Genealogy of the Olmsted family in America : embracing the ...

X Olmsted Family Genealogy
THE RESULT OF THE SEARCH FOR THE ANCESTORS OF JAMES
OLMSTED, SET ON FOOT BY FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED*
Mr. Briggs of London was employed in 1890 to search all available
records in order to ascertain the birthplace of the family of the Olmsteds who
came to New England in 1632. They were members of the Rev. Thomas
Hooker's congregation, commonly known as the Braintree Colony, which
fact pointed to County Essex. The distinguished genealogist, Mr. Henry M.
Waters, most kindly gave Mr. Briggs a copy of a portion of two parish registers,
one of Fairsted, County Essex, the other of Great Leighs, in the same
county. The Fairsted register, given below, proved to contain the record of
the baptism of the children of one James Olmsted, the record of the burials
of several of his children, and of that of his wife, Joyce. This, without any
doubt, is the record of the Family of the James Olmsted who emigrated to
New England in 1632. Mr. Waters also found, in the adjoining parish of
Great Leighs, the record of one James Olmsted, who married in 1576 Jane
Bristow, and had baptized in that parish eleven children. The second son,
Richard, was baptized 22d March, 1578-9. James, the third son, was baptized
4th December, 1580, and married 26th October, 1605, Joyce Cornish.
In Great Leighs two of his children were baptized and in Fairsted the five
others.
Mr. Briggs searched in Somerset House for all the wills under the name
of Olmsted and found among a great number of others that of James, the father
of James Olmsted, the emigrant, and grandfather of Richard, John and Rebecca,
and of Nicholas and Nehemiah—all of whom came to New England
in the " Lyon " in 1632.
He then proceeded to search the Subsidy Rolls. He found that James
Olmsted who married Jane Bristow had belonged in the neighboring parish
of Great Waltham, and that his father, James, had married there one Alice
(family name not found, but presumably either Hawkyns or Sorell). The
fourth payment of the subsidy (due 3d year Edward VI.) was not collected
till the 6th year of Edward VI. (1552-3) and in the return then made " the
widowe Holmestede " is found in the parish of Great Waltham " in the place
of James," showing plainly that he had died in the interval between 1550
and 1553. It seems to be proved that James and Alice were the parents
of the James who lived at Great Leighs, and died in 1595, and grandparents
of James, the emigrant. The Sorells and Hawkynses mentioned in the will
of " Als," below, both lived near James in Great Waltham. While the name
of William Olmsted is met with in the Rolls as owning lands in Felsted, thus
confirming the statement in the Harleian MSS., No. 6071, f. 319, British
Museum (given herewith) that the family of Olmsted, whose original seat was
Olmsted Hall, County Essex, had a branch established in Felsted. All the
above mentioned parishes are very near together. Some of the property
was freehold and some leasehold. Farther back than James— ^born probably
in 1520—it has not been possible to go with certaintyt but there is every
probability that James, born in 1520, descended from one Richard Olmestede
*Toward thd expenses of the search, running over many years before Mr. Waters
set us right, Vice-President Marlin E. Olmsted, of Philadelphia, contributed $25, Rt.
Rev. Charles T Olmsted, of Utica, $10, and Mrs. Kate O. Beebe, a daughter of John
Olmsted, of Springfield, $10.
tThere is mention in the rolls of one James Olmsted, at Braintree, and Beatrice,
his wife, who may have been the parents of the James who married Alice.