Ellis3 Barron, born at Watertown, Mass., 22 Sept. 1655. He married at Watertown, 26 May 1679, Mary Sherman, born at Watertown, 5 Mar. 1656/7, daughter of Rev. John and Mary (Launce) Sherman.

   They lived at Groton, Mass., after marriage. The loss of birth records, and the lack of probate for Ellis3 Barron, have occasioned great difficulty in placing his children. Elizabeth is the only child whose birth record has been found. Samuel is proved as eldest son by a deed from his grandfather, Ellis2 Barron. Benjamin was mentioned as a son of Ellis3 in Middlesex County Court records. That Mary, Grace, Elias and Mehitable were children of Ellis and Mary (Sherman) Barron is evident from a thorough investigation of the Barrons of Middlesex County, Mass. Very likely there were other children who died young.

   Ellis Barron served in King Philip's War, 1676. [Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 273,366,375.]

   It has been claimed that Ellis3 Barron had a second wife Sarah who was mother of the younger children. This claim has a record basis. The earlier vital records at Groton appear to be lost, but in accordance with colonial laws the early Groton town clerks copied the records of births, marriages and deaths for the use of the county clerk, who in turn copied them into record books. Elizabeth4 Barron in these County Court records is entered as daughter of Ellis and Sarah Barron in the record of her birth on 26 Oct. 1687. Our collaborator, Mr. Torrey, has made a critical study of the vital entries in the County Court records and has found a number of mistakes in them. The entry preceding and that following the Barron entry give the name of the mother as Sarah, and the fact that the mother's name was thus Sarah in three sucessive entries creates the suspicion that an error was made. Ellis3 Barron married Mary Sherman on 26 May 1679. No record of her death has been found. None of the younger children of Ellis3 named a daughter Sarah, as some of them would have been likely to do if their mother's name had been Sarah, with the exception of Elias4 whose wife's mother was named Sarah.

   It will be noted that two of the younger children of Ellis3, Elizabeth and Grace, married men who lived at Guilford, Conn. Grace, the record states, was married at New Haven. Mary Sherman's half-brother, Daniel Sherman settled in New Haven, and her sister of the whole blood, Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell, was a resident of New Haven. This makes it probably that Grace's mother was Mary Sherman and that she was married at the home of one of her maternal relatives.

   The will of Rev. John Sherman of Watertown, dated 6 Aug. 1685, gave ten pounds to his daughter Mary Barron. This makes it certain that she was mother of the older children. The Sherman estate was not settled for many years, and the executor's final account was not exhibited until 24 Dec. 1712. This account shows that the legacy of ten pounds was paid "To Mary Barron." One legacy was paid "To ye Children of Bezaliell Sherman," so it seems certain that Mary Barron was living when her legacy was paid. The legacies amounted to a total of about £150. No sale of Sherman realty by the executors sufficient to discharge these legacies was made until 26 Jan. 1703/4, and the legacies were presumably paid between that date and 1712 when the account was presented to the Court. It is therefore concluded that Mary Sherman survived to be mother of all the Barron children, and that Ellis3 had no second wife Sarah.

   Although not called deceased in the deed which Ellis2 gave to his grandson Samuel4 in 1711, the use of the past tense in referring to his son Ellis3 ("love that I did bear") and the fact that the conveyance was made to the latter's eldest son lead to the inference that Ellis3 had died before 1711. There are indications that most of the family moved to Concord, where some of the children resided or married. "Lunenburg Records, 1719-1764," p. 14, in the survey and allotment of Turkey Hills, show that "Elias Barron of Concord" was grantee of a lot. This may refer to Elias4, son of Ellis3, then perhaps about 21 years old.

From The American Genealogist, Whole Number 79, Volume XX, No. 3, January, 1944 entitled "the Family of Rev. John Sherman of Wethersfield, Milford, and Branford, Conn., and Watertown, Mass."  Compiled by Donald Lines Jacobus, M.A., of New Havn, Conn.

The Ellis Barron Family has been arranged by the Editor-in-Chief from records communicated by Eugene Diven Buchanan of Highland Park, Ill., now Sergeant of Medical Detachment, 383d Infantry. The account owes much to the kind assistance of Mr. Clarence Almon Torrey of Dorchester, Mass., and the field research of Miss Marion Charlotte Reed of Boston, Mass.