PART ONE - THE ANCESTORS

Chapter 1

HEROES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

“The Pilgrim spirit has not fled;

It walks in the moon’s broad light;

And it watches the bed of the glorious dead,

-John Pierpont

Josiah Perkins Creesy and Eleanor Horton Prentiss were born six months apart in 1814 in the seaport town of Marblehead, where anxious women gave birth during the height of an intense war with England. Thousands of men volunteered to protect and defend against British troops and ships as they invaded the region, leaving local families torn apart through imprisonment, poverty, and even death. Prior to the War of 1812, Marblehead earned the distinction of being the center of the New England fishing industry as far back as the early 1600’s. Originally known as “Marble-Harbor,” the area was known for its hills, rocky outcroppings and expanses of land on a peninsula surrounded by the Massachusetts Bay. It was first occupied by Puritans who arrived at Plymouth Rock and relocated north to lands occupied by the native Naumkeag. The region later became part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and grew to over 13,000 inhabitants under the jurisdiction of Governor John Winthrop. It was later renamed “Marble-Head” and formally settled in 1629.

The Creesy ancestors established deep roots in the region when nineteen-year-old Mighill (Michael) Creese of French Huguenot origin, immigrated on a Puritan ship as an indentured servant for Captain Thomas Lathrop of North Beverly. In 1658, Mighill was released after seven years of servitude and married Mary Batchelder, daughter of John and Elizabeth Batchelder of Salem. She gave birth to a son John Creesy at Royal Side, who was the first-born member of the Creesy lineage in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The family continued to reside at Royal Side, where John worked as a weaver and tailor by occupation. He eventually became founder of the Church at Horse Bridge (Second Parish) and was chosen as its first deacon. Deacon John Creesy raised eleven children with his wife Sarah Gaines, including a son Joseph Creesy, great-great-grandfather of Josiah Creesy. Land and probate records showed consistent variations in the spelling of the surname upon the arrival of the first ancestors from England. It is believed the name was first written as “Cresse,” and later spelled “23 different ways.”

Joseph Creesy remained at Royal Side and was listed as a “yeoman” (farmer) in the records of the Salem Colony. He first married Hannah Dodge in 1719, daughter of William Dodge and Hannah Woodbury, who bore him five children before her death. His second wife Hannah Houlton was the daughter of Henry Houlton and Abigail Flint  of Salem. She bore eight children including Andrew Creesy, the progenitor of the Marblehead Creesy line. Andrew was born at Royal Side on February 9, 1745, and was counted as a great-grandson of the first settler Mighill, and the fourth generation born “this side of the water” (Atlantic). He eventually wed his sweetheart and neighbor Mary Woodbury, daughter of Josiah Woodbury and Hannah Perkins of Beverly on June 24, 1770.

The Woodbury family is perhaps the most prominent of all the Creesy ancestors in Colonial America. Mary was from one of the oldest families in Beverly through her father Josiah, a third-generation grandson of John Woodberie who arrived with the Winthrop Fleet in 1624. Their ancestor John Woodberie (name was changed by his descendants) was a land surveyor and counted among the original “Old Planters” of Cape Ann. He was also credited with being one of the “Fathers of Massachusetts.” The"old planters" from England received large land grants authorized by King James I, with the understanding they would settle and populate the region for the benefit of the Crown. Woodberie surveyed the area and laid out plans for farms, houses and fisheries bordering the coast. He later became a founding member of the First Church in Salem, a Deputy of Salem to the Massachusetts Bay General Court, and served as a Selectman and Assessor. During King Philip’s War, Mary’s great-grandfather Peter Woodbury loaned money to the Town of Beverly to purchase guns and ammunition. He was made a Lieutenant in the Beverly Horse Guard during the war and served as Deacon of the First Church of Beverly throughout the period of witchcraft hysteria in the region.

Josiah Creesy's fourth great-grandfather Richard Tarr and family were significantly impacted by the witch trials. Historian James Pringle wrote, “Richard Tarr, was first settler of Sandy Bay, now Rockport, and the founder of one of the most prominent families in the social and commercial life of the Cape, came from the west of England to America in 1680, and settled in Marblehead at which place he married his wife Elizabeth. He had a good deal of land near ‘Davidson’s Run,’ Sandy Bay, 1697.”