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| The Goshen, Massachusetts, town hall. John James is your 5G grandfather |
- Immigrants are highlighted. Men who fought in the American Revolution are marked with (AR).
- The General Court is the colony's legislature, similar to a state legislature today. You'll see that many of your ancestors served as representatives to, and leaders within, the General Court. I saw it so often, in fact, that I did not even always include it in the individual profiles.
- A deacon is the lay leader of a local congregation. I cannot tell if it was a lifelong appointment or if once given, the title of deacon was used for the rest of a man's life. There are more deacons in this list than I've indicated. I generally dropped all the titles (except Reverend) when compiling this blog, but you'll see titles, especially deacon, in the clippings I copied here.
- In 1751-52, the legal calendar was changed. Before the switch, a calendar year started on March 25, so that a date like January 1, 1750 (as recorded in the old system) would be January 1, 1751 (as recorded in the new system.) In some records created after that switch, dates like that were often noted as January 1, 1750/1751. I'm not doing professional-quality research, so I mostly just ignored this and picked up only the earlier year if there was any ambiguity.
- Long Island is now part of New York, but from 1625, when English settlers first arrived, through the late 1600s, control of the settlements bounced back and forth between Holland and England, and when governed by England, between the colonies of Connecticut and New York. Many of your ancestors were born and died there during the 1600s; I've noted all those events as occurring simply in "Long Island," without bothering to look up who was in control at the time of each event.
- Inconsistent spelling: Spelling of neither names nor of words was yet standardized in colonial times. When a family name was inconsistently spelled (e.g., Worick, Warrick, Worwick) I rather arbitrarily chose one and tried to use it consistently in this blog, without including all the alternatives. If anyone tries to check my work or to dig deeper, keep that in mind.
- Numbering system: To find anyone's father, double their number and add one; to find anyone's mother, double their number and add two. To find any father's kid, subtract one and divide by two; to find any mother's kid, subtract two and divide by two. If you notice a missing number, it's because: a) Ancestry.com had no information about that person; b) the person/couple is a duplicate--that is, somewhere down the line, cousins married or c) for those in the earliest generations, they stayed in England.
Notes to myself are highlighted in green:
- Sort out who died in which attack/battle, starting with the Pequot War (1636-1638--I don't think we lost anyone in that short war, and John Plumb played a key role); King Phillip's War (we lost a lot: Bloody Brook 1675; Brookfield 1675; Turner's Falls 1676; and through 1678); Queen Anne's War (1702-1713; Deerfield 1704); other skirmishes and massacres; and the French & Indian Wars (1754–1763).
- Make a list of all the New England towns for which one or more of these individuals is listed among the founders.
- After everything else is done: Work forward in time from Roger Ludlow to see if you can find Mary Sanford's parents.
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| First a town hall, the James Memorial building is now a library. |
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| Image from SAR Membership #11177; application filed 1898 |
“Sir: about 2 o’clock this morning, five barges from the British squadron came and made an attack upon Sag Harbor, took three vessels, set fire to one, but met with a reception so warm and spirited from our militia there stationed, who are entitled to much credit, as also many citizens of the place, that they abandoned their object and made a very precipitate retreat. They threw some shot almost to the extreme part of the place, but fortunately no lives were lost or injury done except to the vessels which they had in possession, one of which was bored through and through by an 18 lb. shot from the fort.”
The British retreated in such
haste that they left a large quality of guns, swords and other arms behind.
Your 7G grandparents
Born between 1656 and 1741
383 & 384 - Thomas James b. 1669; d.1724 and Patience Tower b.1678; d.1741 Both Thomas and Patience were born and died in Hingham, MA.
385 & 386 - Joseph Bates III b.1687; d.1750 and Deborah Clapp b.1686; d.1783
Both Joseph and Deborah were born and died in Hingham, MA.
The 1776 will of Hugh Roberts #879 is similar: Rather than emancipate his one slave, Hugh instead bequeaths "the labor of my negro, Toby" to his wife as long as she lives and after that, Toby is given the choice of which of Hugh's sons he wants to live with.
387 & 388 - Andrew Beal b.1685; d.1762 and Rachel Bates b.1696; d.1780 Both were born and died in Hingham, MA
389 & 390 - Chasling Worrick b.1697; d.1749 and Hester Bates b.1697; d.1739 Both were born and died in Hingham, MA
Chasling, a shoemaker, died of drowning at age 52 while fetching water.
391 & 392 - John Lyman (younger) b.1660; d.1740 in Northampton and Mindwell Sheldon b.1665; d.1735 in Northampton
Mindwell's older brother John (your 7G granduncle) was a hero of the Deerfield story--or at least its aftermath:
Like quite a few other men among our Puritan ancestors, Samuel was a deacon of the church, and he is usually identified with that title in the records.
395 & 396 - Capt. Roger Clapp b.1684 Northampton, d.1762 Dorchester and Elisabeth Bartlett b.1687; d.1767 - Northampton, MA
Roger has a lengthy, detailed will saved to the online family tree.
397 & 398 - Waitsill Strong b.1677, d.1762 and Mindwell Bartlett, b.1682, d.1741 - Northampton.
399 & 400 - Jonathan Wells b.1658 Springfield, MA; d.1738 Deerfield, MA and Sarah Strong b.1656 Hartford. CT; d.1738 Deerfield
Had you known him, you would NOT have predicted Jonathan would die an old man. He seems to
have been drawn to combat from an early age, and lived at a very combative place (the Connecticut River frontier) at a very combative time.
As he
reached his teenage years, previously peaceful relations with the
Natives were giving way to hostilities as English settlements grew; as tribes continued to contest each other; and
as France and England competed for control of America. Someone was always ready to fight someone else.
Jonathan's recorded martial exploits start at age 16, in King Phillip's War. Read the details of his harrowing escape in this history, which seems to have entered colonial folklore. I saw the incident mentioned in some histories that have nothing to do with our ancestors as "the Falls Fight from which young Jonathan
Wells escaped," or some other similar reference. Your other ancestors who saw action at the Falls Fight were your 8G grandfathers Preserved Clapp and John Lyman, and your 9G grandfathers Nathanial Dickinson, William Clark, and David Hoyt (the elder, #803).
Jonathan fought in other skirmishes and led the 90-man militia that vainly fought to protect the village of Deerfield in 1704.
Sarah and Jonathan were each other's second marriage. A local history, written in 2012 by Edward Barnard, reports: “Sarah must have been stylish and well dressed, for in 1675 at 18 years of age she married Joseph Barnard, the well-educated son of early Puritan settlers of Hartford, CT. Joseph Barnard was a tailor, surveyor, and farmer. In 1676, Sarah was indicted, along with 37 other women and 30 men for wearing silk, contrary to law. (She was fined 2 shillings and 6 pence).
Joseph and Sarah moved to be among the first
settlers of Deerfield, MA, where Joseph was mortally wounded in an Indian
ambush in 1695 as he rode with five other men taking bags of grain to the
mill. Sarah was left with nine children living at home and gave birth to a tenth in
March of 1696, six months after Joseph’s death. In 1698 Sarah married a second
time to Captain Jonathan Wells, a hero in King William’s War.”
401 & 402 - David Hoyt b.1676 Hatfield; d.1704 Deerfield and Mary Edwards b.1675 Northampton, d.1747 Deerfield
Mary and their infant daughter (#200) survived the Deerfield Raid, which started in the dawn hours of February 29, 1704, described in the highlights post in this blog. David was
one the seven men who defended the Stebbins house for more than two
hours, in which his and several other families were sheltered and that was burned after the attackers left. David then joined the
party that pursued the French and Indians who were holding the captives,
and was killed later that day in the "field fight."
403 & 404 - John Graves b.1664, Hatfield; d.1746 Hatfield and Sarah Banks b.1666 Chelmsford, MA; d.1709 Hatfield
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| Someone on Ancestry. com contributed this as a portrait of Nathaniel Dickinson, but did not cite a source. |
Nathaniel was a deacon of the church and was killed in an ambush during the French and Indian Wars.
407 & 408 - Mark Warner b.1677 Hadley, MA; d.1766 Northampton and Lydia Phelps b.1683, d.1765 in Northampton.
