Family of William Chesebrough
(This person
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1. WILLIAM2
CHESEBROUGH (WILLIAM1)1
was born 1594 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, and died June 09, 1667 in
Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut.
He married ANNA STEVENSEN December
15, 1620 in Boston,
Lincolnshire, England,
daughter of PETER STEVENSON. She was
born 1598, and died August 29, 1673 in Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut.
Notes for WILLIAM CHESEBROUGH:
A BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH OF WILLIAM CHESEBROUGH, by
Amos S. Chesebrough, page 1-
He
emigrated to America
in 1630 in the MA Bay Colony. His mother is supposed to have been Sarah, whose
name stands #78 on the roll of the members of the First
Church of Boston,
MA. There is no reason to doubt that she came to America
with William in Gov. John Winthrop's company, which sailed from Cowes,
March 29, 1630,
and made its settlement in Boston,
MA.
In the
old parish register of St. Botolph's Church the following records are found to
list the birth and deaths of his first eight children. It appears from these records,
that when the family embarked for America
in March, 1630, there were only three of the eight children which had been born
to William still surviving, Samuel, Jonathan and Nathaniel. The latter an
infant of only two months. It is supposed that Jonathan died either upon the
ocean passage, or soon after the landing in America.
SWAMP YANKEE, by James Allyn, page 30 & 31.
In 1620
he married Anna Stephens in Boston,
Lincolnshire where
they both were living, and when their son Samuel was born in 1627. William was
a gunsmith and a blacksmith, trades he carried on in the New
World. In 1639 they moved out to Braintree
where he was elected a Deputy.
William
decided not to settle in New London, and started back along the shore, which
Roger Williams had suggested, to look at a place called Wequetequock on a salt
creek navigable for a small boat, and surrounded by salt marshes and open
fields. It was an ideal spot for stock raising, so he decided to settle there.
In 1649 he moved down with his wife and four sons, becoming the first settler
in Stonington CT.
In
1651, William persuaded his friend Walter Palmer in Rehoboth to join him, along
with Thomas Minor in New London,
and Thomas Stanton, a friend of Winthrop's
in Hartford.
Stanton's grant for a trading post was on the west bank of the Pawcatuck River,
Williams grant was a large one, about 2,000 acres. It included Stonington
Point, then called Long Point, and was bounded on the west by Stony Brook,
north by the Pequot Trail, and east by Anguilla (Eel) Brook which ran down to
Little Narragansett Bay. He was appointed Magistrate out of New
London, Deputy, and Selectman, a position he
held until his death in 1667.
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The town of Stonington was first settled under the
leadership of William Chesebrough, who had come to visit John Winthrop's
settlement at Pequot (later New London), but preferred the region further east.
He built in 1649 a house and settled with his family, supposing he was within
the boundries of Massachusetts.
The General Court of Connecticut,
however, claimed jurisdiction of the region. In 1652, after considerable
effort, he obtained a grant for himself and his sons. Other settlers came
gradually, amongst whom were Thomas Stanton, Thomas Miner, Governor Haynes,
Walter Palmer, Capt. George Denison, Capt. John Gallup, Robert Park, and their
families.
________________________________________________________________________________________
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM (CHEESBROUGH)
CHESEBROUGH (1594-1667) - First settler of English lineage in the town of Stonington,
Connecticut.
William (CHEESBROUGH) CHESEBROUGH, the first
settler of English lineage in the town of Stonington, Connecticut, was born in
England in the year of our Lord, 1594. The place of his nativity and the names
of his parents cannot with certainty be determined. The probabilities are, that
he was born in or near Boston, Lincolnshire, where he is known to have had his
residence some eleven or twelve years prior to his emigration to America in the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, and where he and his wife were communicants in St.
Botolph's Church. The home of the CHEESEBROUGH family was in the eastern
counties of England,
and the name occurs in the public registries of Wills in the County
of Norfolk, which
adjoins Lincolnshire.
