Thomas Kendall

“The family to which belongs George Nelson Kendall, of Athol, Massachusetts, came originally from town of Kendall, on river Kent, Westmoreland county, England. The emigrants to this country were Francis and Deacon Thomas Kendall, who sailed from England under the alias of Miles, again taking the name of Kendall on reaching this country. Their father, John Kendall, lived in Cambridge, England, in 1646, and died there in 1660. Francis Kendall is the common ancestor of all the Kendalls in this country, Deacon Thomas having ten daughters but no sons. Francis Kendall, above mentioned, was in Charlestown, Massachusetts, prior to 1640. He was a large landholder and a miller by occupation. He died in 1708. He married, at Woburn, Massachusetts, December 24, 1644, Mary Tidd, and their sons, born in Woburn, Massachusetts, were : John, July 2, 1646 ; Thomas. January io, 1648 ; Samuel, March 8, 1659; Jacob, January 25, 1660. John Tidd. Tead, Ted or Teed, embarked May 12. 1637. at Yarmouth. England, aged nineteen, as servant of Samuel Greenfield, of Norwich. Was of Charles- town that year, subscribed there in December, 1640, ‘Town Orders' for Woburn, taxed at Woburn, 1645, chosen surveyor of fences 1646. His wife Margaret died in 1651. He had second wife Alice, daughters Mary and Elizabeth, and a son John. His daughter Mary was doubtless wife of Francis Kendall.”.¹

“Francis Kendall remembers likewise in his Will the eight children of his brother Thomas, (one of the first settlers of Reading, and a deacon of the church there) who were living, when he, his said brother died. It seems that this brother of Francis Kendall, of Woburn, Deacon Thomas Kendall, of Reading, and Rebecca, his wife, had had ten daughters, but no son that lived. But these daughters, in order to preserve their maiden name, Kendall, among their posterity, directed, each of them, when married, that her first born son should have the given name, Kendall, prefixed to his surname; as Kendall Peirson, Kendall Boutwell, Kendall Eaton, Kendall Briant, etc., etc., etc., which gave occasion to the following lines respecting these daughters in a Poem written by Lillie Eaton, Esq., of South Reading, and published with Flint's Historical Address upon the 200th Anniversary of the founding of Reading. In mentioning the venerable matron, their mother, he observes : ' She had ten daughters; and each one, When married, christened her first son Kendall; and thus we may infer Why 'tis these names so oft occur.' Flint's Address, p. 64”