Maverick Family



Some twenty years since, looking over the late Col. Joseph L. Chester's MS. catalog of Oxford graduates, my attention was drawn by him to the name of "John Maverick, 1595, Exeter College, from Devon, Minister."

Foster's Catalogue, much fuller in detail, reads as follows:

"Maverick, John of Devon cler. fil., Exeter Coll., matric. 24 Oct. 1595, aged 18; B.A. 8 July 1577; M.A. 7 July 1603; then in orders, rector of Beaworthy (s.w. of Hatherly), Devon, 1615. (See Foster's Index Eccl.)."

This was undoubtedly "the godly Mr. Maverick," whom Roger Clap, born on the Devonshire coast, at Salcomb (between Sidmouth and Branscomb), speaks of as living "forty miles off," and who, after establishing a congregation at Dorchester, N. E., died Feb. 3, 1636-7, being, according to Winthrop, "near sixty years of age."

Though we hear nothing of his wife, she is alluded to in 1665, by Col. Cartwright, in his "Memorial [Clarendon Papers, N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 1869, p. 108.] concerning the Massachusets," who observes:

"If any of the commissioners think it more convenient for them to stay in those parts, that they may haue leue to do so. For Mr. Maverick hath his mother, wife, children & brothers living there, and nether estate, nor employment here."

And Samuel Maverick, writing from Rhode Island Oct. 9, 1668, to Secretary Sir William Morice, says that his mother "presents her humble service." (See Sainsbury's Calendar of Colonial Papers, vol. 3, p. 415, No 1288). This Secretary Morice, who died in Dec. 1676 aged 74, was son of Jevan Morice, fellow of All Saints College, Oxford of an ancient Welsh family, doctor of laws and chancellor of Exeter, Devon, in 1594, and ancestor of the extinct Baronets Morice of Werrington, Devon, on the borders of Cornwall, a few miles s.w. of Beaworthy.

The widow Maverick, in 1668, must have been well advanced in years, since by his own deposition [Suffolk Deeds, iv. 328.], taken in December, 1665, her son Samuel was then "aged 63 yeares or therabouts."

Samuel, the eldest son of the Rev. John Maverick, born about 1602, had settled in New England as early as 1624, near the confluence of Charles and Mystic Rivers, where with the help of his neighbor David Thomson, he had built a small fort. He was an episcopalian and loyalist, and frequently embroiled with the colonial government; finally, after one of his several voyages to the old country, he was, in April 1664, appointed on of the four Royal Commissioners to visit the colonies and inquire into grievances. For his services he received from the Duke of York, through a grant from Gov. Lovelace, a certain house and lot in New York City, on the Broadway. This gift he acknowledges in a letter of Oct. 15, 1669, to Col. Rich. Nicolls, his associate in the Commission, and we hear not of him again till in a deed of Mar. 15, 1676 (recorded Albany, L.1, p. 133), his trustees, John Laurence and Matthias Nicolls, of New York, confirm to William Vander Scheuren this same property on Broadway, which the latter had bought from the Deacons of the City, by whom it had been purchased at a public sale made for the benefit of Maverick’s daughter, Mary, wife of Rev. Francis Hooke of Kittery. Neither the time nor place of Maverick’s death, nor the depository of his will have, as yet, ascertained. No records of so early a date are preserved by the Dutch Church, who evidently held the lot for a short period, but, after a careful examination of conveyances in the City Register’s office, the writer has satisfactorily located the position of the Maverick Lot. May 30, 1667, Gov. Nicolls granted a lot on Broadway to Adam Onckelbach, which is described in later deeds as bounded south by house and lot of William Vander Scheuren, and which finally in October 1784, when known as No. 52 Broadway, was sold to John Jay, Esq., the future governor, who here erected a fine stone mansion. At this time the lot adjoining to the south was in the tenure and occupation of John Sliddell, save some 64 feet on the easterly of New Street end, which had been sold in 1683 by Vander Scheuren to William Post. Slidell’s sons in 1819 sold the greater portion of the lot, facing on Broadway, with a frontage of 21 1/3 ft, and a depth of 110 ft, to Robert Lenox; while the remaining few inches, with a lot adjoining to the south, known as No. 48, was sold by them on the same date to David Gelston. From the foregoing facts we gather that the original Maverick Lot was 26 1/4 feet wide, located on the easterly side of Broadway, running through to New Street, and beginning 125 feet south from the Church Street (afterwards Garden Street, and now Exchange Place); and that it corresponded with the present No. 50 Broadway.

Though extinct in the New England States, the Maverick family has existed for the past one hundred and fifty years in New York City, where Andrew Maverick, a young painter, 24 years of age, was admitted freeman July 17, 1753; his name occurring on the Poll List of Feb., 1761. He was baptized at the New Brick Church, Boston, Feb. 9, 1728-9; one of the numerous family of John Maverick (Paul, Elias, Rev. John), an importer of hard woods on Middle Street (now Hanover St.), at the sign of the "Cabinet and Chest of Drawers," John’s grandson Samuel (son of Samuel deceased), an apprentice of Mr. Isaac Greenwood, ivory turner &c., was mortally wounded, March 5, 1770, in the Boston Massacre. Andrew, who came to New York, married about 1754 Sarah, dau. of Peter and Bethia Ruston or Rushton, and Mr. Rushton, in a will of 1765, proved Aug. 14, 1767, leaves his entire estate, after the death of his wife Bethia, to his grandson Peter Rushton Maverick [Dr John Greenwood of N.Y. writing in Nov., 1803 to P. R. Maverick, alludes to a lot on Middle St., Boston, belonging to the estate of his late father, Isaac G., and which adjoined land of Maverick's grandfather.] The latter, born in the city April 11, 1755, a silver-smith, etcher and engraver, was in Aug. 1775 an Ensign in Capt. M. Minthorn’s Co., of Col. John Jay’s 2d Reg’t of N.Y. Militia, and on July 23, 1788, represented the Engravers in the N.Y. Federal Procession; he died in Dec. 1811, and was succeeded by his three talented sons, Samuel, Andrew and Peter.

The name Maverick, one of unusual occurrence, is akin doubtless to Morris, Morrice, or Maurice; we get nearer to it in the original Welsh Mawr-rwyee, "a valiant hero."

Nath. Maureick, chief clerk of the Town Clerk, London, died 24 November, 1630, and John Mavericke was a settler located in Charleston, S. C., in 1672.

One other name is given by Foster:

"Maverick, Radford of Devon, pleb., Exeter Coll. matric. 17 Nov. 1581 aged 20; rector of Trusham (n. of Chudleigh), 1586, and vicar of Islington, Devon 1597. (See Foster's Index Eccl.)."

Isaac J. Greenwood, N. E. Historical and Geneological Register, April, 1894

1 comment:

  1. You mention at the very end here about John Mavericke in Charleston, SC. Do you know if there any connection with the Boston Mavericke family?

    Don Allen
    Charleston, SC

    ReplyDelete