Margaret Chandler (1577-1645) 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2021 # 41: Religious Changes

My 10th great grandmother Margaret Chandler was born in 1577 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England to Tobias and Joan (Mumford) Chandler. Bishop's Stortford is a market town about half-way between London and Cambridge.

Google Earth image showing location of Bishop's Stortford

The second oldest in a family of  11 children, Margaret was baptized in St. Michael's Church there, no doubt with the use of this marble baptismal font that had been in the church since Norman times.

Wikimedia Commons Image by Colin Smith / St Michael's Font / CC BY-SA 2.0

Like the rest of England, Bishop's Stortford had undergone several abrupt religious changes during the 16th century. This link contains photographs of St. Michael's Church and  a more specific description of the impact of the changes on this parish. 

As a reminder: King Henry VIII had split from the Roman Catholic Church in a dispute between pope and king over Henry's wish to divorce his wife so as to be free to remarry and sire a male heir.  The result was the establishment in 1534 of the independent Church of England with the King as its final authority. Although much remained unchanged from the Catholic Church, many changes were made in accordance with the more wide-spread Protestant reformation that had been sweeping much of Europe at the time. As might be expected, not all Henry's subjects were happy with this change. Nevertheless, the country remained Protestant under his son Edward VI, but Edward's early death led to his Catholic half-sister Mary becoming Queen in 1553. Over the years, many people on both sides of the religious divide were martyred for their beliefs. When Protestant Queen Elizabeth I succeeded her half sister Mary to the throne in 1558, one might have thought that at least the Protestant faction might once again be happy with the change. Some were, but many felt the Protestant changes in England had not gone far enough away from Popish ways and wanted to further purify their religion; this group became known as the Puritans. 

It does not appear that Margaret's parents were among the dissident Puritan group. Although we can't know for certain, they seem to have come through the religious changes relatively unscathed and one might assume that Margaret's childhood during the reign of Queen Elizabeth was relatively stable. (Another of my ancestors, Thomas Morse,  was not so fortunate, ending up in a lot of hot water while trying to retain his career as a dissident parish priest throughout all these changes.)

When the plague struck the town in 1582-83, Margaret was just 5 or 6 years of age, but she and her family also appear to have survived that challenge unscathed.

At the age of about 23, on 02 April 1600 she married Henry Monke (or Monck) in Albury, a town about 5 miles west of Bishop's Stortford. The couple had one child, a son named George Monke, prior to Henry's untimely death; Henry was buried at Bishop's Stortford on 10 December 1602. 

On 7 November 1603, the young widow remarried. Her second husband was William Denison, a man some five or six years her senior. This appears to have been William's first marriage. The couple would go on to have seven children, their youngest being my 9th great grandfather George Denison born in 1620.

Like many other men of Bishop's Stortford, William was a maltster. The town was perfectly situated amid the farms of East Anglia and Hertfordshire, producers of the barley to be changed into malt for dark ales popular in nearby London. It is said that the aroma from the maltings filled the surrounding area for centuries.

At some point, probably in the late 1620's, William became a convert to the Puritan cause and in 1631 decided to move his family to New England where they would join like-minded families. (There is some thought that Margaret was a bit reluctant and did not join her family until the following year, but no actual record can be found of her departure from England or arrival in New England. The pervasive sexism of the times has many of the records completely ignoring women migrants.)

As William and Margaret's oldest son John Dennison (born 7 April 1605) was already well established in a position as vicar of Standon, Hertfordshire and had a family of his own, he remained in England. 

Second son William (born 1606) had gone to be a soldier in Holland; he took part in the Siege of Breda and was never heard from again. 

Their third son, George (born 1609), died at the age of five. Their only daughter, Sarah (born 1615), lived just one week.

Daniel (born 1612), Edward (born 1616) and George (born 1620) were the three sons who headed to America with their father (and perhaps their mother). Daniel had been studying at Cambridge but was removed by his father in order to make the move. Also mentioned as being with them on that voyage was Reverend John Eliot, suggested by some to have been the boys' tutor. The family settled in Roxbury (now a suburb of Boston), one of the first settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Reverend Eliot became the pastor of the First Church Roxbury, where William Dennison became member #3 of the congregation.

Not all was smooth sailing as William appeared to have another change of heart with respect to religion. He was one of five Roxbury men to be disarmed on 20 November 1637 for supporting Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson. This was in regard to the Antinomian Controversy which raged in Puritan New England from 1636-1638. It pitted the majority of the Puritans against the adherents of a "covenant of grace" espoused by Cotton Mather and supported by Anne Hutchinson and her brother-in-law Reverend John Wheelwright. Apparently William Denison was a supporter. The Antinomians were generally regarded as heretics against the established religious laws. Concepts regarding gender and politics added to the disagreement. We don't know whether Margaret was one of the numerous women who followed Anne Hutchinson's teachings.

What we do know is that Margaret was a bit of a hold-out when it came to declaring her faith. Presumably she had been Anglican from birth, but it does not seem that she converted to Puritanism with her husband. When she was finally admitted to the Roxbury Church as member #33, the event was apparently deemed worthy of note:  “Margret Dennison, the wife of William Dennison, It pleased God to work upon her heart & change it in her ancient years, after she came to this land; & joined to the church in the year 1632”.  

The only other reference that has been found of Margaret is that  ”Old Mother Dennison” died Roxbury 3 February 1645/46. She is buried in the Eliot Burying Ground at Roxbury but no stone marks the place of her final rest.

Some Resources: 

• Anderson, Robert Charles, "The Great Migration Begins, Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633", Volume 1; Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995
• "Bishop's Stortford and Thorley: A History and Guide" located online at https://www.stortfordhistory.co.uk/
• A history of the Protestant Reformation in England and Scotland located online at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism/The-Reformation-in-England-and-Scotland