THE ENGLISH ORIGINS OF STEPHEN GATES, 1638 IMMIGRANT TO MASSACHUSETTS
Edward J Harrison
In 1898 Charles Otis Gates published an extensive work on the genealogy of Stephen Gates, who immigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1638 on the Diligent with his wife Ann and children Elizabeth, Stephen and Mary. A revised account of Stephen Gates and descendants by Clarence Almon Torrey was published in the Register in 1966, but it was silent as to Stephen Gates's ancestry. In contrast, C[harles] O[tis] Gates presented a descent for Stephen Gates from a fourteenth-century Thomas Gates, Esq., of Higheaster, Essex, England. From that Thomas, the descent continues through ten generations and shows Stephen as the grandson of Peter Gates and Mary Josselyn and as the son of another Thomas Gates. C O. Gates cited "Vol. XIV, Harleian Society, Page 574" for this descent. However, though the pedigree presented in that Harleian Society publication begins with Thomas Gates, Esq., it ends with Peter Gates and does not include the more recent Thomas or Stephen. C. O. Gates provided no justification for showing Thomas as a son of Peter and Mary or for showing Stephen as the son of Thomas.
Frances E. Sage's 1983 article challenged Stephen's descent from Peter Gates and Mary Josselyn by revealing that Peter and Mary were married at High Roding, Essex, on 6 October 1605, and that the 1612 Visitation of Suffolk shows in 1612 Peter Gates was age 29 and had a son and heir Josselyn age 3. This was probably taken from the printed visitation, which spells the son's name as Jocelin. The naming of Jocelin (born circa 1609) as heir to Peter suggests he was the oldest surviving son. Based on these data, it is chronologically impossible for Peter (born circa 1583) and Mary to be the grandparents of Stephen who was born circa 1600. Sage did not address the question of Stephen's parents.
In 1934 Clarence Almon Torrey explored the English origins of Stephen Gates using transcripts of the parish registers of Hingham, Norfolk. Based on the data in those transcripts, Torrey concluded that Stephen was one of three brothers, the others being Thomas and William, whose mother was Rose Gates. However, he did not confirm or refute that Stephen was the son of a Thomas.
The data presented here show that, although the mother of Stephen Gates was named Rose, the name of his father was not Thomas Gates. This article proposes, with reasonable certainty, that Stephen Gates was the son of Eustace Gates and Rose Wright, daughter of Martin and Elizabeth Wright.
NEHGR vol 160:7-14
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