Misc. Notes
Anderson’s sketch of Richard Holden’s life supersedes all previous work. He notes that secondary sources often give Richard Holden’s date of death as 1 March 1695/6, “but no record has been found to confirm this.”
226According to the Holden genealogy
227, “1 RICHARD HOLDEN, son of William Holden of Lindsey, county Suffolk, England, was born in the year 1609, if we accept the passenger list at the time of his migration, which nearly agrees with his age as given at other times and with what has been discovered concerning his father’s family. He died 1 March 1695-6, at Groton, intestate. He married, perhaps as early as 1640, more likely in 1641, MARTHA FOSDICK, born in 1620, in England, died 6 Dec., 1681, at Watertown, daughter of Stephen Fosdick of Charlestown.
“As told in the preceeding chapter Richard Holden was one of the early settlers of Groton, and although driven away at the time of the Indian war returned there after the death of his wife. He lived with his son Stephen, who had the homestead, the location and descent of which is described on page 84.
“There is no record extant of the birth of the children given below, except of those recorded as born at Watertown or Woburn. A list of the children surviving in 1679 is obtained from Middlesex Deeds, 7: 154, 297; two deeds in which the children of Richard and Martha Holden are named. The order of birth is therefore a matter of deduction.”
Bond’s Watertown
228 provides a few additional details (square brackets in the original): “RICHARD HOLDEN, aged 25 yrs., embarked for America, at Ipswich, England, Ap., 1634, in the Francis. Wife MARTHA d. in Wat., Dec. 6, 1681, and he died in Groton, Mar. 1, 1696, ‘aged, infirm, and a widower.’ [See Mid. Deeds, Vol. VII., p. 154, &c.; also, Butler, 407, and Barry, 291.]”
G. A. Davis
229 provides substantially the same information: “RICHARD (1) HOLDEN was born in England about 1609. He came to New England in the spring of 1634, and settled in Watertown, Mass.
“About 1640 he married MARTHA, daughter of STEPHEN FOSDICK, of Charlestown, Mass. He lived in Watertown, Woburn, Cambridge, then Groton, where he was an original proprietor. Later he returned to Watertown, where on December 6, 1681, his wife MARTHA died. He then returned to Groton, Mass., where he spent his remaining years with his son Stephen. He died in Groton on March 1, 1696, ‘aged, infirm, and a widower.’”