Pease Families In America With Roots In Great Baddow

A Memory of Great Baddow.

Over here in the United States of America most of the many thousands of Pease family members owe their existence to the brothers Robert & John Pease whose family line lived in Great Baddow, Essex, England, for many centuries. They were born, raised, married, raised their own children, & then were buried on the grounds of St. Mary’s church in that lovely town over many centuries. The brothers travelled from Great Baddow to Ipswich and then emigrated from there on the ship Francis across the Atlantic in April of 1634 to Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and eventually settled in Salem in what is now the state of Massachusetts. My 8th great-grandfather, John Pease, then moved his family from Salem to the island of Martha’s Vineyard. His Pease descendants later fought for their freedom and independence in the American Revolutionary War against England in 1779 at the battle of the Penobscot Expedition off Castine in the Province of Maine. At this battle we Americans were thoroughly, impressively, and emphatically defeated by a magnificent British armada fleet of seven men-of-war ships that so heavily out-gunned the fleet of 40 or so smaller American ships that the Americans had to beach and burn all their ships that had not already been sunk so they would not fall into the hands of the British. It has been called the worst defeat of the American Navy until that of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by the Japanese in 1941. My fourth great-grandfather James Pease was a marine on that American Penobscot Expedition fleet in 1779. After they were ordered to burn their ships all the defeated American marines and sailors had to walk the 300 or so miles (483 kilometers) back through the forests of New England to their homes in Boston or Martha’s Vineyard. On his way home James Pease must have walked through some attractive land in the area of the present town of Appleton, State of Maine, because ten years later in 1789 he moved his family from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, to Hope (in a part that is now Appleton), Province of Maine, where my father was born five generations later on the same farm. And still later I was born just 22 miles away in 1934 (yes, I’m 79) in Rockland, Maine, USA. There are now very many members of the Pease family in America, most of whom can or could trace their ancestor line back to the brothers Robert & John Pease in Great Baddow, Essex, England. My three sons are 12th generation direct descendants of John Pease of Great Baddow and we are all very proud of that fact. There is a Pease family DNA Project website at:http://www.worldfamilies.net/surnames/pease/pats where I am one of the Patriarch descendants of John Pease, born 1608 in Great Baddow, listed halfway down that Patriarch’s website page. My wife and I have visited Great Baddow once in my lifetime and stood transfixed within the walls of St. Mary’s Church where many generations of my ancestors were baptized, married, and from which they were buried. That was quite a moving experience, so we went down the street & had a fine light meal and quaffed an even finer pint in The White Horse Pub to settle my innards. I hope to visit Great Baddow once more before I die, but that may not happen. Who knows, though, it might. Your wonderful town is very important to the many thousands of Peases in America and on their behalf I extend our warmest greetings. William Pease Lancaster, Pennsylvania USA

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