Thomas Flint (1603 - 1653)

Born 1603 in Matlock, Derbyshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Abigail (Bradell) Flint — married about 1629 in Harby, Leicestershire, England

Descendants

Died 8 Oct 1653 at about age 50 in Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Thomas Flint migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 117) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Thomas Flint^[1] was originally from Matlock, England, came to America in about 1638, lived in Concord, and died in Massachusetts on 8 Oct 1653 at 50 years of age. (So he was born about 1603.) His wife was Abigail. She died on 18 Dec 1689 at age 89. ^[2] He had a brother "Flynt" who was a teacher of the church at Braintree, (that would be the Rev. Henry Flint), and an uncle William Wood of Concord. He had children who survived him.

• 1639: September 4: The General Court indicated that the plantation set off from Concord, by Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Noyse and Mr. Brown would be call Sudbury. Mr. Flint was one of those assigned of a committee to set off lands and accommodations and houselots. ^[3]
• 1640: October 7: Among the decisions of the General Court was that Mr. Thomas Flint is allowed to marry at Concord and Sudbury. ^[3]

•Death: 8 OCT 1653 1 •Note: In the will of Thomas Flint of Matlock, yeoman, proved in 1623, I think that we have found the parents of our emigrants Thomas and Henry; and, in their mother Dorothy, the sister of William Wood of Concord. Their affiliation seems less easy; but the suggestive names that run through the wills of both the Woods and Flints show that we are on the right trail, and there seems no reason to doubt that a little patient investigation will make all clear.

NEHGR 14:58-60
"Thomas Flint, of Concord, Mass., was originally from Matlock, England, a parish in Derbyshire, sixteen miles N.N. West of Derby. He arrived in this country about the year 1638, and settled in Concord, of which town he was immediately chosen deputy, and successively continued in that office until made assistant in 1642. This latter office he retained for eleven years, until his decease in 1653.

Contemporaries agree in representing him as a gentleman of wealth, talent, and an eminently christian character. The fortune he brought with him from the old world, variously estimated at from £2,000 to £4,000 was liberally parted with for the benefit of the Plantation.

Johnson, in his Wonder Working Providence, after speaking of the arrival of his brother, the Rev. Henry Flint, in 1635, makes the following honorable mention of the assistant: "Here is to be remembered Mr Thomas Flint, a sincere servant of Christ, who had a fair yearly revenue in England, but having improved for Christ by casting it in the Common Treasury, as it appears in the former part of this history, he waits on the Lord for doubling his talent if it shall seem good unto him so to do, and the mean time spending his person for the good of his people in the office of a Magistrate."

Henry Flint was brother of Thomas Flint {1637, Boston} [NEHGR 14:58-60]. In his will of 21 December 1651, Thomas Flint of Concord referred to my brother Flint, Teacher of the church at Braintree and to my uncle William Wood of Concord^[4] [MPR 1:1]. In 1902, Henry Lea published a collection of wills for the Flint and Wood[is] families of Matlocke, Derbyshire; he thought that Thomas Flint, testator of 1623, was father of the immigrant Flint brothers, and that the wife of this Thomas, Dorothy, was sister of William Wood of Concord [NEHGR 56:312-18].

Thomas Flint died October 8, 1653, aged 50. His wife Abigail died December 18, 1689, aged 82. The subjoined will (which is said to have been the first recorded in Middlesex County) testifies equally of the christian character and social qualities of the man, in the deep solicitude and affectionate regard there displayed for the welfare of his wife and children: -

The 21:10 Mo. 1651.^[4]
I Thomas Flynt of Concord, in New England, . . .
My children being some young and none of them Disposed of, I leave them all under the Power & Government of my Deare and Loving wife, by the Counsiale and Advise of my Reverend and Loving friends Mr. Bulkley Teacher of ye Church of Concord, my Brothr Flynt Teacher of ye church of Brantrey, Captaine Simon Willard of concord, and my under Willm . Wood of the same. . . My true intent is that my Estate should be kept and Imrpoved togethr; to rise and fall to the whole family; my wife and children; tll some necessary Providence call for some Devision of all or of part. . .
Thomas Flint
Signed & Sealed in
the presence of Joane Hoar, Henry Flynt Mar: Flynt

