Below is a portion of the text from the book "Frost Genealogy in Five Families", by Norman Seaver Frost, 1926 [Retyped by David Frost, (B, Victor)]. I do not have permission to reproduce this, but it is out of print, and I haven't been able to find anyone responsible. If anyone has information about the rightfull "owners" of this, or has a problem please contact me. Click here to go to the previous pages. There is a link to the next page near the bottom of this page. There is also an index of all of the pages.

Page 4     EDMUND FROST FAMILY

John, Samuel, Joseph and Ephraim were the executors of his estate.

   Not less than three distinct and separate Coats of Arms have been accredited to Edmund Frost, by as many different authorities. In Matthew's "American Armory and Blue Book," Addenda, page 100, will be found the following:

   "Edmund Frost

   Came to New England in the Great Hope from Ipswich Eng. 1635. Arms argent. A chevron sable between three trefoils slipped, vert. Crest: An old man's head propper between two sprigs of laurel vert."

   In Crozier's "General Armory," page 60, is the following:
   "Frost. Massachusetts.
   Edmund Frost, Cambridge, 1635.
   (Ipswich, Essex) (Suffolk Co.)
   Argent. A chevron sable between three pellets each charged with a trefoil or.
   Crest: A trefoil between two wings all azure.
   Motto: E terra ad coelum."

   Mr. Walter L. Frost of Boston has, in his possession, a copy of a coat of arms which he claims is the true Edmund Frost arms, viz.:
   Argent. A chevron gules between three trefoils erased in the stalk azure.
   Crest: On a closed helmet, a lion couchant-guardant.

   Of these three coats of arms, Burke's "General Armory" credits the first to "Frost, County York" and so does Fairbairn's "Book of Crests." The second, Burke says, was "granted to Rev. William Frost, of Thorp, County Norfolk. On page 52 of "The Frost Family in England and America," these arms are said to belong to the Frosts of St. John's House. But according to Burke, the arms of "Meadows Frost of St. John's House" are entirely different. The third coat mentioned, is credited by Burke to Frost of County York, but he does not mention any crest.

   Anyone who has given the least attention to the study of heraldry, knows that arms are an individual and not a family possession: hence, like an entailed estate, descend only to the eldest son of each generation. Therefore if Edmund Frost was entitled to any of the above arms, his present-day descendants are not. The writer's father had the crest of "an old man's head etc." engraved for his seal, which seal the writer uses in his official correspondence; but he does not claim that either his father of himself had any right to said crest, except the right that so many Americans arrogate to themselves, that of "snapping up unconsidered trifles" and converting them to their own use. [This is not consistent with what I understand to be the rules used by the College of Heraldry in London (HRM's official keeper of family crests). I'll try to get specific information - DPF]

Page 5     EDMUND FROST

   The original will of Edmund Frost, and the inventory of his estate, are on file in the Probate Court, at Cambridge, Mass. The will was published in 1909, in "The Frost Family in England and America," hence it is not necessary to repeat it here. The party, however, who copied the will, seems to have totally ignored the inventory, a document of greater interest. It is here given for the first time.

   Inventory of the Estat of Elder ffrost of Cambr late Deceased

Page 6     EDMUND FROST FAMILY

   Taken & approved by us whos names are here underwritten, this 9th 7mo 1672
         the marx X of Tho ffox
                ffr. Moore
                Nathan Hassing

   The total amount of the estate is not footed up in the original inventory, but it amounts to 118£, 15s, 10d. That the Elder was a very good writer for his time, is evidenced by the signature of his will, of which the following is a copy:

1  JOHN LINE
SECOND GENERATION

   1  JOHN FROST, the eldest of the children of Edmund and Thomasine, and the only one who was not a native of Cambridge, was born in England about 1632; hence he was about three years of age when his parents emigrated from Ipswich. He married, June 6, 1666, Rebecca, daughter of Thomas Andres. He died before Sept. 30, 1672, since on that day administration was granted to the widow Rebecca for herself and three children.

   She married, Feb. 9, 1674, George Jacobs, Jr., of Danvers, and was mixed up in the witchcraft delusion in 1692, along with the [page 6 ends here, and I don't have page 7, which may be more interesting for this witchcraft stuff than anything more on John or Thomas! My transcription picks up again below at the top of page 8. - DPF]

Page 8     EDMUND FROST, 3 SAMUEL LINE

[The top section appears to be the end of the information for Thomas. - DPF]

   Rebecca, the second daughter, married, Sept. 10, 1729, Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, as his second wife. They had four children. Rebecca, b. June 8, 1730. Edward, b. Feb. 2, 1732. Mary, b. Apr. 25, 1733. Sybil, b. Sept. 19, 1736. The father d. Jan. 16, 1765. The mother d. June 5, 1754.

   Mary, the youngest child, m. Rev. Samuel Porter.

3  SAMUEL LINE
SECOND GENERATION

   SAMUEL FROST, the third child of Elder Edmund Frost, of Cambridge, Mass., was born there Feb. 13, 1638-9. In 1663, he was accepted as an inhabitant of Billerica, Mass., and about the same time he married Mary Cole, by whom he had three children. She died before 1674, and he married Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. John Miller, who settled in Dorchester in 1636.*

   About the time of his second marriage, Samuel Frost removed to Billerica, and took up the citizenship to which he had been accepted ten years previously. He was a physician, and also seems to have been a building contractor, since in 1680 he contracted to build a gallery in the church, under the following specifications.

   It was to be erected "upon the beams, to make one seat in front, & to floor it on the backside to the rooffe of the house, & set a bench behind it, such an one as that place will admit of. And two seats on each side, upon the beams, the foremost of each seat to come down as low as the under side of the beames, that is, the underside of the joyce to be even with the champfering of the beames, & so all three fore seats to be even at ye bottom. The seats of the fore side seats shall be over the beames, and but a little above them. The hindomst side seats shall be behind and above the beames, each seat to be comely closed with rails and boards as is usual in such work, the fore seat with ballisters. The floors made comely and close joynted to preserv the dirt from falling down. All the seats to be finished comely, according to the usual manner of such worke, with a sufficient paire of staires to them, and a floor to cary the seats, the hind seat at the west end to reach from rooffe to rooffe. And to make a casement window of two foot square in the cleare, and put it up at ye east end of the house above the collarbeame. To find all the stuffe and nails and boards and carting at his own charges, all the timer to be sound and good, and the work well wrought, workmanlike according to ye nature of such worke (glass excepted) and the work to be done by ye last of March next."

   According to Paige's "History of Cambridge," Dr. Samuel Frost died Aug. 12, 1711. But in the Billerica Vital Records there is

   * Rev. John Miller was one of the few university graduates among the early settlers (Caius College, Cambridge, England, 1627). He was first assistant to Eliot, Apostle to the Indians. He rejected a mission to Virginia, was pastor at Rowley and Yarmough, Mass., and died at Groton, Mass., 1663. Two sons of Edmund Frost (Samuel and Joseph) married two Miller daughters.

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