SMITH/DORT-WHITNEY/BLODGETT 1635 ImmigrantsThomas & Susanna Blodgett & sons
As I continue to climb the lush and ever-branching tree of my ancestors, I find myself pondering questions to which the answers will probably always be hidden within the dark canopy of time. This is especially true of the question “why” families pulled up their roots, deeply anchored to ancient ancestral bedrock, carried them precariously across an ocean, and replanted them in the untilled soil of a wilderness far from home.
For many, these roots would take
hold in the coastal sands of Massachusetts Bay while our families defined
their place in a new society, or like some, were carried along with an axe and
a prayer to a place where old roots were grounded in the reality of new –and often
treacherous- pioneer possibility.
History sometimes provides logical clues to “Why did our ancestors re-root us here?” The Great Migration of the 1630’s brought a good number of our 10th and 11th great-grandparents to the bay colony of Massachusetts after England's King Charles I dissolved Parliament, effectively stifling Puritan leadership, reform, and dissention. But the Puritans didn’t just fade away …they packed up their families and their bibles and they boarded ships bound for the Netherlands, Ireland, the Bahamas, and New England. Here they endeavored to create the model for a ‘nation of saints’ founded on a strict, deeply religious and highly righteous bible-based society. [Make no mistake, religious tolerance was not yet established in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Just look to ancestors like Roger Williams, among others who would not be welcomed for their differing Christian beliefs.]
Nearly half of the 20,000 or so
English immigrants of this era came to New England from the counties of Essex,
Norfolk, and Suffolk. Among them was the
family of Thomas Blodgett from Haughley, a small ancient village close to
Stowmarket in Suffolk. Dr. Thomas Young,
vicar at Stowmarket [and tutor to the
Puritan poet, John Milton], was an emerging preacher of Presbyterian
thought in a climate of strict conformity to high Anglicanism. The influence that Young and other lecturers
brought to the area must have had a profound effect on its reformist-minded
citizens, including Thomas Blodgett. Thomas’ heritage was deeply rooted there
with two young children buried alongside generations of his ancestors. But on or shortly after the 13th
of April, 1635, Thomas and his family left for America, never to return. Son Daniel was only four and our direct
ancestor Samuel, a mere toddler.
The Winthrop ship, Increase, carried over 100 passengers –mostly
young families with many children for the Blodgett boys to play with on the
three thousand-mile voyage. Of particular
interest are the set of essential skills the men were bringing to a
newly-colonized America: plowright,
joiner, husbandmen, carpenter, and butcher.
There was also a surgeon and a lawyer.
Even servants. But other trades
were represented, too, such as linen weavers, a clothier, and one glover,
Thomas Blodgett.
The Blodgett family began their new
life in a recently-established village called Newtowne (later to be named
Cambridge) a few miles west of Boston. The
little town was already platted out in an orderly grid of streets that included
house lots, common land, and planting fields on the outskirts. Within a year, one of America’s first
colleges, Harvard, was founded in Newtowne to train young men for ministry and
leadership of the colony. The liberal
minister, Thomas Hooker had been chosen as pastor of Newtowne in 1633 but he quickly
began to cause waves with the conservative early authorities of
Massachusetts. He asked and was granted
permission in 1635 to take his flock of followers to Connecticut, just in time
for the newly-arrived immigrants to purchase ready-made homes and lands from
members of the departing Hooker band.
In contrast to Reverend Hooker, the
new pastor Thomas Shepard was not a proponent of religious toleration. He strongly believed that ‘the Puritan way
was God’s way.’ Pure and no waves. This was the "soul-ravaging" pulpit message that guided
Thomas in raising his young family in the early Newtowne church, the ‘FirstChurch at Cambridge’, when Thomas received his home allotment and status as
freeman in 1636.
The village of Newtowne (Harvard Square) in 1635, with the Great Bridge of 1660 |
We may have some idea of ‘why’ this
branch of the Smith/Dort-Whitney family tree came to America, but we can only
imagine the dreams that were unfolding for the young, growing family of
Blodgett’s. Sadly, just as their new life
was taking root in American soil,Thomas Blodgett died at age 38. His widow, Susanna remarried a widower, James
Thompson, and she and the boys moved to Woburn to merge and increase their two
families.
[This family line continues with the story of Thomas’ son
Samuel –my 10th GGF- as the subject of the next blog.]
Your blog is amazing - and YOU are a great writer! Thank you for sharing this fascinating and important family information. Warm Southern California greetings from a fellow direct descendant of Thomas Blodgett... :D
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karen! It is nice to meet you and gratifying to know that my passion for family history is shared by kin. Best wishes from the Great Lakes region!
Delete