Simon Willard
Major, Soldier, Clerk, Magistrate
Baptized: April 7, 1605 Horsmonden, Kent, England
Married: October 13, 1628 Marden, Kent, England
Died: April 24, 1676 Middlesex, Massachusetts
Father: Richard Willard b.1581
Mother: Margery Humphrie
Wife #1: Mary Sharpey b.1609
Wife #2: Elizabeth Dunster
Wife #3: Mary Dunster
Children with Mary Sharpey:
Josiah Willard b.c.1631
Elizabeth Willard b.c.1633
Samuel Willard b.1640
Sarah Willard b.1642
Abovehope Willard b.c.1646
Simon Willard b.1649
Children with Mary Dunster:
Mary Willard b.c.1653
Hannah Willard b.1666
Notes:
-Major Simon Willard was a founder of Concord, Massachusetts, arriving in 1634. He was clerk of Concord, and a representative to the Massachusetts General Court for 18 years. He served as Major of Militia during the King Phillips War, in command of all New England forces. There is a sketch of his likeness that is commonly found on the internet. However, it is just a crude copy of a portrait of his son Samuel from "Appleton's cyclopedia of American Biography" (1886).
Sources:
"Corrected Ancestry of Mary, First Wife of Simon Willard", The Genealogist Fall 2016
Charles Henry Pope, "Sequel to Willard Memorial (1915)
Joseph Willard, "Willard Memior, Or, Life and Times of Major Simon Willard; With Notices of Three Generations of his Descendants, and Two Collateral Branches in the United States" (1858)
D.H. Willard, "Willard Memior: Sketch of the Life of Maj. Simon Willard with Notice of some of his descendants to the Ninth Generation" (1879)
Robert Charles Anderson "Great Migration Begins" Series vol VII (T-Y) (2011)
Joseph Willard, Esq: "Johnson, Willard, Sheafe", NEHGR 4(1850):309
Birth Source: Baptism Record in Horsmonden: "Ano. Dmi 1605: The vijth day of Aprill Simon Willarde sonne of Richard Willarde was christenede - Edward Alchine, Rector."
Marriage Source: Leslie Mahler, "The Marriage of Simon Willard and Mary Sharpe of Concord Massachusetts", TAG 80 (2005) p25
Marden, Kent parish, Archdeacons transcripts