We know very little about ffrancis' roots or family. Francis Kendall deposed that he was 48 in 1662; in 1700, he swore he was fourscore years old.  We know that he had a brother Thomas who settled in Reading, MA, not far from Woburn. Tradition states that Francis and Thomas embarked from England under the surname of Miles but took their own surname after their arrival. Many explanations for these changes exist, but none have been proven.

In his will, dated May 9, 1706, in which he styles himself "miller," ffrancis made provisions for Thomas' daughters, granting parts of his estate to two of his own daughters who married sons and grandsons of his purported sister, Mabel Kendall Read, but nothing to Mabel's five other children. It is possible that Mabel used the terms "brother" and "brother-in-law" without distinction.

The extended Kendall family remained in the immediate Woburn area until shortly after ffrancis' death in 1708. At this point, land grants on the frontier, as reward for military service, drew some of the family members away from Woburn to the emerging American frontier.

This would become a recurring theme: Kendall participation in national defense causes and the pursuit of land on the ever-expanding frontier.

This site contains information primarily developed by Kendall cousins, Kevin Martin and Lorelei Gustafson. Kevin's contribution consists of numerous databases that he has developed in the process of his research. Lorelei's contribution consists of 6,000+ individuals extracted from her Kendall and allied family files.