I had originally expected that this family sketch would be quick and short, given that the Fisher name is lost in the next generation with their daughter Sarah’s marriage.

However, I have a fabulous reference book, New Englanders in the 1600s: A Guide to Genealogical Research Published Between 1980 and 2010 by Martin E. Hollick. I always check name sin the book, hoping that some scholarly research has added to our knowledge of individual families.

Much to my surprise, not only is Anthony Fisher, born 1591, listed in Hollick’s book with an update noted in The New England Historic Genealogical Register 151:171-191, the article adds four more generations before Anthony!!! Thanks to early surviving parish registers and wills, much more has been learned about the Fisher family.

Today’s post covers the family of Anthony Fisher, son of Anthony born in 1591, and his wife, Johanna/Joan Faxon.

Anthony Fisher was baptized on 7 August 1623 in Syleham, Suffolk, England, the son of Anthony Fisher and his first wife, Alice (MNU).

Anthony Jr.’s parents and children migrated to Massachusetts by the 1640s.

Today’s subject, Anthony Jr., married Johanna/Joan Faxon on 7 September 1647 in Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts. Johanna was the daughter of Thomas Faxon and Joane Fawdry of Swalcliffe, Oxfordshire, England, where she was baptized on 19 May 1628.

Anthony and Johanna were the parents of a large family of ten children, although four of them left no descendants (All events in Dedham, unless otherwise noted):

1. Mehitable, born 27 June 1648; died 12 May 1727; married Peter Woodward, c1670
2. Experience, baptized 11 August 1650; no further record
3. John, born 18 February 1652; no further record
4. Josiah, born 1 May 1654; died 12 April 1736; married Meletiah Bullen, 27 January 1680
5. Abiah, born c1656; no further record
6. Sarah, born 25 October 1658; probably died between 31 January 1706, when both Sarah and her husband are listed in a land deed, and 8 September 1713, when only her husband is listed in an update in the same deed. [Note that the sale was between Sarah’s mother and siblings selling land inherited from her father and one William Avery. Therefore, it is expected that Sarah would have been included in the updated attestation if she was still living. She is found in no other records and the Wrentham, Massachusetts death records between 1704-1718 have damaged and missing pages.]
7. Deborah, born 24 February 1661; died 3 March 1742; married James Fales, 20 August 1679
8. Judith, born c1663; died 9 January 1753, Medway, Massachusetts; married John Bullen, 3 January 1684, Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts
9. Rebecca, born 16 September 1667; died 15 August 1694, Wrentham, Norfolk, Massachusetts
10. Eleazer, born 18 September 1669; died 6 February 1722; married Mary Avery, 13 October 1698

Anthony Fisher died long before his wife, passing away on 13 February 1669/70, leaving Johanna with a house filled with young children. Johanna/Joan married (2) George Barber/Barbour, sometime between 1670 and George’s death on 13 April 1685 in Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts.

Given the young ages of the Fisher children, I would have expected that George and Joan married in the early 1670s. However, George’s first wife didn’t died until 22 December 1683, so George and Joan couldn’t have married before 1684.

Johanna/Joan (Faxon) (Fisher) Barbour must have been a strong woman and financially comfortable to raise her family by herself.

Johanna/Joan’s exact date of death is unknown but she was still living on 7 September 1713 when the land deed was updated with new attestations of the sale.