John Edwards migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 103) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm
John Edwards and his son Thomas Edwards were early settlers, by 1645, of Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony.[1][2] By 1646, he and Thomas had removed to coastal, Branford, New Haven Colony. However, about 1648 residents of Branford "gave him liberty to leave" the town[3] and he returned to Wethersfield.
Birth and origins
John Edwards[4] was born about 1600 in England. This estimated year is based on the estimated 1623 birth of his oldest child.
His origins are not known.
A previous version of this profile claimed, without source, that he was the son of Thomas Edwards and Unknown Wife. Lacking documentation (and evidence that Thomas Edwards died long before John Edwards was born), they have been detached.
Hale suggests that John Edwards may have been among the group of twenty still-unidentified men supervised in 1636 by William Gibbons, steward of Governor George Wyllys. They came to prepare a home at Hartford for Wyllys in anticipation of his arrival in 1638 from Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, England. See Research Notes below.
Marriages and children
He married first about 1625 Unknown. The search continues for any dcoumentation of the conjecture that her name was Mary Edwards and any facts related to the location or year of her birth.
He married second, after 1638 to Dorothy Moulton, widow of Abraham Finch.
First child by first wife; remaining children by second wife.
Appended to the inventory of the estate of John Edwards was a list of his seven children which specified, except for "Thomas his eldeste son," their ages and the months of their last birthdays:
Thomas, b abt 1623 in England, probably son of John's first wife whose name is not known. He married Ruth, widow of Loveland. He died at Wethersfield 27 July 1683 at "about 62 years."[5] On 27 August 1667, stating his age as "43 years or thereabouts," he gave a deposition about land prices and rents at Hockanum in a lawsuit.
Corporal John Edwards, b Dec 1838; d. unmarried 19 Dec 1675 in the Great Swamp Fight in King Philip's War.[6] On 9 May 1665, the son John Edwards and the widow Dorothy Edwards, administrators of John Edwards's estate, sued Thomas "for illegal possessing and is prouving two allotnents of the said John Edwards on the East Side of the Great River at Nabuck to the damage of £30"[7] His nuncupative will and inventory were presented at court in April 1676, and administration was granted to his mother, then "widow Towsley" of Saybrook. The inventory included part of his father's estate "which was put into his hands by the Court as joynt admillistrator with his mother".[8]
Hester, b June 16341; John Colt
Ruth, b Dec 1643; m by 26 Feb 1655/6 Richard Morton who died at Hatfield 5 Apr 1710; she died there 31 Dec 1714.[9]
Hannah, b Jan 1674/5; allowed an extra portion of her father's estate in March 1664/5 "because of her impotency." A legacy from her half-brother Abraham Finch was confirmed to her by the New London County Court on 19 Sept. 1667. She may be the "Hanna" who was allowed 10 shillings on 25 Sept. 1667 "for her time in sitting up with" Samuel Molton who died at Thomas Edwards's house in Hockanum.
Joseph Edwards, b May 1648; m Sarah.
Lydia b July 1650; prob married John Hunnewell
NOTE: Savage added son Abraham Edwards, b 12 August 1637; he was actually Abraham Finch, son of Dorothy by her first marriage. Abraham died unmarried between November 1666 and June 1667.
John Edwards's descendants included Long Island and River-Valley families with names Butler, Colefax, Colt, Conklin, Curtis, Day, Edwards, Fox, Hale, (probably) Hunnewell, Kilbourne, Kimberly, Loomis, Morton, Reynolds, Sparks, Warner, and Welles; plus a Harris foster kindred and a Loveland step-kindred.
Abortive settlement in Totoket, New Haven Colony, 1644 - 1647
In 1644, a contingent of residents removed from Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony to begin the settlement of Totoket (Branford) in New Haven Colony.
Atwater, in his 1881 History of the Colony of New Haven stated that John and his son Thomas followed this group.[14]
John and his son appeared in Branford town records of 1646 (dividing lands[15]; building a general fence around the town[16]). Then, in March 1647 (1648?), "John Edwards of Wethersfield" signed a peculiar contract, agreeing with a representative of Branford (Robert Rose who had himself come from Wethersfield in 1644[17]) to pay his proportionate share in town expenses yet anticipating his imminent departure from the town.[18] The agreement also referred specifically to his son (without specifically naming him as Thomas). Neither John Edwards nor any other Edwards is subsequently mentioned in volume 1 of the Branford records. The agreement could be interpreted as an "exit visa" for John and/or as the town putting John on notice that he needed to pay his proportionate share of town expenses.
