Roger Preston, the immigrant ancestor, was born in England in 1614. In 1635, at the age of twenty-one years, he took the oath of allegiance in London and sailed for America in the ship “Elizabeth and Ann.” Tradition says that he was accompanied by a brother who settled in the south. Roger Preston took up his abode in the town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, where his name first appears on the records in 1639. His wife, Martha, whom he married in 1642, was born in 1622. They resided in Ipswich until 1657, when they removed to Salem. Massachusetts, where Roger Preston died January 20, 1666. Martha, his widow, married (second) Nicholas Holt, of Andover, and thereafter lived in Andover, taking her sons Samuel, John and Jacob Preston, with her. She died at Andover March 21, 1703, aged eighty. Roger Preston was a tanner by trade. Children: 1. Thomas, born 1643, married Rebecca Nurse. 2. Jacob, lost at sea, 1679. 3. Mary, married Nathaniel Ingersoll. 4. Elizabeth, married William Henfield, of Salem. 5. Levi. 6. John, soldier in King Philips’s war, settled in Windham, Connecticut. 7. Samuel, mentioned elsewhere.
