THE FREEMAN FAMILY ---

The ship ABIGAIL of London, Richard Hackwell, Master. She listed passengers for New England from June 4 until July 24, and sailed from Plymouth, England, as her last port of departure, about August 1, 1635 with two hundred and twenty persons aboard and many cattle. She arrived at Boston about October 8, infected with smallpox. Among those coming in this ship, were Edmund Freeman, age 34, gentleman of Pulborough, Lynn county Sussex, Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman age 35, Alice Freeman age 17, Edward Freeman age 15, Elizabeth Freeman age 12 and John Freeman age 8. This located in "The Planters of the Commonwealth" by Charles Edward Banks, on pages 161, 164 & 163.
Further listings on same ship are John Freeman age 35, Mrs. Mary Freeman age 30, John Freeman age 9, and Cicely Freeman age 4. This on page 166. There is an Elizabeth Ellis age 16, listed on page 167.


Edmund Freeman a member of St. Mary's church, Pulborough, Sussex, England.

The following is found in "Sandwich A Cape Cod Town" by R. A. Lovell, Jr

"We have mentioned the Freemans frequently in the previous chapters. To summarize briefly. Edmund and his second wife Elizabeth and five children settled in what was then a central location near Scusset Marsh. He became a large landowner, especially here and in the Ploughed Neck area of East Sandwich. He was an Assistant Governor from 1640 through the 1645 term, but then sharply reduced his public offices both in Plymouth Colony and in the town of Sandwich. The two Freeman sons married daughters of Governor Thomas Prence. John Freeman removed to the new settlement at Eastham where Prence lived, and became a town leader and an Assistant Governor himself, founding a large branch of the family there. His sons participated in the settlement of Harwich. Edmund Freeman Jr., resided at Ploughed Neck, but had only one son Edumnd III, so that the Sandwich branch remained small until the fourth generation. The original Freeman farm area at Scusset was broken up, the house going to Matthias Ellis, a grandson, who took care of the senior Freemans in their old age. Other portions went to Edward Perry, to Elizabeth Ellis and to John and Edmund Freeman Jr. At the time of the Revolution all this farm area was broken up and sold off, even the "Saddle and Pillion" burial lot of Edmund Senior and Elizabeth. There is a tradition that this knoll (off present Tupper Road) was the site of the first Freeman home which burned, with the replacement house built on the site of the later nineteenth century Freeman farm house. The dignity and poignancy of the Saddle and Pillion burial site makes us regret that the burial places of so many of the founding families, on their own lands, were not permanently marked and are now lost to memory."