In the series of wills which follow, (all extracted from the files of the Consistory Court of Lichfield except where otherwise noted,) I have endeavored to probe the ancestry of the brothers Thomas Flint, of Concord, and Rev. Henry Flint, of Braintree, and their uncle William Wood, or Woodis, of Concord, all of whom are know to have come from Matlock in Derbyshire, or its immediate neighborhood, about 1635.

Thomas Flint was born about 1603, and arrived in Concord about 1638, bringing with him wife Abigail and several children (one only is on record as having been born after their arrival - i.e., Ephraim, born in 1641), and also, it is said, the then very large fortune of £4,000. In his will, proved in 1653, he names his uncle, William Wood of Concord, an overseer.

William, Thomas, and Edward Flint were brothers, and came to Salem, Mass., in 1638. According to Mr. Shattuck, in his History of Concord, N.H., their father was Hon. Thomas Flint, who came from Matlock, Derbyshire, Eng., to Concord, N.H., whose uncle was William Wood, author of New England Prospect, and one of the twelve petitioners who visited Concord in 1633, and returned to England, and two years afterwards was active in promoting the settlement in Concord, N.H.

The same author states that Hon. Thomas Flint was possessed of wealth, talents, and a Christian character. He is said to have brought £4,000 sterling with him, which was liberally parted with for the benefit of the colony. He married a daughter of President Oakes, of Harvard College, by whom he had John and Ephraim, who lived in Concord with him. He died Oct. 8, 1653. His brother, Rev. Henry Flint, of Braintree, and his uncle, William Wood, were executors of his will, - the first on record in the Middlesex Probate Records. It was made in 1651, just before his sailing on a voyage to England, a portion of which is: - If God calls my wife to alter her condition I desire my Elder children may endeavour to keepe the younger together with themselves . . . or if my wife should dye, my younger children being small; my mind is that they shall continue under the care of ye elder.

Research notes

From The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1640: A Concise Compendium : Flint, Thomas: Matlock, Derbyshire; 1636; Boston, Concord [BTR 1:18; Lechford 70; MBCR 1:221, 264, 374; SPR 1:20, 2:12; SuTR 8; CoVR 2; NEHGR 14:58-59; Edward E. Flint Jr. and Gwendolyn S. Flint, Flint Family History of The Adventuresome Seven, two volumes (Baltimore 1984)].

Sources

1. ↑ "Flint Genealogy" New England Historical and Genealogical Society NEHGR 14 (Jan 1860):58-60
2. ↑ http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=revelation&id=I1272848
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Focus on Sudbury in: Great Migration Newsletter, Volume 9, 2000, p. 19 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018.)
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} “Probate records v. 1-3 1654-1673”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99D5-BQF5  : 2 May 2023), FHL microfilm 007554513, image 8-11, Middlesex, Massachusetts, Vol 1, 1654-1661, Pages 1-7.

• Ward, Andrew. History of the Town of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts (Samuel G. Drake, Boston, 1847) Page 275
• Shattuck, Lemuel: "History of Concord, Mass."; page 371. Russell and Odiorne and Company, Boston 1835
• Pope, Charles Henry: "Pioneers of Massachusetts"; page 170 (Flint)
• Savage, James: "Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England"; Volume 2, page 150.
• Leicestershire, England Extracted Church of England Parish Records; Leistershre Marriage Licenses 1570-1729; Flint, Thomas gent,; Matlock, Derby, 1629, Book 5, fo 74; Bradell, Abigail, Harbey at Harbey
• http://yankeeancestry.tripod.com/firstsettlers.html Brother of Henry Flint of Braintree