GENERATION 13

GENERATION 12

Biography

GEORGE MOODY was barely a teenager when his father, RICHARD, died. RICHARD had instructed in his will that the upbringing and education of his sons be provided by various friends. GEORGE was to be brought up by Mr. Taylor, possibly George Tayler who was one of the executors of Roger Fryett from whom RICHARD had purchased his house at Moulton. At about age 21, GEORGE took possession of his father's lands, including Fryettes. In his own will of Aug. 5, 1607, GEORGE would leave that house to his oldest son, George. Other tenements in Moulton were to be held by the executor, his son-in-law THOMAS KILBOURNE, for eleven years, during which time the executor would pay certain lump sums to the younger children as specified in the will. At the end of eleven years, the lands would revert to son George.

According to Rev. John Eliot's records of the members of the church at Roxbury, Middlesex, MA, John Moody "came to this Land in the Yeare 1633." Presumably his parents, GEORGE and MARGARET, came at the same time. John was admitted a freeman, Nov. 5, 1633, and was a deputy in 1635. Soon after he removed to Hartford, where he died. He had a son, Samuel, who settled in Hadley, Hampshire, MA, who was the progenitor of numerous descendants, as documented in Savage's Genealogical Dictionary, Vol 3, pp 225-226.

For years the surname of MARGARET was uncertain. It was at one time thought to be Newce. But, According to "The Chenery Ancestry of John Moody and Frances (Moody) Kilbourn of Hartford and Wethersfield, Conn.", by Frederick J. Nicholson, in The American Genealogist, vol 64, No. 1, Jan. 1989, writes (page 1):

"While a number of articles have been published on the Moody family from which the New England families of Moody and Kilbourn descend, little has been said about the identity of the mother of John and Frances Moody. This article will demonstrate that she was, in fact, Margaret Chenery of the family of that name which was based in Kennett, Cambridgeshire, England. ... The marriage of George Moody and Margaret Chenery is recorded on 12 Oct 1581 in Kennett, Cambridgeshire, a parish immediately adjoining Moulton."