Sarah CHESEBROUGH, whose name stands No. 78 on the roll of the First Church of
Boston, Mass., was doubtless a passenger with William on the ship, Arbella, and
is thought to have been his mother. His wife, Anna and three surviving children
of the eight that had been born to him, - the youngest, Nathaniel, an infant in
arms, - came with him in the same company. The Arbella, a ship of three hundred
and fifty tons, whereof Captain Peter MILBORNE was master, received its name
“in honour of the Lady Arbella” wife of Isaac JOHNSON, Esquire, one of the more
prominent personages among the passengers. This ship was one of a fleet of
fourteen vessels with eight hundred and forty passengers, comprising the Massachusetts
Bay Colony. It set sail from Cowes, Isle of Wight, on
Tuesday, March 30, 1630, and was termed the “Admiral” of the fleet, for the
reason partly, that it was the staunchest and best furnished of the vessels,
and partly perhaps, as Savage in his notes in Winthrop's Journal suggests, that
it was owned by and carried “the principal people” of the Colony, including
JOHNSON, WINTHROP, CODDINGTON, DUDLEY, BRADSTREET and SALTONSTALL with their
respective families among others.
The first thirty-six years of William
CHESEBROUGH's life were closing when he set foot upon American soil. They
covered the last nine years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the entire reign of
James I, and the first five years of the reign of the ill-fated Charles I, and
they were among the most eventful years in the history of England.
Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded only seven years before CHESEBROUGH's birth;
and only six years before, occurred the issue of the first English newspaper,
and also the destruction of the Spanish Armada. It was the period in which
Edmund Spencer, William Shakespeare and Lord Bacon won their undying fame; in
which the first telescopes were invented; and in which also the authorized
version of the Bible was prepared by order of King James. He was eleven years
old at the time of the Gunpowder Plot; thirteen when Jamestown
(now New York) was
settled by the Dutch; and twenty-six when the Pilgrim Fathers landed upon
Plymouth Rock.
The corruption in both Church and State in
England, the high-handed and cruel measures of the Courts of High Commission
and of the Star Chamber to crush out all freedom of thought and speech and
worship, the insecurity of life and property, and the civil and religious
disintegration which threatened ruin to the nation, prompted many of the better
class of the clergy, and of the people, to sacrifice their homes and seek an
asylum where they could enjoy a rational liberty. The immigrants who came to New
England with the illustrious WINTHROP,
organized their churches on the simple polity of a self-governing brotherhood.
Such an organization was effected in their new settlement which they named
Charlestown, on the 30th of July, 1630, with Rev. John WILSON as teacher, but
in the course of three months it was transferred to the south side of the
Charles River to Boston, which the majority preferred on the score of
healthiness, as the place for a permanent settlement. The names of William and
Anna CHESEBROUGH appear as Nos. 44 and 45, on the roll of the original members
of this, the First Church
of Boston. When Rev.
John Cotton, their former Minister at St. Botolph's in England,
came over some three years later, he took the place of Mr. WILSON as teacher of
the church, and Mr. WILSON was chosen as the pastor.
The government of the new colony was administered
under a charter granted by Charles I to “The Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay in New England,” bearing date March 4, 1629. On the
emigration to America
of the leading members of this Corporation, the Corporation itself with all its
powers and privileges was transferred to them and the other freemen of the
company who should inhabit the new plantation. Thus the administrative officers
of the company became “The General Court of Massachusetts,”
which took charge of the civil government, and John WINTHROP was chosen
governor. Under this government, William CHESEBROUGH was made a freeman in May,
1631. It soon became necessary to order the several towns which had been
organized by the colonists, to each choose two deputies to appear at the Court,
for the purpose of concerting a plan for a public treasury and for levying
taxes for the support of the government. William COLBURN, deacon of the Church,
and William CHESEBROUGH, were appointed upon this service as the first deputies
or representatives of Boston.
This was the entering wedge to the yearly representation of the towns in the
legislative body. Mr. CHESEBROUGH filled other responsible positions in the
young municipality. He was chosen constable, an office equivalent to what would
later be called a “high sheriff”, and subsequently an assessor of rates, and
again one of a committee to allot to “the able bodied men and youth” grounds
for planting.
