April 5, 2013 - William Bartholomew - Continued

I'd like to continue with the year 1666 and the life of William Bartholomew, son of William and Friswede.  I am going through unknown sources, but using two hugely deep and well organized documents, written by "a cousin of Irene Carrington Daugherty" whose grandmother was Mary Montgomery Bartholomew Carrington.

"1666 - Treasurer of County.  His grave in Phipps Street Cemetery, Charlestown, is in a prominent position adjoining that of John Harvard, the benefactor of Harvard college; the inscription on the gravestone reads, 'William Bartholomew aged 78 years, Decd. Janry18, 1680.'  

William Bartholomew was of good parentage.  He enjoyed unusual educational advantages and probably received a practical business training in his father's store.  Leaving the paternal roof we find hime before the age of 30 in London, married, keeping house and probably in some mercantile employment.  London of that time was very gay; vulgarity, vice and crime were countenanced and even encouraged.  Under these circumstances the young man who chose his company from the persecuted and derided, but devoutly religious sect, showed a strong and noble character.  Surrounded by oppression, and perhaps disowned by his father, it is not strange that such a spirit should wish to breathe a freer air, should brave the dreaded ocean and join the Puritan settlers in the wilds of America.

The facts given show a high standard he maintained in his adopted home.  With advantages of family and education, he seems to have united a most liberal disregard of his personal interests to the advantage of the colony,  to whose service he devoted much of his life.  The colonists needed just such men; and the many and conspicuous trusts placed in his hands show at a time he must have been successful as numerous land transactions and other evidences indicate...He died at the home of his only daughter.  He was the emigrant ancestor of all the Bartholomews of this family in the U.S. and it is hoped that knowledge of his force of character and sterling worth may encourage some of his weaker descendants to be more worthy of so noble a sire.  His wife Anna died in Charlestown, Jan. 29, ??.  Her grave is in Charlestown."

Now in the other description of the genealogy charts that I have, this is what is said of William Bartholomew. " b. Burford, Eng., 1602/3, d.Charlestown, Mass, Jan. 18, 1680, age 78 years.  He ma. in London, Eng., before 1634, Anna Lord, b. Sudbury, Co., Suffoldk Eng., d.Charleston, Jan. 29, 1682, both are buried in Charlestown and their graves are next to that of John Harvard, founder of Harvard College.  They arrived in Boston, in the ship 'Griffin', Sept. 18, 1634, he removed shortly to Ipswich where he lived until 1660, when he moved to Boston and towards the end of his life he moved to Charlestown.  He was a very important man in the colony and was a close associate of Gov. John Leverett."