Elizabeth (née Hacket alias Wood) (Ballard) (Knight) Bread (c.1609 – 1695) was an English immigrant to the American colonies and my double 9th-great-grandmother, being the mother of John Ballard, father of Sarah Wormall, and of Mary (née Knight) Wormwood, through her first two husbands William Ballard and William Knight, respectively. She married three times and had seven children, in addition to seven step-children. She sailed from England in 1635 with her first husband and children, and settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she lived the rest of her life.
The evidence for her maiden name and place of origin is weaker than I would like, but still fairly convincing.
Why she had a double name with “alias” (what today would likely be a hyphenated name), found only on her marriage record, is unknown. I searched through the records in the area for any hint, or for any other person with this double name, and came up empty.
A valuable source is the passenger list on the James taken 1635-07-13, which includes ages of everyone in the family:⟮1⟯
| William Ballard | 32 |
| Elizabeth Ballard | 26 |
| Hester Ballard | 2 |
| John Ballard | 1 |
John’s grave said he died in his 92nd year⟮2⟯Find a Grave memorial for John Ballard, on 1725-06-11. Putting these together (if accurate), he was born between 1633-07-14 and 1634-06-11.
Several intriguing parish records have been found by amateur researchers⟮3⟯William Ballard on WikiTree including myself in the towns of Salford Priors, Church Lench, and Pershore. These towns are within a few miles of each other, as diagrammed on the right.
| 1597-06-08 | Salford Priors | marriage | William Ballard and Ellinor Haynes⟮4⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1597-09-18 | Salford Priors | baptism | Anne daughter of William Ballard⟮5⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1600-02-11 | Salford Priors | baptism | Elisabeth daughter of William Ballard⟮5⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1603-08-13 | Salford Priors | baptism | William son of William Ballard⟮6⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1617-09-26 | Salford Priors | burial | William Ballard⟮7⟯Ancestry$/Lib (the elder)⟮8⟯We can be reasonably confident that this is not the younger William, since the burial of a minor would generally be recorded as, e.g., William son of William. |
| 1629-01-22 | Church Lench | baptism | Hester Wood bastard of Mary Wood by John Prat⟮9⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1632-01-18 | Church Lench | marriage | William Bollard and Elizabeth Hacket alias Wood⟮10⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
| 1632-10-28 | Salford Priors | baptism | Hester daughter of William Ballard⟮11⟯FamilySearch |
| 1634-03-30 | Pershore | baptism | John son of William Ballard⟮12⟯FamilySearch⟮13⟯Ancestry$/Lib |
The baptisms of William (1603), Hester (1632), and John Ballard (1634) are a good correspondence to the recorded passenger ages. Even if we discount the John baptism, a common name and a further town, it still is a highly unlikely coincidence. Hester was baptized 9 months, 10 days after the marriage in a nearby town. No further record of these people has been found in this area, which is consistent with them emigrating.
What would be helpful is a document connecting the Massachusetts family to this region. But even without this, the evidence is still good that this is the correct family.
I include the Hester Wood baptism because from her surname, her forename (possibly a family name), and the location, it may be that Mary Wood was a sister of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth married three times, and outlived all her husbands.
William Ballard (β 1603-08-13 – 1639)⟮14⟯Find a Grave memorial for William Ballard was the first husband of Elizabeth and my ancestor. They had three children:
William Knight (say 1601 – 1655-03-05)⟮18⟯FamilySearch⟮19⟯FamilySearch⟮20⟯The records suggest a death in 1655/6, but his probate and inventory are dated in 1655, so it must have been 1654/5. was the second husband of Elizabeth, and also my ancestor. He had four children by his previous marriage: John, Anna, Francis, and Johanna. William and Elizabeth had four children:⟮21⟯
Allen Bread (c.1600 – 1691-03-17), the surname later spelled Breed, was the third husband of Elizabeth. They married on 1656-03-28 in Lynn, and had no children, although Allen had three children (Allen, Elizabeth, and John) by his previous marriage to Elizabeth Wheeler.
She was certainly alive in 1681 when she is named. Anderson concludes based on local records that she survived Allen but died by 1695, when her first husband’s property was distributed from her estate to his heirs after having been held by her for over 50 years.⟮22⟯William Ballard in The Great Migration by Robert C. Anderson, p. 150. Administration was granted to her son John Ballard on 1695-09-02, so she likely died not long before then.
