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Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 28 Aug 2011 12:09PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Cearley, Carley, Kerley
While researching my tree, I have run into something that caught my attention. Somewhere in the 1700's The surname Cearley changed from Carley and then later from Kerley. Does anyone one know if this is correct and if it is, why was it changed?

Re: Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 4:49AM GMT
Classification: Query
I am currently working on the Cearley name as well. The CEARLEY spelling applied even as they crossed the ocean. I believe I have proven the spelling was CEARLEY in England and remained the same throughout the US, and have tracked it back to the mid 1600's.

Someone has altered the name while doing research as far as I am concerned. Good luck with your search.

Re: Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 27 Mar 2012 5:15AM GMT
Classification: Query
How far back have you been able to go? It seams to me that it is an Irish sounding name in origin. But I haven't been able to get very far back.

Re: Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 28 Mar 2012 9:21PM GMT
Classification: Query
My information stops with:

William Cearley b.? Death 1/1/1683, Captain in the Military.
who married Hanna Ann King Birth 12/1/1587 Death ?

I do know that Williams child, Henry Cearley was born 11/2/1657 in Sudsbury, MA and died 12/18/1713. He was married to Elizabeth White. No further information on her.
Henry and Elizabeth are the parents of Bartholomew.

Henry's parents are William Cearley ? birth died 1/11/1683 and Hanna Ann King Born 12/1/1587 and ? death.

Others believe that Bartholomew was the son of the William of the Confidence, b. 1621 - m Anna King, and was a nephew of three generations back from William the Immigrant, b 1602 - m Ann White - parents of Capt. Henry b. 1632 and William, Jr b. 1633.

The Will of William the Immigrant - 1670 - named the William of the Confidence as his eldest son William, thus drawing a differential between all the Williams in MA at the time of his death. By that time, the true William, Jr had married Jane Unknown and removed to the Lexington area, and was thus never mentioned in the Will. This William, Jr was buried at Lexington in 1719 along with his wife Jane in 1721 and a daughter Elizabeth who died whithin a few weeks of her father, and their information is on their headstones showing years of birth. This William and Jane were the parents of 7 daughters who married and remained in the Lexington area.

I cannot determine exactly what is what at this juncture of the puzzle.
Blaine Cearley - Washington State Clan

Re: Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 3:19PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Kerley, White,
Sorry that you have some bad information -
Capt. Henry Kerley, b. 1632 at Ashmore, Dorset, England, son of William the Immigrant who was born in 1602 in Ashmore, Dorset, England and who was in America by 1637, came to America with his father and mother - Ann White, b. 1602? and who was from South Petherton, Sommerset, England and who married William the Immigrant in 1625 - Henry's sister Mary, b. 1627 at Ashmore, who married at Sudbury Richard Smith, Sr and who died in 1654 at Lancaster, MA - and his (Henry's) younger brother William, Jr. b 1633 also at Ashmore and who married in 1666 at Sudbury, a Jane Unknown with whom he is buried at Lexington - Robbins Cemetery, East Village of Lexington.
Children of Henry and first wife Elizabeth White do NOT include Bartholomew - Henry and this Elizabeth were married in 1654 at Sudbury, MA and their first child b. February 11, 1657 at Lancaster was named according to the Old English naming patterns, for his father, Henry, therefore, Henry, Jr. Their second child named in the same pattern, was named for Henry, Sr's father, William the Immigrant. Bartholomew is cited -
American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
about Bartholomew Carley
Name: Bartholomew Carley
Birth Date: 1650
Birthplace: Massachusetts
Volume: 25
Page Number: 70
Reference: Gen. Column of the " Boston Transcript". 1906-1941.( The greatest single source of material for gen. Data for the N.E. area and for the period 1600-1800. Completely indexed in the Index.): 22 Mar 1933, 6185
William the Immigrant, was never an inhabitant of Lancaster. He was one of the first to settle Marlborough while Henry was one of the first to settle Lancaster - where his family met with such disaster in 1676.
Bartholomew is never mentioned as a survivor of the Lancaster massacre 1676, nor is he mentioned as being in Marlborough with his father until 1686 when he married Hannah Unknown and his first son James was born.
The parents you name for Henry are not the William of the Confidence, b. 1621 and Anna King, b. @1625, which would make their having a child in 1632 impossible.
Elizabeth White, daughter of Capt. John and Joanne West White, b. Bef. July 29, 1634 also at South Petherton, Devon, England - we have so far not identified any link to Ann White Kerley, mother of Capt. Henry.
The children of Capt. John and Joanne West White figure greatly in the lives of prominent figures in the early colony through their achievemnts and marriages and are interwoven throughout the Kerley/Carley family histories.
Bartholomew and Hannah become entangled in the family of Henry's second family after his second marriage to Elizabeth Ward, widow of John Howe, Jr in 1677 - and their son William the Mariner, b. @ 1683 who married Mary Bowden, daughter of John and Grace Bully Bowden of Saco, ME. - see marriages performed by Cotton Mather at Boston in 1703 - Bartholomew was an unordained minister and baptised some of the later children of William and Mary, and became wrongly attributed as being the parents of those children.

Re: Cearley, Carley, Kerley

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 10:32PM GMT
Classification: Query
This is such wonderful research. The citations and references certainly solidify the data.

I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to forward it.

Many Thanks,

Blaine Cearley - Washington State CLan
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