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Joanna (Lowell) (Oliver) Gerrish
b. 1620 Bristol, Avon England
m. April 17, 1645 Newbury, Massachusetts (English Colony)
d. June 14, 1677 Newbury, Massachusetts (English Colony)
Spouse:
John Oliver & Captain William Gerrish
Children:
Reverend Joseph Gerrish (b. March 23, 1648/49
Newbury, Massachusetts; m. 1670; d. June 02, 1720 Newbury, Massachusetts)
Biography:
Joanna Lowell immigrated to America with her parents, husband, John Oliver, her
father's business partner, William Gerrish, and William Gerrish's clerk,
Anthony Somerby on the ship "Jonathan" which landed in Newbury in 1639.
In 1642 her first husband died and she married Captain William Gerrish, who worked
with her late husband and father in England.
The Lowell name is of Norman English origin, however it is unknown when the first
descendent arrived in England from Normandy. There is speculation that the first
Lowell came with William the Conqueror in 1066. This information is far from convincing
however since 1. It came from the Battle Abbey Roll, which was written
years after the actual conquest so its content is questioned. In the years following
the conquest in 1066, there is speculation that families added their names to the
list when it was written to gain power, although in reality they emmigrated from
Normandy after the battle itself; and 2. The name appears as "Louell,"
which may be the same family given the Norman spelling or the fact that a "u"
could have been mistaken for a "w" in their writing.
Ethnicity:
References:
-Delmar R Lowell, The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to
1899, (Rutland, VT: Tuttle Comapny, 1899).
-Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis, Volume
I, 511.
-David W Hoyt, Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury Massachusetts, (Camden,
ME: Picton Press, 1981), 233.
-Battle Abbey Roll.