John CRAGGEN

c.1626 - 1708

• Name	John CRAGGEN
  Birth	c.1626	Scotland   [1]
  	John's date of birth has been estimated from a deposition made during July 1676 when he was called as a witness in a suit against Benjamin Simonds of Woburn. The location in Scotland of John's birth has not been determined. However, according to the Scots Ancestry Research Society, the surname of Craigen/Craigyn derived from a local place-name in the district of Kyle, Ayrshire. The name is Lowland Scots and without clan affiliations.
  Gender	Male
  anecdote	3 Sep 1651	Worcester, Worcestershire, England   [2, 3]
  	Circumstantial evidence suggests that John was among the Scotsman captured at the Battle of Worcester, during the English Civil War, by the Parliamentarian forces of Oliver Cromwell on 3 Sep 1651. Following their defeat, many of the Scots were marched as prisoners to Gravesend, a port on the Thames, Southeast of London.
  anecdote	8 Nov 1651	Gravesend, Kent, England   [2]
  	The name John Cragon appears on the list of 272 "Scotch" prisoners registered at Gravesend on 8 Nov 1651 as bound for New England on the John and Sarah. Further documents show that the prisoners were 'free by ordanance of Parliament dat 20th October 1651." Their freedom was, however, illusionary, as they had been purchased from the government by John Beex, Robert Rich and William Greene. Beex, Rich and Greene instructed Capt. Thomas Greene, Master of the John and Sarah, to make haste to New England and there to deliver their "Orders and Servants to Tho: Kemble of charles Toune." The Scots were to be sold by Kemble on behalf of his principals as indentured servants; thus recouping the monies which they had paid the English government.
  Immigration	May 1652	Charlestown Village, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts Bay Colony   [4]
  	The John and Sarah, with its human cargo, reached Charlestowne by early May of 1652.
  anecdote	27 Feb 1665/1666	Woburn, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts Bay Colony   [5]
  	At a public meeting for the town of Woburn on 27 February 1665/6, John was admitted as an inhabitant and allowed usage of the commonly held land.
  anecdote	5 May 1679	Woburn, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts Bay Colony
  	At a meeting of the Selectmen in Woburn on 5 May 1679, John "Craggen's daughter" was noted as one of twenty-seven people in the town who was sick with small-pox. The epidemic had started two years earlier when an infected ship had called at Nantasket. As John's and Sarah's five daughters and Sarah's illegitimate daughter Mary Micrest resided in the household, it can not be determined which of the girls was ill.
  Will	30 May 1704	Woburn, Middlesex Co, Province of Massachusetts Bay   [6]
  will probated	17 Jan 1708	Middlesex Co, Province of Massachusetts Bay   [6]
  Death	27 Oct 1708  [7]
  Person ID	I2632	mason
  Last Modified	22 Jul 2026

  
  

  Family	Sarah DAWES,   b. c. 1635   d. 23 Dec 1725 (Age 90 years)
  Marriage	4 Nov 1661	Woburn, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts Bay Colony   [8]
  Children	1. Abigail CRAGGEN,   b. 4 Aug 1662, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA d. 17 Jun 1707, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA (Age 44 years)   2. Sarah CRAGGEN,   b. 10 Aug 1664, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA   3. Elizabeth CRAGGEN,   b. 3 Aug 1666, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA   4. Mercy CRAGGEN,   b. 25 Mar 1669, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA   5. Anna CRAGGEN,   b. 6 Aug 1673, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA   6. John CRAGGEN,   b. 19 Sep 1677, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA d. 26 Jan 1703/1704, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA (Age 26 years)   7. Rachel CRAGGEN,   b. 14 Mar 1680/1681, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA d. 18 Mar 1680/1681, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA (Age 0 years)   8. Leah CRAGGEN,   b. 14 Mar 1680/1681, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA d. 18 Mar 1680/1681, Woburn, Middlesex Co, MA (Age 0 years)
  Family ID	F184	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	22 Jul 2026

  
  

• Sources

  [S5120] Edward F. Johnson, compiler, Johnson, Abstracts of Early Woburn Deeds Recorded at Middlesex County Registry 1649-1700, ((Woburn, MA: The News Print, 1895)). p. 34. [S126] Rev. William Cogswell, D.D., Editor, NEH&GR Vol I., ((Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1847) Vol. 1). pp. 378-379. [S4870] "The Battle of Worcester 1651". [S126] Rev. William Cogswell, D.D., Editor, NEH&GR Vol I., ((Boston: Samuel G. Drake, 1847) Vol. 1), pp. 378-379. [S127] Samuel Sewall, M.A., Sewall, The History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass., two volumes, ((1868, Rpt. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 1990)), ISBN 1-55613-324-3. Vol. 1, pp. 36-37. [S5394] will / Cragen, John [1708], Middlesex Co, Province of Massachusetts Bay. [S127] Samuel Sewall, M.A., Sewall, The History of Woburn, Middlesex County, Mass., two volumes, ((1868, Rpt. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 1990)), ISBN 1-55613-324-3. Vol. 2, p. 607. [S214] Edward F. Johnson, compiler, Johnson, Woburn Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, From 1640 to 1873, Part III -- Marriages, ((Boston: Winship, Daniels & Co., 1891)). p. 74.