John Gallop - 10th Great Grandfather

My 10^th great grandfather set sail for Boston on March 20, 1630 on the Mary and John as part of the Winthrop Fleet.  John Gallop was one of the first grantees of land in the northern part of Boston where he had a house and wharf right in the northern part of town.  It was called Gallop’s Point…and I have no idea what it is called today, but in 1630 it was a distinctive location associated with a distinctive person.

John Gallop was born about 1591 in Mosterton, County Dorset, England to John Gallop and Mary Crabbe.    When John Gallop made his voyage to Boston in 1630, he left his wife and children behind in England to what may have been perceived an uncertain future.  Not too long after his arrival, he became an important part of the new colony.  He was important enough that Governor Winthrop feared he would return to England and wrote to the Rev. John White:

I have much difficultye to keep John Gallop here by reason of his wife will not come. 

                I marvayle at the woman's weaknesse.  I pray pursuade her and further her coming by all means.  If she will come, let her have the remainder of his wages; if not, let it be bestowed to bring over his childre, if so he desires.  It would be about 40 pounds losse to him to come for her.

                                                Your assured in the Lord's worke,

                                                Massachusetts, July 4, 1632

                                                                J. Winthrop.

Finally on September 4, 1633, John Gallop’s wife and children arrived on the Griffin after an eight week crossing.  John Gallop himself traveled out to the ship and piloted the ship through a new channel that he had discovered in the Boston harbor…and so began the long history of the Gallup family in the United States.  I am descended from his oldest son, John as well as President, George H. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, George Horace Gallup (founder of Gallup poll) and Emily Dickinson.

 

Very early in my genealogy research, I was curious about the Gallup family.  My great grandfather’s mother was a Gallup and I knew that this was a prominent family.  Not knowing where to start, I started looking at the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) books that we had in my local library.  They were interesting, but I got the feeling that I was well out of my depth.  I knew Edith Gallup was the daughter of Silas Gallup and Phoebe Montanye…but little else.  At a family funeral, my great uncle told me about a book that he had bought many years before that contained a Gallup genealogy.  He let me borrow the copy of the book…and you might say a whole new world opened up for me.  I found that my Edith Gallup had a long and interesting family that stretched back to the beginnings of this country.  The first Gallup genealogy was published about 1896, the copy that I was using was published in 1966.  During the next several weeks, I input all 12,000 Gallups in my database and began my fascination with this family and its numerous allied families.  It is a fascination that still pulls at me today.  There seems to always be some new detail that needs to be found.  I might never have happened, if that long ago Reverend hadn’t convinced John Gallop’s wife, Christobel Bruschett and their children to make that eight week journey from England.  It boggles my mind to think of all the things that had to happen in my family’s history to be where I am and who I am.