Deacon Edward Convers (January 20, 1590 – August 10, 1663) was an early

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

settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was one of the founders of

Woburn, MA Woburn ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,876 at the 2020 census. Woburn is located north of Boston. Woburn uses Massachusetts' mayor-council form of government, in which an elected mayor is ...

. He built the first house and first mill in Woburn. Convers was very active in town affairs, serving as one of its first selectmen. He served on "every committee and had a part in every movement that had this new settlement in view." He also helped establish Charlestown. He was one of the colony's wealthy landowners, and was a farmer, miller and surveyor.Thompson, Rev. Leander, "Deacon Edward Convers," ''Winchester Record,'' October, 1885 (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~converse/bios/edw-bio.html ) Retrieved 10 Feb. 2011. Edward Convers was born January 20, 1590. After his first wife died, he married Sarah Parker in 1614. He and his family arrived in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

, with the

Winthrop Fleet The Winthrop Fleet was a group of 11 ships led by John Winthrop out of a total of 16 funded by the Massachusetts Bay Company which together carried between 700 and 1,000 Puritans plus livestock and provisions from England to New England over th ...

on June 12, 1630, in the early stages of the Great Migration. He also founded the First Church of Charlestown, and established the first ferry from Charlestown to Boston. The ferry operated where the Charles River Bridge is now located, and was referred to as the "Great Ferry" (to distinguish it from a smaller ferry operating between Charlestown and Winnisimmet). Convers died on August 10, 1663, in Woburn, Massachusetts.Wynne, Robert L., ''Ancestry of Deacon Edward Converse, 1590-1663,'' R.L. Wynne Pub., Houston, TX, 1980.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Convers, Edward 16th-century births 1663 deaths American Puritans American people of English descent People of colonial Massachusetts New England Puritanism American city founders People from Woburn, Massachusetts Kingdom of England emigrants to Massachusetts Bay Colony