Frances Wright

Frances Wright, said to have lived from 1581 to 1660, is identified in the supplied family line as the mother of George Ruggles. The documentary material provided, however, identifies a Frances, surname not recorded, as the wife of John Ruggle of Boston and a member of the Boston church in 1630. It does not establish that this Frances was Frances Wright, that she was George Ruggles's mother, or that the stated life dates are correct.

Frances Wright is identified in the supplied family line as an eleventh great-grandmother in Barbara’s family, through George Ruggles. Her stated life dates are 1581 to 1660.

The records supplied for this profile concern a Frances whose surname was not recorded. She was married by 1630 to John Ruggle of Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and was admitted to the Boston church as member no. 37, apparently in the fall of 1630. John Ruggle was admitted to the same church as member no. 129 during the winter of 1630–31 and became a freeman on 3 July 1632.

John Ruggle was active in Boston civic work. He was chosen on 25 April 1642 to keep cattle on the neck, receiving a bushel of Indian corn for each cow, and he was again appointed to keep the milch cattle in 1643, 1644, and 1645. A 1641/42 Boston agreement refers to expenses he had incurred in building at Deer Island.

A daughter of John Ruggles, about eleven years old, died in Boston near the end of January 1630–31. Thomas Dudley wrote that many members of the Ruggles family and kindred died during that period. The child’s mother is not named in the quoted account, although the supplied notes consider that Frances may have been her mother if the child was born about 1619.

John Ruggles had died by 21 January 1656/57, when an inventory of his Boston estate was taken. George Ruggles and James Wiseman attested to that inventory the next day. The notes state that George Ruggles’s appearance in the estate settlement suggests that he and John Ruggles may have been related, perhaps as brothers. This is not proof of a parent-child relationship. No further record of Frances, wife of John Ruggle, is included in the supplied material.

The supplied notes also include a reconstructed list of pre-1634 planters of Massachusetts Bay Colony that includes the surnames Ruggles, Squire, and Wright. This list alone does not identify Frances or document her passage, origin, or relationship to other people of those surnames.

Historical context

Frances’s documented setting, if she was the wife of John Ruggle of Boston, was the early Massachusetts Bay Colony. Boston church membership and freeman status were important features of community life. The surviving town records cited in the supplied notes show John Ruggle performing practical public duties involving cattle and town property. The winter of 1630–31 was also a period of severe loss for the Ruggles family, as described by Thomas Dudley.

Sources & research

Boston Church Records: BChR 13, admission of “Frances the wife of John Ruggle” as Boston church member no. 37; BChR 14, admission of John Ruggle as member no. 129.
Boston Town Records: BTR 1:65–66, 69, 72, 79, 84, regarding John Ruggle’s Deer Island expenses and cattle-keeping appointments.
Massachusetts Bay Colony Records: MBCR 1:367, John Ruggle admitted freeman, 3 July 1632.
Suffolk Probate Records: SPR 3:62, inventory of John Ruggles’s estate and attestation by George Ruggles and James Wiseman, 21–22 January 1656/57.
Thomas Dudley, letter to the Countess of Lincoln: Dudley 77, account of the death of an eleven-year-old daughter of John Ruggles near the end of January 1630/31.
Boston Book of Possessions: BBOP 13, 28, 30, 31, 71, references to John Ruggle as an abutter.
The Great Migration Begins, sketch for John Ruggles, as quoted in the supplied notes.
Charles E. Banks, 1930, partial reconstruction of the Winthrop Fleet passenger list, as quoted in the supplied notes.
Banks, Topographical Dictionary: Topo Dict 154, cited in the supplied notes for a suggested origin of Glemsford, Suffolk, based only on “Banks Mss.”