52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2018 WEEK 30: JOHN BENSON SR. OF HINGHAM & HULL, MA.

My 4x great grandparents Asa Barrows and Content Benson were first cousins 1x removed. Content's mother was Patience Barrows.   She was also related ti the Briggs, Ellis, and Freeman families through her father Caleb Benson.

John Benson Sr. was my 8x great grandfather. William Richard Cutter has a short entry about him in Volume 4 of his New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: 

(I) John Benson, immigrant ancestor of the American family of Benson, was born in England, doubtless at Coversham, Oxfordshire, whence he came in 1638, in the ship "Confidence," to Boston. He gave his age at that time as thirty, indicating he was born in 1608. He settled in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he had his first grant of land in 1638,He married Mary . Children: John,mentioned below; Mary, came with her parents.-p1864

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 4  Lewis historical publishing Company, New York   1914

But at some point one of his descendants moved to New Jersey because I found this short piece in William Winfield Scott's History of Passaic and Its Environs:

 (I) John (Binson) Benson was one of more than 20,000 Puritans, most of whom came from the eastern counties of England to New England between 1630 and 1640, their principal reason for leaving their native country being to escape the religious persecution then being carried on by King Charles I through the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud of Canterbury.

John Benson settled with his little family in Hingham, Massachusetts, receiving a grant of land from the proprietors in the autumn of 1638. He continued to live there until 1657, when he sold his lands and moved his family to Hull, Massachusetts. In 1662 he was chosen one of the selectmen to manage the town's affairs. On April 16, 1678, "being weake and decaying in bodily strength," he made his will, and died soon thereafter. According to the ship's list, he was now about 70 years old. He signed his will with his mark, an old English "I" instead of a cross, evidence that before he fell ill and lost his strength he had been able to sign his name. The signature was witnessed by his pastor, Zachariah Whitman, who appeared in court March 26, 1679, and swore to the signature.-pp149-150

History of Passaic and Its Environs Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1922 - Clifton (N.J.)

I'm descended from John Benson Jr.