Elizabeth Blossom

Huh? You say. Well, I’ve been doing some genealogy on the Randolph name which is my mothers side. So let me tell you about Elizabeth Blossom. Elizabeth was my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Grandmother. That’s 7^th Great Grandma if you weren’t counting. She was born in Leyden/Leiden Netherlands in 1620. Her parents were born in England so it holds that I am a lot British on my mothers side. Not that there isn’t lots of room for other stuff to be mixed in. And lots of that other stuff is German from my fathers side. But that is another story and right now we are talking about Elizabeth. She was born in the Netherlands because her parents, Thomas and Ann were from England and migrating to the New World in hope of having greater religious freedom. I haven’t done lots of research on the period but I’m guessing it was safer to reach the New World thru the Netherlands than directly thru England. Thomas and a son originally departed on the Speedwell accompanying the Mayflower in 1620. However the Speedwell proved not very seaworthy and was forced back. It was not until 1629 that the Blossom family left the Netherlands and arrived in the Plymouth Colonies. At the time there were some 300 folks living there. Among them one Edward Fitz-Randolph who would become my 7^th Great Grandfather. He was originally from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and built the 38^th house in Scituate, Massachusetts, one of the Plymouth Colonies. Then in 1637 he married Elizabeth. Edward was a yeoman or farmer and referred to as ‘Master’ indicating he was from a good family. ‘Just saying’! The family wasn’t always just a bunch of ‘Rednecks’. He and Elizabeth had 12 children as listed in my genealogy record. They were born between 1640 and 1663 and three died very young. Edward and Elizabeth moved to Cape Cod and then Barnstable and West Barnstable Mass. Before finally settling in Piscataway, New Jersey, in 1669. Once again the move was precipitated by religious freedom, the religious practices in New England being too restrictive. There is a record of one of the daughters becoming pregnant at age 16 by a married man and he being taken to court where he agreed to support the child. But that was in 1673, four years after the move to NJ, so it wasn’t part of the reason for moving. Edward died in 1676 and Elizabeth carried on. She was granted 300 acres after Edwards’ death and then in 1685 married a Captain John Pike when she was 65 years old. Captain Pike passed in 1688 or 1689 and Elizabeth lived to the age of 93 and died in 1713. She is buried at St. James Church in Piscataway in the west corner with Edward her first husband. Although the headstones were lost when the British built breastworks there during the Revolutionary War.
So there you have it. Pretty cool huh? Maybe I could be so lucky as to have the age gene from Elizabeth. Or maybe it’s where I derive some of my love for travel, my wanderlust. How scary must it be to take your family, referring to Thomas Blossom, on a trip from England to the New World in the 1620’s. A trip lasting 10 years. What kind of courage and perseverance does that require. How many of us would be willing? I guess I’d like to think it is something I would do.
As to Fitz-Randolph? We’ll do some on them next.