Pattersons and Mareans

This book chronicles the families who descended from James Patterson and Dorman Morris Marean in the very early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. James Paterson, as the first generation spelled the name, was born in Scotland in 1633 and brought to the American continent as a British prisoner from the Battle of Worcester, England in 1651. Dorman Morris Marean was born in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts in 1636 and little is known about his ancestry or when his family arrived in North America but the family is first found in the Muddy River section of Boston and later in Salem, Massachusetts just in time for the witch trials. The descendants of the two families came together in the wilds of western Massachusetts prior to the American Revolution and were instrumental in settling the unbroken wilderness of south central New York State following the revolution. The families cut their homes from the forest of Tioga and Broome Counties when wolves were a major threat to their families and livestock and Native Americans still controlled the vast lands of New York State. The Marean and Patterson family members fought during the French and Indian Wars, the Colonial Indian Wars, and the American Revolution to protect their homes and families as well as win their freedom in our grand experiment with democracy. This chronicle attempts to document the hardships our early ancestors faced in creating this wonderful republic.