409 & 410 - Jonathan Wright b.1681; d.1743 in Northampton and Experience Edwards b.1691 Westfield; d.1721 Northampton
411 & 412 - Ebenezer Sheldon b.1677; d.1755 and Mary Hunt b.1679; d.1767. Both Ebenezer and Mary were born and died in Northampton.
Ebenezer is the brother of #392 Mindwell Sheldon
417 & 418 - John Smith b.1732 England; d.1775 Long Island and Mary Slowby b.1736 England; d.1775 Long Island
419 & 420 - John Fitz Young b.1722; d.1754 in Suffolk and Mehitable Cleveland b.1724 Suffolk NY; d.1808 New York, New York
421 & 422 Benjamin Brown b.1720; d.1774 and Mary Tuthill b.1722; d.1770. Both Ben and Mary were born and died in Suffolk, NY.
431 & 432 - Joseph Tichenor b.~1740 Morris County, NJ; d.unknown and Susannah Day b.1741; d.~1820, probably New Jersey for both
439 & 440 - Moses Roberts b.1724; d.1804 (AR) and Mary Coe b.1726; d.1791 Both Moses and Mary were born and died in Newark, NJ.
Moses's will indicates that Newark then is a lot different than Newark now:
441 & 443 - James Wade b.1730; d.1774 and Hannah Hinman b.1731; d.1792 Both James and Hannah were born and died in Newark, NJ.
It looks like James had time to write a quick will before he died in 1774 at age 44.
444 & 445 - Peter Lyon b.1722; d.1784 and Joanna Clark b.1725; d.1783 Both Peter and Joanna were born and died in Elizabethtown, NJ
445 & 446 John Willcocks (AR) b.1727; d.1776 both in New Providence NJ and Massy Ross b.1727 Elizabethtown, NJ; d.1801 New Providence
The website of Union County, New Jersey has an inventory of "Deserted Village Cemeteries." It includes this information:
The Willcocks family cemetery is also located in the Deserted Village. There are an estimated 24 graves in this little modest cemetery. There are headstones of three Revolutionary War Patriots. The original headstone is of John Willcocks who died November 22, 1776. John Willcocks was a member of “Captain Marsh’s Light Horse Troop,” and was killed defending General George Washington's retreat across New Jersey.
According
to one historical account: On November 16, 1776, Fort Washington fell
to an overwhelming assault by the British forces who captured over 2,000
American troops. Following the fall of New York City to British
occupation, the Continental Army crossed the Hudson River and scaled the
Palisades to man the fortifications on the bluffs of Fort Lee.
General Washington, realizing that with the loss of New York’s Fort Washington, Fort Lee was of little military value, and made preparations to evacuate his remaining army through New Jersey. An orderly retreat, however, was not in store for the Americans. On November 20, General Cornwallis ferried between 6,000 and 8,000 men across the Hudson River north of Fort Lee. When word of the crossing reached Washington, he ordered the abandonment of Fort Lee and an immediate retreat before his army was cut off and captured by the British. Most of the American supplies and artillery had to be left behind. During these darkest days for the Revolution when it seemed as though the Continental Army could not survive, Thomas Paine, who was in Fort Lee with Washington’s army, wrote the famous words, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Your 8G grandparents
Born between 1605 and 1713
767 & 768 - Francis James b.1632; d.1684 and & Elizabeth Hyland b.1632; d.1688. Both Francis and Elizabeth were born in Hingham, England and died in Hingham, MA.
769 & 770 - Ibrook Tower b.1644; d.1732 & Margaret Harding b.1647; d.1705 Both Ibrook and Margaret were born and died in Hingham, MA
771 & 772 - Joseph Bates II b.1660; d.1714 & Mary Lincoln b.1662; d.1752. Both Joseph and Mary were born and died in Hingham, MA
The History of the Lincoln Family (published 1923) says:
773 & 774 - Samuel Clapp b.1642; d.1730 in Scituate, MA & Hannah Gill b.1645 in Hingham; d.1721 in Scituate
Clapp was elected to public office consistently for many years. Clapp served in the Plymouth legislature for many years, until it was merged with Massachusetts, and then served in the Massachusetts legislature for many more years.
An 1884 history of Plymouth mentions Grandpa Clapp in the first column on this page, but I think the second column is more interesting, showing how the people of Plymouth felt about losing their special identity when the two colonies merged.
775 & 776 - Jeremiah Beal (younger) b.1655; d.1703 & Hannah Lane b.1658; d.1719 Both Jeremiah and Hannah were born and died in Hingham, MA.
Jeremiah was a blacksmith.
777 & 778 - Joshua Bates b.1671; d.1754 & Rachel Tower b.1674; d.1695 - Both Joshua and Rachel were born and died in Hingham, MA.
Joshua was a bricklayer.
783 & 784 - John Lyman b.1623 in England; d.1690 in Northampton and Dorcus Plum, b.1626 in England; d.1725 in New Haven.
Lieutenant John Lyman was with the militia defending the Massachusetts frontier during King Phillip's War. He is mentioned several times in this account of the disaster at Turner's Falls in 1676, along with your 8G grandfather Isaac Graves #807 and your 7G grandfather Jonathan Wells #399, who made a harrowing escape.
785 & 786 - Isaac Sheldon b.1629 in England; d.1636 in Northampton and Mary Woodford b.1636 in Roxbury, MA, d.1683 in Northampton.
Coming to America in 1652, Isaac was a relatively late arrival among this bunch. His parents seem to have been with him on the crossing, but they died at sea.
787 & 788 Samuel Allen b.1632 in Braintree; d.1718 in Northampton & Hannah Woodford b.1642 in Hartford, CT; d.1719 Northampton
This marriage got off to a dramatic start. The couple were engaged when Hannah was only 17--young for marriage among the Puritans. In September 1659, two months before their marriage, Samuel sued John Bliss, also of Northampton "for unjustly stealing away the affections of Hannah Woodford, my espoused wife." Samuel later withdrew the suit "for that he found himself defective in his testimony."
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| Samuel Allen (b.1632) in 1704 |
789 & 790 - Israel Rust b.1643 in Hingham; d.1712 in Northampton and Rebecca Clark, b.1649 in Dorchester MA; d.1733 in Northampton
Israel died without a will, so an inventory of his belongings was filed with the town when he family divided up the property. His property seems to be very typical of the other wills I saw from around this time (1712). In addition to 18 acres, a house, a barn, 2 yokes of oxen, 2 cows, and three horses, he owned:
791 & 792 - Preserved Clapp, b.1643, d.1720 in Northampton and Sarah Newbury b.1650 in Windsor, CT, d.1716 in Northampton
793 & 794 - Samuel Bartlett b.1639, d.1712 in Northampton, and Sarah Baldwin b.1653 in Milford Connecticut, d.1717 in Northampton
795 & 796 - Thomas Strong, b.1637; d.1689, Northampton and Rachel Holton b.1637 in Northampton; d.1689 New Haven.
Some records show Thomas Strong as a "trooper under Major Mason in 1658." The images that some Ancestry members shared with that information have to do with cavalry. That is as much as I know.
799 & 800 - Thomas Wells b.1620 England; d.1676 Hadley, MA and Mary Beardsley, b.1631 Hartford, CT; d.1690 Hadley, MA
I don't know who Fredrick B. Wickman of Amherst was, or why he kept a record about the Wells family or when he wrote it (some of the spelling is archaic), but a document on Ancestry contains this detailed account of making a living on the colonial frontier:
801 & 802 - John Strong, b.1605 in Somerset, England; d.1699 Northampton, MA and Abigail Ford, b.1605 Somerset, England, d.1688 Northampton
John seems to be among the most honored and respected of our ancestors among the early settlers of Massachusetts. This book, The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong,
is not the only book such book written. In brief, he was a successful tanner
and planter and had a hand in either the original settlement or the
early development of Dorchester, Hingham, Taunton, Windsor, and
Northampton. He served in the General Court (the colonial legislature)
and as a church leader. He was among the early patrons of Harvard
University.
All that aside, as I skim his biographies, I cannot help but think that part of the reason he is so well-remembered is that he and Abigail had 16 kids, many of whom grew to adulthood and had many kids of their own. As a result, they had many descendants to get caught up in the late 19th-century local-history-writing craze. One of these histories begins:
His descendants have numbered over thirty thousand persons. Among these are four hundred college graduates, over thirty college professors, as many authors, four governors, over thirty judges, over thirty members of the US Congress, sixty officers of the Revolutionary army; Professors Dane, Whitney, and Goodrich of Yale; Newberry and Dwight of Columbia; Robinson of Union Theogogical Seminary, etc. etc. etc.
