail, being No. 71 on the list. In a note to himself, FWD wrote: Eureka! For forty years [and more, struck out] I've worked over this family tree through discouragements numberless and heartbreaking. Just how or when it occurred to me to look into my ancestry it is not possible to say with exactness but it was not far from the time I entered the service of the Eastern Railroad in 1876. [aged 16. From the forty years comment, this note must have been written about 1916.ED] I wrote my father's sister Maria who told me the origin of the family was in three brothers who came from England. One settled in Mass., one in Vt and the third in Maine. Maine was cut off from Mass in 1820, leaving us no ancient Maine lineage. [struck out: Then afterwards - years afterwards - wrote me that three b] [Now FWD lapses into his hard to read shorthand, demonstrating the virtues of redundancy in our language-ED] She didnt kw + I didn’t kw ... erly das wo kpt n recds. orgntd in 3 brs wo cm fm E. Iv rn agst a lt o err in the course o m investgns. I didnt wk at it al t tm by ay mns. Id wt ltrs, lk up bks + mk notes f a wk + tn nglct it f a wl. I hd n scs o infm o m own + had t grope in t dk f evy bt o infm I gt + m % o flr ws lg + m % error was lgr. M A Rie wld yld a lot inf nw + tn. She ws alwys vy postv bt didnt rly hv mch recol or ay record o her fm. She ws a dr old soul in hr later yrs + my motr was vy fd o hr in tr youth. She wrote m she had an Unkle J, tn th Jo was hr gfthr bro nt hr ftrs. She insisted on Jo. She hd vis his fam. He m Na Nitch + hd a dghtr Marcy wh ws a Dn fam ... Aunt Ries’ trail led me into the woods and up a tree. If A R had had the money she caused me to spend in blind search she’d have lived a good deal more comfortably. 3 bros Quaker bro Joe From ED: The last line above identifies the erroneous data that hurt so much. When Dudley was doing the research for FWD, he discarded the most probable line of ancestry, through William, Jr and William the Revolutionary soldier, because that line were not Quakers. Dudley found dozens of Quakers with lovely old testament names, but they weren’t our ancestors. He searched for the third brother who came from England and for brother Joseph, without success. Dudley’s letters to FWD of September 1894 tell of his search for Cornelius and William and Joseph. Apparently FWD knew that his grandfather was William but knew nothing of his great grandfather, which seems surprising since it was he who went from Sandwich to Freeport, after serving as a revolutionary soldier. It seems clear that he was very much cut off from his family: when he writes to his father’s brother Araetas Henry it is a big surprise. I don’t know when his mother went to Brooklyn - perhaps it was soon after his father’s death in 1864. A printed page pasted into Dean Dudley’s manuscript tells this: Edward Dillingham and his brother John appear to have come from Bitteswell in Leicestershire, England. The family were landed gentry there before 1600, as may be seen in Nicholl’s History of that County. Their arms were: arg, ten fleur de lis, 4, 3, 2, 1, ppr. Edward was a legatee of his brother John of Ipswich, who died early, and Sir Richard Saltonstall and Governor Thomas Dudley helped to settle his estate. In 1632, Edward took cattle of Emanuel Downing of London for a third of the increase. In 1637, Mr Dillingham was living at Saugus (Lynn), and with nine other men was by the Plymouth court, granted liberty to view a place in the old colony to sit down on, and have sufficient land for three score families, on the conditions propounded to them by the Government and Mr Winslow. These nine men were Edmond Freeman, Henry Feake, Thomas Dexter, William Wood, John Carman, Richard Chadwell, William Amey, Thomas Tupper, and George Knott. Most of these men settled at Sandwich, and in a list of Freemen of Sandwich, in 1643, are the names of Dillingham, Feake, Freeman, Knott, Chadwell and Tupper. Mr Dillingham brought over from Bitteswell a herd of cattle which he took from his neighbors on shares; that is, he was to return the cattle with part of their increase in subsequent years. The fulfillment of this agreement is provided for in his will. He was elected Deputy of Sandwich in 1643. Mr D. was one of the founders of Sandwich and a much respected citizen. His daughter Osea married Stephen Wing, who was town clerk of Sandwich in 1669. His wife’s name was Drusilla, who died 6 February 1656. Mr D. died in 1667. From ED: Of the list of founders and freemen of Sandwich, the names of Feake, Freeman and Tupper appear among the wives of later generations of Dillinghams. The document above identifies Drusilla as his wife, but as indicated above this is probably a copying error, because he married Ursula Carter in England and she was the mother of his children. No mention of a second marriage is found. The document quoted above was clearly a pamphlet genealogy "Dillingham Family" published in Yarmouthtown, Mass by C. W. Swift, Publisher and Printer in 1912. It is reprinted in the Cape Cod Library of Local History and Genealogy. From Alexander, pg 18a Son of the Rev Henry and Oseth ____, baptized 6 Dec 1595, at Cottesbach, Leicestershire, where his father was rector. He was made executor of the will of his father, who died in 1625, and was nearly all his property, becoming thereby a freeholder in Bitteswell, an adjoining parish. He married at Cottesbach, 14 Feb 1614, Ursula Carter, by whom he had at least seven children. But three of these came with him to America, Oseth, Henry and John. All the others probably died young, although the oldest, Elizabeth, may have married and remained in England. The parentage of Ursula Carter was not found, but in the parish record of Cottesbach, in the list of rectors, immediately preceding the record of death of Rev Henry Dillingham, is given "Edward Carter, 1601". It may be found that Ursula was his daughter. [DILLIN.GED]
