James Olmstead (1580 - 1640)

Born 12 Apr 1580 in Great Leighs, Essex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Joyce (Cornish) Olmstead — married 26 Oct 1605 (to before 21 Apr 1621) in Great Leighs, Essex, England

Descendants

Died 28 Sep 1640 at age 60 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Walt Steesy [send private message], Lynn Brucker [send private message], John Owen [send private message], and Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree [send private message]

James Olmstead migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 2, p. 1357) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

James Olmstead was born in England.

James Olmsted was born on 12 April 1580 in Great Leighs, Essex, England, the son of James Olmsted and Jane Bristow.

He married Joyce Cornish (~1582-4/21/1621), daughter of John Cornish, at Great Leighs, Essex, 26 October 1605, in England. They had 7 children:

1. Faith (c 1605 - c 1626)
2. Frances (c 1608 - c 1609)
3. Mabel (c 1610 - 1621)
4. Nicholas (1612 - 1684)
5. James (b 1615; died young);
6. Nehemiah (1618 - c 1657)
7. Mary (1621 - 1621)

Joyce died on 21 April 1621, only a few days after Mary was baptized. Mary then died a few days later on April 24th. Joyce is buried at Fairstead, Essex.

James was a follower of Reverend Thomas Hooker in England. Hooker’s teachings were considered heretical and his congregation left England for America in 1632. James, with at least his two sons, Nehemiah and Nicholas, came to America on the ship Lyon.

James first settled in the Braintree Colony at Mount Wollaston (present day Quincy), but soon after moved with Hooker’s other followers to create Newtown (Cambridge), Massachusetts. He became the town’s Constable and a freeman in November, 1632. In January, 1633 he received 25 rods of common land and in August, 1633 he received 1 acre of cowyards. He was paid by the town in June, 1634 for building a highway by William Butler’s house. He was again chosen as constable in November, 1634. In February, 1635 he was chosen with 7 others to handle the town’s business. In August he was given 5 acres of common meadowland. By 1635 he had accumulated a house in town; a house and 1 acre on cowyard row; 4 acres of field by Daniel Patrick; 23.5 acres in Wigwam Neck; 2 acres in the ox marsh; 5 acres in the long marsh; and 19 acres in the great marsh. The February, 1636 list of residents noted his home lot was located on 4 acres.

When Hooker and his congregation continued to experience trouble in Massachusetts, James was one of 12 men selected in February 1636 to explore and settle elsewhere. Hooker’s group relocated and founded the settlement of Hartford, Connecticut in 1636.

In 1639 he received 70 acres of land there, and his home lot was near present day Front Street.

James died in the Fall of 1640. James was noted in a letter by Reverend Hooker, where he said James “died of a bloody flux, and slept sweetly in the Lord, having carried himself gratiously in his sickness.” He is buried at the Ancient Burying Ground in Hartford.

His Will mentions his two sons, Nehemiah and Nicholas. The inventory of his estate was valued at over 397 pounds.

DNA Links

• Several descendants of our subject have been Y-DNA tested, and they are Haplogroup R1b1.

Sources

See also:

• Find A Grave: Memorial #35436581
• Anderson, Robert Charles. Great Migration Begins (New England Historic Genealogical Society,1995) Vol. 2, Pg. 1357-60. AmericanAncestors (subscription)
• The Records of the Town of Cambridge (1901) Pg. 5, 6, 8, 10-3, 18
• The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in “New Towne” & ... Cambridge (1896) Pg. 8-9
• Savage, A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England (1861) Vol. 3, Pg. 311
• Hinman, Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of CT (1852) Vol. 1, Pg. 58
• Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Vol. 1, Pg. 446
• Hartford Probate Records, Vol. 1, Pg. 28-9
• Shurtleff, Records … of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Vol. 1, Pg. 367
• Historical catalogue of the First church in Hartford, 1633-1885, Pg. 10
• Trumbull, The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut (1886) Vol. 1, Pg. 523
• Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877 (1877), Vol. 1, Chapter 6, Pg. 3
• The Family History of Judge Ellsworth D. Belden and Collateral Famlies. Rev. ed. (self-published, Racine, WI) Year?
• Charles Edward Banks. The Planters of the Commonwealth. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston. 1930. p. 99, citing Winthrop: Journal, I, 92.
• The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (Hartford, Brown & Parsons, 1850) Vol. 1, Page 446
• Olmstead Family Web page
• Author? Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut
• Author? George Gates of East Haddam Connecticut and Some Of His Descendants
• Torrey, Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
• Author? Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines Vol. II
• Stanley R. Belden & Elvera Belden. Title?? 1980.
• Our Royal Titled Noble and Commoner Ancestors
• Olmsted, Henry King, M.D. Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in America (A.T. De La Mare, New York, 1912); pg. 7. Will dated Sept. 28, 1640

"Copied from The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to the Union with the New Haven Colony, May, 1665 by J. Hammond Trubull, Harford, Brown & Parsons, 1850, pp. 446-449"

• Olmste(a)d files of Walt Steesy
• The Founders of New England, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass.) Vol. 14, Page 300-1 Citing "a large volume bound in vellum, now in the Rolls Office, Chancery Lane, London"

"xxij Junij 1632.-The names of such Men transported to New England to the Plantacon there p'r Cert. from Capten Mason have tendred and taken the oath of allegeance according to the Statue"

"James Olmstedd" is one of 33 men listed.

• Starr, Frank. Various Ancestral Lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut (Hartford, Conn., 1915) Vol. 1, Page 181
• Royal R. Hinman."Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut." No. 1, Page 58. Printed by E. Gleason, Hartford. 1846.see at hathitrust