803 & 804 - David Hoyt b.1651 Windsor, CT; d.1704 Coos, VT and Sarah Wells b.1655 Wethersfield; d.1676 Hatfield
The circumstances of David's tragic death completely dominate the stories told about him in the family histories. As a result, I could not find the answer to a question I had about his early life: Both of his parents died in July 1655, when David was only four years old. I don't know who raised him.
Sarah was David's first wife. She had died before the Deerfield Raid, as had David's second wife. David and his third wife, Abigail, and two of their children were taken captive. A third child escaped by hiding in a corn bin. Abigail was taken but eventually ransomed, and one of the children stayed with a Mohawk family. David and the youngest child did not survive the march to Canada.
805 & 806 - Joseph Edwards b.1647 Springfield; d.1690 Northampton and Hannah Atkinson b.1653 Boston, d.1735 Northampton
Joseph
and Hannah had settled in Deerfield, and Joseph died before the 1704
raid. Hannah had remarried. She survived the raid
and was not captured, but her husband, Benoni Stebbins, died defending their house.
807 & 808 - Isaac Graves b. ~1620 in England; arrived 1637, d.1677 in Hatfield and Mary Church, b.1662, Duxbury, MA; d.1695 in Hatfield
Isaac is another ancestor we lost in hostilities on the Massachusetts frontier.
John's story is more interesting. We know it thanks to only one 1653 record, a list of Scottish men working at the Saugus Iron Works in Lynn, Massachusetts.
In November 1649, English Parliamentarians beheaded King
Charles I (in the presence of your 10G grandfather Henry Lyon--see his story at #3551). The Scots were not on board with that, and they recognized his son as
King Charles II. So Oliver Cromwell's forces invaded Scotland, and the two
armies met at the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650. The Scots were defeated,
and John Bank was among 10,000 Scots taken prisoner.
He had better luck as a prisoner than as a soldier, which is how he came to be our American ancestor.
On a forced march to England, many of the prisoners died of their wounds, disease, starvation, or being shot. But enough remained alive to cause a headache for the English government. Keeping them in prison would be expensive; letting them go dangerous. So England offered the prisoners for sale as indentured servants, required to work in bondage for seven years without pay.
Most were sold to English coal or salt mines. But one small group went elsewhere. Representatives of an iron works in Lynn, Massachusetts negotiated to take possession of “150 prisoners who are well and sound and free of wounds,” and in November 1650, a boat carrying POW John Bank sailed to America.
The merchants planned to keep some prisoners for the iron works and sell
the remaining men for between 20 and 30 pounds, which would have made a tidy
profit, since they paid only five pounds for each. However, the wintry ocean voyage took a toll on the men's health. One died, and the others, sickly, did not fetch that high a price.
John was among 65 prisoners retained at the iron works. He and the others took their lodgings in the “Scotchmen’s house”, a single building one mile from the iron works. This house, now open to tourists, is believed to have had two rooms around a central chimney with a cellar oven. Eleven beds and bolsters there suggest that they slept two to a bed.
Records of other local businesses indicate that the iron works was buying clothing, shoes, soap, and medical care (such as it was in the 17th century) for its workers.
The Saugus Iron Works at Lynn was huge, covering 600 acres, and is now a national historic site run by the National Park Service. Most of the indentured Scots worked as woodcutters to supply raw material to colliers, who made charcoal for the furnaces. Others had jobs within the factory as forgers and blacksmiths. Some worked on the company farm, the source of all that food the investor complained about.
We don’t know how old John was, but he might have been quite young. Many of the prisoners had been teenagers when they were conscripted into the Scottish army. Company records indicate that they were taught trades during their time at the iron works, including blacksmithing and carpentry. One owner wrote that although the men had arrived as unskilled laborers, they “would neare have managed the Companie’s business themselves, and (had we been free to use them in that way) would have saved many hundreds of pounds in a yeare.”
One contemporary observer wrote: “At the Iron Works wee founde all the men with smutty faces and bare armes working lustily. The headmen be of substance and godly lives, but some of the workmen be young and fond of frolicking, and sometimes doe frolicke to such purpose that they get before the magistrates. And it be said, much to their discredit that one or two hath done naughtie workes with the maidens living thereabouts.”
The prisoners began assimilation almost immediately. They were included in the colony’s military training as early as 1652, and by the time their indenture was complete, their Americanization was too. They married local women, both before and after being released from indenture, to take their place in thousands of American family trees.
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| The Saugus Iron Works today, operated as a historic site by the National Park Service |
811 & 812 - Joseph Dickinson b.1630 England; d.1675 Northfield and Phebe Bressey b.1632 England; d.1711 Hartford.
813 & 814 - Daniel White b.1642 Hartford CT; d.1713 Hatfield and Sarah Crow b.1647 Hartford, d.1719, Hadley MA
815 & 816 - Mark Warner b.1646 Ispwich, MA; d.1738 Northampton and Abigail Montague b.1633 Wethersfield, CT; d.1705 Northampton
Like #799 & 800 and #1600, these two were likely in Hadley during the legendary attack of 1675. (Details with #1600, Francis Belcher.)
817 & 818 - Nathaniel Phelps b.1653 Hartford, CT; d.1705 Northampton and Grace Martin (adopted name Marsh) b.1650 England; d.1727 Northampton
Your 8G grandmother Grace has an interesting backstory:
819 & 820 - James Wright b.1639 Springfield; d.1707 Northampton and Abigail Jess b.1645 Springfield; d.1707 Northampton
821 & 822 - Nathaniel Edwards b.1657; d.1731 and Hepzibah Janes b.1665; d.1691. Both Nathaniel and Hepzibah were born and died in Northampton.
825 & 826 - Jonathan Hunt b.1637 England; d.1691 Northampton and Clemence Hosmer b.1642 Hartford; d.1691 Northampton
Three generations are captured in the screenshot, below, of the Hunt family history. I highlighted our direct ancestors. Notice, too, that it identifies another uncle of some level (Mary's son Joseph, near the bottom of the first column) whom we lost in the Deerfield raid of 1704.
Here's what a maltster did,
from a colonial brewing book:
"The right kind of barley being chosen, no care can be too great in the making it into malt. The first operation is the covering it with water, to soak it in the cistern; for this clear water of a running brook or small river should be chosen … In this water the barley is to lie about three days and nights … to know when it is soaked enough take up one corn from the middle of the quantity and hold it between the forefinger and thumb of the right hand by the two ends, press it gently and the softness will show whether it is enough…. The grain being soaked enough the water is to be drawn leisurely from it. After this it is to be put into a hutch, and lie together thirty two hours: after this it is to be turned up on the floor; when it begins to spire it must be turned every four hours and spread thin on the floor … when the malt is made thus far without any accident, it is the common practice to lay it on the kiln at once … the time of drying malt varied according to the kind intended to be made, for the difference of color depends on the drying quick or slow. For brown malt, four hours will be sufficient, because the briskness of the fire that is used. For amber malt, the fire being smaller, there will require about seven hours; and the pale malt, the fire being very weak, the time will amount to about twelve."
831 & 832 - John Bellows b.1705 Groton, CT, d.1793 Marlboro, MA and Mary (unknown)
833 & 834 - David Williams b.1692; d.1762, both in Groton and Experience Bailey b.1698 Groton; d.1762 Hartford
Your 9G grandparents
Born between 1580 and 1685
The Pilgrims, a 2015 PBS documentary, part of The American Experience series, is worth watching.
1535 & 1536 - Philip James b.1599 Hingham England; d.1638 Hingham, MA and Jane Russell
b.1611 Hingham England; d.1688 Hingham, MA.
Philip and Jane immigrated in 1638 with four children and two servants, William Pitts and Edward Mitchell. Sadly, it looks as if Philip died in August 1638, shortly after arrival. Jane probably did okay; the servants were likely indentured (that is, they had to work for her until they repaid the cost of their passage); Philip's parents and at least one brother immigrated at the same time; and Jane remarried in February 1640.
