WINSORS IN AMERICA: From Stoke Poges to Providence

circa 1637-38 American Immigrant Joshua Winsor, 9th GGF

From Andrew Jackson Dort-Lydia Winsor/following the Windsor male lineage back seven generations to my 9th great grandfather, English emigrant Joshua Winsor from Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England.

The "Magna Britannia" (1813) states that Bonyforden in Stoke Poges was an early seat and manor of the Windsor family.  According to two historical sources published in 1847 and 1915, the immigrant Joshua was son of Samuel Windsor, grandson of Robert Windsor, great-grandson of Edmund Windsor (knighted in 1553) of Stoke Poges, and great, great-grandson of Sir Andrews Windsor (1st Lord Windsor) who died in 1543.    And, although this impressive pedigree is disputed by some modern researchers, it does support the oral history of my maternal grandmother who proudly claimed to be descended from royalty through her Windsor grandmother.  There is still a lot of work to be done before that claim can be fully confirmed or denied, but what I have discovered about our Windsor lineage is just as interesting, if not so regal.  

What we do know:
Records show that Joshua Winsor emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony prior to  1638.  (The 'd' in Windsor disappeared at this time and Winsor became the common spelling for generations, especially in Rhode Island.)  It is generally accepted that he came from the small hamlet of Stoke Poges, 20 miles west of London.  Like so many emigrants during the Great Migration between 1620-1640, Joshua's travel costs were paid through indentureship.  Upon arrival he became an indentured servant to Governor John Winthrop in Boston.  Within months, it became evident that he wasn't 'fitting in' with the theocratic, fundamental expectations of the colony.  His situation came to the attention of someone who had also had his difficulties with the status quo:  Roger Williams.  

Rev. Williams wrote a letter to Gov. Winthrop including the following excerpt: "Sir, this is the occasion of this enclosed. I understand a servant of yours, Joshua ----- is some trouble to your selfe, as allso to others, & consequently can not (if he desire to feare the Lord) but himselfe be troubled & grieved in his condicion, though otherwise I know not where under Heaven he could be better.  If it may seem good in your eyes (wanting a servant) I shall desire him (not simply from you) but for your peace & his. I shall desire your best & full satisfaction in payment, & what summe you pitch on, to accept it either from this bill, or if you better like from that debt of Mr. Ludlow, for which he promised your worship to pay me 800 waight of tobacco but did not, & I presume your worship may with ease procure it; but I subscribe ex animo [from the heart] to your choice, & with respective salutacions & continued sighes to Heaven for you & yours, rest desirous to (be)      Your Worships unfained though   unworthy    Roger Williams."  
And this is how Joshua Winsor came to Providence, Rhode Island in 1638 -his indentureship sold to Roger Williams. 

Within only two years he had completed his period of obligations to Rev. Williams and, in 1640, signed his name along with thirty eight other freemen to the Providence "Combination" or agreement to govern.  He was included in the allotments granted to those who signed the compact along with another ancestor Robert Coles, 10th GGF through the Emerine/Smith lineage (see 20th lot below).  *Joshua's house lot, #35, was located on what would become South Main Street in Providence, and ran up the hill as far as Hope Street.  He also acquired six acres of meadowland on the 'westerly side of the cove.

Joshua most likely waited to marry after he was granted freeman status, which is supported by the birth of his first child and only son, Samuel, in 1644.  Although his wife's name is obscured by time, she gave birth to four children before dying in 1655.  
One of Joshua's descendants through son Samuel characterized him, writing  "he appears to have been a person of some considerable talents and education, and of a serious and religious turn of mind; but no mention is made of his being a member of any particular church."  (Olney Winsor)  This would perhaps explain why the name of Joshua Windsor/Winsor has not been found in the historic registry of St. Giles Church in Stoke Poges.
Joshua Winsor died in early 1679 and was probably buried on his home lot in Providence.

Through Joshua's son Samuel, our Winsor family tree remained firmly rooted in Rhode Island for almost 250 years.  In future posts I will focus on the family lines that branch from:

•  Joshua's son, Reverend Samuel Winsor, who married a daughter of Roger Williams 

• Samuel's  son, Joshua Winsor, who married a descendant of the falconer to King Charles I
• Samuel's grandson, Joshua Winsor, whose marriage to Freeborn Olney provides another link to Roger Williams 
  
  
  

SERENDIPITOUS GENEALOGY: Unexpected Discoveries

Patience and persistence are essential attributes that any serious family genealogist must possess when, despite all diligent efforts, a family line seems to lead to a dead-end.  I have been searching for our Windsor ancestors since I began this work over 30 years ago.  I never got past my second great grandmother Lydia Windsor-Dort's father, Mortimer Windsor.  Dead-end.  Or so I thought. 
Yesterday I had a serendipitous moment as I combed the web and Ancestry.com for someone -anyone- who might have a related tree and ...POOF!... the Windsor line opened up before my eyes. Generation by generation, I traveled back four centuries before I realized that it was 11 a.m., my coffee was long-since cold, ...and I was still in my pajamas.  
What I found turned out to be incredible family links to British and early American history -connecting us by breath and blood to the people and events that mark the earliest chapters of our place in the world.  I plan to share some great 'finds' in upcoming posts.  Please stay tuned!

