Richard Sears 
General Notes
The simple truth is that it has been found impossible to trace his lineage in the mother country. Richard Sears appears in our New England colonial history with the mention of his name in the records of the Plymouth colony tax list in 1633, when he was one of fourty-four persons there assessed nine shillings in corn at six shillings per bushel. From Plymouth he soon crossed over to Marblehead, MA, and was taxed there, as shown by the Salem list, in 1637-38. He also had a grant of four acres of land "where he had formerly planted," from which it appears that he may have been in that plantation at some previous time. In 1639 he joined the colonists under Anthony Thacher and went to Cape Cod and founded the town of Yarmouth. His first house was built on Quivet Neck, and afterwards he built another house a short distance to the northwest of his first house there. In 1643 the name of Richard Sears appears in the list of inhabitants of Yarmouth "liable to bear arms." He was made freeman in 1652, grand juror in 1652, took the oath of allegiance and fidelity in 1653, was constable in 1660, and representative to the court in Plymouth in 1662. In 1664 Richard Sears, husbandman, purchased for twenty pounds from Allis, widow of Governor William Bradford, a tract of land at Sesuit. He died in August, 1676, and was buried March 19, 1678-79; but it is not certain that she was his only wife, or the mother of all or even any of his children. Indeed, there is a presumption that he was previously married and that his children may have been born of his former wife.
Richard was known as "the pilgrim". All information concerning Richard prior to his arrival in America is uncertain. His ancestry, place of birth, date of birth are all uncertain. Its not certain that he was ever in Holland (where his ancestors supposedly came from). Many genealogists have published wrong information concerning Richard. Much of this erroneous data was written in a Sears Pedigree by Horatio G. Somerby and published by the Rev E. H. Sears in 1857 (not realizing its inaccuracies) in "Pictures of the Olden Time". Apparently Rev Sears commisioned Mr Somerby to do the Pedigree and, for reasons unknown, Mr Somerby fabricated false information concerning the ancestry, etc., of "Richard the Pilgrim".
A Mr Samuel Pearce May "gently and effectively castigated the Somerby Pedigree" in 1886 in his article "Some Doubts Concerning the Sears Pedigree". This article was published in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register (vol 40, pp 261-268).
Four years later Mr May published an authoritative genealogy of the Sears Family. The information contained in my pedigree is based on May's findings as read and understood by me. Such things as Richard's wife (Dorothy Jones not Dorothy Thatcher), his children (3 vs 6, not to include Knyvet, Mary and ??) are the primary changes reflected here; all based on Mr May's efforts.
No gravestones remain to mark the burial places of Richard Sares and his wife, though they are supposed to rest in the ancient cemetery in Yarmouth (ed. note: or perhaps on his farm). Richard and Dorothy probably never had presribed stones since upright stones did not come into use in England until the time of Queen Elizabeth, and the early graves in Plymouth Colony were generally marked with a boulder. The Ancient Sears Cemetery in West Brewster, Barnstable County, CapeCod, Mass., has several "large" boulders in it. Could it be? ----- Some years later a granite monument was erected in Yarmouth Cemetery by the late Hon. David Sears of Boston where said monument was supposed to mark the spot of Richard's/Dorothy's interment. Family members, however, state that the monument was really placed over the grave of Paul Sears, his gravestone being removed for the purpose; although it is highly probable that Paul was buried by the side of his parents. There is no stone to Paul's wife Deborah (Willard), or to his brother Silas, whose burial place is unknown. It is assumed that the third child, Deborah Sears is buried with her husband Zachariah Paddock at another location.
Robert C. Frick, 6 Mar, 2000
children
Silas SEARS b: 8 FEB 1637/38 in Marblehead, Mass. Essex Co.
Paul SEARS, Capt. b: 8 FEB 1637/38 in Marblehead, Mass. Essex Co.
Deborah SEARS b: 16 SEP 1639 in Yarmouth, Mass
From the Sears Family Association:
"No one has yet proven who the Ancestors of Richard Sares (Sears) the Pilgrim, of Plymouth Colony were. Please don't fall into the trap promulgated by Mr H G Somerby that John Bourchier Sears(Sayer) is Richard's father. It has not been proven that Richard had a daughter Mary who married a Worden (Werden) and neither has it been proven that a Knyvet Sears was a son of Richard. In fact much work has been done to disprove the existence of Knyvet!"
Details of Richard's family with Dorothy Jones
Sources/Citations
Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and The Hudson River Valley, 1913, Sears Family Association, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Simeon L. Deyo, 1890, H. W. Blake & Co.
Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and The Hudson River Valley, 1913, Sears Family Association, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, Simeon L. Deyo, 1890, H. W. Blake & Co.