Nicholas Aldridge

Name:	Nicholas Aldridge (or Alldredge)
Born:	before 1660 probably England
Died:	about 21 November 1708 (buried 21 November) All Hallows' Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Buried:	All Hallows' Chapel Churchyard, Anne Arundel County, Maryland (grave now unmarked)
Married:	Martha Besson before 1680, probably in Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Children:	Thomas Aldridge, William Alldredge (b. 1702)

Overview

Nicholas Aldridge is the immigrant ancestor of our Aldridge family. He arrived in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, as early as 1677, receiving a land patent from Lord Baltimore in 1681. Like the other elements in my Aldridge-Alldredge tree, Nicholas Aldridge is the subject of a lot of extravagant and poorly supported claims. On this page, I will document what we know for certain, and do my best to distinguish fact from speculation.

Name

There is evidence from records that Nicholas's son William and at least two branches of his descendants (William b. 1729 and Nathan) spelled their surname Alldredge. Of Nicholas's other descendants, his oldest son Thomas's family appears to have kept the spelling Aldridge. Traditionally, Nicholas Aldridge's name has been spelled Aldridge by Memory Aldridge Lester and other researchers. For now, I will stand by this tradition.

Ancestry and birth

It is widely asserted online that Nicholas Aldridge was christened 28 December 1653 in Wellow Parish, Wiltshire, England, the son of Nicholas Aldridge. I have seen no documentation to convince me this is correct, and ample evidence to convince me that it is incorrect.

We can assume that our Nicholas was born before about 1656, since he was able to receive a proprietary land grant in 1680, and serve in a colonial militia in 1677. Within the parameters of a Nicholas Aldridge born in England between 1637 and 1657, only one Nicholas Aldridge appears in a search of the birth registers available on FamilySearch, the one asserted above, christened 28 December 1653 in Wellow, Hampshire. A second appears if I push the search back to 1627, christened 15 December 1633 at St. Margaret's, Westminster, Middlesex, the son of Thomas Aldridge. But how do we know these records are complete? How do we know Nicholas was born in England and not in Scotland, Wales, or anywhere else? We do not. Unless there is some record connecting Nicholas Aldridge in Maryland back to a specific location in England or wherever, I will not make an assumption.

Will of Nicholas Aldridge of Wellow, Wiltshire, 1661

The will of Nicholas Aldridge, Gentleman of West Wellow, Wiltshire, was signed 25 June 1661 and probated 3 June 1662. It bequeaths:

• Item. I give and bequeath unto my Grandchildren John Kent, Martha Kent, Mary Kent, and Jane Kent Forty shillings a piece to be paid when they come to the age of one and Twenty years.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto the Children of my Son John Aldridge, Jane and Margaret Aldridge, Forty shillings a piece to be paid when they come to the age of one and Twenty years.
• Item. I give unto my Son Michael Twenty pounds to be payd within six months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto the poor of the parish of Wellow Twenty shillings to be payd at the end of six months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto my son George five pounds to be payd at the end of twelve months next after my decease.
• Item. I give and bequeath unto my son Robert his son Forty shillings to be payd when he cometh to the age of one and Twenty years.
• All the rest of my goods and Chattles ... I give and bequeath unto my son John Aldridge whom I do constitute and make my whole and sole Executor...

This Nicholas Aldridge was buried in Wellow on 4 July 1661, nine days after this will was signed.

There is no mention of a son Nicholas. Did his son Nicholas die young? Did he, being a younger son, not receive any inheritance? It seems unlikely to me that after leaving money to three sons and a number of grandchildren, he would not have left anything at all to a younger child. Could his son Nicholas have been disinherited? That seems especially unlikely, given that the Nicholas born in Wellow in 1653 would be only seven years old.

Or could it be that this is not the right Nicholas? How many Nicholases were there? According to C. W. Empson's index of the parish registers, there were these burials of men named Nicholas Aldridge:

• Nicholas Aldridge, 23 May 1578.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 26 May 1579.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 23 Jan 1588.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 4 Jul 1661.
• Nicholas Aldridge (infant), 8 Mar 1664-65.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 21 Apr 1673.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 28 Aug 1708. (Of Bramshaw.)
• Nicholas Aldridge (22 years old), 26 Sep 1737.
• Nicholas Aldridge, 11 Nov 1759.

So if the Nicholas born 1653 did die in infancy, there is at least no record of his burial. But a Nicholas dying in 1661 and one dying in 1673 does suggest that either there were two men named Nicholas Aldridge who were contemporaries in the same parish, or — the one who died in 1673 was the son of the one who died in 1661.

