COLBY: Rooted in History, The Winthrop Fleet

10th Great Grandparents

Mack-Smith Branches

Anthony Colby

Winthrop Fleet

Massachusetts Bay Company was joint stock trading company chartered by the English Crown in 1629 to establish a colony in New England. John Winthrop and his fleet of eleven ships brought over 700, mostly puritan, passengers from England to settle in Boston, Salem, and other cities around Massachusetts Bay. The ships were Arbella, Ambrose, Talbot, Jewl, Charlse, Mayflower (not 1620 vessel), Hopewell, William and Francis, Whale, Success, and Trial. This wave of colonization was known as first The Great Migration.

Banks, Charles Edward. The planters of the commonwealth; a study on emigrants and emigration in colonial times: to which are added lists of passengers to Boston and to the Bay Colony; the ships which brought them; their English homes, and the places of their settlement in Massachusetts. 1620-1640. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930. Page 69.

Banks, Charles Edward (1854-1931). The Winthrop fleet of 1630; an account of the vessels, the voyage, the passengers, and their English homes from original authorities.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930. Page 65.

Anthony Colby

Anthony Colby was born circa 1605 and Christened on 8 Sep 1605 in Horbling, Lincolnshire, England to Thomas Colby (1567-1625) and Anne Jackson (1574-1625). 

Anthony married circa 1633 to widow Susanna, (her surname believed to be Haddon). Susanna was born circa 1610 in England. Susanna married a third time to William Whitridge in 1663, three years after Anthony's death. William Whitridge, who died in 1669. Susanna died destitute in/around 8 Jul 1689. 

Anthony came to Massachusetts Bay Colony as part of the Winthrop in 1630. He first settled in Boston, then moved to Cambridge 1632, Ipswich 1637, Salisbury 1640, and in 1654 Anthony became a founding father of town of Amesbury, Massachusetts where his home still stands today. 

It was recorded that Anthony joined the Boston church, most likely Puritan because Quakers and Catholics were persecuted and banished from the Colony--even helping Quakers was cause for fine or punishment. This happened to Thomas Macy. Anthony Colby purchased Macy's house in Amesbury circa 1654.

Anthony was most likely educated because he could sign his name on various Colonial documents. He owned a sawmill and became a freeman 14 May 1634. Anthony served on several grand juries.

Anderson, Robert Charles. New England, The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1633. Vol 1 A-F. Pages 413-416. Print or available on Ancestry.com.

Hoyt, David Webster. The old families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts; with some related families of Newbury, Haverhill, Ipswich and Hampton. Providence, R.I.: Snow & Farnham, printers, 1897. Pages 103-104, also see index.

 

The 1654 Macy-Colby House still remains in possession of the Colby family as a museum, supported by an endowment after a descendant named Moses Colby struck gold during California gold rush.  

Children of Anthony Colby and Susanna 

John (1633-1674)

Sarah Colby (1634-1663) ~ m. Orlando Bagley Sr 

Colby stillbirth (1637-1637)

Samuel (1638-1716)

Isaac (1640-1684)

Rebecca (1634-1672)

Mary (1647-1716)

Thomas (1651-1691)

Descendants of Anthony Colby

Sarah Colby ~ m. Orlando Bagley Sr

Sarah Bagley ~ m. John Mack

Jonathan Mack ~ m. Sarah Bennett

Ebenezer Mack ~ m. Hannah Huntley

Solomon Mack ~ m. Lydia Gates

Lucy Mack ~ m. Joseph Smith Sr

Hyrum Smith ~ m. Mary Fielding

Joseph Fielding Smith ~ m. Edna Lambson (4th living wife)

Edna Melissa Smith ~ m. John Fife Bowman

John Hyrum Bowman ~ m. Rosetta Ellen Jackson

* I have not included my parents for privacy reasons