Subsequent records are from Wethersfield
Stiles showed John Edwards and his son Thomas Edwards as acquiring in 1649 the Wethersfield home lot (#23) of Abraham Finch III.[19] Could this acquisition have followed his return to Wethersfield after abandoning efforts to settle in Branford?
Adams said that John was a Townsmen of Wethersfield in 1648-49.[20]
The Wethersfield land records are unfortunately not accessible online through FamilySearch[21], but they can be viewed at select genealogical libraries.
Death and probate
He died by 27 December 1664 when inventory of his estate was taken by the townsmen of Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut. He was survived by his wife, three sons, and four unmarried daughters.
His widow Dorothy married third, before 5 June 1667, Richard Towsley (Tousland, Toucey, etc.) of Saybrook, Connecticut.
Estate
John died intestate. His inventory taken by the townsmen on 27 December 1664 included his house lot, 60 acres in four parcels on the west side, "land on the other [east] side of the River 19 Rods wide," various livestock, farm tools, "corne in ye barne," and household items, the whole valued at £400. He owed money to 43 individuals for about £111.[22]
Appended to the inventory is a list of his seven children which gives, except for "Thomas his eldeste son," their ages and the months of their last birthdays.
On 2 March 1664/5, it was ordered that distribution be made to "the widow £96, to Thomas £30, to John £30, to Joseph £28, to Ruth, Hester, and Lydia each £25, and to Hanna because of impotency £30" [23]
Research Notes
Harris (previously cited) points out that Henry R. Stiles' useful sketch of John and his sons is seriously flawed. (Henry R Stiles, The History of Ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut [2 vols., 1904; reprint, Somersworth, N.H., 1975] [hereinafter Stiles, Wethersfield], 1:267-68; 2:314-35). He also briefly discussed more recent material providing a limited but excellent account of John's son Thomas's family (Donald Lines Jacobus and Edgar Francis Waterman, Hale, House and Related Families [1952; reprint Baltimore, 1978] [hereinafter Hnle, House], 14-19, 691).
Harris suggests that clues to his origins include:
his presence in Wethersfield before 1638,
his young daughter Hester's employment at Hartford by the widow Ursula Gibbons,
his daughter Ruth's marriage to an employee of Hartford's Samuel Wyllys,
his son Thomas' tenancy of Wyllys lands in Hockanum (in present East Hartford and Glastonbury), and
John and his sons' frequent dealing in Naubuc lands (in Glastonbury) with Ursula's son-in-law James Richards of Hartford.
Sources
↑ The history of ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut : comprising the present towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington, and of Glastonbury prior to its incorporation in 1693 : from date of earliest settlement until the present time. By Henry Stiles. 1904. Page 30. (https://archive.org/details/historyofancient11adam/page/64/mode/2up)
↑ Unless otherwise cited, information on this profile is extracted from: Gale Ion Harris, "John Edwards of Wethersfield, Connecticut," in The American Genealogist, Volume #?? (October 1991): 317. This article presents an account of the entire family, focusing on its history from the time of the Wethersfield massacre in 1637 to early decades of the following century.
