I didn't have much luck finding a record that would prove Richard Hildreth was the father of my
9x great grandmother Jane (Hildreth) Proctor. She may ave been born in England; I couldn't find her birth record in Cambridge, Ma. where Richard first settled in the colony. There is no mention of her in Richard's will, either.
But then I found some stories about Richard's involvement in church politics. There are several versions of this story which I found in Wilson Waters' History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts:
Says Arthur Hildreth: When Richard Hildreth removed to Chelmsford in 1656 he was received into Mr. Fiske's church. He had a poor opinion of Mr. Fiske as a minister. He was used to better preaching in Cambridge. He expressed his opinion to Deacon Esdras Reade, who accused Hildreth, and the latter was summoned to appear before a committee, which he declined to do. In 1670, Hildreth and John Barrett obtained the signatures of those who desired the dismissal of Mr. Fiske. On a lecture day Hildreth brought the paper to Thomas Henchman, who "did manifest his utter dislike against it." At Town meeting, so the account goes, Hildreth spoke against the minister, and was cited to appear before the County Court at Cambridge on April 4th, to answer "for reproachful speech of the minister of Chelmsford." Thomas Henchman and Abraham Parker were witnesses. Mention was made of the "very large speech" which Hildreth had made, and it appeared that his grievance was that the minister had prosecuted Josiah Fletcher, (or was it Joshua?) for a grave misdemeanor. The case seems to have come to nought. But such affairs must have stirred the community and furnished a subject for conversation, if not of controversy, among those who had not much to busy their minds.-p412
History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Printed for the town by the Courier-Citizen Company, Lowell, Ma. 1917
On a hunch I Google searched for Proctor, Hildreth, Chelmsford, church and found this:
In 1673 he had a stubborn quarrel with his father-in-law, Richard Hildreth, concerning a boundary line between their meadows. He made some unfounded charges against Hildreth, and Hildreth retaliated by preventing Proctor from receiving the church Sacrament, or as Parson Fiske on the church records couches it: " He, Bro. Hildreth, was instrumental of hindering his son Proctor from ye Sact."
This particular entry on the church records, expressly calling Proctor son of Richard Hildreth, proves that Jane Hildreth (Robert Proctor's wife) was a daughter and not a sister of Richard Hildreth. -pp48-9
SECOND PUBLICATION OF THE HILDRETH FAMILY ASSOCIATION GENEALOGICAL AND HISTORICAL DATA RELATING TO RICHARD HILDRETH (1605-1693), FREEMAN, 1643, Cambridge and Chelmsford, Mass...
COLLATED AND EDITED BY JOHN LYMAN PORTER
PUBLISHED BY THE HILDRETH FAMILY ASSOCIATION 1922
Richard Hildreth had a falling out with his son-in law Robert Proctor ten years before Richard's death. Ironically it is that dispute that provides evidence of Jane (Hildreth) Proctor's relationship to Richard.
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