Col. Edmund Quincy I (1602–1636), known as "the Puritan", was an English settler, soldier, colonist, planter, landowner, merchant, and politician of

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...

in what later became the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He is notable as the

progenitor In genealogy, the progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; german: Stammvater or ''Ahnherr'') is the – sometimes legendary – founder of a family, line of descent, clan or tribe, noble house, or ethnic group.. Ebenda''Ahnherr:''"Stammvater eines G ...

of the prestigious

Quincy family The Quincy family was a prominent political family in Massachusetts from the mid-17th century through to the early 20th century. It is connected to the Adams political family through Abigail Adams. The family estate was in Mount Wollaston, first ...

England

Born 1602 in Wigsthorpe,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, Edmund's family may have been connected with the

Earls of Winchester Earl of Winchester was a title that was created three times in the Peerage of England during the Middle Ages. The first was Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester, Saer de Quincy, who received the earldom in 1207/8 after his wife inherited half of ...

in the 13th century.FamousAmericans.net/EdmundQuincy The surname is

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

. One descendant named Eliza Susan Quincy wrote in 1844 that Edmund once had "a genealogical account of his family, which traced their descent from the time of the Norman Conquest," which

Abigail Adams Abigail Adams ( ''née'' Smith; November 22, [ O.S. November 11] 1744 – October 28, 1818) was the wife and closest advisor of John Adams, as well as the mother of John Quincy Adams. She was a founder of the United States, an ...

apparently owned at one time, as well, but after a century in America it "was then unfortunately borrowed and never returned and has now been lost for more than 50 years." His parents were almost certainly Edmund Quincy (baptised 1559, died 1627) and Anne Palmer (married 1529).Robert Sewall: Quincy family
/ref> He is known to have lived in Thorpe in Achurch,

on an estate inherited from his father. He married Judith Pares in 1623 and had two children: Judith, born in 1626, and

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and ...

, born in 1628. He appears to have converted to

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

ism by the time of the birth of his son. His daughter Judith Quincy (1626–1695), married John Hull (1620–1683), leading merchant and mintmaster of

Emigration

Quincy came to

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

for the first time in 1628, and emigrated to America along with the Reverend John Cotton on a ship called ''Griffin'' with his family and six servants, arriving in

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History Since ...

4 September 1633. The Quincys' names appear in the records of the First Church from the following year. On September 10, 1634, Quincy was the first person named to a committee, appointed by the Puritan colonists, to assess and raise the funds necessary to purchase the

Shawmut Peninsula Shawmut Peninsula is the promontory of land on which Boston, Massachusetts was built. The peninsula, originally a mere in area,Miller, Bradford A., "Digging up Boston: The Big Dig Builds on Centuries of Geological Engineering", GeoTimes, Octobe ...

from

William Blaxton Reverend William Blaxton (also spelled William Blackstone) (1595 – 26 May 1675) was an early English settler in New England and the first European settler of Boston and Rhode Island. Biography William Blaxton was born in Horncastle, Lincolns ...

. The following May, he was elected to represent the town of Boston at the first

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, ...

held in

Mount Wollaston

In 1635, a thousand

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s of land in what is now

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

, was sold by the

Massachusett The Massachusett were a Native American tribe from the region in and around present-day Greater Boston in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name comes from the Massachusett language term for "At the Great Hill," referring to the Blue Hills ...

Indians to Quincy and

William Coddington William Coddington (c. 1601 – 1 November 1678) was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He served as the judge of Portsmouth and Newport, governor of Portsmouth ...

; the town of Boston confirmed the sale in 1636. The property consisted of a broad strip of land along the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

, extending somewhat beyond the boundaries of the settlement established by Captain Wollaston and Thomas Morton in 1625. Around the time of the purchase, Quincy built a one-story home on this land which would eventually develop into the

Dorothy Quincy House The Dorothy Quincy Homestead is a US National Historic Landmark at 34 Butler Road in Quincy, Massachusetts. The house was originally built by Edmund Quincy II in 1686 who had an extensive property upon which there were multiple buildings. Today ...

. He died shortly thereafter, in 1636 or 1637.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Quincy, Edmund (1602-1636) People of colonial Massachusetts People from North Northamptonshire 1602 births 1636 deaths Quincy family Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony Colonial American merchants American planters