Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Richard Gurney (G12) Notes

Research notes for g12-richard-gurney-fact-sheet.md. See .claude/rules/research-files.md for the paired-file rule.

Working Notes

Born in England, came as a child

Richard’s birth in England c. 1630–1634 places him in the cohort of small children brought across the Atlantic by parents arriving in the Great Migration window. His father John Gurney (G13) is first recorded in Massachusetts in June 1641 at Weymouth (per Anderson, Great Migration Directory, p. 158, Source ID anderson-gmd-2015); the children were already born in England. Sprague, Genealogies of Braintree (Source ID sprague-braintree), p. 695, lists Richard among John Gurney-1’s children and is the principal published genealogical source for the family group.

The Anderson Great Migration Directory entry treats John Gurney-1’s English origin as “Unknown” — an implicit rejection of the older Banks attribution to Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Until that question is resolved, Richard’s English birthplace is genuinely unknown. The case is laid out in detail in research/case-files/john-gurney-case-file-v4.md and is the primary unresolved problem above this generation.

Weymouth land — the 1683 homestead grant (and the grants that were his father’s, not his)

Richard’s own documented Weymouth land is the 1683 town-meeting grant of six acres on the west side of Great Pond “to build a house & fence to dwell thereon with his family … in an absolute state of Inheritance” (Hist. of Weymouth, p. 251) — Richard about fifty, the right age for a settled householder receiving a building lot. Rigler adds that he settled “possibly on East Street towards Old Spain, and extending to Back River” (same page). That six-acre lot is almost certainly the homestead inventoried at his death — “A Dwelling house & barne with about six Acres of land adjoyning” (see the inventory section below).

The “East field,” “mill field,” and “east side of Great Pond” grants once attributed to Richard “before 1642–44” were not his. The History of Weymouth assigns them to his father John Gurney Sr. (G13), dated as early as 3 Feb. 1651–52 and “subsequently granted to others” (Weymouth Land Grants 258, 270, 278, 282); John never permanently settled at Weymouth. This corrects the attribution and dissolves the apparent age problem — Richard was a child in the 1640s — and the “before 1642–44” figure turns out to have no basis in the source (it traced only to an early structured-data entry). The G13 data spine already carries the correct John-Sr / 1651–52 reading.[1]

Each grant is now tracked as its own place record. Richard’s homestead is at the South Weymouth Great Pond (west side); his father John Sr.'s earlier grants cluster in East Weymouth around Whitman’s Pond (Fresh Pond) — the great lot east of Whitman’s Pond, the East Field, and the Mill Field. Whether Richard’s homestead sat west of the South Weymouth Great Pond (per the 1683 grant) or toward Old Spain / Back River in North Weymouth (per Rigler) is an open location question.

Richard’s intestate administration found — County Court at Boston, 27 October 1691

Richard’s administration record, long an open item, is in Suffolk County probate. Working transcription from the registry copy: “At a County Court holden in Boston October 27. 1691 Full Power to administer all & singular the Goods, Chattels, rights & Creditts of the Estate of Richard Gurney late of Waymouth decd intestate is granted unto Zechoriah Gurney & Richard Gurney two of the Sonnes of the decd, John Gurney the Eldest son refusing to administer; they bringing in an Inventory of the sd decd Estate & giving bond to administer the same according to Law. Attest Joseph Webb Cler.”[2]

Three consequences:

  1. Death by 27 October 1691 is confirmed, settling the Torrey-1691 vs Weymouth-1719 conflict in Torrey’s favour (the 1719 entry most plausibly belongs to son Richard³).
  2. Richard’s eldest son John was alive on 27 October 1691 — he declined administration. This contradicts the compiled tradition (Sprague p. 695; the project’s earlier structured data) that Richard’s son John was killed at the Mendon massacre in 1675. The Mendon casualty is therefore most plausibly John Jr., G13’s son (of Weymouth and Mendon, witness to G13’s 1661 deed), not Richard’s son — see the next section and the disentanglement note in the G13 companion.
  3. The co-administrators were Zachariah and Richard — confirming Richard³ (b. 18 January 1656 in the Weymouth birth register) as a living adult son in 1691, alongside the Weymouth-recorded eldest three (Richard, John, Zachariah).

