CHRISTOPHER PEAKE 1612-1666

[Ancestral Link: Marvin Louis Stagge, son of Lura Minnie Parker (Stagge), daughter of Minnie May Elmer (Parker), daughter of Mark Alfred Elmer, son of William Elmer, son of Sarah Peake (Elmer), daughter of Lemuel Peake, son of Jonathan Peake, son of Jonathan Peake, son of Jonathan Peake, son of Christopher Peake.]

CHRISTOPHER PEAKE
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1634
FIRST RESIDENCE: Roxbury
OCCUPATION: Tanner.

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: "Christopher Peake a single man" was admitted to Roxbury church among those who arrived in 1634 [ RChR 80].FREEMAN: 4 March 1634/5 [ MBCR 1:370].

EDUCATION: He signed his will. His inventory noted that "the best of his clothes and books [had been] disposed of to his children."

ESTATE: In an early listing of Roxbury estates, Christopher Peake owned an undetermined amount of land and was valued at £6 8s. personal estate [ RBOP 4]. He received ten acres in the 20 January 1657[/8] division of the thousand acres at Dedham [RBOP 6]. In the Roxbury list of possessions, compiled in 1652 or 1653, Christopher Peake held nine parcels, the first five of which had been granted to him: "his house and lot thereto, eleven acres"; "two acres of salt marsh in Gravelly Point"; "seven acres and a half"; "in the last division the second part of the three allotments being the eighth lot ... [being] twenty acres and one quarter"; "in the thousand acres near Deddam ten acres"; "ten acres bought of Jeames Morgan"; "three acres of salt marsh "; "an acre of meadow"; and "two acres in bare-marsh" [RBOP 38]. In his will, dated 2 April 1666 and proved 2 August 1666, "Christopher Peake of Rocksbury" appointed "my wife Dorcas, sole executrix," and "Mr Edward Denison and Mr. Thomas Weld, both of Roxsburye," overseers; "rents of my house, lands and movables to my wife, she maintaining the reparation of that the whole time of her life, excepting a little pasture where I intend to make a tan yard, if God please to let me live"; "that little pasture, being about two acres ... [to] my three sons, Jonathan, Joseph, and Ephraim" equally; "my two daughters, at the day of marriage, if God so dispose of them, both Dorcas and Sarah," £10 each in movable goods; "after my wife's decease, I bequeath my goods unto my children, Jonathan, Dorcas, Joseph, Ephraim, and Sarah ... my eldest son to have a double portion, the rest of my children to have a part alike"; "my son Jonathan hath already received four acres of land by the Great Pond, which shall be accounted as a part of his double portion, with a cow" [ SPR 1:473-74]. The inventory of the estate of Christopher Peake was taken 8 June 1666 and totalled £531 17s. 2d., including £340 1s. in real estate: "a dwelling house and barn with other outhousing and orchard," £80; "5 acres of plowland and meadow upon the foreside of the dwelling house," £50; "3 acres of plowland and meadow behind the house," £27; "1 acre of fresh meadow near the house," £10; "Jonathan Peake's 4 acres, part of 12 acres of the pond lot," £12; "7 or 8 acres more of the same lot with the crop upon the land," £32; "7 acres and ½ about Gambling End with a crop of land [sic] upon some of the land," £31 15s.; "6 acres of meadow near Gravely Point," £30; "10 acres in the 1000 acres near Dedham," £4; "2 acres more or less at Bare Marsh," £6; "21 acres in the middle division," £25 6s.; "12 acres near Rockey Swamp," £12; and "2 acres of pasture more or less where he intended to set up tanvats," £20 [SPR 4:271-73].

BIRTH: By about 1612 based on date of marriage.

DEATH: Roxbury 23 May 1666 [RChR 178].

MARRIAGE: Roxbury 3 January 1636[/7] DORCAS FRENCH, daughter of Thomas French [ Parker-Ruggles 425-56]. "Sister Peake" was admitted to the Roxbury church 6 June 1652 [RChR 87]. She married (2) after 1679 as his third wife GRIFFIN CRAFTS. She died Roxbury 30 December 1697.

CHILDREN:

i JONATHAN, born Roxbury 17 December 1637; married Roxbury 15 August 1660 Sarah French.
ii DORCAS, born Roxbury 1 March 1639; married after 1675 and before 1682 John Curtis, son of WILLIAM CURTIS [Parker-Ruggles 426, 465-66, citing SLR 16:342; NEHGR 51:166].

iii HANNAH, baptized Roxbury 12 February 1642[/3] [RChR 114]; buried Roxbury 5 October 1660 [RChR 177].

iv JOSEPH, baptized Roxbury 23 March 1644[/5] [RChR 116]; living 1666; no further record.

v Child, died Roxbury 13 April 1647 ("a newborn child of Christopher Peake" [RChR 173]).

vi Child, buried Roxbury 10 May 1649 ("buried unbaptized [an infant of] Bro. Peake" [RChR 174]).

vii EPHRAIM, baptized Roxbury 11 April 1652 [RChR 119]; living 1666; no further record.

viii SARAH, baptized Roxbury 9 March 1655[/6] [RChR 121]; living 1666; no further record.

ASSOCIATIONS:
Among the debts owed by the estate of Christopher Peake was £97 2s. 4d. to "Sir W[illiam] Peak his brother" [SPR 4:273].COMMENTS: Although Christopher Peake apparently did not arrive in New England until 1634, he is included here because his wife, DORCAS FRENCH, did arrive in 1633.
found on ancestry.com

Birth: 1610, England
Death: May 22, 1666, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA
He was the son of Boniface Peake and Joan-Joane Clark-Clarke, possibly of Thorpe-Achurch, Northampton, England or Suffolk, England. He was born between 1605 and 1615 and emigrated from England to Boston, Massachusetts in 1634. He married Dorcas French on January 3, 1636 - 1637 at the Reverend John Eliot's Church in Roxbury/Boston, now Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Dorcas, the daughter of Thomas French, Sr. and Susan-Susannah-Sara J. Riddlesdale had come to Boston in 1633 as an indentured servant to the Governor of Massachusetts. Her term of service was three years. Christopher bought a farm in Roxbury which is now part of Boston. The money for the farm was most probably a loan from his brother Sir William Peake, a wealthy merchant and trader in the City of London and at one time the Lord Mayor of The City of London which was controlled by the merchant guilds. Christopher Peake and Dorcas French had about eight children. They were Jonathan Peake who married Sarah W. French, Dorcas Peake who married John Curtis, Hannah Peake, Joseph Peake, an infant child who died young, another infant child who died young, Ephraim Peake, and Sarah Peake, who probably married Abraham Daines. Christopher died May 22, 1666 and his widow remarried. The new husband was Griffin Craft. Dorcas had a brother Thomas French, Jr., a tailor in Boston. Thomas became the ancestor of Joseph Smith, Jr., the Latter-day Saint prophet who started The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints which is often mistakenly referred to as the Mormon Church.
Burial:Unknown
Find A Grave Memorial# 6996074
found on findagrave.com