1537 & 1538 - Thomas Hyland b.1604 England; d.1683 Scituate MA and Deborah Curtis b.1607 England; d.1707 Scituate, MA (Arr. 1637)
1539 & 1540 - John Tower b.1609 Hingham, England; d.1701 Hingham MA and Margaret Ibrook b.1620 Hingham England; d.1700 Hingham MA (Arr. 1635)
1541 & 1542 - John Harding b.1624 Plymouth; d.1682 Eastham, MA and Hannah Hurst b.1627 England; d.1650 Braintree, MA
1543 & 1544 - Joseph Bates b.1628 England; d.1706 Hingham, MA and Esther Hilliard b.1642 Boston, MA; d.1709 Hingham, MA
Joseph
arrived with his parents in 1635, at the age of seven. My guess:
seven-year-old boys enjoyed the passage more than anyone else. He grew up to be a brick mason; constable of Hingham from 1675 to 1678; selectman in 1671, 1677, 1684, and 1692; and sexton of the parish in 1673.
1545 & 1546 - Samuel Lincoln b.1622 England; d.1690 Hingham, MA and Martha Lyford b.1624; d.1693 Hingham, MA
1547 & 1548 - Thomas Clapp b.1608 England; d.1684 Scituate, MA and Jane Martin b.1618 England; d.1656 Scituate, MA Arrived 1633
One of the older published family histories, from the 1870s, has this story, which shows how picky the Puritans were about their religious practices--although anyone who has been involved in church organization can probably empathize with poor Grandpa Thomas. (Notice the controversy lasted 34 years!!!) The book itself is too old and faded, so I'll transcribe:
Thomas was Deacon of the Church in Scituate and was warmly engaged in a theological controversy respecting the form of baptism, which commenced about 1641, with the Rev. Charles Chauncey, who came to New England in 1638.
The Reverend Chauncey preached in Plymouth for about three years and would have remained there but for his holding some peculiar views, to which the church in Plymouth could not subscribe. He believed that the Lord's Supper ought to be administered in the evening and every Lord's day; and that baptism ought to be only by plunging the whole body under water, whether in case of children or adults. He then came to Scituate and remained about thirteen years, his ministry during the whole time being a scene of constant agitation.
About five years after its commencement, as no terms of agreement could be decided upon, nearly half the church and society withdrew and formed another church. In 1654 Chauncey contemplated returning to England, when he received an invitation to the office of President of Harvard College, with the stipend of 100 pounds per annum, and with the understanding that he forebear to disseminate or publish any tenets concerning immersion in baptism, and celebration of the Lord's Supper at evening. He agreed to this and was inducted to that office in November 1654.
The religious controversy in Scituate, begun under his ministry that resulted in the dismemberment of the church, was resolved by a letter signed by Thomas Clapp and two others in 1675, on behalf of the First Church, which signified an acceptance from the other church of a kindly offer of reconciliation.
1549 & 1550 - Thomas Gill b.1616 England; d.1706 Hingham, MA and Hannah Otis b.1618 England; d.1676 Hingham, MA
These two immigrated separately and married in 1642 in Hingham. Thomas and Hannah's father are two of the founders of Hingham, MA.
1551 & 1552 - Jeremiah Beal (elder) b.1631 England; d.1716 Hingham and Sarah Ripley b.1627 England; d.1715 Hingham, MA
1553 & 1554 - Andrew Lane b.1610 England; d.1675 Hingham, MA and Tryphena Eames b.1612 England; d.1707 Hingham, MA Arrived in 1635
1567 & 1568 - Richard Lyman b.1580, Canterbury, England; d.1640 Hartford, CT and Sarah Osborne b.1584, England; d.1642, Hartford, CT
New England: The Great Migration is a three-volume set of detailed profiles of immigrant individuals and families of that 1620-1635. It was published in 1995, and it's not clear where the author got all his information; in the following excerpt, he's clearly quoting from some period source:
Richard Lyman was admitted to the Roxbury church as member #11. He came to New England in the 9th month 1631, on the ship Bristol. He brought children: Phillis, Richard, Sarah, John, and another. He settled first in Charleston, where he first became a freeman. He was an ancient Christian, but weak, yet after some time of trial and quickening he joined the church. When the great removal was made to Connecticut in 1635 he also went and underwent much affliction, for going toward winter, his cattle were lost in the driving, and some never found again, and the winter being cold and ill provided, he was sick and melancholy, yet after he had some revivings through God's mercy, and died in the year 1640.
Richard is one of Rev. Hookers's Company--story at this link. His will is the first filed in Hartford's records.
1569 & 1570 John Plumb b.1594 in England; d.1648 in New Haven and Dorothy Chaplin, b.1596 in England; d.1660 in New Haven
I transcribed the following from the Plumb Family Album, printed in 1893, and changed many archaic spellings and dozens of unnecessary adjectives.
John Plum was among the first settlers and proprietors of Wethersfield, CT in 1635. He sold his little property in Ridgewell, England in early 1635 and bought, if he had not previously owned, a ship and immigrated to Wethersfield in his own vessel, as he was from the moment of his arrival a ship owner there and traded up and down the river with the Indians.
It is also probable that it was his
ship that was used in 1637 to carry the 77 men down the river and around to
Narragansett Bay from which the march was made to Pequot Hill --now in Groton--
to surprise the Indians. The ship returned after landing the men at
Narragansett to the mouth of the Connecticut river in full view of the
Pequots. The Pequots supposed the men had given up the war and gone home, so
they themselves had a drunken spree that night and were taken by surprise by
the English attack in the morning just at daybreak. The Pequots were totally
defeated and the remnant driven west and either killed or captured in the
Fairfield Swamp.
1571 & 1572 Rudophus Sheldon b.1605 in England; d.1651 at sea and Barbara Stone b.1606 in England; d.1651 at sea.
1573 & 1574 - Thomas Woodford b.1607 in England; d.1667 in Northampton, MA and Mary Blott b.1609 in England; d.1660 Boston.
1575 & 1576 - Samuel Allen b.1597 in Somerset, England; d.1669 in Braintree, MA and Anne Whitmore b.1612 Northampton England d.1641 Braintree
You have four Allen/Allyn ancestors, at least, and the same problem prevents me saying much with confidence about any of them:
1579 & 1580 - Henry Rust, b.1613 Hingham England, d.1684 Boston, MA, and Hannah Appleton, b.1615 Hingham England, d.1674, Boston, MA
Henry arrived 1633; I cannot find anything about when Hannah and her parents arrived.
Henry was among the eight men who first settled Hingham, but the family relocated to Boston around 1645. Trinity Church in Boston now stands on the site of the Rusts' home.
1581 & 1582 - William Clark b.1609 England, d.1696, Northampton, MA and Sarah Strong b. unk in England; d.1675 in Northampton
William was a busy guy:
William is one of Rev. Hookers's Company--story at this link.
1583 & 1584 - Roger Clap b.1609 England, d.1691 Boston and Joanna Ford b.1617 England; d.1695 in Boston
Now, LISTEN UP: Grandpa Roger has a message for you personally, directly from him and in his own words.
He wrote you a long letter in the form of his memoirs. You can probably still buy a copy (google Memoirs of Roger Clap), or read the Library of Congress copy online. Grandpa Roger took pen in hand because:
I thought it good, my dear children, to leave you with some account of God’s remarkable providences to me, in bringing me to this land and placing me here among his dear servants, and in his house, who am most unworthy of the least of his mercies. The Scripture requires us to tell God’s wondrous works to our children, that they may tell them to their children, that God may have the glory through out all ages.
Excerpts from a history of New England:
 |
| Faneuil Hall wasn't built until 51 years after Roger died, so his Boston didn't look like this. This building is where the HQ of his artillery company is now located. |
1587 & 1588 - Robert Bartlett b.1612 in England; d.1767 in Northampton, Plymouth and Anne Warriner, b.1616 England; d.1676 Northampton.
1589 & 1590 - Joseph Baldwin b.1609 in England, d.1684 Northampton and Hannah Whitlock b.1616 in England, d.1661 in New Haven, CT. Arr. 1639
1593 & 1594 - William Henry Holton b.1611 England; d.1691 Northampton and Mary Agnes Winche b.1612 England; d.1691 Northampton
The "General Court" was the colony's legislature.
1599 & 1600 - Hugh Wells b.1590 England, d.1643 Hadley, MA and Frances Belcher b.1598 England; d.1678 Hadley, MA They arrived in 1635.
