JAMES PEMBERTON
ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Charlestown
REMOVES: Malden
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 [MBCR 1:80].
EDUCATION: He made his mark to his will.
ESTATE: Granted two acres of planting ground at Charlestown, 10 January 1634/5 [ChTR 12]. Had hay ground allotment of one in 1635, which was increased to two [ChTR 19, 20]. Had five acres of land Mystic Side, 1637 [ChTR 27]. Had 2½ cow commons, 1637 [ChTR]. In Mystic Side allotments of 23 April 1638 received five shares as his first proprotion [ChTR 36 (second and third proportions illegible)]. In cow commons on stinted common had 2½, 30 December 1638 [ChTR 42].
In the 1638 Charlestown Book of Possessions James Pemberton held eight parcels: half a rood of ground; two acres arable land in East Field; two acres arable land in Line Field; two and a half cow commons; five acres woodland in Mystic Field; one acre meadow in Mystic Field; five acres woodland in Mystic Field; and thirty-two acres of land in Water Field [ChBOP 14].
On 12 May 1648 James Pemberton acknowledged that he had sold one stinted cow common to Robert Hale of Charlestown [ChBOP 104].
In his will, dated 23 March 1659/60 and proved 1 April 1662, "James Pemberton of Maldon ... being weak in body" bequeathed to "my son Edward Barlow all that my upland ground he now is resident upon containing four acres and to my daughter Mary his wife and to the heirs of their two bodies for ever"; to "my son Edward Barlow, his wife, my daughter, and their children aforesaid, my orchard plot and the fresh meadow thereunto adjoining containing one acre ... only one half part of the grass for hay for my wife during her life"; to "my daughter Sara £10"; "my dwelling house with all the land belonging to it being ten acres more or less, five acres of land in the great swamp, all my salt marsh ... with all other my estate whatsoever not before particularly disposed of I give one half part unto my son John ... the other half part I give unto my beloved wife Margit Pemberton during her life, and after her decease to my son John and his heirs"; "my wife and my son John executors"; "my friend Joseph Hills Sr." overseer [MPR Case #17117].
The inventory of the estate of James Pemberton was taken 5 February 1661[/2] and totalled £84 12s. including £72 in real estate: "one dwelling house," £12; "ten acres of upland, and five of swamp," £30; "four acres of upland more and one acre of orchard & meadow," £18; and "four acres of meadow more," £12 [MPR Case #17117].
BIRTH: By about 1608 based on estimated date of marriage.
DEATH: Malden 5 February 1661/2.
MARRIAGE: (1) By 1633 Alice _____; "Alice Pemberton" was admitted to Charlestown church 31 August 1633 [ChChR 8]; she died after 1642 and before 1653.
(2) By 1653 Margaret _____, named in his will. She deposed on 15 December 1662 aged about fifty years [Pope, citing Middlesex Files].
COMMENTS: James Pemberton was admitted as an inhabitant of Charlestown in December 1633, and was in the lists of inhabitants of 9 January 1633/4 and January 1635/6 [ChTR 9, 10, 15]. He signed the town agreement establishing the office of selectman, 10 February 1634/5 [ChTR 12].
There is no record of this James Pemberton in New England between his request for freemanship in September 1630 and his reappearance in Charlestown in 1633. This gap, and especially the fact that he was not made a freeman in May of 1631, suggests that he returned to England for some portion of these years. There is even the possibility that the 1630 man is not the same as the one who appeared in 1633 in Charlestown.
About 1640, James Pemberton, Prudence Wilkinson, and others petitioned that having been inhabitants of Charlestown and now planters on Mystick side, found that the town meeting had passed very prejudicial and unreasonable rules to the detriment of the planters and they sought redress from the court [Lechford 365].
Savage notes that this James Pemberton "perhaps removed to Hull for a short time, about 1647" [Savage 3:387]. Savage is off by a decade, and it is not certain that these records apply to James Pemberton of Charlestown. 12 March 1637/8: "James Pemberton is referred to the committee of the next Court about the ground which he had at Nantascot" [MBCR 1:226]. 2 May 1638: "There is ten acres of land granted to James Pemberton, part of it the land formerly planted by him, & the rest joining to it at Nantascot" [MBCR 1:229].
On 19 October 1652 the court judged that the island claimed by James Pemberton, and called by his name, did belong to him [MBCR 3:291].