Hello,
I recently pushed out a new image of our family coat of arms. I did this because a distant family member contacted me about the logo I was posting on the website, which had our family being established in the year 1635. In reality, one of our direct ancestors, Ephraim Childs, arrived near what is today Boston in the year 1630.
This Blog Post gives a little history on Ephraim and why our ancestors came to America.
Cameron Childs
Deacon Ephraim Child
Ephraim came over from England to the New World with other puritans. He was among the most affluent of the early settlers and was one of the senior member of the group that settled in the New World under the Massachusetts Bay Charter lead by John Winthrop. As a deacon, Ephraim likely handled financial matters and assisted the minister in leading the church.
Below is a video that provides a good overview of the movement that our ancestors played a part of. An original land plot of the town of Waterton shows two land plots given to E.Childs, Ephraim Childs. Ephraim was a Deacon at the church across from the land given to him. Today only a graveyard remains next to Watertown High School outside of Boston, Massachusetts.
Ephraim Childs left his estate to three nephews, two of whom lived in Watertown, and one of them being our direct ancestor John Child. Look for the two plots labeled “E.Childs” in the bottom center of the map just below a church.
The Puritan Movement
The Puritans were for reforming the Church of England in the late 16th century. They believed the Church of England was too much like the Roman Catholic Church and believed the church should eliminate ceremonies and practices not rooted in the Bible.
Puritans are not the same as Pilgrams who wanted to leave the Church of England completely. The Puritans felt that they had a direct covenant with God to enact change within the Church. Under siege from Church and crown, certain groups of Puritans migrated to Northern English colonies in the New World to include the Winthrop movement in the 1630s. This laid the foundation for the religious, intellectual, and social order of New England. They set up gathered church such as the one Deacon Ephraim Childs proceeded over on much the same model as the transplanted church at Plymouth.