 In the next post I will share my newest discoveries within the branches of the Dort-Windsor family tree.  [from Andrew Jackson Dort-Lydia Windsor following the male Windsor lineage back seven generations to my 9th great grandfather, English emigrant Joshua Winsor] 

'WELL BELOVED' Samuel Blodgett, Sr. (1633-1720) Child Immigrant

DART-WHITNEY/Blodgett through child immigrant (1635)Samuel Sr. & Ruth Eggleton, Samuel Jr. & Hulda Simonds (daughter of Judith Phippen-Hayward, Indentured Servant), William & Sarah Hall, their daughter Amy & Joshua Whitney to Lucy who married Jonathan Dart.

 "BLODGET, BLODGETT, BLOWGATT, BLOWGATE, BLOGGET, BLOGGATT"

 from Will of his father, Thomas Blodgett

"I Thomas Bloggett being at this time in my right mind, give to wife Susan my whole estate after my decease, as well within doors as without. She to bring vp my children in such learning & other things as is meete for them, & pay oldest son Daniel 15 pounds when one & twenty or in one month after her decease. To my 2d son Samuel 15 pounds, as above. To daughter Susanna 15 pounds. Should they have a father-in-law who does not treat them well my will is that the Deacons & our brother ffessington & our brother Edward Winchship, they or either of them should have power to see unto it & reforme it by one meanes or other. Written this 10th day of the 6th month 1641.  In presence of us Hereunto I set my hand."

possibly a namesake descendant

  

(From Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines, Mary Walton Ferris, 1943 pages 92-94)
"Samuel Blodgett (Thomas) was born in England about 1633, was brought to Cambridge in infancy, (on the Increase in 1635) and at the age of about eleven, after his father's death, was taken to the Thompson home in Woburn where he grew to manhood, and in this town he lived until his death, on May 21, 1720, when he was recorded as Samuel, "senior" and was nearly eighty-seven. He married there on December 13, 1655, Ruth Eggleton, who died at Woburn on October 14, 1703.

Samuel must have acquired church membership and freemanship since he held various official positions culminating in that of deputy to the General Court in 1693. He had served the town locally as selectman in 1681, 1690-1, 1693, 1695-7 and 1703 and as commissioner "on the rate" (tax) in 1692. After the Indians killed John Nutting, husband of Sarah (Eggleton) sister of Ruth, Sarah came to Woburn to live with Ruth and Samuel Blodgett.

During the life of Samuel, and for many years beyond, Woburn and other early town experienced much of discontent and controversy over the various bridges in the colony. As early as 1648 the General Court had passed an order laying the expense of building and of repairing bridges, on the township within whole limits they stood. This was highly unsatisfactory for frequently the need and use of a given bridge would be greater by the residents of a more remote town (which was not on a water course, and consequently had no such expense) than by the near-by town which built and maintained it, so in 1655 that order was repealed and for a period of years bridge repairs were assessed not on one town alone, or indeed in a given county, but were apportioned among a number of towns which might at times use the bridge, or who business might profit because settlers from outlying sections used it.

