Nathaniel Ely (abt. 1605 - 1675)

Born about 1605 in England

Husband of Martha (Unknown) Ely — married 1639 in England

Descendants

Died 25 Dec 1675 at about age 70 in Springfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Nathaniel Ely migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 2, p. 432) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Nathaniel Ely (also Nathaniel Eli) (1605 – December 25, 1675) was a founding settler of Hartford and Norwalk, Connecticut. He served as a deputy of the General Court of the Connecticut Colony from Norwalk in the October 1656 session. He was born in 1605 in Tenterden, Kent, England. He was the son of the Reverend Nathaniel Ely and Susan Dowle. (See above about his parentage. Flanagan-597 06:22, 20 June 2015 (EDT))

He married, in England, Martha _______, he had a son and daughter before leaving his native land. He came to America it is thought in 1634, in the bark "Elizabeth," from Ipswich, England. His name is not on the passenger list, but that of his friend Robert Day appears, and as they settled on adjoining lots in Newtown, Massachusetts Bay, now in the city of Cambridge, May 6, 1635, it is reasonable to believe that they came together. In June 1636, Rev. Thomas Hooker and about a hundred others, men, women, and children, probably including Nathaniel Ely, made their way through the wilderness to a fertile spot on the Connecticut River and made the first settlement at Hartford. It appears from the early records and a map made in 1640 that Ely owned a homestead there. In 1639 he was one of the constables and in 1643 and 1649 one of the selectmen. The name of Nathaniel Ely is on the monument to the memory of the first settlers of Hartford. He afterward removed to what is now Norwalk, Connecticut, of which he was one of the founders and he is listed on the Founders Stone bearing the names of the founding settlers of Norwalk in the East Norwalk Historical Cemetery. There he remained until 1659 when he sold his property and removed to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he passed the remainder of his life. Here, as at Hartford, he was called to serve the public soon after his arrival and was selectman in Springfield in 1661-63-66-68-71 and 73. His place of residence in that town from 1660 to 1665 is not definitely known, though it is most likely that he lived in what is now Chicopee. In 1665 he became the keeper of the ordinary, or tavern, a business which he continued to follow to the time of his death, December 25, 1675. ^{[1] [2]}

Research Notes

Disproved Parents

"It is my very sad duty to inform descendants of Nathaniel Ely of Springfield, Mass.,... that the parentage which up to the present time has been accepted as his has now been proved erroneous.

"The famous American antiquarian, Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester, identified Nathaniel Ely in 1881 as a son of Mr. Nathaniel Ely, clerk, Master of Arts, by his wife Susannah Dowle, and as a grandson of the Rev. George Ely, M.A., Vicar of Tenterden, co. Kent, who was buried at Tenterden 21 Aug. 1615, leaving a will, dated 13 Aug. 1615, in which he mentioned (among others) a grandson Nathaniel, son of his deceased son Nathaniel....

"From data newly received from England, however, it now appears that Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel and grandson of Rev. George Ely, died as a small child at the age of seven months, and cannot, therefore, have been the emigrant to New England who settled at Springfield."^[3]

The cited article goes on to list the All Saints Church, Biddenden, co. Kent parish record entries, which includes:

"1615 Nathanaell s. of Nathaniell Elly Clerk deceased, bap. 2 July

1615 Nathaniell s. of Nathaniell Ely, clarke, bur. 10 Feb (1615/16)."

Leads for Further Research

The Wikipedia article cited above concludes with the suggestion that the records of Bildeston, Suffolk be examined. Both Days and Elys lived there, and Nathaniel Ely, the immigrant, was close friends/neighbors with Robert Day throughout his life.^[4]

Images

• Hooker arrives in Hartford, database online, Wikipedia, ; Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• Records of the descendants of Nathaniel Ely : the emigrant, database online, (accessed 5 Jan 2015), Internet Archive, author: Hallam Ely, (Cleveland, Ohio, Short & Forman, Printers and Stationers, 1885), Title page

Sources

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Nathaniel Ely
2. ↑ GENEALOGICAL and PERSONAL MEMOIRS Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts Prepared under the editorial supervision of William Richard CUTTER, A. M. Historian of the New England Historic Genealogical Society; Librarian of Woburn Public Library; Author of “The Cutter Family,” “History of Arlington,” “Bibliography of Woburn,” etc., etc. Volume I.; Illustrated New York; Lewis Historical Publishing Company; 1908 Pages 154 - 157
3. ↑ John Insley Coddington, "Nathaniel Ely of Springfield, Massachusetts is not (alas!) the Man We Thought He Was," in The American Genealogist, 30:78 (1954).
4. ↑ Wikipedia: Nathaniel Ely

See also:

• Records of the descendants of Nathaniel Ely : the emigrant, database online, (accessed 5 Jan 2015), Internet Archive, author: Hallam Ely, (Cleveland, Ohio, Short & Forman, Printers and Stationers, 1885), 526 pages.

• Wikipedia: Nathaniel_Ely

• Porter, William. Historical Notices of Connecticut (Connecticut Historical Society, 1842) No. 2, Page 5

• Find A Grave: Memorial #112540750

• Jacobus, Donald Lines. Hale, House, and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley (Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, 1952) Page 535-7.