Questions Associated with James and Henry Leonard
Thomas Leonard’s wife was Elizabeth White (birth of son Thomas 1636). Where was she from? Who were her parents? Where were they married? Where was Thomas when he was of marriageable age (about 1616-1618, when Henry, his first child, was born?).
We don’t know when Thomas (or his father Henry?) moved from Sussex to the west of England from Sussex. We know that Queen Elizabeth I’s government started encouraging the iron furnaces to move from Sussex to the west of England beginning in the 1550s and forbade the erection of new furnaces in Sussex in 1584.
We have not found a birth record of James Jr. It must have been in England between 1641 and 1644 and presumably in Staffordshire, Worcestershire, or Shropshire, but could have been Monmouthshire or Gloucestershire..
We don’t know the date and where James was baptized nor where his father, Thomas, was working at that time.
The Leonards may have come on the Ann Cleeve in the spring or fall of 1643 with other ironworkers recruited by John Winthrop, Jr., but they are not listed. The Ann Cleve chartered by or paid for by John Winthrop Jr. Apparently, James Leonard had with him his wife and two young sons, Thomas and James. Land was reserved for James Leonard in Providence about 1643, and it appears that he was there for a period before moving up to Saugus.
Thomas’ wife must have been born before 1604 and probably around 1598.
Robert Bowmans article “Glimpses into the English and Continental Ancestry of Certain Braintree and Saugus Ironworkers of about 1650: Vinton, Leonard, Pray, Pinion, Tyler, and Russell.[1]” These include Quinten, Russell, Pray, Nicholas Pinyon, and John Vinton; and their ancestors appear to have come from France in the 1500s as vehicles to bring the latest iron-refining technology to Sussex.
[1] Bowman, Robert "Glimpses into the English and Continental Ancestry of Certain Braintree and Saugus Ironworkers of About 1650: Vinton, Leonard, Pray, Pinion, Tyler and Russell," The Essex Genealogist, Volume 20 (2000), pp 63-77