CHANDLER

William Chandler (1598-1642) is the immigrant ancestor (along with his wife Annis Bayford) to whom we are most related. William is our ninth great grandfather by one path and our tenth great grandfather by nine paths – he is our ancestor 10 times over. The Chandlers and Abbotts frequently married each other. In one family group of seven Chandler children, three of them married an Abbott. We are directly descended from two of William and Annis’s children, Thomas (1628-1703) and Hannah (1630-1711) who married George Abbot of Andover.

The various lines of the Chandlers do not all converge until the marriage of Arthur Merrill Abbott (1858-1930) and Mary Emma Knowles (1861-1941), both of whom are descended from William Chandler.

William and Annis came from Stratford England in 1637, settling in Roxbury. Annis and William had seven children, five of whom lived to adulthood, married, and had children. William worked as a tanner. He became a freeman (entered into the church and eligible to vote) in 1640. William and Annis were industrious, economical, sober, pious and respected. With Christian fortitude and submission they endured their trials, privations and dangers, of which they had a large share. They brought up a large family well and trained them in the way they should go, from which they did not depart.

Thomas Chandler (1628-1703) was one of the proprietors and early pioneers in the settlement of Andover. His name is 23rd of householders in order as they came to town. He was a blacksmith and financially successful carrying on a considerable iron works. He was employed with George Abbot III and others to lay out lands granted individuals by General Court. He was a representative in the General Court in 1678 and 1679. He was a lieutenant and then a captain in the militia. He and his wife Hannah Brewer had eight children, and two of them, Thomas Chandler (1664-1737) and John Chandler I (1655-1721), are our ancestors.

Our Andover ancestor John Chandler I was the older brother of Sarah Chandler (1661-1757) who was the grandmother of the Samuel Phelps III (1712-1795) who married John's granddaughter Priscilla Chandler (1713-1998), his second cousin. Two of his great-grandchildren (Priscilla Chandler Phelps's son Joshua Phelps I (1738-1798) and Lois Ballard (1746-1836) were also married as second cousins. Not only that, but John himself, in spite of prevailing Puritan admonitions, married Hannah Abbott (1650-1741), his own first cousin (and a daughter of George Abbot of Andover, our ancestor). New England apparently had a very restricted gene pool.

John Chandler II (1679-1741) also had two children who are our ancestors, Nathan Chandler (1708-1784) and Hannah Chandler (1710-1784). Nathan was the lieutenant of a company that marched August 15, 1757 for the relief of Fort William Henry which had come under siege from the French. Nathan is in turn the father of two more of our Chandler ancestors, Nathan Chandler (1730-1786) and Mary Chandler (1740-1824). Hannah Chandler (1710-1784) was the mother of Nathan Ballard. Nathan served in the Revolutionary War with the rank of Lieutenant. The line down from Nathan Ballard ends up with Mary Emma Knowles who married Arthur Merrill Abbott.

Nathan Chandler (1730-1786) and Mary Chandler (1740-1824) both married Abbotts. Mary married Jonathan Abbott, the great grandson of George Abbot of Andover. Nathan married Phebe Abbott, the second great granddaughter of George Abbot of Andover. At this point, the various lines are nearly back together. Nathan Chandler’s daughter Rhoda married Benjamin Abbott (1770-1835) who was the son of Mary Chandler and Jonathan Abbott. Benjamin Abbott was the grandfather of Justin Edwards Abbott. Justin was the father of Arthur Merrill Abbott who married Mary Emma Knowles.

Chandler, George. (1883). The Chandler family: The descendants of William and Annis Chandler who settled in Roxbury, Mass 1637. Worcester, MA: Charles Hamilton.