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Into the sunset to a new life in a new land...
>> Sunday, January 24, 2010
John GATCHELL, wife "Wibera" (true spelling unknown), and brother Samuel sailed from Weymouth on the Hopewell in May 1635 for Massachusetts Bay, where John and Wibera settled on Marblehead Neck near present-day Salem. They "lived in that part of Salem which was incorporated as Marblehead in 1648" (History of Salem, MA: Vol. I (1626-1637), Heresy, p. 444).
John was born about 1609 in Somersetshire, England, and christened at St. Augustine's, the parish church in West Monkton. His younger brother Samuel was also christened there. Wibera's birthplace is unknown. [There's also evidence a third brother, Richard, also briefly joined John and Samuel in Salem, then returned to Somersetshire, where he died around 1669.]
