Nicholas Easton, b. 1601 in Lymington, Hampshire, England, one of the author’s 8th great grandfathers, arrived in 1634 on the ship Mary & John with his two sons, Nicholas and John. Easton’s first wife and the mother of four sons had died in 1630 and two sons had also died. He married twice more but had no more children with either of his subsequent wives. Easton worked closely with John Coggeshall (also the author’s 8th great grandfather), who arrived in 1632 on the ship Lyon, in the development and planning of the colony’s government and laws. Roger Willams came to North America on the same ship as John Coggeshall and all three were among those instrumental in the governance and development of what would become, years later, the state of Rhode Island. Two generations of the offspring of Easton and Coggeshall married as in seen in their descendant lineages, suggesting a continuing closeness of the two families.
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