John of Taunton’s vital statistics are not well documented, including his parentage. We know he died on Nov 27, 1695 at Taunton, MA where he moved after his first marriage, his land not far from Scaddings Pond near its outlet to the Mill River. He married twice: Susannah Paddock on Nov 12, 1665 and Deliverance Owen. When a census was taken in 1675 during the outbreak of King Phillip’s War, John of Taunton appears as the head of a household. We know he was a carpenter. His literacy is not certain. He or scribes spelled his name in various ways including Eddway – or was this a transcription error? Clara Avery, a descendant of John of Taunton searched for an indication of a parentage for this John but to no avail.
There's no question of the close relationship of John of Taunton to the family of Samuel Eddy. In fact, John of Taunton and Zachariah Eddy, one of Samuel Eddy’s sons, married sisters. One other reason we believe there is a the very close relationship between the carpenter John of Taunton and the family of Samuel of Plymouth is the first names of the descendants of John of Taunton are almost identical in the first three or four generations with those of Samuel of Plymouth. These names include: Samuel, Obadiah, Zachariah, Ebenezer, Jonathan, Joseph, Asa, Nathan, Ephraim, Moses, and Joshua. Only three names – Eleazar, Deliverance, and Experience – of the Taunton line are not found in the Plymouth group. Reasons could be as disparate as an adoption into the family, a common descendant not yet found, or that he was a member of the household as an indentured servant. Further work on this will be forthcoming.
Although we haven't identified John of Taunton's ancestors, we do know a bit about his descendants. Always interesting is to identify a national or world renowned individual in anyone's line. In his, the most famous descendant would most likely be Millard Fillmore, the 13th President of the United States.
There has been a lingering issue of whether or not John of Taunton is a direct descendant of William the Vicar. To settle the issue the Eddy Family Association is interested in studying the Y DNA in direct male descendants in each line. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of the sophisticated Y DNA testing through Family Tree DNA, we cannot afford to pay for the testing. We are asking for interested males in each line (that would be males with the name Eddy) to volunteer and let us know of your results. There is an Eddy section on the Family Tree DNA already in existence. (If you are interested please read up on the value of obtaining Y DNA, and how it gives different information than DNA data from the autosomes.)