Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

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[626] 1674; but, according to a certified copy of the ‘Parish Register of Bures. St. Mary in the Co. of Suffolk,’ which was his last residence, he was buried 1 July 1673. His first wife was Elizabeth, dau. of Thomas and granddaughter of Sir William Waldegrave, by whom he had Waldegrave, bap. 26 Sept. 1627, the principal heir of the English estates, buried 12 Nov. 1699; Penelope, b. about 1631, m. Gov. Josiah Winslow, and d. at Marshfield 7 Dec. 1703, a. 72; Nathaniel, bap. 5 Feb. 1631-2, grad. H. C. 1651, embarked for England with Capt. Garrett Nov. 1657, and was lost; by his second wife, Elizabeth, dau. of Godfrey Bosville, Esq., and wid. of Roger Harlakenden, Esq., he had Mary, b. 12 Nov. 1638, according to the town Record, but manifestly a mistake; the date should prob. be 1639 or 1640; Frances, b. 9 Nov. 1643; Herbert, b. 3 Oct. 1645, bur. 2 Jan. 1645-6; and a son Edward, whose birth is not recorded, but who was the principal heir to the estates here; also Henry, named in a legal document as younger than Edward. Other children are named in the father's will 1 Jan. 1672-3, viz., Anna; Katherine Clark; a dau., w. of Cuthlach Eliot. He names also two sisters, Penelope, who was w. of Gov. Bellingham and d. 29 May 1702, a. about 83, and Elizabeth, who d. unm. at Marshfield 1 Ap. 1706, a. 83. Capt. William Pelham of Sudbury was prob. brother to Herbert Pelham, Esq.

2. Edward, s. of Herbert (1), grad. H. C. 1673, remained in New England, and d. 20 Sept. 1730. He seems never to have engaged in any useful or remunerative business, but rather to have lived on his income as a gentleman at large. In his early life he was probably dissipated, certainly indiscreet. One of his freaks while in College is related on pp. 225, 226. The anxiety and disapprobation of his father may be inferred from his will, dated 1 Jan. 1672, in which he gives this son all his ‘lands, tenements, and hereditaments in New England in the Massachusetts Bay in America, situate, lying and being in Cambridge, Watertown, Sudbury, or elsewhere within the said Colony,’ and a life estate in some lands in England; he also bequeaths certain personal property to ‘my son Winslow for the use of my son Edward Pelham, to be paid unto him in New England, if he reside there, upon the conditions hereafter expressed; that is to say, if he the said Edward shall so behave and demean himself that he can procure either the hands of the Governor and four of the Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay or of New Plymouth Government, that he is now grown serious, sober, and solid, and follows his study, and avoids all idle and profane company, and that they verily conceive there is a real change in him for the better, and not only to attain his ends thereby .... But if in all these years he will not be reclaimed,’ then the property shall go to others. In sundry documents he is styled of Boston 1676, and of Newport, R. I., 1691-1711. He had wife Freelove in 1693, and is said to have had a previous w. Godsgift, dau. of Gov. Benedict Arnold of Newport; Savage suggests that the two wives may have been sisters. His chil. were Edward and Thomas, to whom he conveyed all his lands in Cambridge and Watertown 23 Nov. 1711, at which date the father and both sons are described as ‘gentlemen’ of Newport, R. I.

3. Edward, s. of Edward (2), executed his will at Newport 21 May 1740, naming wife Arabella and three daus., viz. ‘Hermione, the wife of John Banister of Newport aforesaid merchant,’ Elizabeth, and Penelope. Among the articles bequeathed to his father by Herbert Pelham, Esq., was an ‘inlaid cabinet,’ which was purchased about 1842 by Mr. Robert Bolton of Bedford, West Chester Co., N. Y., together with portraits of Charles II., Queen Henrietta Maria, Col. Godfrey Bosville, and Elizabeth Bosville. In a letter to Rev. John L. Sibley, Librarian of Harvard College, announcing this purchase, dated 19 Jan. 1867, Mr. Bolton says, ‘Edward Pelham died at Newport, R. I., 1740, leaving two daughters: 1st Hermione, who m. John Bannister, from whose granddaughter Elizabeth I purchased the pictures and cabinet; 2d, Penelope, who m. Joseph Cowley of Wolverhampton, England, whose dau. Henrietta m. Admiral Jahleel Brenton, a native of Newport, R. I.’

4. Thomas, s. of Edward (2), had w. Abigail; but whether he had children is not ascertained.