Notes:
Baptised as 'John Gorram, Son of Ralph Gorram' as entered on 28 Jan 1620/21 in the register of Benefield, Northamptonshire, England. The Northamptonshire branch of the Gorhams are supposed to have descended from Sir High de Gorham and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir William l'Angevin. Sir Hugh de Gorham, in 1281, possessed the manor of Churchfield in the parish of Oundle, and land in Benefield which had belonged to his wife's father.
John emmigrated to America from England as a passenger aboard the "Philip", Richard Morgan, Master, bound for No. America on 20 June 1635. He must have settled first at the Plymouth, MA, for he was recorded there about 1637 and in 1643 his name was on a muster roll of men able to bear arms in Plymouth. In 1638-39 John is recorded as having a partnership in Duxbury with one John Rogers.
The exact date of his marriage is not known but Desire, his wife, was called 'Desire Gorum' in her father's will dated 29 May 1672. On 8 March 1648, Desire's father, John Howland, sold to his "son-in-law, John Gorum", half of the lands in Marshfield that he had bought from Governor William Bradford. Additional proof that Desire Howland married John Gorham was found in a land transaction dated 16 February 1673 in which "John Gorum Sen of Barnstable" sold to George Dawson, "now resident at Barnstable", land in Middleboro formerly belonging to John Howland and Elizabeth, his wife, and given to the said John Gorum before John Howland's death. The transaction was witnessed by Joseph Laythorpe and John Thompson, and acknowledged 24 February 1673 before Thomas Hinckley, Assistant. Desire, wife of John Gorum gave her consent 30 April 1674. John received a land grant in Plymouth on December 18, 1638 and he and Desire Gorham lived in Plymouth after the birth of their first child, Desire, 2 April 1644, and then moved to Marshfield. (Their great-grandson, Col. John Gorham, in his "Wast Book," recorded that "John Gorum, alias Gorham - which Son after Having Marryed With an Howland and Had Sevrall Children Went home to England and Returned Soone again to his family . . . Moved From Marshfield to Barnstable and Settled there in order to begin a township Called Barnstable.")
In 1648 John Gorham was chosen constable of Marshfield. He was made a freeman 4 Jun 1650 and in 1651 he became a member of the Grand Inquest of Plymouth Colony. He and his family moved to Yarmouth, Mass. in 1652 and then went on to nearby Barnstable where his was one of the better farms in the Colony. He also owned a gristmill known as Hallett's Mill and a wharf landing nearby. Not far away he had a tannery. He was a surveyor of highways in 1654. In Barnstable he reared his family and became an influential man in local affairs as a selectman (representative) and a landed proprietor. Some of the Gorham houses still remain in Barnstable. It is reported that the town of Gorham, Maine, was named for him and a monument was erected in his memory, (although the reason for these honors is not apparent to this compiler).
On Oct 4, 1675 he was captain of a company raised for defense from the Indians and it is learned from page 557 of "The Pilgrim Republic an Historical Review of the Colony Of New Plymouth" by John A. Goodwin that Captain John Gorham was in command of a company of volunteers, the 2nd Barnstable Company, who were formed to help fight the renegade Indian "King" (Chief) Philip and his collection of tribes. Following a battle in Narragansett, RI, during December of 1675, "The Great Swamp Fight", in which the colonists fared badly, a retreat was mounted through a midnight snowstorm resulting in the deaths of many colonists from wounds and exposure. Captain Gorham was wounded by having his powder horn shot which split against his side, and he was severely weakened further from exposure. He died of the resulting fever.
While Barnstable is given as his residence at the time of his death, he nonetheless must have died in Swansea, Bristol Co., MA as it is so stated in that town's record's. Elizabeth Pearson White in "John Howland of the Mayflower" gives John Gorham's date of burial as 5 February 1676/1677. While there exist other references with different dates, the White work is considered the best researched historical reference available to date. However, if he died from wounds received in the Narragansett battle of December 1675 then a burial in Feburary 1676 seems most reasonable. In 1777, his heirs were granted 100 acres of land at Papequash Neck in Swansea. Only the date of John's burial is recorded, not his death.
Nathaniel Gorham, President of the Continental Congress, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Pres. George Bush are some of the more famous descendants of John Gorham.
Notes:
It comes to us as ancient lore that Desire's father, John Howland, wanted his first daughter named after a young girl "Desire" who was on the ship "Mayflower" with him and with whom he had taken particular fancy. She, however, returned to England at the first opportunity and John remained with the colony.
Some researchers place the date of Desire's marriage to John as 6 November 1644. If so, there must have been some un-Puritan-like hanky-panky going on during their courtship - Somebody might have forgotten to install the bundling board.
Notes:
John Jr. came with his parents to Hingham, Massachusetts in 1635. The family residence was Otis Hill in Hingham and John lived there after his parents death until 1661 when he moved to Scituate, MA, where he had a grant of land. He lived on land which he purchased of Deacon Thomas Robinson, the house being on the south side of Coleman's Hill, where General Cudworth had formerly lived. He also owned part of the Conihassett Purchase, now part of Abington and Hanover. In 1668-69 he is mentioned as a landholder on Otis Hill.
In 1678 he moved to Barnstable and lived on "The Otis Farm", near Hinckley Lane and the Marshes, West Parish. Here he left his son John, and returned to Scituate, where he died January 16, 1683, and his monument still remains, broken and defaced it is barely legible if at all, in the old burying ground in "meeting-house lane", a mile south of the harbor. He is recorded as having "A pugnacious disposition and not easily amenable to the strict laws of the Puritans." Frequent references to legal trouble are found in the records.
His will was dated at Scituate in 1683, and in it he mentioned his daughters Mary Gorham, Hannah, Elizabeth, and sons John, Stephen, James, Joseph and Job. The latter was to have house and lands at Scituate after his mother's death. The name of his first wife is unknown, but he married (second) about 1652, Mary, daughter of Nicholas and Mary Jacob, who came over in 1633
Notes:
Mary, when only a year old, came with her parents to America in 1633.
Notes:
If Hannah married, her husband is unknown. Some researchers have attributed Thomas Gill as her husband but he was actually the husband of her aunt Hannah. He would have had to have married this Hannah at nearly age 70 to be her husband.