Robert Harris' Act of Oblivion (2022) is a richly evocative historical novel that will bring our ancestors' world alive for you. It focuses on the late aftermath of the English civil war as it played out in America. The novel recounts the experiences of William Goffe and Edward Whalley, fugitives from the restored King's justice, who were sheltered by the people of Hadley, Massachusetts.
In particular, it spins a detailed account of an attack on Hadley when the legendary Angel of Hadley saved the town. (If that link is dead; google "Angel of Hadley" or read the book). Modern historians disagree over whether this attack actually happened, but Increase Mather, a chronicler of the time, reported it.
If it did happen, you
had ancestors there. In addition to the Widow Wells, your ancestors #799, 800; #815, 816; #1600; #1631, #1632, #1633,
and #1634 were living in Hadley at the time.
1601 & 1602 - William Beardsley and his Mary Lawrence Harvey --were born in England and resided in Wethersfield, CT Both arrived in 1635.
John Warner and three other men began that summer the work of marking off home lots and erecting houses. However, their work was “effectually frustrated by the tedious and unsatisfactory negotiations carried on by the English authorities with Uncas, which lasted through the year. The threatening state of Indian affairs discouraged the planters, who made no further attempt at settlement during the term of the initial grant." They petitioned for, and were granted, an extension to fulfill the terms of their land grant.
(Note: I think I understand the account to say that the Indians then granted a deed to Ensign Thomas Cooper in 1665, who in turn assigned it to Warner and two other men.)
In the spring of 1665, Warner and his son Samuel, John Ayres, Thomas Parsons, and Thomas Wilson put up at least two frame houses and planted some corn. John is said to have built the first house and is therefore recognized as the “father of Brookfield.”
In October 1673, the General Court agreed to incorporate the settlement as a township, and John and two other men were named as the town trustees. (I understand the account
to indicate that this is when Quaboag became Brookfield.)
Although “the numerous tribes of Indians inhabiting the lands adjacent to the new settlements in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut had in the main been or pretended to be on friendly terms with the settlers, it became apparent in 1674, that they were getting uneasy over the expansion of the whites. This fact had led Phillip, son and successor of Massasoit, to incite the various tribes to revenge against the encroachment of the settlers, an in the summer of 1675, open warfare broke out and started King Phillip’s War"
Wheeler, who was wounded, and his men then quickly retreated back into Brookfield and “betook themselves in the largest and strongest house there, that of John Ayres, where they fortified themselves as best they could. Eighty-two people were crowded in the house: Wheeler, Hutchinson, 13 able soldiers, 6 wounded soldiers, 13 able male citizens, and 50 women and children. They were besieged for three days and nights by about 300 Indians, who kept up a continuous firing at the house and made several attempts to set it afire.
Records from the London Court of Chancery indicate that Thomas Newberry was well-educated; he had been engaged in legal studies in London during several terms of the Court. Around 1620, he married Joane Dabinot. They had five children before Joane died in 1629. Newberry then married Joane’s cousin, Jane Dabinot.
Caught up in the Puritan reform movement, in April 1634, Newberry sailed for New England with his family, where he seems to have quickly enjoyed great respect from his fellow colonists. He first settled at Dorchester, where received substantial grants of land and bought a house. He joined the church; was admitted freeman; and was made selectman the following year. Newberry also served as deputy from Dorchester to the General Court. By 1635, he had rights to more than 400 acres of land.
On May 6,
1635, he was chosen to be overseer of the works at Castle Island and “it is ordered that he
shall have power to press men for the works and to press carts for such
allowance as he thinks meet.” This is the island in Boston harbor which has a
fort on it from about that time to the present and Newberry was engaged to
complete the military works. (Your 9G grandfather Roger Clap, #1583) had a longer and more productive stint when he was in charge of the Castle Island defenses.)
Newberry was active in plans for the settlement of Windsor, Connecticut, but died suddenly before he completed his plans for moving. The inventory of his estate amounted to ₤1520, a very large estate for that time. This indicates he probably brought a large stock of goods from England with the intention of engaging in trade as an importing merchant.
After his death, his widow and children moved to Windsor, where his children were granted lands for their father’s right in the plantation. Jane, Thomas’ widow, married Rev. John Warham (whom you can also read about in your 9G grandfather Roger Clap’s memoirs).
 |
| Castle Island, Boston Harbor, during the colonial period |
After Matt and Sam got title to the land, they would have filed it with the General Court of the colony. Shortly after that they split the land into lots and distributed it among 28 families and founded the town of Haddam, Connecticut.
The Matthew that I'm pretty sure is our ancestor was a merchant, who owned property in several towns; whose will disposed of (among land and other property) a small library of books and "one suit of clothes to John, Indian." So yeah, our guy might be the one who traded coats for land.
Once settled in Cambridge, MA (then called Newtown), the stress must finally have gotten to him. He was elected as an elder of the church, but:
Later, William was among the group that founded Hartford, CT, in 1636. Finally, in 1659, William was the leader of the group that, following a dispute over church sacraments, left Hartford, CT to found Hadley, MA. More details are in this post.
 |
| Not your 10G grandfather Phelps, but close enough. I wanted an image here. |
Typical of New England’s settlers, Phelps was not poor while still in England. He was well-connected, well-off,
and well-educated, probably trained in law. Still, economic considerations did
enter into his decision to come to America. Phelps
was an investor and member
of the Dorchester Company of
Adventurers, a company organized in England
in 1623 to make money by settling the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
While this interest in turning a profit was shared by both the colonists who settled the Plymouth Colony (1620-1629) and those who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630-1640), their religious motives were a bit different. The Plymouth Pilgrims wanted to separate completely from the established official Church of England (and to separate church from government), while the Puritans of Phelps’s group, under the leadership of Rev. Thomas White, wanted to reform it. As reformers, they were not as persecuted in England as badly as the Separatists were. However, they were sure they could improve upon the Church of England. Grandpa Phelps almost certainly believed his chosen faith to be the only true religion and disrespected all other faiths, especially Quakers.
Only around 300 colonists were in New England in 1630, when the Mary and John arrived with Phelps, his wife, four children, and two brothers, and 133 others. The group created a new settlement, which they called Dorchester (now a part of Boston), and came to be known as the Dorchester Company. Several others in the group, in addition to Phelps, became prominent in colonial history: Roger Ludlow, John Mason, Samuel Maverick, Nicholas Upsall, Matthew Allyn, Thomas Lord, and Henry Wolcott. (We might also be descended from both Ludlow and Allyn, in addition to Phelps).
 |
| A colonial elementary school. The Mather School in Dorchester is still operating. It was the first pubic elementary school in America. |
Phelps served in many capacities in colonial government. In Dorchester, he was constable; assigned to serve on committees given authority to settle land and boundary disputes, and given other key responsibilities in administering the affairs of the new town, including leading the General Meeting, in which individuals were tried for offenses including absence from church, forgery, and fornication.
He served as a member of the General Court (the colonial legislature)
for 12 sessions, and was on the committee that drafted the first laws of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, including a law against lying, and he was
involved in negotiating the first treaties and licenses.
Phelps soon became dissatisfied with the rate of reforms in Massachusetts. Governor Winthrop was too committed to having just a few men run the government; Phelps and others believed that more men should have a voice. So, as Puritans had a tendency to do, Phelps and a couple dozen other men split off. They sought permission to create a new settlement in the Connecticut River Valley and moved there in 1635 to found the town of Windsor. Your 10G grandfather #1627, John White, has a similar story of leaving his first town (Cambridge) to found a new town (Hartford.)
Phelps’s group had a harder time with the relocation than White’s. In October 1635, about 60 individuals in 23 Dorchester households undertook a two-week journey of about 100 miles through a region of swamps, rivers, and over small mountains. They knew it would be hard, so they sent most of their belongings by boat, up the Connecticut River. But the river froze over in mid-November, and the ship carrying their provisions could not reach them. Their few supplies were soon exhausted, and they faced starvation during their first winter in the valley.
 |
| A Pequot village of the Connecticut River valley |
William Phelps was a member of the General Court for 23 years from 1636 to 1662. During that time, he and later Governor Thomas Welles, of Hartford, drafted a law prohibiting lying, and he participated in enacting laws which with others were later called the "Blue Laws of Connecticut." In 1641, he served as Governor of the Windsor Colony.