*Cradock Bridge est.1638, Medford, MA

The bridge* over which Woburn had become so irritated crossed the Mystic River at Medford and in October, 1676, at a Woburn town meeting the selectmen were directed to ask the General Court to grant them "some case of their burden at Mistick Bridge." No such relief was obtained and subsequently repairs were neglected to such an extent that in 1675 Woburn was "presented" to the Court for the inattention and thereafter the town submitted to the inevitable until 1690. In October of that year the selectmen of Woburn, Reading and Malden joined in another petition to the Court and continued their pleas and protests through 1693. However, Woburn voters had demanded as early as 1691 that their selectmen "withstand (refrain from) - allowing anything more to the repairing of Mistick Bridge" assuring them that if it became necessary to go to the law about it, the town would pay the costs: and seemingly the officials refrained from making repairs until in December, 1693, the selectmen were ordered to send representatives to court on the 26th of that month to answer for this neglect. As a consequence, Samuel Blodgett, one of the selectmen, and Maj. James Converse appeared before the court and according to the instructions of their townsmen airily made answer "that Woburne was not concerned in the presentment of Mistick Bridge: neither would they do anything in order to the repairing thereof, except by Law they were forced thereto: and that they referred themselves to the law in that case: and so left the case for that time". If this move was intended to make a definite issue of the case it was successful, for the bold defiance only brought the command that representatives of the town should appear before an adjourned meeting of the court less than a month hence on January 23, 1693-4, reporting that the repairs had been made, or the town would be fine 5 pounds. This caused a ferment in the town and though Samuel Blodgett seems to have had no further official connection with the case, his personal feelings probably were disturbed for the rest of his life, for this conflict was carried on intermittently until 1761 when Medford agreed to accept a payment of 200 pounds from Woburn to free her, permanently, from further obligation.

view toward Boston from Rag Rock 1863

In 1671 Samuel had land laid out to him near Rag Rock by a neighbor William Locke, in 1672 they joined in buying thirty-seven acres in Woburn from William Johnson..."

from Will of stepfather James Thompson:

“…Lastly, --I do nominate and appoint my son Jonathan [who married Samuel’s sister, Susannah, both of whom grew up in his household] to be the sole Executor of this my whole will, and desire and ordeyne my Trustee and well beloved ffriends, Samuel Bloggett senr and John Mousall to be ovrseers of this my last will and Testament, 
and as a pledge of my love, I give to said Bloggett Mr. Rogers his book, and Mousall a payr of new Gloves.“In witness whereof I have hereunto sett (this last day of ffebruary in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred and eighty and one) my hand and seal.”

LEAVES, BRANCHES, AND REPLANTED ROOTS: Gazing upon the family tree (The Blodgett Family)

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 10^th and 11^th 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 13^th 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 10^th GGF- as the subject of the next blog.]

CONNECTICUT Puritan Roots of Jonathan Dart

CONNECTICUT 1640 IMMIGRANTS

Hugh Calkins 11^th GGF

William Hough 10^th GGF

William Douglas 10^th GGF

Dort/Dart/Douglas/Hough-Calkins

As noted in a previous post, the immigrant ancestry of my 6^th GGM Lucy (Whitney) Dart included an entire generation of English settlers to early Middlesex, Massachusetts.  By 1640, ancestors of Lucy's husband, Jonathan Dart, were also in New England.  New London, Connecticut would be their home for generations to come.

Jonathan’s paternal grandmother’s family included the immigrant fathers named Hugh Calkins, William Hough, and William Douglas.  All three men arrived in 1640, two with families.  All three lived briefly at Cape Ann and eventually settled in the New London, Connecticut area.  And all three were church deacons.  Early records show that at least one of these families (Calkins) was part of ‘The Welsh Party’ of Reverend Richard Blynman, Puritan minister.  It is likely that Hough was among this group, though his name does not appear in the ship’s records.

Gov. John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony made this observation in his “History of New England”:

"One Mr. Bliuman, a minister in Wales, a godly and able man, came over with some friends of his, and being invited to Green’s Harbour [since

Marshfield] near Plymouth, they went thither, but ere the yere was expired there fell out some difference among them which by no means could be reconciled, so as they agreed to part, and he came with his company and sat down at Cape Anne which at this Court (18 May 1642) was established to be a plantation and called Gloucester."

Additional background is discovered in the "Memoirs of the Plymouth Colony," by Hon. Francis Baylies:

"Gov. [Edward] Winslow, the founder of Marshfield, often visited England; he induced several Welsh gentlemen of respectability to emigrate to America,

amongst whom came the Rev. Richard Blinman, in 164[0], who was the first pastor of Marshfield. Some dissensions taking place, Mr. Blinman and the Welshmen removed to Cape Anne in less than a year. In 1648 Bliuman went to New London, in Connecticut, of which place he was the pastor ten years. In 1658 he was at New Haven, and soon after returned to

England, after having received in 1650 an invitation to settle at Newfoundland. He died at the city of Bristol, England."

Neither Hugh Calkins nor William Hough were Welsh but both were from Waverton, Cheshire, England –a distance of about 150 miles from their port of departure at Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales.  Hugh’s wife, Anne Eaton was born in Chepstow, but the first three of their children were born in Waverton.  Their fourth child, however, has “Monmouth, Wales” recorded as his birthplace so it is likely that the family had moved to Ann’s hometown at least six years before emigrating.  Since William Hough was almost 20 years younger than Hugh, and married his daughter Sarah after emigrating to New England, it might be assumed that he or his parents were friends of the family when they lived in Waverton.   The three immigrant families were undoubtedly acquainted prior to settling in New London, and became united through the marriage of William Douglas’ son William to Abiah, the daughter of William and Sarah (Calkins) Hough.