A FamilySearch full-text index of the 1678–1683 Suffolk County (Boston-registry) deeds had surfaced apparent “Gourney” entries (a John at p. 80, an Elizabeth at p. 343), raising the prospect of deeds by Richard’s son John and his wife Elizabeth Green. Read against the printed Suffolk Deeds, Liber XII (1902), this resolves negatively for the direct line: the only G-surname family in the 1678–1683 deeds (Libers XI–XII) is the distinct Gurnell family of Dorchester — John Gurnell, tanner (deceased by 1682), and his widow and sole executrix Jane Gurnell, with index members Anne, George, John, and Richard Gurnell at Lib. XII pp. 84, 200, 256, 308, 309, 310. The printed indexes carry no Elizabeth of the surname and nothing of it at p. 343, so the indexed “Elizabeth Gourney, 343” is a FamilySearch machine-transcript artifact, not a genuine record; John³ Gurney and Elizabeth Green of Weymouth do not appear as parties in these deeds. (The Gurnell↔Gurney visual/OCR confusion is what generated the false “Gourney” index reading.) Verbatim extracts: sources/corpus_supplement/suffolk-deeds-liber-xii-gurnell-dorchester.md.[3]

Inventory and administration bond, November 1691 — the original probate file located

The probate file behind the 27 October 1691 administration survives in two layers, both now located: the original Suffolk County file papers (file no. 1890) and the registry copy of the inventory (vol. 21, p. 294). They add the estate’s substance and confirm Rigler’s bond details at the original-record level.

The inventory, taken by apprizers “chosen thereunto by the surviving children of ye sd Richard Gurney decd,” is headed by the homestead: “A Dwelling house & barne with about six Acres of land adjoyning.” The household goods run to coarse towels, two chests, rugs and six chairs, a flock bed and feather bolster, flax and pewter — a modest yeoman household. Zechariah and Richard Gurney, the administrators, made oath in County Court at Boston, 3 November 1691, “that this is a true Inventory of the Estate of their late father Richd Gurney late of Waymouth decd so fare as is come to their hands & that when more appears they will” account for it. The machine transcript reads the sum total as 105:11:00 (£105 11s) — a provisional reading pending examination of the page image. The apprizers read provisionally as Deacon Michaiah [Micajah] Torrey and Thomas Ran[dall], both familiar Weymouth names.[4]

The administration bond, 3 November 1691, binds “Richard [Gurney] & Zechariah G[u]rney, Joseph Green and John Richards all of Waymouth in the County of Suffolk in New England”; its condition recites that administration of the estate of “Richard Gurney late of Waymouth Deceased intestate” was granted to the above-bound Gurneys, who are to exhibit an inventory at the registry. Signatures: Zechariah Gurney and Richd Gurney, witnessed by Giles Dyer and Joseph Wall(?). This confirms the bondsmen Joseph Green and John Richards that Rigler reported — and bondsman Joseph Green is the surname of the eldest son John’s wife Elizabeth Green, suggesting the family called on a Green in-law to stand surety.[5]

“John Gurney land” in a 1690 Weymouth abuttal — the Ludden inventory

The inventory of Benjamin Ludden of Weymouth (died 25 November 1690; appraised 29 December 1690, brought in by his widow Eunice) lists his “pasture wood [lot] … [adjoining] to John Gurney['s] land,” valued with the home parcels, plus “one acer of Salt medow at Brantry.” In 1690 the live John Gurney at Weymouth is Richard’s eldest son John³ (m. Elizabeth Green), so the abuttal most plausibly names his land — or the family parcel still carrying the old name. The Luddens are the family whose James Ludden co-petitioned with John Gurney-1 on the Weymouth gunpowder fines in the 1640s; the two families were still neighbours two generations on.[6]

Mendon massacre, 14 July 1675

The John Gurney killed at the Mendon massacre of 14 July 1675 — the opening bloodshed of King Philip’s War, when Nipmuc fighters struck the frontier town — was Richard’s brother John (a son of the emigrant John Gurney-1, G13), not Richard’s son. The 27 October 1691 administration settles it: Richard’s eldest son John was alive that day and declined to administer his father’s estate, so he cannot be the 1675 casualty. The standard King Philip’s War histories (Drake, Bourne, et al.) and Sprague’s Genealogies of Braintree (p. 695, “of Weymouth/Mendon; killed at Mendon, July 1675”) record the casualty under the John Gurney-1 family group; the older attribution to Richard’s son arose from merging the two same-named cousins. Full treatment of the Mendon victim (John Jr., the Mendon householder with wife Ruth) sits on the G13 companion; the bearing on Richard is only that the dead man was his brother.