3273 & 3274 - Thomas Robert Copley b.1597 England; d.1632 Windsor, CT and Elizabeth Griswold (birth and death dates unclear)
- Noah Webster, of dictionary fame;
Your distant cousin Janis Joplin - President Rutherford B. Hayes;
- Emily Dickinson, the poet;
- William Faulkner, the novelist;
- Katherine Hepburn, the actress;
- Johnny Carson, late-night talk show host;
- William Barnes, co-founder of Barnes & Noble;
- the Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bush Junior; and
- Janis Joplin, rock and blues singer.
1) He came to America on the first 1635 voyage of the Hopewell. At that time, he was 12 years old and unaccompanied by any family member.
2) He was living in Concord, MA in 1645;
3) He married Mary Wood in 1655;
4) He was granted 20 acres of land in Marlborough in 1656 and was a party to several land sales/purchases over the following years;
5) When he died, his will left land, buildings, and many carpentry tools to his wife and seven living children.
6) His descendants grew wealthy and rose high in 19th-century New England society.
"The
voyage of the Hopewell in April 1635 was under Captain William Bundocke.
Several voyages around this time produced passenger lists of particular
interest, as many of the passengers were unaccompanied minors.  |
| Signature from a land title transfer document |
William served in King Phillips War.
Arabella's parents arrived in 1635, the year she was born. I marked her here as an immigrant, but I cannot see any record that says where she was born. Perhaps on board, during the voyage? I don't know.
3337 & 3338 - John Wheeler b.1643 Concord MA; d.1713 Concord MA and Sarah Larkin b.1647 Charlestown MA; d.1725 Concord MA
3339 & 3340 - Thomas Bailey b.1636 New London, CT; d.1675, South Deerfield, MA and Lydia Redfield b 1636 Boston; d.1676 Connecticut
In September 1675, the settlers of the Connecticut River Valley had evacuated their new villages in anticipation of the war's arrival in the valley. But no one wanted to abandon Deerfield's excellent harvest. Colonial officials sent a group
of militia men to accompany a wagon train of ox carts to carry the grain out to feed the displaced settlers during the upcoming 
winter. The slow convoy began the trek from Deerfield to
Hadley on September 18, 1675. After they'd passed what they thought was the most dangerous part of the journey, the captain stopped the group in front
of the convoy near a small stream known as Muddy Brook to allow
the cumbersome ox carts in the rear to catch up. Some of the soldiers began to relax. Some put their guns aside and were picking bunches of
wild grapes growing next to the narrow road. At that moment, when
the convoy was least prepared to defend itself, a force of several
hundred Indians launched an ambush. In minutes, the attackers virtually
wiped out the convoy and its escort. Only a handful of men escaped.
3341 & 3342 - Edward Smith b.1637 England; d.1689 New London, CT and Elizabeth Bliss, b.1645 Saybrook, MA; d.1689 New London, CT
Nicholas Norton came to America in 1635 with the party of colonists led by Rev. John Hull. Elizabeth arrived separately the same year. The two married in 1637 in Weymouth, Massachusetts and lived there for about 20 years before moving to Martha’s Vineyard, where they were among the original settlers of Edgartown.
Grandpa Norton is profiled in a history of Martha’s Vineyard that tells about each original settler: “That he was of a social station somewhat above the average appears from the fact that he kept a servant whose ‘miscarriages’ brought legal problems in 1658 with the magistrates of Massachusetts.”
If I understand the story correctly, Grandpa Norton’s servant was summoned to court for some crime, and Grandpa bailed him out. Due to a misunderstanding about when the court date was scheduled, Grandpa failed to bring his servant to court on the day of the trial. As a result, he forfeited the bail and got his servant into even worse trouble than he’d already been in. Grandpa Norton wrote to the court explaining, apologizing, and asking that his bail be refunded. The court agreed, provided he bring the servant back to court for a new trial date. The history doesn’t say what happened to the servant.
But that was only the start of Grandpa Norton’s apparently frequent involvement with the courts of Martha’s Vineyard. He served as constable for a while, but appears more often in civil cases as both plaintiff and defendant.
 |
| Grandpa Norton's tannery was near the Great Pond. |
His last and apparently only criminal offense is fascinating: He joined in the “Dutch Rebellion,” an ill-fated move among a group of Martha’s Vineyard residents to reject English government (which declared them to be part of the New York colony) and instead establish governmental ties with Massachusetts (a more self-governing colony with greater political and religious freedoms.) It’s one of the weirder little chapters in American history; google “Dutch Rebellion”, 1673, and “Martha’s Vineyard” to learn more. Our ancestor was not one of the leaders, so he got off with a fine of 51 pounds and was made to publicly apologize for trying to overthrow the government established by His Majesty the King. It would be another century before they were out from under royal rule.
3371 & 3372 - Benjamin Moore b.1640, Salem, MA; d.1690 Southold, Long Island and Anne Hampton b.1650, Orient, MA; d.1726 Southold
3373 & 3374 - Caleb Horton b.1642 Southold; d.1702 Cutchogue Long Island and Abigail Hallock b.1642 Southold; d.1679 Cutchogue Long Island.
Both Caleb and Abigail were born into leading settler families of Southold, Long Island. See their parents' stories (#6747-6750) for details.
3375 & 3376 - Richard Brown b.1627 England; d.1685 Southold, Long Island and Hannah King b.1629 England; d.1698 Southold, Long Island
Richard was among the original, and eventually wealthiest, founders of Southold, Long Island, a group that included the Youngs, Kinge, and Tuthill families (additional ancestors). He had served in various capacities--lieutenant, sergeant, and ensign in the Suffolk County militia.
3377 & 3378 - Benjamin Conkling b.1638 Salem, MA; d.1709 East Hampton, LI and Hannah Mulford b.1645 and d.1712 East Hampton, LI
Another one of those names...
3527 & 3528 - Benjamin Coe b.1628 in England; d.1689 in Jamaica, NY and Abigail Carmen b.1635 Roxbury, MA; d.1704 New York
Benjamin is one of those sad cases where you can see his birth date is the same as his mother's death date. His father brought him to America when he was just five.
Benjamin helped found the settlement of Jamaica with his dad, #7055, but unlike his dad, Benjamin stayed put. He apparently got the normal allotment of land when a new settlement was created, but he bargained with the community to get an extra allotment of land in exchange for building a dam and a mill. He eventually owned and operated both a corn mill and a fulling mill, in addition to his farm. Fulling is a step in manufacturing wool cloth that involves cleansing the cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it shrink by friction and pressure. The work creates a smooth, water-repellent fabric.
3551 & 3552 - Henry Lyon b.1625, Glen Lyon Scotland; d.1703, Newark, NJ and Elizabeth Bateman b.1623, Glen Lyon Scotland; d.1703, Newark, NJ.
The Lyon/Lyons/Lyne family was very well connected in 16th and 17th century Scotland; you can read more in this well-written (for its time) online family history. At this distance, I find the author's lack of any effort to withhold his opinions charming; I doubt I'd enjoy anyone that opinionated today.
Henry became a local leader in Connecticut; you can read more about him individually on page 80 of that book. The long history of the family in Scotland starts on page 9; a chapter focusing on the events that shaped Henry's life starts on page 49, and a chapter starting on page 69 is devoted to the history of Lyons Farms, a significant Puritan settlement the family founded in New Jersey.
Grandpa Henry was present at one of the key events in English history, the beheading of King Charles I, which is why he is an American ancestor and not an English one. Here's how an old family history tells it:
Your 11G grandparents
Born between date and date
6179 & 6180 - Anthony W. Hilliard b.1585 England; d.1657 Hingham, MA and Elizabeth Kempton b.1585 England; d.1657 Hingham MA
Anthony and Elizabeth immigrated in 1638. Anthony is listed in some records as Sir Anthony Hilliard, and the parents he left behind in England had titles.
6181 & 6182 - Michael Bates b.1584 England; d. after 1632 in Boston, MA and Susannah Bentley b.1591 England; d.1635 in England
Michael arrived in 1631.
