Somerset Massachusetts Genealogy

Ancestry of William Bowers Moison Chace of Taunton Massachusetts

Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts

William Bowers Moison Chace, senior member of W. B. M. Chace & Co., real estate, insurance, stocks and bonds, prominently identified with manufacturing and financial concerns, his position won through his own energy, integrity and general worth, is a worthy representative of a family planted in America but a decade later than the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He was born in Somerset, Mass., Dec. 5, 1854, and is of the ninth generation of the family in the New World.

Descendants of Joseph Borden of Fall River MA

BORDEN (Fall River family – line of Joseph, fourth generation). The Borden family is an ancient one both here in New England and over the water in old England, as well as one of historic interest and distinction. The New England branch has directly or indirectly traced the lineage of the American ancestor, Richard Borden, many generations back in English history. His first English forbear went over to England from Bourdonnay, Normandy, as a soldier under William the Conquerer, and after the battle of Hastings – in A. D. 1066 – was assigned lands in the County of Kent, where … Read more

Ancestors of George Albert Chace of Fall River, MA

CHACE (Fall River family). In and about Fall River for generations the Chace (earlier generations using the orthography Chase) family has been conspicuous in the affairs of that section and especially for a century past in its industrial life. In the particular line of Joseph Chase, who settled in Swansea, the family becoming a Swansea-Somerset one, such names as Oliver, Harvey, James H., Hon. Jonathan and George Albert Chace – the latter of whom planned and built a number of the large cotton mills of Fall River, was long treasurer and manager of the Bourne Mill, in Tiverton, R. I., and as well was a most active and useful citizen of Fall River – will long endure in the annals of this great industrial section. There follows from the first American ancestor of the Chaces named to the present in chronological order the genealogy and family history of the children of the late George Albert Chace of Fall River.

Anthony Family of Bristol County Massachusetts

The Anthony family of Bristol County Massachusetts descend from one John Anthony of Hampstead England who travelled in the Hercules to New England and settled in Rhode Island in 1634. This family, under the entrepreneurship of Edmund Anthony, became prominent publishers of many early Massachusetts papers, some of which were prominent in the establishment of the Republican Party and it’s causes.

Slade Family of Somerset-Fall River, Massachusetts

For the past hundred years – during almost the lifetime, as it were, of Fall River and its entire industrial life – the name Slade has been continually identified with that industrial life and also prominent in other lines of effort in that great city of spindles. In 1812-13, when the real substantial pioneer establishments in the cloth making industry of Fall River were projected and completed – the Troy Cotton and Woolen Manufactory and the Fall River Manufactory – began the Slade name in this connection, Eber Slade of Somerset being one of the most prominent promoters of one of the corporations; he became its first treasurer and filled the position until in the middle twenties. William Slade of Somerset was one of the owners of the site of these first establishments, and was himself an original proprietor of the Pocasset and Watuppa Manufacturing Companies. The brothers Jonathan and William Lawton Slade were among the founders of the celebrated cotton mills of Fall River, both becoming presidents of the corporation. John Palmer Slade, another of Somerset’s sons, figured largely not only in the industrial life of the city but in other lines, becoming president of both the Shove and Laurel Lake Mills. George W. Slade, one of the “forty-niners” of the Pacific coast, was for full fifty years one of the extensive and wholesale merchants of Fall River and his name, too, is coupled with the city’s industrial life. And of younger generations one or more of the sons of some of these are at this time officially and otherwise connected with this industrial life and in other lines, notably Leonard N. and Everett N. Slade, of the firm of John P. Slade & Son, insurance and real estate; David F. Slade, member of the law firm of Slade & Borden; and Abbott E. Slade, now treasurer of the Laurel Lake Mills.

Descendants of Francis Brayton of Fall River, MA

BRAYTON. The first in America by this name, one Francis Brayton, came from England to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where, in 1643, he was received as an inhabitant, in 1655, became a freeman, and to him nearly if not all the Braytons of New England trace their origin. He early entered into the political life of the country, serving as a member of the General Court of Commissioners for the Colony, for many years as member of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and frequently during the later generations his descendants have held positions of responsibility and trust in the public offices … Read more

The Fall River Branch of the Earle Family

EARLE (Fall River family). The Fall River branch of the Earles, the family there to which this article is devoted (to some of the descendants of the late Slade Earle, of Somerset, Mass.), springs from the earlier Portsmouth (R.I.) – Swansea (Mass.) family, one of some two hundred and seventy and more years’ standing in the section named; especial attention being given to the late Hon. Lloyd Slade Earle, who was through a long lifetime one of the prominent business men and useful citizens of his adopted city, and his son, the late Andrew Brayton Earle. The former was a descendant in the eighth generation from Ralph Earle, the first American ancestor of the family, from whom his lineage is through William, Thomas, Oliver, Caleb, Weston and Slade Earle, which generations in detail and in the order given

Descendants of Rev. George Shove of Fall River, MA

SHOVE. Rev. George Shove, gentleman, son of Margery, who was admitted to the church at Boston as a widow in 1638, and who subsequently was of Rowley and a proprietor and still later of Roxbury, where she married in 1654 Richard Peacock, became the third minister of Taunton, ordained Nov. 17, 1665. Of his ministerial life little is known except that be “preached acceptably,” and taught the Taunton school; and it is said that “no rumor of strife or discord in connection with him comes down to us.” His fame, however, as a land bolder and dealer in real estate … Read more