Notes:
Thomas, his wife Elizabeth, five sons and one daughter, came to America in the great emigration, under the leadership of John Winthrop, in 1630. He is listed among the passengers of the ship "Lyon" as Thomas Williams (The Winthrop Fleet of 1630, Banks) and continued to use the name "Thomas Williams alias Harris" in later records. The Lyon sailed from Bristol, bringing emigrants from the western counties of England, making port in Salem in the latter part of May 1630 some two weeks before the arrival of the governor in the "Arbella." His name first appears in colonial records on September 18, 1630, (Thomas Williams), as a member of the jury of inquest, regarding William Bateman, who died from illness at Pullen Point in Boston harbor, after a voyage from Plymouth. On October 19, 1630, as "Thomas Williams alias Harris", Thomas applied to the court to be made a freeman of the colony and was admitted as Thomas Williams on May 18, 1631, taking the required oath. On that same day the court recorded that: "Tho: Williams hath undertaken to sett opp a fferry betwixte Winnisimmet & Charlton, for which hee is to have 3d a person, & from Winnettsemt to Boston, 4d a person." This ferry was one of the earliest in New England.
Winnisimmet later became Chelsea and is where the family lived. Thomas died before September 1634, when his widow married William Stilson, who took over the ferry. Many years later, on June 15, 1680, Stilson, aged about eigthy years, testified that "Thomas Harris lived at Winnisimmet, about fforty nine years since & was wont to transport persons over the Rivers, to Charlestowne & Boston till he died, and after that I married his Widdow, and kept the fferry as my predessors did." (Middlesex County Court, 1671-1680, p 297) Why Thomas Harris used the double surname Williams alias Harris has never been ascertained. It is possible that, after the death of his father, his mother married a Williams and the sons were commonly called by the name of the step-father. It may also be that he was apprenticed as a small boy to a Williams and went by his master's name, that relationship was often much stronger than a purely business one. There is also the possibility that for some personal reason affecting his proposed emigration it was advisable to assume a new name. Elizabeth ________ (Williams alias Harris) Stilson died in Charlestown* February 16, 1670 at the age of ninety-three, which would place her date of birth at 1578 or 1579. Stilson (tweny years her junior) survived her remarried Mary, widow of Major Francis Norton. In his will, dated April 12, 1688, Stilson devised as follows: "I give and bequeath unto John Harris, Thomas Harris, William Harris, Daniel Harris and Anna Maverick, Relict widow of Elias Maverick, Deceased, the children of my first wife, to each of them five shillings, to be paid them Six months after my Decease" (Middlesex Probate File No. 21376) It is evident from the above that by this time the family had revereted to their rightful surname Harris, rather than Williams or a combination of the two.* Charlestown, the downtown section of Boston, Massachusetts, is situated on a peninsula between the Charles and Mystic rivers, on Boston Harbor. Charlestown was settled in about 1628, incorporated as a town in 1634, and as a city 1847. During the American Revolution the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775) was fought in Charlestown and is commemorated there by the Bunker Hill Monument. Over the years much of Charlestown's peripheral territory was subdivided to form new towns and cities. The remaining portion was incorporated into Boston in 1874.
Notes:
The parents of Elizabeth Hills have been suggested as having been George Hills (1578-1649) and Mary Symonds (1578-?) both of Great Burstead, Essex, England. It would have been very uncommon in England in this era for Thomas Harris of Gloucestershire to have taken a spouse in Essex. These counties being on opposite coasts of England. Another parent for Elizabeth has been proposed, one Lawrence Hills (1552-?) of Blunham, Bedfordshire, England but this location is hardly more reasonable than Great Burstead so Elizabeth's ancestry is, for this compiler, unknown.
Notes:
A USGenWeb transcription of the marriages of Rev. James Noyes taken from "History of the First Congregational Church of Stonnington" gives the marriage of Nathaniel and Margaret as June 4, 1707, not 1717. If this were correct it would mean that Margaret was only 9 years old and Nathaniel 15 at their marriage; the transcriber obviously made a typograpical error.
Notes:
The birth date given is from the 1966 edition by Darwin C. Gallup. He changed Martha's birth date from 30 July 1733.as it was given in the 1893 edition by John D. Gallup. However, no source reference for the change is given; it could be an error.
Notes:
As well as being listed in the Gallup Genealogy with a birth date of 1655, Benadam, Sr. is recorded in the General Guide to Early Settlers as being born abt. 1656. The same source states that his father moved to Stonington, CT, before he was born. Benadam, Sr. must have started his adult life as a seaman, for he is recorded as having captured a pirate sloop in 1689. He is also recorded as having done military service in the Colonial Wars and this is probably the period in which the sloop capture took place. He became an industrious and prosperous farmer. He was a Selectman in the years 1696-1698, 1704 & 1707 and his family were members of the Congregational Church of Stonington. He and his nephew, John Gallup, lived on the Eastern part of his father's land grants, known as the Pe-quot-sepas Valley. They jointly built and occupied the dwelling house. In March, 1706, lot #71, 88 acres, was laid in Voluntown for "Adam" Gallup [a name or nickname which appears for him in other references]; he also owned land in Plainfield, CT and Six Penny Island in Mystic Harbor. Benadam Gallup, Sr. is a sixth greatgrandfather of Winfield Dyer Gallup.