Militia service and land patent

The earliest record we find Nicholas Aldridge in Maryland is a 1678 payment to him by the Maryland General Assembly, apparently for militia service in an expedition against the Nanticoke Indians:

An Act for payment and assessing the Publick Charges of this Province

Whereas There hath been Eight hundred twenty five thousand Nyne hundred Seventy Nyne pounds (825,979 lbs.) of Tobacco Expended, layd out & disbursed by severall of the Inhabitants of this Province in the late Expedicion against the Nanticoke Indians and other, the necessary Charges of this Province which hath been Examined, stated and allowed by the upper and lower houses of this present Generall Assembly To the intent therefore That the same may bee satisfyed and payd to those persons to whom the same is due ...

To Nicholas Aldridge, 50 lbs. tobacco.

This payment would indicate that Nicholas had been in Maryland at least as early as 1677, and perhaps earlier.

Nicholas Aldridge entered a land patent in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, of 300 acres on the south side of the Magothy River, surveyed for him on 20 August 1680. The grant was issued by Charles Calvert, Lord Baltimore on 11 July 1681, a tract called "Aldridge's Beginning."

Marriage and spouse

Excerpt of the will of Thomas Besson, with bequest to daughter Martha.

The allowance of Thomas Besson's widow and executrix for the request to Martha, naming the daughter as Martha Aldridge.

Nicholas Aldridge marriage a woman named Martha, probably about 1679–1680. Their oldest child, Thomas Aldridge, was born 5 November 1680.

I have found a fairly strong case for the assertion that Nicholas's wife was Martha Besson, daughter of Thomas Besson. Two records in particular demonstrate this case:

• In the will of Thomas Besson, he names his daughter Martha, leaving to her a mare named Nobsey and a heifer named Eareling:

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Martha, to her and her heirs forever, the young Mare Nobsye Coult with all her Increase, but if in case and the heifer Eareling which was cavd in the yeare 1676 with all her Increase but if in case she my said daughter dyes before she comes to Age to fall to the next heir.

• In the account of Besson's executrix, Nicholas Aldridge is paid a sum of money. The last item in the account contains a petition for an allowance for the heifer and mare due to Martha Aldridge:

The Executrix further prays allowance these following particulars: To Martha Aldridge a heiffer given by will appraised to 500. To 1 Mare called Nobsey as 700.

This indicates that Martha Aldridge is the daughter of Thomas Besson, the same daughter Martha to whom he bequeathed the mare Nobsey and heifer Eareling.

Children

Birth and baptism records of Nicholas Aldridge's older children, from the All Hallows' Parish register.

These children of Nicholas Aldridge and Martha Besson are documented by parish birth records:

1. Thomas Aldridge, born 5 November 1680, married Elizabeth Purdy on 15 July 1703.
2. Ann Aldridge, born 6 November 1684, married Richard Richeson in 1707.
3. John Aldridge, born 31 August 1688, married Susannah Jones on 1 April 1719.
4. Joane Aldridge, born 10 September 1689.
5. Sendy Aldridge, born 9 August 1693, baptized 19 May 1700 [the name is difficult to read].
6. Jane Aldridge, born 3 April 1696, baptized 19 May 1700.
7. Nicholas Aldridge, born 16 May 1698.
8. William Aldridge, born 30 October 1700. Buried 26 September 1702.
9. William Aldridge, born 13 Mar 1702, baptized 11 April 1703.
10. James Aldridge, born 1 July 1706, married Mary Gassaway.

Nicholas Aldridge did indeed have two sons named William, one born after another, and by the dates, it appears he even named the second one William before the first one passed away. Did he, knowing his first son William was sick and would die, consciously give the name again to his next son? Is it possible the second William did not receive the name until his baptism, after the death of the first William? It is difficult to guess exactly what went on here, but the records are clear.

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  All Hallows' Parish register showing birth of William Aldridge "I" (1700).

• 

  All Hallows' Parish register showing baptism of William Aldridge "I" (1702).

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  ll Hallows' Parish register showing burial of William Aldridge "I" (1702).

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  All Hallows' Parish register showing the birth and baptism of William Aldridge "II" (1702).

• 

  All Hallows' Parish register showing the birth of James Aldridge (1706).

Death

Nicholas Aldridge died in November 1708 in All Hallows' Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and was buried 21 November 1708 in the churchyard. His grave is no longer marked. Nicholas was likely a man in his forties or fifties when he died, which was a ripe age for a Maryland colonist in that time.

DNA evidence

Main page: Aldridge DNA Project

Five patrilineal, male-line descendants of Nicholas Aldridge have tested their Y-DNA at the Aldridge DNA Project, one from his oldest son Thomas and four from his son William (b. 1702). The DNA of all five men matches one another, and is classified as haplogroup R-FTC89975, a subclade of R-U106 > R-Z154. William's descendants form the haplogroup R-FTB32679, an additional subclade of R-FTC89975.