John Burroughs (1617 - 1678)

Born 1617 in Barnstaple, Devon, England

Husband of Johannah (Jessup) Burroughs — married 1641 in Newtown, Queens, New York

Descendants

Died Aug 1678 at about age 61 in Newtown, Queens, New York

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Biography

John Bourroughs was born in England in about 1617.^[1][2][3] He died in 1678^[4][3] in Newtown, Queens, New York, which is now the Elmhurst section of Queens.

According to James Riker, "upon his removal to Newtown, [John] became a leading man, and being a skillful penman, a quite rare accomplishment in those days, he filled the office of town clerk for eleven years. He appears to have been a resolute character, and a warm advocate of popular rights..."^[5]

He married twice. His first wife is thought to be Joanna Jessup,^[3] whom he wed in Stamford, Fairfield Co., Connecticut. They had four children: Joanna about 1641, Jeremiah about 1642, Joseph about 1644 and Mary about 1649. His second wife was Elizabeth (Pettit) Reed, widow of Thomas Reed, and possibly the daughter of Thomas and Christian (Mellowes) Pettit. John and Elizabeth had a son John Jr. b. 1665 at Newtown.

John Burroughs of Newtown, Queens Co, NY, left a will dated 2 Jul 1678. The will mentioned his wife, son Jeremiah, son Joseph, son John (a minor not yet 21), daughters Joanna Reeder and Mary Burroughs.^[6]

His son, Jeremiah Burroughs, was executor, witnesses were Thomas Petit and Gershom Moore. An inventory of the estate of John Burroughs was taken on 29 Aug 1678 in Queens Co, NY.

Research Notes

England and Immigration

No certainty exists about John Burroughs's birthplace or year of immigration to the New World. At one point this biography showed an unsourced birth date of December, 1611. The 1617 year comes from a court deposition of 13 August 1667 in which John was "aged about 50 yeres."

Several sources state that John was the man of a similar name found at Salem by 1637.^[4][7][8] According to Steve Warling, this was John Barrows Barrow-99 who arrived on the Mary Ann and later lived in Plymouth. Robert Charles Anderson states that this John Burroughs was not seen again after 1644, as does Gale Ion Harris — meaning at a minimum that they find no evidence conclusively showing that he was any man with a similar name appearing in later records. That man was said to be 28 years old in 1637 when "examined" before his passage, desiring to pass to Salem in New England.^[9] This would have him 7–8 years older than the man at Newtown, casting serious doubt on their identification as the same man.

Some sources say that before arriving in Salem, he was a member of the Long Parliament, which Oliver Cronwell dissolved. Burroughs emigrated, fleeing religious persecution. ^[10]

Various online sources state, with no evidence, that John Burroughs's second wife was Elizabeth (Jessup) Reed, the sister of his first wife Joanna. It is then very difficult to explain why she named in her will a sister Hannah Pettit. If Elizabeth were a Jessup, we would need a likely candidate for a Hannah Jessup who married a Pettit, and none presents herself. We would also need an Elizabeth Jessup who married a Reed, and again, we are at a loss. On the other hand, there is a natural reason for how she erroneously became a Jessop -- confusion with John Burrough's first wife, which at some point morphed into the statement that they were sisters.

Life in Newtown

On 22 January 1657, John Burroughes of the town of "Midle Burrough" petitioned governor Stuysevant. The complaint was that the town had set aside property and erected a house for a minister, and that "some of the town" had given the property to Mr. More for his own use, which would leave the town "destitute." Inferring from the rest of the test, it would seem that the complaint was that the land should have remained property of the town, and not Rev. Moore's property, since if he died the town would no longer have the property and would still have to attract another minister to come and live.^[11]

On 12 May 1664, the general assembly at Hartford, Connecticut accepted John Burroughs along with several other Newtown men as freemen.^[12]

John was town clerk in Newtown for several years, so he appears many times in the town records just in that role.

On 10 December 1667, John Burrough was recorded plaintiff in a lawsuit against several men charging trespass on the case.^[13] One Thomas Stevens testified that "he heard a tuemolt and he looked and he saw goodman Burroughs and his two sonns driving cattle..." He goes on to describe a quarrel between Goodman Burroughs and several other men, one of whom called John "oulde Clarke." These corroroborrates John only having two sons old enough to drive cattle in this year, Jeremiah and Joseph, while son John was only two years old. "Clarke" presumably refers to John's position as town clerk.

