John Ayers

WEST BROOKFIELD, WORCESTER CO., MASSACHUSETTS

Photo courtesy of John AYRES of Auburn, CA; 10th in Descent from Capt. John AYRES. Photo taken 28 June 2003, West Brookfield, MA. Details regarding this memorial can be read in "Biography on Capt. John Ayres." 

Sgt. John Ayres was killed by Indians near present day New Braintree, MA on August 2, 1675, at the ambush known as Wheeler’s Surprise during the Siege of Brookfield, King Philip’s War.

In late October 1963, there was raised on Foster Hill in West Brookfield, a memorial to Sergeant John Ayres. This was erected by Colonel Fairfax Ayres of Shaftsbury, Vermont, an eighth generation direct descendant of John Ayres, in permanent remembrance of the head of that family which had such a vital influence on the early course of events at the Quaboag settlement. John, though not the earliest arrival at Quaboag Plantation, was certainly one of the most influential persons in its brief history. The early history of the Ayres family appears to be lost in confusion over names. Certainly, the antecessors of this family prior to the arrival of John at Ipswich, cannot be easily traced. The prime biographer of the family, William Henry Whitmore, in his excellent genealogy states flatly: “I know nothing of his parentage”. In an article which he wrote for the New England Historical and Genealogical Register in 1863 he says thus:

“Having spent some time in tracing the early generations of two distinct families of Ayres and Ayers desire to preserve the result. Savage, (renowned biographer of early New Englanders), in his account, makes a mistake which escaped my notice till my attention was called to it by Mr. Melvin Lord. 

Captain John Ayres of Ipswich and Brookfield was not the son of John Ayres of Haverhill. I have carefully examined the deeds of Salem, and have careful copies of the town records of Ipswich and Haverhill, and these show that the mistake had been made by confounding two persons of the same name”. And so we are left without any definite leads as to the place of origin of the family prior to the immigration to New England. The first concrete fact we were able to associate with the family, is the appearance of the name of John Ayres in the early records of Ipswich. This appears in the year 1643, which indicates the approximate date of coming to Ipswich, but not necessarily exactly, since grants were frequently recorded sometime after they had been made. He was also listed as an inhabitant of Ipswich in 1648, and married Susanna, daughter of Mark Symonds of who’s (Mark Symonds) estate he was appointed administrator. In such capacity, on November 24, 1659, he sold a house and a three acre lot to another son-in-law of the deceased, Edward Chapman (Ipswich Deed 3:351). He was allowed the privilege of commonage in February 1667, and admitted a commoner at Ipswich in March of the same year. Captain John, as he was known at Ipswich, came to Quaboag Plantation before May 1667.

Source:West Brookfield Historical Commission: Meet the Planters - AYRES http://westbrookfield.org/historical-sites/quaboag-plantation/qp-ayres-john-12-49-37-am-2/ Researcher: Terry Owens

There's a lot more to this story, and fortunately the link was still working, so I've saved as much as was available on line.

Tomorrow I'll share more of the story (especially how his family dealt with the Indian raid of Quaboag.  

I just changed my family tree on Ancestry to no longer count this Captain John as the son of the John of Haverhill.  So now this ancestor is flung onto the seas as a last known link, without the safety net of knowing which family brought him over from the old country.

He's my 8th great grandfather on my paternal grandmother's tree.