6209 & 6210 - Edmund Hobart b.1573 England; d.1646 Hingham MA and Margaret Dewey b.1574 England; d.1633 Hingham, MA. Arrived 1633
A century later, within the smaller world of Hingham, England (a village in Norfolk), the Hobarts were leading lights. Son Peter (your 9G granduncle) attended Cambridge and became a minister. The Planters of the Commonwealth, a definitive history of Massachusetts's origins, covers the Hobart family's role in the exodus from England to Massachusetts like this:
The largest exodus from any single locality naturally belongs to London. Yet (second place belongs to) the small parish of Hingham in Norfolk, with a population of only a few hundred, from which 35 families emigrated to found the present town of Hingham in Massachusetts. The departures nearly depopulated this English town. It is difficult to account for this wholesale hegira from one little place unless the movement began under the leadership of Edmund Hobart in 1633, who preceded by two years his son, the Reverend Peter Hobart, who became the pastor of the first church in the new Massachusetts town.
6657 & 6658 John Wood b.1610 England; d.1678 Marlborough MA and Mary Parmenter b.1610 England; d.1690 Marlborough, MA.
Colonial courtship could get complicated, apparently, but John was there for his daughter:
6659 & 6660 - Thomas Rose b.1626 England; d.1683 New London, CT and Joanna Charity Rainsford b.1634 New London, CT; d.1698 New London, CT
6661 & 6662 - Robert Allyn b. ~1620 England; d.1683 New London, CT and Sarah Gager b.1628 England; d.1685 New London, CT.
6673 & 6674 - John Thompson b.1606 England; d.1678 Stratford, CT and Mirabella Finch b.1614 England; d.1690 Stratford, CT
John and Mirabella arrived in 1635. John appears in some Ancestry trees as 'lieutenant' and has documents related to the Pequot War (1636) and King Phillips War (1675-1676) saved to his records, but I cannot see any contemporary records that mention his name in connection with military service. No one is claiming he's a war hero or anything, so it's probably true, but I just don't know the source.
6675 & 6676 - George Wheeler b.1605 England; d.1687 Concord, MA and Katherine Pyn (or Penn) b.1610 England; d.1685 Concord, MA
Charles Walcott, a 19th-century historian of Concord wrote that George "was foremost in the town's business, by virtue of his large
estates as well as integrity and good judgment. He was a man
of education, and the owner of a large amount of property, his house lot
alone consisting of eleven acres, while he possessed lands in every
part of the town, at Brook Meadows, Fairhaven Meadow, the Cranefield, by
Walden Pond, Flint's Pond, on the White Pond Plain, on the
Sudbury line, etc. He held as many positions of trust and was as active
in the direction of the town's affairs as any individual in Concord,
serving at various times on substantially every committee of
consequence, and leading in all matters of moment, as is evidenced by
the fact that nearly every town deed and petition of any importance from
either the Church or the civic community of that time bears his
signature.
 |
| A turner worked with a lathe. |
As an adult, Edward earned his living as a turner and wheelmaker.
6685 & 6686 - Thomas Bliss b.1618 England; d.1688 New London, CT and Elizabeth (maiden name unknown); d. Norwich, CT (dates unknown)
These two immigrated in 1636. Thomas Bliss and his father are both among the settlers of Hartford, CT. Full story at this link.
6719 & 6720 - Rev. John Youngs b.1602 England; d.1671 Southold, Long Island and Joan Harrington, b.1600 and d.1630 in Southold, Long Island (now New York)
John
was the son of a distinguished clergyman in England, Samuel Youngs, and
a graduate of Cambridge University. He immigrated in 1637 to New Haven, CT, where he gathered a group of other recent immigrants. He then led the group, which included more of your ancestors, to Long Island to create the first English settlement on that island.
In those days, a 'new settlement' and a 'new church' were synonymous--you couldn't have one without the other. So I can understand why, if he wanted his own church, Rev. Youngs had to create a whole new town. But I don't understand the organized-religion dynamics of the time, so I cannot say why he was an Anglican clergyman in England (albeit a reform-minded Puritan), and the church he founded in Southold was Presbyterian.
Southold never had any trouble with Native Americans. The settlers purchased the land from the Montauks before they built their settlement in 1640, and then when they wanted to expand, made a larger purchase. Neither purchase was ever contested by the natives, either then or later.
Southold did, however, have problems with both the Dutch and the government of England. The threats were not to their lives; they were to their right to self-government.
As an outgrowth of the Puritan colonies in New England,
Southold enjoyed wide latitude for
self-government in its first few decades. And although the Dutch, who had controlled the eastern end of Long Island (New Amsterdam) since 1626, competed with English colonists and traders over who would control which trading posts, that tension never threatened Southold directly.
 |
| This map shows the situation in 1645. The colony of New Haven later merged with Connecticut, taking Southold with it. |
6721 & 6722 - Thomas Gardiner b.1590 England; d.1638 Roxbury, MA and Mary Warren b.1602 England; d.1678 Southold, Long Island
Thomas and Mary's daughter, Mary Gardiner, was born in England in 1630; the family arrived in America in 1637. They lived in Roxbury, MA in 1638, where Thomas died. The two Marys then appear to have found their way to Southhold on Long Island (settled in 1640), where daughter Mary married John Youngs (the son of the Reverend) in 1653, when she was 23 years old and he was 30.
That sequence of events is a bit suspicious. Both Thomas and Mary are rather old to be marrying for the first time, and I'm clueless about why the two Marys moved from Roxbury to Southold after Thomas died. A remarriage might explain it, but I cannot find a record of a remarriage for Mary in either Roxbury or Southold.
But it's the best I can do. I cannot find very much at all about Thomas (he did die fairly young, 48 years old), and Mary Warren unfortunately has the same name as a Mayflower passenger, so her records on Ancestry.com have been messed up by people eagerly linking her records to those of the Mayflower Mary, and untangling them will take more time than I have.
For more about the settlement of Southold, see #6719, Rev. John Youngs, just above.
6737 & 6738 - Edward Winn b.1599 England; d.1682 Woburn, MA and Joanna Sargent b.1607 England; d.1649 Woburn These two arrived 1635.
From a family history written in the early 1900s:
In 1635, three thousand settlers came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and among these was Edward Winn with his wife Joanna, his daughters Ann and Elizabeth, and son Joseph. With them came his apprentice joiner, Moses Cleveland, a young lad of the Goode family. They had lived in Ipswich, England, where Edward was a master carpenter and housewright and they sailed from London.
Settlers arriving in Boston at that time had to create new towns if they wished to have title to their own land. The first mention of Edward Winn in colonial records is when he appears at the home of Thomas Graves in Charlestown as on of the commissioners at their first meeting on December 18, 1640 held for consulting on the affairs of the contemplated town of Woburn. On February 8, 1641, the commissioners came from Charlestown to find a location. After two days' search, they pitched upon a spot on the Aberjona River over which they built a bridge. To this spot they came in May following and laid out house lots. Buildings were erected during the summer.
Woburn was incorporated in 1642, becoming the twentieth community in the colony.
In 1648 Moses and Ann married, and Moses received the rights of a freeman and an apportionment of forty acres of land that had been reserved for him.
6741 & 6742 - Joseph Goodborne Isaac b.1588 England; d.1642 Cambridge and Elizabeth Jackson, d.1622 in England. Joseph arrived in 1636.
6743 & 6744 - Captain Thomas Moore, b.1613 England; d.1691 Southold Long Island and Martha Youngs b.1613 England; d.1671 Southold, Long Island
These two arrived in 1635 with their respective families, who knew each other, and married in Massachusetts in 1636.
I cannot tell whether Thomas was a sea captain or a militia captain. Either are possible in Southold on Long Island, which was heavily involved in sea trade with the other colonies, including Barbados.
Martha Youngs is the sister of Rev. John Youngs (#6719; founder of Southold), Elizabeth Youngs (#13500) and of Captain Joseph Youngs (who appears to have been a sea captain.) Father of all four was your 12G grandfather Rev. Christopher Youngs, Vicar of Reyden and Southwold, and 12G grandmother Lady Margaret Ellwyn, both of whom stayed in England.
6745 & 6746 - James Hampton b.1608 England; d.1675 Southampton and Mary Jane Qualls b.1610 England; d.1673 Southold, Long Island.
These two must have arrived in Massachusetts before 1633, because that is when James' widowed father died there.
6747 & 6748 - Barnabas Horton b.1600 England; d.1680 Southold and Mary Langdon, b.1607 England; d.1698 Southold, Long Island
I could tell you the story or you could just read the book. I do recommend it; it's good.
