Individual Details

Richard had an unknown first wife, mother of his son Richard, b. 19 Dec 1642 in Braintree.
Sarah Bugbee was his second wife - they married about 1650, most likely in Middlesex Co, MA. They had seven children.
He married 3rd, Mrs. Elizabeth Jacques, 30 Mar 1672, in Sudbury, Middlesex Co, MA

From World Chamberlain Genealogical Society:
Sketch by Welton Chamberlain, Tankerville/Chamberlain researcher of Pinckney, Michigan:
Richard Chamberlain was of Braintree, MA. His distant ancestor was William, Count of Tankerville, in Normandy. For a "speculative genealogy" concerning Richard's origins and the name of his father, refer to the book "Richard Chamberlaine of Braintree 1642" by Welton Chamberlain, 1991, which says: "Richard Chamberlaine, of Braintree, and the Henry Chamberlains of Hingham, are of East Anglica descent, most probable of the house of Chamberlain at Barnhambrome. They are directly on line with the East Anglican Chamberlaine pedigree and, thereby, connect with the Tancarville-Chamberlaine line of assent to the Viking house of Tancrede de Hauteville deep in the Cotentin, Normandy in the ninth century."
Refer to a separate genealogy/database, prepared by James B. Parker & others, which connects the earliest (Tancarville) lineage with Richard Chamberlain of Braintree and his Descendants. However, such connection, as made by Welton Chamberlain, remains highly speculative and unproven.
Biog. Sketch from Prentiss Glazier, with additional comments from David C. Chamberlin, Sr.:
Richard Chamberlain is first mentioned in New England at Braintree, MA in the "Register of Births and Burialls in Braintree from the yeare 1637, until the first month of 1644", wherein is recorded the birth of his son Richard, 19 Dec 1642, and the death of the same child six days later. Unfortunately, this record makes no mention of the mother's name. Richard removed to Roxbury, MA before 1650, when his name appears among "all those who were admitted to the first church before 1650" (this record not included by David Conrad Chamberlin, Sr. for some reason). Richard Chamberlain was an original (or early) settler of the Roxbury land grant, being mentioned in the record of landholders, which unfortunately, has no date attached. However, competent historians place the establishment of the Roxbury grant as having occurred about 1655. The record reads: "Richard Chamberlin, a house and one-half acre of land more or less adjoining to it, abutting east upon the highway and north and west upon Mr. John Eliot and upon Tobias Davis on the south side of it ...." We are at a loss to explain the 13-year interval from 1642 at Braintree to 1655 at Roxbury, and it is assumed that the two Richards are the same person, which of course they may not be.
The John Eliot mentioned in the land description of Richard's property in Roxbury was none other than the great Christian apostle to the indians and also founded the church at Roxbury to which Richard Chamberlain and his family belonged. The Roxbury land grant records further state; "Edward Bugbee has 16 1/2 acres more or less lying in the nookes, exchanged with my son Richard Chamberlin, butting upon the land of James Bradish east and upon Richard Harris northwest."
This is the earliest record to give the relationship of Sarah, Richard's presumed second wife. Sarah was "admitted in full communion" to this church of Rev. John Eliot, some 15 years later, in May 28, 1665. It was in this same church a few days later, on June 4th, that is recorded the baptism of these children: Benjamin, Joseph (2), Mary, Rebecca, - and later Mehitable, 28 January, 1666. Their ages are not given in this record, merely their names. There remains some question as to whether these children were all by Richard's wife Sarah Bugbee. Daniel's History of Oxford states that their son Benjamin was 70 years old in 1713 - which gives 1643 as his year of birth. If so, he could not have been a child of Sarah who was only some 13 years old at the time. However, we do not find corroboration for Daniel's statement. Based on Benjamin's date of marriage (1677) and birthdates of his children, it seems more likely that Benjamin was born in the early 1650s and was known to be the elder son. Sarah Bugbee was, most probably, the mother of all the children baptized at Roxbury in 1665.
On 23 Jan 1667/68, Richard and his wife Sarah sold 3/4 of an acre of land in Roxbury to Robert Harris who lived just off the line in Boston. On the same day, they sold 1 1/2 acres of land, again to Robert Harris and toanother neighbor, Mary Griffin.
On 27 Jan 1667/68, Robert Harris reported finding a "smale horse Coult about one yeare & a halfe ould, a browne Colour ...," ye marke of Richard (R) Chamberlayne. Recorded in the "Booke of Reccords for the County of Suffolk for strayes this 9th day of March 1667/68 ..." (Suffolk Deeds, Vol. I, II, V).
Richard removed to Sudbury, MA 1668, in the present village of Wayland, where he purchased 60 acres with buildings from William Ward of Marlborough (Marlboro), the deed being dated Nov. 6, 1668. This property was actually situated within the present village of Wayland, MA. On 28 Jan 1670, he sold part of this land: "Three acres in the greate river meadow...."
Richard was married three times, with six children by his second wife Sarah Bugbee, who was the daughter of Edward Bugbee of Roxbury, who came from Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The name of his first wife is unknown. His will was dated 12 Feb 1672/73, and proved 18 Jun 1673, mentions the names of his children by Sarah Bugbee and daughters Mary Smith and Elizabeth Daniells (or Daniel), and that of his third wife, Elizabeth Jacques, whose marriage was recorded in Vital Records March 30, 1672, with daughters by a former marriage. Here, Daniel's History of Oxford and Bullard's Allied Families erred in stating that he had a son Daniel - interpreting the mention of daughter Elizabeth Daniels as daughter Elizabeth and son Daniel.
It seems fairly certain, according to David C. Chamberlin, Sr., that Mary Smith and Elizabeth Daniels were not his natural children. He already had a daughter Mary who married John Graves. As they could not be granddaughters, we must infer them to be of another relation - most likely step-daughters. Another point is that he bequeathed the sum of 18 pounds to each of his natural daughters (except Mary Graves), but only 40 shillings each to Mary Smith and Elizabeth Daniels. His daughter Mary Graves was already married and had probably received gifts earlier as he left her the sum of only 1 shilling and her son John Graves, 40 shillings.
Richard died sometime before his inventory was taken 15 Apr 1673. Richard gave all his "housing and land" to his eldest son, Benjamin, subject to the condition of supporting his beloved wife, etc. The full text of his will and inventory is included in David Conrad Chamberlin, Sr.'s lineage sheet, and the will is reprinted in the Chamberlain Key, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 8-9.
Peggy Marsh of Bend, OR [Chamberlain Chain, Branch #15], lists additional children of Richard and Sarah, as follows: Elizabeth Chamberlain, b. 1664, m. Robert DANIEL (mentioned in Richard's will as his daughter), John, Daniel, and Jacob, who m. Mary CHILD 24 Jan 1685. She cites Prentiss Glazier for this information and indicates that Richard may have had more children by his third wife. Prentiss Glazier does indeed cite "Eliz. (mar. a DANIELS?)" as a child of Richard. Glazier also says that Hingham Church records Daniel, 1639, Sarah, 1641, Nathaniel, 1643, and Ebenezer, 1646 who were perhaps children by Richard's first wife at Hingham, and probably not children of HENRY of Hingham (whose wife Jane/Jean was past normal child-bearing age). But the Chamberlain Association has assigned them to HENRY [so assigned in this database according to the CAA listing - JBP]. Glazier thinks Henry Chamberlin of Hingham was perhaps Richard's uncle and that Richard had lived for a time at Hingham (a short distance from Braintree). In any rate, these boys names of Daniel, Nathaniel and Ebenezer soon appeared among Richard's grandchildren, but not in Henry's progeny until the fifth & later generations according to Glazier & David C. Chamberlin. Refer to Glazier, Vol. 1, pp. 2, 5 & Vol. 2, p. 110 for discussion of this matter and concerns regarding other descendants [J. B. Parker]. See also notes for Henry Chamberlin, the shoemaker, to whom the children Daniel, Sarah, Nathaniel, Ebenezer are also assigned, tentatively, by David Conrad Chamberlin, Sr.
Prentiss Glazier indicates that the Wright-Chamberlain Genealogy [concerned with Joseph(2)], conflicts with Bullard & Allied Families, [from Benj.(2)], the latter assigning unrealistic dates to the second generation. He refers to History of Newbury, VT and History of Oxford, MA, which is "misleading at points" he says.