For the purpose of attaining more arable land and
pasture than was assigned to them within the limits of Boston, Mr. CHESEBROUGH,
with many others, removed their residences a few miles southward, near to a
promontory called Mount Wollaston, in 1637 and 1638. A church was organized for
the growing community, September 17, 1639, to which he and his wife brought
letters of dismission and recommendations from the Boston church on the 6th of
the ensuing February. This Mount
Wollaston section was
set off the same year as a distinct town and named Braintree,
and Mr. CHESEBROUGH, with Stephen KINSLEY, was chosen to represent the new
municipality in the General Court. He was appointed commissioner or local judge
to try certain classes of cases which came up for adjudication, and held also
other responsible positions. The grounds he occupied are those which have
constituted for more than two and a half centuries the old homestead of the ADAMS
family, and are now included within the limits of the city of Quincy.
The Ex-President, John Quincy ADAMS,
informed Anna Chesebrough WILDEY, author of Genealogy of the Descendants of
William CHESEBROUGH of Boston,
Rehoboth, Mass, (1903), that the deed of transfer given by William CHESEBROUGH
to his ancestor was still in his possession.
In the course of two or three years the subject of
this sketch joined a company which settled at “Seekonk”, in the vicinity of the
Plymouth Colony.
Early in July, 1644, he with twenty-nine others of the resident planters there,
entered into a civil compact, agreeing to be governed by nine persons,
“according to law and equity, until we shall subject ourselves jointly to some
other government.” It appears that this compact and agreement was drawn up and
carried through by Mr. CHESEBROUGH's efforts, for on the 12th of July
following, at a public meeting, his efficient services in setting up the new
government were gratefully acknowledged by the enactment of a provision, “that
he shall have division in all lands of Seekonk, for one hundred and fifty-three
pounds, besides what he is to have for his own proportion, and that in the way
of consideration for the pains and charges he hath been at in setting off this
plantation.”
The question of jurisdiction was settled by the
plantation submitting itself to the government of the Plymouth
Colony, rather than that of Massachusetts Bay,
and it was incorporated by the scriptural name of Rehoboth. This decision was
arrived at contrary to CHESEBROUGH's wishes and judgment, and the Plymouth
authorities took his opposition as an affront, and treated him harshly. Feeling
deeply the prejudice awakened against him, he mounted his horse, and in company
with one of his sons, turned his face westward with a view of finding a place
of settlement where he could escape unjust treatment and live in peace. On this
tour of about seventy miles along the coast, he carefully noted the different
localities on the route until he reached Pequot, now New
London, Connecticut.
John WINTHROP, Jr., an old acquaintance, under commission of the General Court
of Massachusetts, had charge of a new settlement at Pequot, and he was strongly
urged to make this place his permanent abode.
But the location did not suit him, although a
town-lot was offered him as an inducement. After successive explorations he
made choice of the head of Wequetequock cove, in what was called Pawcatuck, on
the bordering lands of which he found arable lands for planting, with an
abundance of pasture ground for stock raising, to which he had largely turned
his attention. To this place after having built a dwelling house on the west
side of the cove, he removed with his wife and four sons, assisted by his
friend, Roger WILLIAMS, in the summer of 1649. At this time he was fifty-five
years old, his wife fifty-one, his son Samuel twenty-two, Nathaniel nineteen,
John seventeen, and Elisha twelve. John died from a wound by a scythe in 1650,
at the age of eighteen, and was the first white person whose remains were
buried in Stonington.
Singularly enough, he had hardly become domiciled
in his new home, when a trouble came upon him similar to that from which he had
just fled. Connecticut was about as jealous of Massachusetts as was Plymouth,
and unfriendly persons belonging to Plymouth, took advantage of this fact to
awaken the suspicions of the Connecticut
authorities against him. The trumped-up charge was that he had taken up his
present residence with a view of carrying on an unlawful trade with the
Indians, furnishing them with and repairing their firearms. The General Court
of Connecticut thereupon
issued a warrant to the constable of Pequot to require him to give an account
of himself in answer to this charge. Supposing that he was within the
jurisdiction of Massachusetts, he refused for a year or more to pay any
attention to the order of the Court; but afterwards on the advice of Mr.