In a tax list from September 1675, John appears on the 8th line, shown with two males, land and meadow valued at 40 (surpassed only by three other residents), 1 horse, 4 oxen, 4 cows, 4 yearlings, and 24 sheep (a sheep count surpassed by only one othe resident).^[14] Sons Jeremiah and Joseph appear elsewhere in the list, so it seems either 10-year-old son John was old enough to qualify as an addiditional male or else there was another older unknown male in the household.

On 8 January 1675, John Burroughs of Newtown was summoned before the New York Colonial Council with the constable "for two letters reflecting on the government." On 13 January 1675, we was sentenced "to be whipped and imprisoned," and a warrant was issue to the sheriff to carry out the sentence.^[15] His son John would only have been around 12, so this must be John the immigrant. It is to be wondered if this sentence was carried out, and if so, if it was related to his death a few years later.

Sources

1. ↑ Minutes of the Town Courts of Newtown, 1656-1690: Page 73
2. ↑ Riker, Page 91
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Torrey, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004. p. 123. Accessed at ancestry.com, 17 Mar 2018.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Riker, page 383
5. ↑ Riker, James, Jr.The Annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York; containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns.D. Fanshaw, New-York, 1852.
6. ↑ Collections NY Gen. & Biog. Soc.: Vol. 25, Page 55
7. ↑ Jacobus: vol. 1 page 336
8. ↑ Jesup: Pages 48–9, footnote
9. ↑ Hotten: page 294
10. ↑ Pelletreau, William S. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York. Vol. I-IV. New York, USA: Lewis Publishing,1907.page 151.
11. ↑ [https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/45238 "Petition of the inhabitants of Middleburth", New York State Archives, digital collection, series A1810, document NYSA_A1810-78_V12_50
12. ↑ The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut: Vol. 1, Page 430
13. ↑ Minutes of the Town Courts of Newtown, 1656-1690: Page 77
14. ↑ O'Callaghan: Vol. 2, Page 464
15. ↑ Calendar of Council Minutes, 1668–1773 (Albany, NY: University of the State of New York, 1902) pages 20–1

• Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Volume 2, By John Woolf Jordan
• Hotten, John Camden. The Original Lists Of Persons Of Quality (J.W. Bouton, New York, 1874).
• Jacobus, Donald Lines. History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield (Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., New Haven, Conn., 1930)
• Jessica Kross, The Evolution of an American Town: Newtown, New York, 1642-1775.
• Jesup, Henry Griswold. Edward Jessup of West Farms, Westchester Co., New York, and his descendants (published by the author, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1887)
• O'Callaghan, Edmund. The Documentary History of the State of New-York (Charles Van Benthuysen, Public Printer, 1849-)
• Pelletreau, William S. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York. Vol. I-IV. New York, USA: Lewis Publishing, 1907.page 151
• Riker, James, Jr.The Annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York; containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns.D. Fanshaw, New-York, 1852.
• Ross, Peter. A history of Long Island : from its earliest settlement to the present time. New York: Lewis Pub. Co., 1902. p. 175. Accessed on ancestry.com 17 Mar 2018. Freely available HathiTrust
• Collections of the New-York Genealogical and Biographical Society (New York, 1892)
• Minutes of the Town Courts of Newtown, 1656-1690, (NYC, N.Y.: WPA Historical Records Survey, New York City, August 1940).
• The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (Hartford, Brown & Parsons, 1850)
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/216054619/john-burroughs
• U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700

See also:

• Steve Warling's well-sourced webpage Descendants of John Burroughs, personal website, archive copy

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Steve Warling for allowing use of his careful research of the first few generations of this family.
• Thank you to William Agee for creating WikiTree profile Burrowes-15 through the import of MARIELANGFORDEXPORT.GED on Sep 23, 2013.
• This person was created on 13 September 2010 through the import of 124-DeCoursey.ged.
• Burroughs-693 was created by Mark Stuckenborg through the import of Stinnett_Distant_Ancestors.ged on Jan 28, 2014.

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