Zachariah’s King Philip’s War service (Bodge, p. 113 and p. 236)

Richard’s son Zachariah (b. c. 1660, m. Mary Benson) appears by name in the 1676 muster rolls, supplying the primary record behind the “King Philip’s War soldier” tag carried only as an unsourced note in Robert G. Rigler’s c. 1980 worksheet. Bodge’s Soldiers in King Philip’s War records him twice: “Zachariah Gurny,” credited under Captain Isaac Johnson’s company (a pay credit dated 24 July, £2 14s, p. 113); and “Zacha-ry Gorney” of Weymouth, returned among the men who failed to appear at the Concord muster of Captain John Holbrooke’s company on 29 April 1676 — the company Holbrooke raised that spring to “range the woods towards Hassanamesit” (p. 236). At roughly fifteen or sixteen he was a youth soldier; he survived the war, married Mary Benson, and was alive in 1691 to co-administer his father’s estate. The same Captain Johnson’s-company material carries his older uncle Peter on the facing page (p. 114; see the G13 companion) — the grown uncle in the front-line December 1675 muster, the teenaged nephew only in the lighter 1676 records. Bodge’s index (p. 364) groups the surname under “Gorney / Gurney” at pp. 113, 114, 236 — the book’s only Gurney references.[7]

Rebecca Taylor’s father’s will

The 1688 reference is the only firm record of Rebecca Taylor’s family. The will should be findable in Plymouth County or Suffolk County (Boston) probate, depending on Taylor’s residence. Direct examination is the next research step on Rebecca’s parentage.

Freeman 1681

Richard’s freeman admission is fixed to 12 October 1681, his residence given as Weymouth. Paige’s List of Freemen of Massachusetts keys the entry to the Colony Records, Vol. V, pp. 320–321 — i.e. the published Records of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay (MBCR), the standard primary source for Freeman admissions.[8] A second, independent MBCR locator pins the same admission: the printed volume’s own sworn-freemen list, MBCR 5:540, names “Rich’d Gurney” among a Weymouth cohort (Tho: White, Tho: Bayly, Joseph Dyer, Obadiah Sayle, Jn Shaw Jun.), dated 1681 by list position.[9] The two locators (pp. 320–321 and p. 540) have not been reconciled against the page images — a full-text sweep of the volume found no other Gurney entry there beyond this one and the unrelated Gurnell/Burg items.

Negative results

  • No will or probate for Richard (he died intestate in 1691, so administration only — the administrator’s record may still be in Plymouth County probate).
  • Date of marriage to Rebecca Taylor not captured.
  • Other children beyond Benjamin (G11), John Jr., and Zachariah not documented in this companion. Sprague’s family group is the obvious source.
  • The full list of John Gurney-1’s children that Sprague preserves on p. 695 is reproduced in research/people/g13-john-gurney-fact-sheet.research.md rather than here.

Children list and death-year conflict from History of Weymouth and Torrey

The 1923 History of Weymouth, Vol. 3, “Genealogy of Weymouth families,” gives Richard Gurney a children-list and a death year that both conflict with this file and with the G13 companion. Weymouth says Richard “died at Weymouth in Oct. 1719” and lists three Weymouth-born children: Richard3 b. 18 Jan. 1656; John b. near 1658; Zachariah b. near 1660. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700, page 331, gives Richard’s death year as 1691 and his marriage to Rebecca Taylor “b 1656(7?), b 1654” at Weymouth.