WINTHROP and his friends at Pequot, he voluntarily presented himself before the
Court at Hartford and refuted the slanderous charge, in support of which not a
particle of evidence was presented. Ostensibly as a measure of precaution, he
was required to give a bond not to engage in any trade with the Indians
forbidden by the Laws of the Colony, and before the succeeding winter to
furnish the Court with the names of such persons as he could persuade to settle
in his neighborhood. On these conditions permission was given him to remain
unmolested where he was. This action of the Court was largely prompted by a
jealousy of all settlers in that section who were supposed to be favorable to
the Massachusetts claims, lest that colony should get the control of the
Pawcatuck territory. It now became a burning question to which Colony this
territory belonged, - whether to Connecticut
or Massachusetts.
Connecticut attempted to steal the march on the sister Colony by a public act making
the Pawcatuck River the eastern boundary of Pequot, so that CHESEBROUGH's place
of settlement came within the boundaries of that town. On this basis the town
not only voted him a house-lot within the Pequot settlement itself, but also
confirmed his title to three hundred aces of land at Wequetequock, which were
subsequently increased to twenty-three hundred and sixty-two acres.
The first man who joined Mr. CHESEBROUGH in the
new plantation was Thomas STANTON, the famous Indian interpreter, who in 1650
built a trading-house on the west side of the Pawcatuck River, though he did
not remove his family thither until 1657. In the year 1653, Walter PALMER, one
of the settlers at Rehoboth, dissatisfied for similar reasons with his
residence within the Colony of Plymouth, located himself near to his old friend
and neighbor CHESEBROUGH, erecting his dwelling-house on the east side of
Wequetequock Cove.
Thomas MINOR moved into the neighborhood in 1654,
and built his house at Mistuxet, now Quiambaug. These four men: CHESEBROUGH,
STANTON, PALMER and MINOR, were the founders of Stonington,
in honor of whom the monument in the ancient cemetery at Wequetequock was
erected in 1899, that being the two hundred and fiftieth year from the first
settlement by Mr. CHESEBROUGH.
The action of the General Court of Connecticut in
pushing its claims eastward to the Pawcatuck River, was by no means acquiesced
in by Massachusetts, and the seriously controverted question of jurisdiction
was referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies for decision.
Meanwhile, or until the matter could be amicably decided, the planters were
advised “to carry themselves & order their affaires peaceably, and by
common agreement.” Acting on this advise, the original settlers and a few others
who had joined them, met together on the 30th of June, 1658, and organized a
local government with what may be termed a constitution, entitled “The
Asotiation of Poquatuck people,” which was signed by eleven persons, viz.:
William CHESEBROUGH, and his three sons, Samuel, Nathaniel and Elisha, Thomas
STANTON and his son Thomas, Walter PALMER and his two sons, Elihu and Moses,
George DENISON, and Thomas SHAW.
This compact is in the handwriting of William
CHESEBROUGH and pledged the signers “to maintain and deffend the peac of the
plac & to aid and asist one another according to law & rules of
righteousnes, till such other provition be maide ffor us as may atain our end
above written.” After affixing their names to the document, the signers chose Capt.
George DENISON and William CHESEBROUGH to be “comytioners” to carry out the
provisions of the contract. Three months later the Commissioners of the United
Colonies decided that the territory in dispute belonged to Massachusetts,
and the General Court of that Colony named it Southertown and annexed it to the
county of Suffolk.
Southertown remained a township of Massachusetts until the issue of the Charter
of Connecticut by King Charles II, dated April 25, 1662, which fixed the
eastern boundary of Connecticut at Pawcatuck River, thereupon this territory
which for three and a half years had been subject to the control of
Massachusetts, reverted back to the sister Colony. Through this period Mr.
CHESEBROUGH held the office of selectman.