- Ref. "The First Church in Roxbury, Mass." by W. E. Thiving, 1908, p. 61, which lists the baptism 4 Apr 1665 of Benj., Mary, Rebecca, Ann, and Mehetable on 28 Dec 1665, and also lists the name of Joseph, b. about 1645. - Ref. Savage's Genealogical Dictionary, I-280, p. 354.
- Ref. Braintree, MA Records.
- Ref. Middlesex Probate Records, Book 4.
- Ref. NEGHR, Vol. 41 (1887), Vol. 43 (1889).
- Ref. Bullard & Allied Families, E. J. Bullard, 1930, p.177.
- Ref. Chamberlain Assoc. News: Richard, Vol. I#2; Benjamin, Vol. II#1; John, Vol. IV #3.
- Ref. Thetford, VT, Town Records.
- Ref. "Richard Chamberlaine of Braintree 1642....", by Welton C. Chamberlain, 1991, Pinckney, MI, pp. 91-110.
- Ref. "Genealogies of the Chamberlain-Curtiss and Allied Families, 1903-1962", by Cacia Curtiss Chamberlain
- Ref. Lineage #457, prepared by David Conrad Chamberlin, Sr., of Salt Lake City, Utah - numerous additional sources are cited there.
- The World Chamberlain Society Internet Homepage provides a good biographical summary. See also their newsletter, the Chamberlain Key.
- Ref. Chamberlain Association of America Annual Reports, 1898-1912.

Refer to NOTES included with this database - numerous other sources are identified in these NOTES.
There is an extensive IGI record for this family, which lists Richard's father as John Chamberlain, b. c1595, England, and who died in MA, son of Jean or John de Tankerville, b. c1570 in France, d. England. The submitter was Darrell L. Miles, 1126 N 75 E, Centerville UT 84014. This is a curious item.

NOTE: DNA analysis of several known descendants of the five original Chamberlain immigrant ancestors in early New England proves that Henry(1) Chamberlin of Hingham & Hull is completely unrelated to Richard(1), and neither of them is related to the three brothers, Edmund(1), Thomas(1) and William(1) Chamberlain.

Per Philip Chamberlain's 20 Dec 2017 Email to JBP, "In recent conversations with Stephen Yung, we tend to lean towards the idea that Richard of Braintree was the same person as the Richard, bap 16 Feb 1611/1612 in North Cadbury, grandson of Richard 1535-1583 and wife Alice. This is based on the fact that Richard 1611/1612 disappears from the parish records after birth - no marriage record, no burial record - and his baptismal date is just right for Richard of Braintree. Although, as I indicated in my article in the Winter 2005 Key, the onomastics don't check out very well. The names of Richard's siblings were Alexander, Alice, John, Mary, Michael, & Avis."

Birth	Abt 1618	England
Marriage	Abt 1650	Massachusetts - Sarah Bugbee
Death	Mar 1673	Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts
World Chamberlain Society		I535

Spouse	Sarah Bugbee (1630 - 1672)
Child	Benjamin Chamberlain (1653 - 1737)