The conflicts are real and should be preserved rather than silently merged:

  • Death year. Torrey: -1691. History of Weymouth: Oct. 1719. The G13 companion currently follows Torrey (“Died intestate October 1691”). The Weymouth 1719 date may reflect the death of his son Richard3 (b. 18 Jan. 1656) being conflated with the father, or it may be a separate well-grounded town-record date. Plymouth County or Suffolk County probate is the right next step before changing the preferred year.
  • Children list. The G13 companion currently lists Richard’s children as John (killed at the Mendon massacre 1675), Zachariah, Joseph (b. 22 Feb. 1664/65), Mary (b. 9 Sept. 1667), and Benjamin (G11, c. 1676). Weymouth gives only Richard, John, and Zachariah. Joseph, Mary, and Benjamin are absent from Weymouth’s three-child list. Treat Weymouth as a confirmed-eldest-three sequence with explicit Weymouth-recorded birth dates rather than a closed list.
  • Surname spellings. Weymouth notes the surname “is found spelled Garey, Garry, Gerry, and Gurny.” Use this when searching New England town and probate records for Richard.
  • Wife. Weymouth gives “Rebecca Taylor, probably daughter of John and Phebe Taylor of Weymouth.” This is the first explicit Phebe Taylor parent name preserved here for Rebecca and matches the existing 1688 Taylor will lead.[1][10]

Weymouth town birth register — primary confirmation of Richard²’s children and the Weymouth-era descendants

The manuscript “Classified Record of Weymouth Births” (alphabetised by surname; copied 1879 by Gilbert Nash) registers the whole Weymouth Gurney family on a single page, 1656–1732 — the town-record layer beneath the printed History of Weymouth. Its Gurney section in full:

Child Parents Birth
Richard Richard & Rebecca 18 Jan. 1656
Joseph Richard & Rebecca 22 Feb. 1664
Mary Richard & Rebecca 9 Sept. 1667
Elizabeth John & Elizabeth 5 May 1689
Zechariah Zechariah & Mary 19 Nov. 1695
Joseph Zechariah & Mary 7 Mar. 1698
Jacob Zechariah & Mary 31 Oct. 1706
Mary Zechariah & Mary 24 Nov. 1711
Rebecca Benjamin & Rebecca 22 Nov. 1702
Sarah Zechariah & Sarah 7 May 1727
Zechariah Zechariah & Sarah 7 Mar. 1729
Elisha Zechariah & Sarah 30 June 1731
Elijah Nathan & Sarah 15 May 1732

The first three are Richard² Gurney (G12) and Rebecca (Taylor)'s children, fixed to the day — Richard³ 18 Jan. 1656, Joseph 22 Feb. 1664 (Rigler’s 1664/5), Mary 9 Sept. 1667 — matching Rigler’s reconciled set at the level of the original town record rather than the 1923 compilation. The rest are Richard²’s descendants through three of his sons: grandchildren via John³ & Elizabeth (Green) (Elizabeth 1689), via Zachariah³ & Mary (Benson) (Zechariah 1695, Joseph 1698, Jacob 1706, Mary 1711); and great-grandchildren via Zachariah⁴ & Sarah (Jackson) (Sarah 1727, Zechariah 1729, Elisha 1731). The single Benjamin & Rebecca entry is the direct line — Rebecca, daughter of Benjamin Gurney (G11) and Rebecca (Staples), 22 Nov. 1702, the same daughter (later Rebeckah Taylor) named in G11’s will (see the G11 companion). The last entry, Elijah son of Nathan & Sarah (Harden), 15 May 1732, is the foster-father Nathan’s son (see the Nathan companion).

Two coverage notes. The Gurney section ends in 1732, consistent with the line’s departure from Weymouth for Abington and Middleborough. And it does not list Richard²’s eldest sons John (b. c.1654/8) or Zachariah³ (b. c.1660), nor son Benjamin G11 (b. c.1676), though it carries their sibling Richard³ (1656) — a partial gap (pre-registration births, recording elsewhere, or omission) not resolved here.[11]

Weymouth town death register — death dates for Richard²’s children, and the primary entry behind the 1719/1691 confusion

The companion deaths volume of the same Nash classified record (the title page notes “2 vols”) carries the Gurney deaths on a single page:

Decedent Death
Richard Oct. 1719
Zechariah, Senior 27 Oct. 1732
Mary 14 Feb. 1736
Joseph, Senior 14 Dec. 1739
Jacob 1 Sept. 1793 (æ. 87)
Elizabeth, wife of Jacob 19 Sept. 1794 (æ. 78)

“Richard, Oct. 1719” is the primary Weymouth entry behind the long-standing death-year confusion. It is Richard³ (b. 18 Jan. 1656, unmarried), the son — not Richard² Gurney (G12), who died in October 1691 (Suffolk Co. administration). The History of Weymouth misread this 1719 death as the father’s; Rigler corrected it; this register is the underlying record and confirms the correction. Richard² himself is not in the Gurney death section, consistent with his 1691 death and Suffolk (not Weymouth) probate.

