John Ayer (September 2, 1582 – March 31, 1657) was an English-born farmer and town selectman who one of the original European settlers to Massachusetts, settling in Ipswich, Haverhill, and Salisbury.
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Early years
John was born on September 2, 1582, to father Thomas Eyre (Ayer) and Elizabeth Rogers, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England. He married once prior to 1619, but it is unclear what happened to Rogers.
Ayer married Hannah Evered Webb.
On June 3, 1635, John Ayer set sail for the New World with his family, including his two brothers-in-law, John and Stephen, aboard the ship James. As they approached New England, a hurricane struck, and they were forced to ride it out just off the coast of modern-day Hampton, New Hampshire. According to the ship's log and the journal of Increase Mather, whose father Richard Mather and family were passengers, the following was recorded;
"At this moment,... their lives were given up for lost; but then, in an instant of time, God turned the wind about, which carried them from the rocks of death before their eyes. ...her sails rent in sunder, and split in pieces, as if they had been rotten ragges..."
They tried to stand down during the storm just outside the Isles of Shoals, but lost all three anchors, as no canvas or rope would hold, but on Aug 13, 1635, torn to pieces, and not one death, all one hundred plus passengers of the James managed to make it to Boston Harbor.