Below are brief biographies of each immigrant father:

From History of Norwich  by Frances Manwaring Caulkins:

Hugh Calkins was one of a body of emigrants, called the Welsh Company, that came to New England in 1640, from Chepstow in Monmouthshire, on the border of Wales, with their minister, the Rev. Mr. Blinman.  The larger portion of this company settled first at Marshfield[CT], but soon transferred their residence to Gloucester [MA], upon the rough promontory of Cape Ann.  From thence, after eight years of experiment, most of them removed to New London, hoping probably to find lands more arable and productive, and allured also by affectionate attachment to Mr. Blinman, whom Mr. Winthrop had invited to his plantation.

Hugh Calkins was in 1650, deputy from Gloucester to the General Court of Massachusetts, and chosen again in 1651, but removing early in that year to New London [CT], the vacancy was filled by another election.

While living at New London, he was chosen twelve times deputy to the Connecticut Assembly, (the elections being semi-annual,) and was one of the townsmen, or select-men, invariably, from 1652 till he removed to Norwich [CT].

From Norwich, he was deputy at ten sessions of the Legislature, between March 1663, and October, 1671, and was one of the first deacons of the Norwich church.  At each of the three towns in which he was an early settler and proprietor, he was largely employed in public business, being usually appointed one of committees for consultation, for fortifying, drafting soldiers, settling difficulties, and particularly for surveying lands and determining boundaries.  These offices imply a considerable range of information, as well as activity and executive talent, yet he seems to have no early education, uniformly making only a bold H for his signature.

From Descendants of William Hough of CT by Elida C. & Franklin B. Hough, Ft. Wayne, IN:

William Hough migrated to MA about 1640, possibly among the unnamed divers others persons on the ship with the Rev. Blynman party to Gloucester.  He was a housewright, or carpenter, and followed that trade wherever he lived....William and Sarah lived among the Gloucester settlers at Trynall Cove and on Biskie Island.  At one time the Caulkins and Hough families were on New Street, just opened for the Cape Ann company.  It became known as Cape Ann Lane, and had nine settlers, including Caulkins, Avery, Roberts, Coite, Lester, Allen, Meades, Isbell and Hough.  It was a dreary place, and these settlers soon removed to other places.  Caulkins and Hough to CT.  Three Hough ch. were born in Gloucester, the Hough family in 1751/52 joined the remnant of the Blynman party in moving to CT.  William and Sarah then lived in Saybrook, New London, and Norwich.  During King Phillip's War, Sgt. William Hough was a member of the Committee on Fortifications in the 1st Militia Comp of New London.

From  Colonial families of the United States of America by George Norbury Mackensie

WILLIAM DOUGLAS, the immigrant ancestor, was b. 9th August, 1610,doubtless in Scotland*; m. probably about 1636, Ann MATTLE, dau. of Thomas MATTLE of Ringstead, England. In 1640, with his wife Ann and two children, Ann and Robert, William DOUGLAS went to New England. Tradition says that they landed at Cape Ann. They settled first in Gloucester, but removed within [p.1 88] the year to Boston, where he is first mentioned in the Boston records on 31st June, 1640 , when he was made a Freeman. Here moved shortly to Ipswich where he was entitled to a share of the public land, 28th February, 1641. There he remained for about four years, returning to Boston in 1645. He was a cooper by trade and on 1st May,1646, there is record of his purchasing from Walter MERRY and Thomas ANCHOR, a dwelling house, shop and land. Later he went to New London, Connecticut, and obtained considerable property through purchase and grants from the town. One of his farms was inherited by his son William and has remained in the hands of descendants for over two centuries. In 1662-1663 he was appointed one of the Appraisers of Property for the town of New London. The land for a new church was purchased from him and the graveyard still remains on that place. He and Mr. WILLERBY were appointed to deliver provisions to Commissary TRACY at Norwich during King Philip's War. His education for the times was liberal. He held many important offices in the town at different times. He was Deputy to the General Court in 1672 and once or twice later. In May, 1670, his wife, then sixty years old made a journey to Boston to establish her claim as heir to her father's property. She d. in New London in 1685 and William DOUGLAS himself d. there on 26th July, 1682

*Note: the Scottish origins of William Douglas have not yet been verified but, if current data can be confirmed, it will open up what appears to be an incredibly rich legacy of lords, ladies, knights  and kings dating back many centuries.