The register also fixes exact death dates for two more of Richard²’s children, previously year-only in Rigler: Joseph “Senior,” 14 Dec. 1739 (b. 22 Feb. 1664/5, unmarried; “Senior” distinguishing him from his nephew Joseph, Zachariah³’s son, b. 1698), and Mary, 14 Feb. 1736 (Rigler “d. 1736”). Mary’s identity carries a genuine ambiguity: the absent “wife of” tag points to Richard²’s unmarried daughter Mary (b. 9 Sept. 1667), but the History of Weymouth read this same 14 Feb. 1736 Mary as Zachariah³’s wife Mary (Benson) — preserved here as a conflict, not resolved. Zechariah “Senior,” 27 Oct. 1732 is Richard²’s son Zachariah³ (b. c.1660, m. Mary Benson), confirming the History of Weymouth date. The last two — Jacob (d. 1793, æ. 87, so b. c.1706 = Zachariah³’s son Jacob, b. 31 Oct. 1706 in the birth register) and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1794, æ. 78) — are later collateral.

Read with the birth register above, this fixes both ends of life at town-record level for three of Richard² G12’s children: Richard³ (1656–1719), Joseph (1664/5–1739), and Mary (1667–1736).[12]

The Weymouth Gurney family’s continuity — the Abington/Bridgewater branch

The History of Weymouth (vol. 2, “Extinct Weymouth Families”) sketches the family’s arc: “The Gurneys were also an ancient family, Richard, of Weymouth, having children born to him … from 1656 to 1667. The family … continues its name for four generations, the last survivor being Jacob, who died in 1793, when the name became extinct in Weymouth. It is yet green and flourishing in towns to the south, Abington and Bridgewater, branches from the main trunk that had its root in this town.” It adds, from Hobart’s History of Abington, that “John was the original settler [of the Abington branch], having sons Richard, David and Nathan” — the John who moved from Weymouth to south Abington about 1690 (a son of Richard² G12), distinct from the emigrant John Gurney Sr. (G13). The Weymouth line ran Richard² → Zachariah³ (held the Front Street property by about 1700) → Jacob (d. 1793, name extinct in Weymouth); the southern continuation — including the direct line through Benjamin G11 — carried the name to Abington, Bridgewater, and Middleboro.[13]

A separate datum ties a young eighteenth-century Gurney to the Weymouth Pratts: in the will of John Pratt of Weymouth (made 12 July 1714, proved 19 November 1716), “my Kinsman John Gurney” is left £25 at 21 “if he live with me so long as I live.” The kinship route is unworked (the legatee, a minor in 1714, was born after about 1693 — a Richard² descendant), but it documents a Gurney–Pratt tie, echoed when Mary Gurney, daughter of Zachariah³, married John Pratt of Weymouth in 1733/34.[14]

