Edward Spalding and Margaret [Unk]

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Husband Edward Spalding ¹

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           Born: 
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           Died: 26 Feb 1670 - ? Massachusetts 1
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       Marriage: 

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   Other Spouse: Rachel [Unk] (      -      ) 1

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Wife Margaret [Unk] ¹

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           Born: 
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           Died: 1640 - Braintree, Norfolk Co, MA 1
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 M John Spalding ¹

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2 M Edward Spalding ¹

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3 F Grace Spalding ¹

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General Notes: Husband - Edward Spalding

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The name Spalding appears as a patronymic quite early in English history. It was derived from the town of Spalding, in Lincolnshire, England, but how the name originated is a matter of conjecture, possibly from the tribal name Spaldas, which may have been left by the Romans when they abandoned the country in 600 A. D. The name Spalding was very early introduced and extensively used in England and Scotland, but whether the families descended from a common ancestor cannot be stated. The spelling of the name is uniformly the same, Spalding, and the given names, with the exception of one or two in the Maryland branch, are common to all the families both in this country and in Great Britain. The family in England bore arms, the prevailing colors being the same, which would suggest a common origin. The letter “u” in the name, making it Spaulding, was first introduced in America in the wills of some of the children of the emigrant ancestor. Nothing can be told of his English history, although the tradition is that he came from Lincolnshire.
The first known authentic record of the Spalding family in America appears in a Virginia state document (senate report) entitled “Virginia Colonial Records,” published in 1874, and includes an account of the Virginia colony. In 1607 the first emigrants to successfully form a permanent colony landed in Virginia. For twelve years after its settlement the colony was ruled by laws written in blood, the colonists suffering an extremity of distress too horrible to be described. Of the thousand who had been sent to Virginia at great cost, not one in twenty was alive when, April, 1619, Sir George Yeardley arrived. The prosperity of Virginia commenced from this time, when it received as a commonwealth the freedom to make laws for itself. The first meeting was held July 30, 1619, more than a year before the “Mayflower” with the Pilgrims left the harbor of Southampton. Conclusive evidence proves that Edward Spalding came over from England with Sir George Yeardley in 1619, or about that time. Documentary evidence proved that he was fully established with his family in the Virginia colony in 1623, as his name appears in “Virginia Colonial Records” previously alluded to, in the “lists of the Living and Dead in Virginia, February 1o, 1623,” under the caption of “Attorney James Citie and within the corporation thereof” is to be found in “List of the Living,” “Edward Spalding, uxor Spalding, puer Spalding, puella Spalding;” and again in the same list, under the caption “more at Elizabeth Citie,” “Edmund Spalden.” [GPHWP, 199]

He went to Massachusetts and joined that colony, but the exact date of his arrival there is not on record. He was made a freeman at Braintree, Massachusetts, May 13, 1640, and was one of the proprietors of Newfield, selectman and surveyor of highways. In 1664 special mention is made of his fine orchards.

1 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 200.