December 11, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on Mayflower descendants, focusing on Edward Bangs and family lines. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
For the past few years, I have been working with Denise Luitwieler on her family tree, and the GenealogyBank Blog has published several stories on her paternal line featuring photo albums, diaries, and letters in the family collection. (These stories are linked at the end of this article.)
Denise’s maternal ancestral lines include Edward Bangs, aka “The Pilgrim,” and a few Mayflower passengers. I am working on the proof for her membership application into the General Society of Mayflower Descendants.
Denise traveled to Switzerland to research her ancestors in 2016. Here she is sitting at a fountain which represents many emigrants’ migration route: the top being Switzerland, the middle Holland, and the bottom United States.
The first eight generations of Denise’s family line in America are already documented for Mayflower passengers William Brewster, John Howland, and Elizabeth Tilley. Here is the lineage:
- William Brewster and Mary (maiden name uncertain)
- Patience Brewster and Governor Thomas Prence
- Mercy Prence and John Freeman
- Thomas Freeman and Rebecca Sparrow (daughter of Captain Jonathan and Rebecca [Bangs] Sparrow)
- Mercy Freeman and Paul Sears
- Ann Sears and Ebenezer Bangs
- Barnabas Bangs and Lorihanna Elwell
- James Bangs and Deborah Cate (descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley)
- John Bangs and Elizabeth Wheeler
- Orrin/Oran Bangs and Nancy Miles
- John Bangs and Sarah Solomon
- Kathryn Bangs and Perry Oscar Ginn
- Willia Winzola Ginn and (1st) Thomas Jefferson Trent; (2nd) Jacob Chandler Herr (son of Jacob Chandler Sr. and Edith W. [Lockwood] Herr)
- Catheryn Joan Herr and Robert Paul Luitwieler (son of Samuel Henry and Mary Elizabeth [Nicholson] Luitwieler)
- Denise Luitwieler
I started fetching some intel from GenealogyBank newspaper searches on Edward Bangs and found a festive Pilgrim wedding reenactment happening at Plimoth Plantation in 1980. It represented the wedding ceremony of Edward Bangs and his first wife Lydia Hicks, who were entered into the Plymouth record books as tying the knot in August 1627.
According to the news article, two Plimoth Plantation staffers, Jamie Cripps of Manomet and Michael Flynn of Plymouth, played the role of the happy couple.
Jamie was Lydia Hicks, the blushing bride and daughter of Robert and Margaret (Winslow) Hicks. Michael was the handsome groom Edward Bangs, who immigrated on 31 July 1623 to Plymouth Colony, sailing on the Anne and listed as “Edward Bangs, Shipwright.”
As per tradition the groom received a mud bath over his head and then came the “dressing of the couple,” with rushes, flowers, and herbs; followed by the carrying of the bridal cake.
At the reenactment, the civil ceremony was performed by “Gov. William Bradford.” After he pronounced the couple “Goodman and Goodwife”:
The ceremony ended with wheat bread showered over the bride’s head to bring abundance upon the marriage.
There was dancing, feasting, and games, and a sack-posset (17th century bridal drink) was served to the bedded couple.
After Lydia’s death in 1634, Captain Edward Bangs married Rebecca (purported surname Hobart), and Denise descends from at least two of their children: Rebecca Bangs, who married Captain Jonathan Sparrow (1629-1706); and Jonathan Bangs (1640-1728) and his first wife Mary Mayo (1649-1711), daughter of Captain Samuel and Tamsen (Lumpkin) Mayo.
Below is a photo of the grave markers of Jonathan Bangs, his first wife Mary (Mayo) Bangs, and his second wife Sarah Fitch (Crosby) Bangs, located in the Old Burying Ground in Brewster, Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Erected by the Bangs descendants in 1917.
The arrival of the ship Anne, which brought Edward Bangs to Plymouth, is recorded by Governor William Bradford:
“About fourteen days after came in this ship, called the Anne, whereof Mr. William Peirce was master; and about a week or ten days after came in the pinnace which, in foul weather, they lost at sea, a fine, new vessel of about 44 tun, which the Company had built to stay in the country. They brought about 60 persons for the general [body], some of them being very useful persons and became good members to the body; and some were the wives and children of such as were here already.”
–William Bradford, “Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647,” ed. Samuel Eliot Morison (New York: Knopf, 1991), p. 127.
Edward appears on the list of 1626 Purchasers for Pierce Associates land grants in the Plymouth Colony Records V.2:177.
Among the many occupations and positions recorded in Plymouth records for Edward Bangs are: shipwright, merchant, yeoman, and innkeeper. He also served in various offices in Plymouth Colony such as Deputy to Plymouth Court for Eastham.
Plymouth records record the following:
Liberty is granted unto Edward Bangs to draw and sell wine and strong waters at Eastham, provided it be for the refreshment of the English, and not to be sold to the Indians, 6 October 1657, PCR 3:123.
An account of liquor brought into Eastham dated 28 November 1664 includes:
Edward Bangs, six gallons of liquor, PCR 4:100.
According to sources Edward superintended the building of a barque named Rebecca which tradition says was the first vessel built at Plymouth.
The history of the town of Orleans is closely linked to the town of Eastham. Listed on the historical marker below are Thomas Prence, Nicholas Snow, John Doane, Edward Bangs, Richard Higgins, John Smalley, and Josias Cook.
Stay tuned for more!
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Note on the header image: “Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor,” by William Halsall, 1882. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Related Articles:
- Luitwieler Family Comes to America
- Union Soldier’s Civil War Diary (part 1)
- Union Soldier’s Civil War Diary (part 2)
- Letters from California Gold Rush ‘49er’ (part 1)
- Letters from California Gold Rush ‘49er’ (part 2)
- Letters from California Gold Rush ‘49er’ (part 3)
- Letters from California Gold Rush ‘49er’ (part 4)
- Letters from California Gold Rush ‘49er’ (part 5)
