My 10x great grandfather was another immigrant ancestor and prominent citizen of Groton, Ma. From Ellery Bicknell Crane's Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts Volume 1:
(II) William Longley, son of John Longley (1), was born in Frisbie, Lincoln county, England, in 1614. He came to Lynn as early as 1638, and was admitted a freeman March 4, 1639. He resided in Lynn twenty-two years, and was a prominent citizen and office holder there. He removed to Groton about 1659. His name appears first on the Groton records in 1663, and in 1665 he was elected selectman. William Longley had to go to the courts to correct the title to his lands at Lynn which he drew in 1638, and on which he had lived over twenty years. It seems that through a clerical error William's name was entered as Richard Longley on the proprietors' book, and the court records give ample proof that no Richard Longley existed, so the title was cured and doubtless William was able to deed his land to the purchaser when he went to Groton to live. He had to leave Groton, of course, in 1675, on account of King Philip's war, and he went to Charlestown to live during the hostilities. He served at one time as clerk of writs, indicating that he was well educated. He died November 29, 1680. His will, made November 3, 1680, was recorded April 10, 1681; bequeathing to wife Joanna, sons John and William, daughters, Mary Lemmond, Hannah Tarbell, Lydia Nutting, and Sarah Rand, and their children specified.
He married, in England, Joanna Goffe, sister of Thomas Goffe, who was deputy governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company that received a grant from the Crown, March 19, 1628. Goffe was a member of both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay companies; was a merchant of London; lost money on the business of chartering ships for the colonists of Governor Winthrop and others. His widow married (second), Benjamin Crispe, and she died in 1698. The children of William and Joanna (Goffe) Longley were: 1. John. 2. Mary, married, 1666, Samuel M. Lemont. 3. Sarah, born October 15, 1660; married June 17, 1679, Thomas Rand, father of Robert Rand, to whom a grant of a thousand acres of land was given by the general court in what is now New Hampshire, on account of the losses suffered by Governor Goffe, his great-uncle. 4. Lydia, married James Blood.-p538
Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts Voume 1 The Lewis Publishing Compny, New York, N.Y. 1907
I've found the probate file and will of William at AmericanAncestors.org. I am descended from his daughter Hannah who married Thomas Tarbell Jr.
Thankfully, he wasn't alive when catastrophe befell his son William Jr.'s family.
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