↑ Harris, citing Sylvester Judd, History of Hadley, 100; Daniel White Welles and Reuben Field Welles, A History of Hatfield, Massachusetts [Springfield, 19101, 426
↑ Adams in his 1904 History of Ancient Wethersfield suggested that John Edwards "came from Watertown [MA] prob. in 1635 or '36". The history of ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut : comprising the present towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington, and of Glastonbury prior to its incorporation in 1693 : from date of earliest settlement until the present time. By Sherman Adams. 1904. Page 267. (https://archive.org/details/historyofancient11adam/page/556/mode/2up)
↑ Trumbull included John Edwards and his son Thomas on a list of those who arrived in Wethersfield by 1645. The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884. By James Hammond Trumbull. 1886. Page 437. (https://archive.org/details/memorialhistoryo02trum/page/436/mode/2up)
↑ The history of ancient Wethersfield, Connecticut : comprising the present towns of Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and Newington, and of Glastonbury prior to its incorporation in 1693 : from date of earliest settlement until the present time. By Sherman Adams. 1904. Page 157. (https://archive.org/details/historyofancient11adam/page/328/mode/2up)
↑ Branford town records. Volume 1. Page 3. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK7-B3L6-R?cat=157834) "The 27th of the 3d month 1647 -- This daie it is agreed betwene the Townsmen of Totokett & John Edwards of wethersfeild on Conecticut that the said John Edwards hath agreed to paie all the Charges that haue arose within the said Totokett from the begining of the plantacon unto this present daie with equall proportion with other men according to the state he gaue in both for himselfe & his son and that as well in respect of Injoying the preaching of the word of God as well as all other Comon Charges that haue accrued to this prsent & it is also agreed that the said Jo: Edwards shall haue llbertie for one yeare after Micaelstid next to put of his lotts to such a pson as the townesmen shall like well of & in the meane tyme the towne is to make use & impue the said lotts at ther pleasure & at the tyme mentioned to retourne to the pp right & possession of the said Towne of Totokett & in Consideracon of the prmises the Towne doe yeld up the horse which they attached unto the said John Edwards to take the possession of the said horse wn & where he can find him In wit(nes) whereof the said Jo: Edwards for himselfe & Robt Rose in the behalfe of the Towne haue mutuallie sett ther hands the daie & yeare aboue written sign Robt Rose John Edwards"
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.) Hannah Edwards, First Wife of Joseph Hills of Glastonbury, Connecticut, by Gale Ion Harris and Anthony Hale Burke, NEHGR Vol 149 (1995), page 41.
Was he the same as the "John Edwards of Wethersfield" who in 1647 signed an agreement with the other proprietors of Branford, New Haven Colony to share all expenses, pending his anticipated decision to "to put of his lotts to such a pson as the townesmen shall like well" ? See Branford town records. Volume 1. Page 3. (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK7-B3L6-R?i=7&cat=157834) "The 27th of the 3d month 1647 -- This daie it is agreed betwene the Townsmen of Totokett & John Edwards of wethersfeild on Conecticut that the said John Edwards hath agreed to paie all the Charges that haue arose within the said Totokett from the begining of the plantacon unto this present daie with equall proportion with other men according to the state he gaue in both for himselfe & his son and that as well in respect of Injoying the preaching of the word of God as—well as all other Comon Charges that haue accrued to this prsent & it is also agreed that the said Jo: Edwards shall haue llbertie for one yeare after Micaelstid next to put of his lotts to such a pson as the townesmen shall like well of & in the meane tyme the towne is to make use & impue the said lotts at ther pleasure & at the tyme mentioned to retourne to the pp right & possession of the said Towne of Totokett & in Consideracon of the prmises the Towne doe yeld up the horse which they attached unto the said John Edwards to take the possession of the said horse wn & where he can find him In wit(nes) whereof the said Jo; Edwards for himselfe & Rob' Rose in the behalfe of the Towne haue mutuallie sett ther hands the daie & yeare aboue written sign Robt Rose John Edwards"</ref> The agreement also referred specifically to his son. Neither John Edwards nor any other Edwards is subsequently mentioned in volume 1 of the Branford records. His name was included on Branford records of 1646 (dividing lands [see https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK7-B3LJ-D?i=5&cat=157834], constructing the general fence [see https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSK7-B3LF-Q?i=9&cat=157834]), but the name did not appear again after his peculiar agreement of March 1647 (1648?). This peculiar agreement could be read either as an "exit visa" for John or as the town putting him on notice that he needed to pay his proportionate share of the town's expenses. If this was the same John Edwards of this profile, then clearly he (and his son) returned to Wethersfield. This was the interpretation given by Atwater in his 1881 History of New Haven (see https://archive.org/details/historycolonyne00smitgoog/page/622/mode/2up).
This bio is copied almost verbatim from TAG: 145: 1991: "John Edwards of Wethersfield, Connecticut" and needs to be rewritten. Also needs inline sourcing. See:
edited by Bob Pond
https://www.americanancestors.org/databases/new-england-historical-and-genealogical-register/image?pageName=318&volumeId=11585&rId=23488629