During the time in which the plantation was
included in the town of Pequot, Mr. CHESEBROUGH had been elected its deputy to
the General Court of Connecticut at Hartford in 1653, 1654, 1655, and 1656; he
held also the offices of assessor and commissioner.
On its reversion to Connecticut
under the charter, some of the planters manifested an almost defiant
unwillingness to acknowledge the jurisdiction of this Colony, at which the
authorities at Hartford
took offense. In 1664, however, they united in choosing William CHESEBROUGH as
their first representative to the General Court. With much effort and
considerable delay, he was successful in adjusting the disturbed relations
between them and the court. In 1665, the name of Southertown was changed to
that of Mystic, and in the year following to Stonington.
During the last three years of his life, which closed on Sunday, the 9th day of
June, 1667, he being then seventy-three years old, Mr. CHESEBROUGH was
selectman of the town. His wife, Mrs. Anna CHESEBROUGH, died on the 24th day of
August, 1673, at the age of seventy-five. Their remains rest side by side in
the old cemetery, a short distance from their dwelling-house.
Submitted by;
Lawrence
Edmund Chesebro', Jr. of O'Fallon, Missouri.
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More About WILLIAM CHESEBROUGH and ANNA STEVENSEN:
Marriage: December 15, 1620, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England
Children of WILLIAM CHESEBROUGH and ANNA STEVENSEN
are:
i. MARIE3 CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. May 02, 1622; d. June 09, 1622, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England.
More About MARIE CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: May
02, 1622, Boston, Lincolnshire,
England
ii. MARTHA CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. September 18, 1623; d. September 26, 1623, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England.
More About MARTHA CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: September
18, 1623, Boston, Lincolnshire,
England
iii. DAVID CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. September 09, 1624; d. October 23, 1624, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England.
More About DAVID CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: September
09, 1624, Boston, Lincolnshire,
England
iv. JONATHAN CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. September 09, 1624; d. 1630, the sea.
More About JONATHAN CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: September
09, 1624, Boston, Lincolnshire,
England
v. SAMUEL CHESEBROUGH,
b. Bef. April 01, 1627, Stonington, New London Co., CT; d. July 31, 1673,
Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut; m. ABIGAIL INGRAHAM, November 30,
1655, Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut; b. January 12, 1632/33, Bristol,
Bristol Co., Rhode Island; d. 1715.
vi. ANDRONICUS CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. February 06, 1628/29; d. February 08, 1628/29, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England.
More About ANDRONICUS CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: February
06, 1628/29, Boston, Lincolnshire,
England
vii. JUNIA CHESEBROUGH, b. February 06, 1628/29, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England;
d. February 06, 1628/29, Boston,
Lincolnshire, England.
viii. NATHANIEL
CHESEBROUGH2, b. Bef. January 25, 1629/30, Boston,
Lincolnshire Co., England; d. November 22, 1675, Stonington, New London Co.,
Connecticut; m. HANNAH DENISON, 1659; b. Bef. May 20, 1643, Roxbury, Essex Co.,
Massachusetts.
ix. JOHN CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. September 02, 1632,
Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts; d. 1650, Stonington, New London Co.,
Connecticut.
Notes for JOHN CHESEBROUGH:
The first white person buried in Stonington
x. JABEZ CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. May 03, 1635; d. his youth.
More About JABEZ CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: May
03, 1635, Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts
xi. ELISHA CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. June 04, 1637; d.
September 01, 1670, Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut; m. REBECCA PALMER,
April 20, 1665, Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut; b. Bef. July 01, 1647;
d. May 02, 1713, Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut.
More About ELISHA CHESEBROUGH:
Christening: June
04, 1637, Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts
More About REBECCA PALMER:
Christening: July
01, 1647, Rehoboth, Bristol Co., Massachusetts
More About ELISHA CHESEBROUGH and REBECCA PALMER:
Marriage: April
20, 1665, Stonington, New London Co., Connecticut
xii. JOSEPH CHESEBROUGH, b. Bef. July 18, 1640, Braintree,
Massachusetts; d. his youth.