Open Questions

  1. History of Weymouth land grants — resolved. The transcribed History of Weymouth (Vol. 3) settles it: the “East field / mill field / east side of Great Pond” grants are John Gurney Sr.'s (G13), not Richard’s (Weymouth Land Grants 258, 270, 278, 282); Richard’s own land is the 1683 six-acre west-side grant at p. 251. The dating is now sharpened: the East Field and Mill Field parcels (pp. 258, 270, 278) are recorded in Nash’s 1643 property list as “first granted/given to John Gurny/Gurnie” and already held by other men by 1643, while only the great lot (no. 16, p. 282) is the 2 Feb. 1651–52 Second Division. The old “before 1642–44 / Richard” reading erred in attributing the grants to Richard; the 1642–44 dating itself has a basis (Nathaniel Adams’ “granted between 1642 and 1644” entry and Nash’s 1643 record). See the Weymouth-land section above. Remaining: capture the p. 251 page image for the exact 1683 vote wording and paging.
  2. Probate file — resolved (Suffolk, not Plymouth). The administration, inventory, and bond are all in Suffolk County probate: registry copies (admon vol. p. 160; inventory vol. 21, p. 294) and original file papers no. 1890. See the administration and inventory sections above. Remaining: image-verify the inventory total (~£105 11s) and apprizer names.
  3. Rebecca Taylor’s father’s will, proved 1688 — located (Suffolk Prob. 6:13). John Taylor’s will (written 6 Jan., proved 22 May 1688) names “his daughter Rebecca, wife of Richard Gurney” (via Rigler). Remaining: pull the image and resolve the mother’s name — Rebecca per the will vs Phebe per the History of Weymouth.
  4. Massachusetts Bay Freeman admission, 1681 — resolved (date and reference). Paige’s List of Freemen fixes the application to 12 Oct. 1681 at Weymouth, keyed to Colony Records Vol. V, pp. 320–321. The MBCR page image itself remains to be pulled for full verification.
  5. Mendon massacre primary records — eyewitness accounts and the official town-meeting record naming the dead, if recoverable.
  6. Richard’s death year — resolved (1691). Richard-2 died intestate by Oct. 1691 (Suffolk Co. administration, sons Richard and Zachariah, eldest son John refusing). The History of Weymouth “Oct. 1719” date is the son’s — Richard³ (b. 18 Jan. 1656, unmarried) — confirmed by the Weymouth death register’s “Richard, Oct. 1719” with Richard-2 himself absent from the Weymouth deaths. Detail in the administration, Weymouth-death-register, and Rigler-findings sections above.
  7. Children of Richard2: confirm whether Joseph (b. 22 Feb. 1664/65), Mary (b. 9 Sept. 1667), and Benjamin (G11, c. 1676) belong to Richard2 alongside the Weymouth-listed Richard3 (b. 18 Jan. 1656), John (b. near 1658), and Zachariah (b. near 1660); examine the underlying Weymouth town and church records.

Rigler (1994) findings — direct page audit

Jean Gurney Rigler’s Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius (1994) carries a full Richard-2 entry, transcribed at sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-gurney-aaron-zuinglius-g9-g12-extract.md. It resolves several open points on this person.

Death year — 1691, not 1719. Rigler: “Hist. of Weymouth was in error in stating his death date as 1719 which in fact, belonged to his son, Richard.” Richard-2 died Oct. 1691, intestate; the 1719 date belongs to son Richard (b. 18 Jan. 1656, d. Oct. 1719, unmarried).[15]

Administration, 1691. Suffolk Co. Probate, 1691; bond on the estate of Richard Gurney, Sr.; administrators were sons Richard and Zachariah Gurney, “John Gurney the eldest son refusing”; bondsmen Joseph Green and John Richards. The eldest son John being alive in 1691 is the key datum reattributing the Mendon death below.[15]

Mendon massacre reattributed off Richard’s son. Because the eldest son John (b. c. 1654, m. Elizabeth Green) was alive to refuse administration in 1691, the 1675 Mendon victim John was not Richard’s son but a son of the emigrant John Gurney-1 (G13) — Richard’s brother — as is Peter, “a soldier in Johnson’s Co. Dec. 1675, killed in King Philip’s War, Dec. 1676.” This matches the G13 companion’s lead L-17 note about the conflated Mendon-1675 John, and corrects the G12 fact sheet’s earlier “his son John was killed at the Mendon massacre.”[15]

Rebecca Taylor’s parentage. Daughter of John and Rebecca Taylor of Weymouth; John Taylor’s will (Suffolk Prob. 6:13, written 6 Jan., proved 22 May 1688) names “his daughter Rebecca, wife of Richard Gurney,” alongside wife Rebecca and son John Taylor. The mother’s name conflicts with the History of Weymouth “Phebe Taylor” reading — Rebecca per the will, Phebe per Weymouth — so preserve both.[15][1]

Children of Richard-2 (Weymouth VR). A fuller, reconciled set, ending the Weymouth-vs-companion children conflict: John (b. c. 1654, m. Elizabeth Green); Richard (b. 18 Jan. 1656, d. 1719, unmarried); Zachariah (b. c. 1660, m. Mary Benson); Joseph (b. 22 Feb. 1664/5, d. 1739, unmarried); Mary (b. 9 Sept. 1667, d. 1736, unmarried); and Benjamin (G11, b. c. 1676, m. Rebecca Staples).[15]