Notes:
Her name is spelled "Hesther" and "Hester"in the records of the Prentice Family in America and it is "Esther" in the Gallup Family Genealogy of 1883. In situations of this kind where primary sources (birth records, baptismal records, etc.) have not been found, I have followed the practice of believing the Gallup genealogy because of the almost flawless work of John Douglass Gallup who compiled it. So she is Esther here.
In the case of her mother, I have chosen to accept the name "Hesther" from the Prentice family genealogy because she is a generation farther from the Gallup family and closer to the Prentice family where the Gallup genealogy is more likely to be wrong.
Notes:
The spelling of this surname as it appeared in a great many family genealogies found on the Internet is "Wells", each of which appeared to be using data extracted from the other, and the original source being thus obscured. The name is spelled "Welles" on page 131 of The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume III of the Second Series, which is the source of the spelling used in this compilation.
Notes:
William's home in England was six miles from Chelmsford, Essexshire. With his wife Rebecca and their minor children, he left there for New England on 13 April 1635 aboard the ship "Increase" out of London, England, arriving Boston, Massachusetts Colony in June 1635, Captain Robert Lea, Master. The passenger list states him to be a husbandman, aged 41 [Hotten's List of Emigrants to America, p. 57 shows him age 51 but this is thought to be an error.], his wife Rebecca, aged 40, and his four children, Sara [Sarah], aged 9, Marie [Mary], aged 7, Samuel, aged 5 and William, aged 1. [His older sons, Nathaniel and John, were not on board. They were only 15 and 12 at the time so they were probably too young to have emigrated alone, but they were of an age to have been apprenticed to someone in England.] The ship's papers note that he was "no subsidy man" meaning he carried with him a certificate from his Minister in Billericay, Essexshire, that he had paided up his forced loan and ship money taxes. Rebecca died either during the voyage or very shortly after landing.
William was evidently an adherent of Rev. Thomas Hooker, as he first settled with him at Newtowne (now Cambridge), Mass. and then followed him in 1636 to Hartford, Conn where he was one of the first settlers.
At Newtowne in 1635/36 he married Hester [or Esther] Musse, the only widow there. He had another child by Hester named Samuel who was born in 1647 so his son Samuel, born 1629, by his first wife must have died before then. Hester is reported as having a daughter named Adria Corlet by her first marriage. Hester is thought to have died 13 Dec 1682 at Jamaica, Long Island, NY.
Land Records prove William's residence in Hartford and in February 1649/50 he was appointed by the General Court to keep the prison at Hartford for £10 per year. Sometime before 27 August 1657 he had followed his son John to Norwalk, CT, as he appears in the records there as late as 15 July 1665 when he sold his home and thereafter removed to Jamaica, Long Island where he died in 1682. William sometimes spelled his name "Ruskew and Roscoe" but it has been noted that Roscoe, an old family name found in Lancashire and Cheshire, is of different origin from the family of William Ruscoe which is thought to be of Dutch or Flemish origins.
William made his will on 5 August 1680 in Jamaica, Long Island, NY. It was probated on 13 December 1682 wherein he bequeaths to his son John, "now living in Norwalk in NE" [New England]; to children of daughter Sarah; to Alice, daughter of son Samuel; to son Samuel; wife [unnamed] to be executrix. The inscription on the Monument erected by the Ancient Burying Ground Association of Hartford, "In Memory of the First Settlers of Hartford", includes William Ruscoe.
Notes:
Rebecca died shortly after her arrival in America.
Notes:
Genealogist Jacobus lists Thomas' wife as "Isabel", from his will dated 4 Aug 1658. He was a Deputy of Fairfield to the Connecticut Legislature. Srgt.(?) in Wethersfield, where his holdings adjoined those of Thomas Sherwood, with whom he removed to Stamford in 1640/1elling his Wethersfield property to George Wyllys. He last settled in Fairfield.
Keeler Family, Ralph Keeler of Norwalk, CT and Some of His Descendants
Author: Keeler, Wesley B.; Publication: Gateway Press, Inc., Baltimore MD, 1985
Repository: New England Historic and Genealogical Society Page: pg. 4Will: 16 AUG 1716 Fairfield, Fairfield Co., CT; Proved 7 Dec 1725, mentions wife Martha, her estate from her father John Hobby of Greenwich, son Lemuel; children from first marriage had received their share.
Notes:
Nathaniel lived in Stonington, CT. He was a guard at Long Point, Stonington, and a member of the local draft board for troops, 1775-1783. (DAR Vol. 82 p. 191) He was the recipient of the two Gore letters concerning the events of Wyoming Valley Pennsylvania.