I read it, so I'll summarize. The only thing that seems to set Barnabas apart from many of your other ancestors, about whom no modern books were written, is the amount of records we have about him, which made him a good subject for an author wanting to write about a normal but un-famous Pilgrim leader. For example, I'm sure most Puritans brought their family bibles with them, but Barnabas's was preserved and is now available for viewing at the Long Island Historical Society in Brooklyn. He also had a huge blue-slate headstone carved for himself in England and brought that, too. In other words, the guy has records.
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| The historic Horton Point Lighthouse |
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| An Ancestry.com member uploaded this as a portrait of William Hallock, but included no source or citation. |
Peter and William probably arrived in America together around 1635, when William was 20 and unmarried. He and Margaret were married in 1640 in Massachusetts. William received a substantial land grant when a new town, Mattituck, was split off from Southold. He purchased and worked more land, and left a large estate when he died in 1684.
6753 & 6754 - William King b.1595 England; d.1649 Salem and Dorothy Hayne b.1600 England; d.1684 Southold, Long Island
William and Dorothy arrived in America in 1635 with their five kids ages 12, 10, 8, 6, and a toddler. (The six-year-old was our grandmother Hannah.) Their name was spelled Kinge in England, and King after they got here.
They settled in Salem, where they were members
of the church, but William got in trouble by siding with the Antinomians during a religious controversy. (Antinomians believed that direct personal revelation was more valuable than literal reading of the Bible; and that works, behavior, and
personal growth are not valid demonstrations of a person's salvation.)
A legal document from 1637 shows he was told to sever his
connection with the Antinomians, under penalty of being disarmed. He refused
and had to give up his gun. After he died in 1650, Dorothy moved to Southold, Long
Island to live near her daughters, Hannah Brown and Deliverance Tuthill, her youngest daughter and another one of your 10G grandparents
6755 & 6756 - Ananias Conkling b.1600 England; d.1657 East Hampton, LI and Mary Launder b. 1612 England; d.1655 Salem, MA
Ananias and Mary arrived in 1638, with Ananias's brother John and some other extended family members, to become some the first settlers of Salem, Massachusetts. Ananias and John were window-glass makers in England, and they continued the same profession here, starting the first window-glass factory in America shortly after they arrived. According to Ananias's entry on the Find-a-grave website, some of the historic buildings in Salem still have "Conklin glass" in their windows. (I find that hard to believe, unless the company stayed in business long after both Ananias and John died.)
6757 & 6758 - John Mulford b. 1606 England; d. 1686 East Hampton, LI and Friedeswiede Osborn b.1606 England; d.1683 East Hampton, LI
John and Friedeswiede (some records call her 'Hannah') were among the founding families of East Hampton. John was a judge.
7055 & 7056 - Robert Coe b.1596 England; d.1689 Jamaica, NY and Mary Crabbe b.1600 and d.1628 in England
Robert arrived in Boston in 1634 with his second wife and his three sons, and adopted a pattern followed by quite a few of our ancestors: he moved to a brand-new settlement every few years.
The Coe family first resided in Watertown, MA. Land records show he then purchased land from the Indians in 1635 and founded Wethersfield, CT; then in 1640 purchased land from the settlement of New Haven and founded Stamford, CT; then in 1643 was one of the founders of Hempstead, Long Island; then in 1652, settled Newton, LI; and finally in 1656, he was among the group of colonists who bought land from the Indians to found Jamaica, NY.
7057 John Carman
A letter to John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts in the summer of 1644 includes:
“… desiring to acquaint your worship with our condition, which is the worse by reason we want sufficient strength to carry on our plantation for present. The Indians would have made peace, and some of them have, but we dare not trust to them but have labored to serve the providence of god in a watchful way and care fearing the worst for lack of which Mr. Fordham’s plantation hath too lately suffered having too much trusted those unfaithful heathen. three men have been cut down at their work and one of goodman John Carman's children almost massacred and another carried away, and yet to him they pretended greatest friendship. Sir the short of it is that their plot is to cut of all the Christians (as we call them) in these parts of America both Dutch, English, and French…"
Your 12G grandparents
Born between year and year
13319 & 13320 - Robert Rose b.1594 England; d.1665 New Haven, CT and Margery Everard b.1594 England; d.1664 New Haven
Robert and Margery arrived in 1634. They settled first in Watertown, MA, but joined the group leaving there to found Wethersfield CT, where Robert became constable and then served in the colonial legislature from 1641-1643. Robert served as a soldier in the Pequot War.
13321 & 13322 - Thomas David Rainsford b.1608 Yorkshire, England; d.1600 New London, CT and Mary Elizabeth York b.1612 England; d.1660 New London, CT
These two must have immigrated before 1634, because their daughter was born in 1634 in Connecticut.
13355 & 13356 - John Larkin b.1585 England; d.1629 at sea in transit to America; Elizabeth Baker, b.1591 England; d.1662 Charlestown, MA
Records for these two are skimpy. John's death at sea was recorded in 1629, so I'm assuming that's when Elizabeth and her son (#6677, Edward) arrived. I cannot find any record of Elizabeth's remarriage, almost certain for a 38-year old widow. There are some records of an Elizabeth Larkin in Virginia, but I have never seen any historian talk of travel between Massachusetts and Virginia, except in commercial trading. Her son clearly resided in Charlestown, Massachusetts.
13363 & 13564 - William Redfield b.1580 England; d.1662 Monhegan (Maine? Massachusetts?) and unknown wife.
William arrived in 1635. The family record that documents William's death gives the location only as "Monhegan" but nowadays, that's only a small island in Maine. Settlers were in Maine at that time, involved mainly in the fur trade.
Edward Howell was leader of the group that settled Southampton,
Long Island, and seems to have been an enormously respected man. The following excerpt is from a
history of Southampton, written by a historian who is NOT a descendant:
The Father of Southampton was Edward Howell. A magistrate, early elected one of the Selectmen to manage the town’s affairs; its leading citizen in wealth and social position, whose name appears first in every list, his is the most attractive figure we meet at the beginning of Southampton’s story.
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| The manor house of the Marsh Gibbon estate, which Edward sold to finance his family's new life in America. It looks like it's still on history tours of Buckinghamshire. |
A gentleman by birth, in the then-strict meaning of the word, he owned the old manor house of Westbury at Marsh Gibbon in Buckinghamshire, England, which he sold in 1639. He also owned property at Wotten Underwood, from which he received an annuity of 31 pounds.
He was admitted a freeman of the Massachusetts Colony in March 1638 and received a land grant of 500 acres at Lynn from King Charles I. He owned a grist mill there and later became owner of the first mill in Southampton. In 1640, Edward was one of three owners who obtained authorization to occupy an eight-mile-square on Long Island, which was then part of the Connecticut Colony. In June or July 1640, Edward and his family moved to Southampton.
He owned a sloop which from time to time carried “dissatisfied colonists” from Massachusetts to Long Island. Taking as indeed everyone did his share in the homely common tasks of the community (he and his son both appear, for example, in the whaling list of 1644) yet his name never figures in any of the innumerable petty law suits nor bickerings over small matters of business or scandal and one gathers the impression through the records of a man greatly respected, dignified, reserved and perhaps a bit aloof. In 1647, Edward was selected to serve as a member of the legislature at Hartford and held that position until his death.”
We're descended from Edward's daughter Margaret, but I read a bit more in that history of Southampton, and it sounds as if her brother Arthur was a delightful character. He got into a lot of relatively innocent trouble in the community as a boy, but learned the local Indians' language and as an adult became a valuable negotiator and interpreter.
In contrast, one of the more disturbing things I've seen in this project is a book, saved on Ancestry.com, written by another of Edward's descendants, published in 1930 in America, titled "Aryan Blood in Modern Nations and the Howells." It is every bit as weird as you might imagine it to be, proudly tracing the Howell family back to "the Aryans in their ancient home in Central Asia." I skimmed the whole book; the author, Fleming Howell, MD, did do a LOT of world-history review (I'll give him that), but the whole thing is an exercise in stereotyping, using highly questionable 'racial' groupings. He's much harder on the Arabs ("...the Moors were the most inherently treacherous and cruel people of whom we have any account.") than the Jews, whom he hardly mentions.
13517 & 13518 - Anthonie Osborn b.1575 England; d.1649 Salem, MA and Margaret Carrington b.1570 England; d.1645 Salem, MA.
In 1630, poor William must have pretty much just stepped off the boat, at age 66, and died. His wife had died in England.
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