Rigler worksheet (c. 1980) — pre-revision draft of the Richard-2 entry

An earlier Rigler family-group worksheet for Richard-2 (signed Robert G. Rigler, M.D.) predates the 1994 entry and shows the children before the reattribution: it lists Peter (“killed in King Phillips War, Dec. 1676”) and Sarah (m. John Vinson) as Richard’s own children, and tags Zachariah a King Philip’s War soldier. The 1994 edition moves Peter and Sarah to the John Gurney-1 (G13) sibling set — so the worksheet captures the superseded arrangement and shows that the reattribution adopted above was the author’s own later correction, not an outside emendation. The worksheet also calls eldest son John “of Little Comfort,” Weymouth; its “Sources of Information” box is blank.[16]

Sources Consulted

Sources to obtain

  • History of Weymouth, Massachusetts (1923 four-volume town history). Direct text for p. 251 and the “before 1642–44” land entries.
  • Plymouth County, Massachusetts, probate records — Richard Gurney administration 1691; Rebecca Taylor’s father’s will 1688.
  • Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England (Shurtleff ed.) — Freeman admissions 1681.
  • Drake, The Book of the Indians, for the Mendon casualties of 14 July 1675. (Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip’s War, now examined — see the Zachariah service note above and the G13 companion for Peter; Source ID bodge-soldiers-king-philips-war-1891.)

Notes for Future Drafting

  • The Mendon massacre entry is one of the most powerful single facts in the whole colonial-American chapter and should be preserved in any future revision.
  • The “before 1642–44” land grants are the family’s earliest documented New England property record. Resolving the apparent age inconsistency (Richard was a child in those years) is a research priority.
  • The Weymouth “east field / mill field / east side of Great Pond” geography deserves a place file and map note in research/places/weymouth-ma.md at some future point.

  1. History of Weymouth, Massachusetts, 4 vols. (Weymouth, Mass.: Weymouth Historical Society, 1923), Vol. 3, Genealogy of Weymouth families, Richard Gurney entry; Ancestry.com collection 21610 image dvm_LocHist007443-00634-1; transcribed extract at sources/corpus_supplement/history-of-weymouth-vol3-gurney.md. Source ID: history-of-weymouth. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Probate Records 1636-1766 (registry copy volume), image 448 of 585, FamilySearch ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9Y5-GKGB, administration entry for Richard Gurney late of Weymouth, County Court at Boston, 27 October 1691. Read against the page image at screen zoom 2026-06-09: the image confirms the operative clauses (“Estate of Richard Gurney late of Waymouth,” “granted unto Zechariah Gurney & Richard Gurney two of the Sonns of the s’d dec’d,” “John Gurney the Eldest son refusing to administer,” “Attest Joseph Webb Cler”), including the parse making John the eldest son of the deceased Richard; marginal head “Gurney Adm,” volume page 160. A full-resolution media capture remains optional. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  3. Suffolk Deeds, Liber XII (Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1902), the printed edition of the manuscript registry deed book covering c. 1681–1684 (Internet Archive suffolkdeeds11suff); the only G-surname presence is the Gurnell family of Dorchester (John Gurnell, tanner, dec’d; executrix Jane Gurnell; index Anne/George/John/Richard at pp. 84/200/256/308/309/310). No “Gourney”/“Gurney” and no Elizabeth of the surname appears; the earlier FamilySearch full-text index entries “Gourney, John, 80” / “Elizabeth, 343” (located 2026-06-09) are machine-transcript artifacts over this Gurnell material. Verbatim extract at sources/corpus_supplement/suffolk-deeds-liber-xii-gurnell-dorchester.md. Source IDs: suffolk-deeds-liber-12-1902; familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  4. Inventory of Richard Gurney Sr. of Weymouth, died intestate, taken October–November 1691; oath of administrators Zechariah and Richard Gurney, County Court at Boston, 3 Nov. 1691. Registry copy: Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Probate Records 1636–1766, vol. 21, p. 294, FamilySearch image 504, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9Y5-GK2S. Original file copy: Suffolk County Probate file papers no. 1890, FamilySearch image 469, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS6X-2S7V-S, with the docket cover at image 470, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS6X-2S7N-1. Quotations follow the machine transcript; the sum total and apprizer names await image verification. Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  5. Administration bond of Richard and Zechariah Gurney with Joseph Green and John Richards, all of Weymouth, 3 Nov. 1691, Suffolk County Probate file papers no. 1890, FamilySearch image 471, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS6X-2S7K-X. Confirms the bondsmen named in Rigler (Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  6. Inventory of Benjamin Ludden of Weymouth, d. 25 Nov. 1690, appraised 29 Dec. 1690; Suffolk County, Massachusetts probate file papers, FamilySearch film 102907158, image 964, ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS6K-NQFW-N. Machine transcript; flagged by Allen 2026-06-10 (lead L-102). Source ID: familysearch-fulltext-search. ↩︎

