Before the publication of Charles Banks’ History of Martha’s Vineyard in 1911 one of the two leading suggestions for the father of immigrant Henry Luce was Thomas Luce, of Charlestown. The other leading suggestion was Harke Luse.
These two men were attractive candidates because their surname matches and they lived in the same general area a generation before Henry Luce. That is, either of them could have been Henry Luce’s unknown father.
Wilford Litchfield, writing in 1901 says Remember Litchfield married about 1670 “Henry Luce (sometimes Lucy),[1] who may have been a son of Thomas Luce of Charlestown [Massachusetts]” (Litchfield, 34).[2]
Litchfield seems to be taking his lead from genealogical compilations by John Farmer (1829) and James Savage (1861).
Farmer says, ““LUCE, THOMAS, Charlestown, had a son Samuel, b. there in 1644. This name is very common at Martha’s Vineyard” (Farmer, 184).
Savage says, “LUCE, OR LUCY, HENRY, Rehoboth 1668. THOMAS, Charlestown, had Samuel, b. 1644, says Farmer, to wh. I can add nothing, but that he prob. rem. soon. The name abounds at the Vineyard. One LUCY, at Portsmouth, m. Mary, d. of William Brooking, and had Benjamin” (Savage, 3:119).
Banks says, “There was a Thomas Luce in Charlestown, according to Farmer (Gen. Dictionary), who had a son Samuel b. 1644, but of whom nothing further is heard. It is probable that this was Lewis” (Banks, 2:55 n.2). Banks dismisses Thomas without further investigation, not for any inherent improbality, but apparently only because he building a case for Henry Luce’s origin at Horton, Gloucestershire.
In the absence of any firm evidence, Thomas Luce has remained an attractive candidate for Henry Luce’s unknown father. Henry’s birth has been estimated about 1640, based on a 1644 birthdate for his wife Remember. If Thomas had a son Samuel born in 1644, he could conceivably have had a son Henry who would have been the right age to be our Henry Luce.
Unfortunately, we find no record of Thomas or Samuel corresponding to Farmer’s information. Charlestown records show a Samuel, son of John Lewis, born in 1641,[3] but not a Samuel, son of Thomas Luce, born in 1644.
enThomas Luce of Charlestown is a ghost. There was no man of that name. He seems to have be an invention or mistake.
- Litchfield claims to have been the first to identify the wife of Henry Luce as Remember Litchfield.
- A word of caution: many Internet sources have turned Litchfield’s information into a fictional tree, where Henry Luce was a merchant and farmer born 1630 in Gloucester to Thomas Luce (1600-1670?) and Sally Monson.
- “Samuel, son of John Lewis & Margaret his wife, b. 24 (4) 1641” (Vital records of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1:5).
Sources
- Banks, Charles Edward. The History of Martha’s Vineyard. Vol. 2. Boston: George H. Dean, 1911.
- Farmer, John. A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England. Boston: Carter, Andrews, & Co., 1829.
- Litchfield, Wilford J. The Litchfield Family in America, 1630-1900. Southbridge, Mass.: W.J. Litchfield, 1901.
- Savage, James. Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England. Vol. 3. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1861.
- Vital records of Charlestown, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. Vol. 1. Edited by Roger D. Joslyn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1984.
Revised Aug. 28, 2025.