  7. George Madison Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip’s War (Boston: Printed for the Author, 1891), p. 113 (“Zachariah Gurny,” Captain Isaac Johnson’s company credit roll, 24 July credit, £2 14s) and p. 236 (“Zacha-ry Gorney” of Weymouth, defaulter at the 29 April 1676 Concord muster of Captain John Holbrooke’s company; Mass. Archives 69:12), with the name index at p. 364. The entries were confirmed against the page images; the OCR text layer drops the p. 113 entry. Provides the primary documentation for the soldier tag in Robert G. Rigler’s c. 1980 worksheet (Source ID: rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980). Verbatim extracts at sources/corpus_supplement/bodge-soldiers-king-philips-war-1891-gurney-extracts.md. Source ID: bodge-soldiers-king-philips-war-1891. ↩︎

  8. Lucius R. Paige, List of Freemen of Massachusetts, 1630–1691 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1849), Richard Gurney, application 12 Oct. 1681, Weymouth, keyed to Colony Records (C.R.) Vol. V, pp. 320–321; accessed via Ancestry.com, “Massachusetts, U.S., Applications of Freemen, 1630–1691,” collection 4296, record 3598. Index-level; not yet image-verified against MBCR. Source ID: paige-list-freemen-massachusetts-1849. ↩︎

  9. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, vol. 5, 1674–1686 (Boston: William White, 1854), p. 540, Internet Archive item recordsofgoverno05mass. Index/full-text-sweep level; not yet image-verified. Source ID: massachusetts-bay-records-v5-1854. ↩︎

  10. Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004), p. 331, Richard Gurney entry; Ancestry.com collection 3824 image gpc_newenglandmarriages-0347 (pId=51825); transcribed extract at sources/corpus_supplement/torrey-new-england-marriages-prior-1700-page-331-gurney.md. Source ID: torrey-new-england-marriages-prior-1700. ↩︎

  11. “Classified Record of Weymouth Births [to 1843–4],” p. 75 (Gurney section), manuscript copied 1879 by Gilbert Nash, purchased by the Town of Weymouth March 1890; Ancestry, “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988” (Holbrook), collection 2495, record 14720071. Page image held local-only at sources/media/weymouth-classified-record-births-nash/_local/. Source ID: weymouth-classified-record-births-nash. ↩︎

  12. “Classified Record of Weymouth Deaths,” p. 208 (Gurney section), manuscript copied 1879 by Gilbert Nash, purchased by the Town of Weymouth March 1890 — the deaths companion volume to the births register; Ancestry, “Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988” (Holbrook), collection 2495. Page image held local-only at sources/media/weymouth-classified-record-deaths-nash/_local/. Source ID: weymouth-classified-record-deaths-nash. ↩︎

  13. History of Weymouth, Massachusetts (1923), vol. 2, “Extinct Weymouth Families: Gurney” (~pp. 467-468); extract at sources/corpus_supplement/history-of-weymouth-additional-gurney-references.md. Source ID: history-of-weymouth. ↩︎

  14. History of Weymouth, Massachusetts (1923), vol. 4, will of John Pratt of Weymouth (made 12 July 1714, proved 19 November 1716); extract at sources/corpus_supplement/history-of-weymouth-additional-gurney-references.md. Source ID: history-of-weymouth. ↩︎

  15. Jean Gurney Rigler, The Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius: A Genealogical Dictionary, rev. ed. (Honolulu: J. G. Rigler, 1994), Richard-2 entry (p. 203), with the adjacent John Gurney-1 children Peter and Sarah. Transcribed at sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-gurney-aaron-zuinglius-g9-g12-extract.md. Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  16. Robert G. Rigler, M.D., Gurney family-group worksheet for Richard² Gurney, c. 1980 (Honolulu); the earlier working draft behind the 1994 edition, which supersedes it. Image held local-only at sources/media/rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980/_local/; transcription at sources/corpus_supplement/rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980-worksheets-extract.md. Source ID: rigler-genealogy-notes-c1980. ↩︎