Elizabeth (Hawley) Booth (abt. 1620 - bef. 1688)

Born about 1620 in Parwich, Derbyshire, England

Wife of Richard Booth — married about 1640 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died before 1688 before about age 68 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Allan Morton [send private message], Hope Moore [send private message], Sara Patton [send private message], Steve St. Martin [send private message], James Choma [send private message], and Jim Booth [send private message]

Biography

Elizabeth Hawley was born about 1620 in Parwich, Derbyshire, England. Her birth year is estimated based on the birth of her first child in 1641 and on the birth year of her last known child in 1661. Her birth location is based on the probable birth location of her brother Joseph, who was also an early settler of Stratford. See Research Notes for more detail. Her parents are not known.

Elizabeth married Richard Booth about 1640, in Stratford, based on the birth of their first child there on 10 September 1641.^[1]

Elizabeth and Richard had children, probably all born in Stratford:^[2][3]

1. Elizabeth (1641), married John Minor
2. Anna (1643/4)
3. Ephraim (1648), married Mary Osborn
4. Ebenezer (1651), married Hannah (unknown), then Elizabeth Jones
5. John (1653), married Dorothy Hawley, then Hannah (Jones) (Falconer) Clark
6. Joseph (1656), married Hannah Wilcoxson, then Elizabeth Bostwick
7. Bethia (1658), married Joseph Curtis
8. Joanna (1661)

No death record has been found for Elizabeth. On 15 March 1687/8 Richard Booth deposed that he was about 81 and spoke of "my now wife", perhaps indicating that Elizabeth had died before then, and that he had remarried.

There is a Find A Grave: Memorial #29665343 for her, which is incorrect. She is, however, probably buried in the Old Congregational Burying Ground, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut.

Research Notes

Elizabeth is commonly said to have been the sister of Joseph Hawley. Jacobus refers to Joseph as Richard Booth's brother-in-law.^[2] An overseer of the probate for Richard's son Ephraim was "his uncle Joseph Hawley".^[4] In his will, Ephraim styles Samuel Hawley (son of Joseph) as cousin.

Elizabeth is also said to have had a sister Hannah Hawley, who married in 1653. She soon divorced her first husband John Ufford and promptly married John Beard.^[5] In her divorce record, testimony was given by "Mr. Hawley, brother to said Hannah Beard".^[6]

Per Jacobus, Joseph probably had a brother Thomas Hawley, who lived in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The reasoning is that Dorothy, daughter of Thomas, married (her cousin) John Booth, son of Richard, so there must have been a prior family connection to explain Dorothy's presence in Stratford, two years after her father Thomas was killed by Indians.^[7] Thomas married about 1650, then again in 1651/2 upon the death of his first wife in childbirth.

Finally, some researchers have guessed that Miriam, wife of Moses Wheeler, was a Hawley and a sibling of the above. There seem to be no records supporting this. Also, while the three confirmed Hawley siblings were all of Stratford, Moses and Miriam Wheeler were married in New Haven in about 1642, and only came to Stratford in 1648, after Moses had come into conflict with New Haven Sabbath rules. Miriam will not be considered further for purposes of this discussion.

It is not known how much earlier than their first Colonial records that Elizabeth, Joseph, Thomas, and Hannah arrived, or whether they arrived together or separately. Robert Charles Anderson does not include any Hawley or phonetically equivalent surnames In his Great Migration Directory, so it does not seem that they came over as a family with parents prior to 1640. Elizabeth appears earliest in the records with her 1640 marriage. Joseph is assumed to have come over early, but his Colonial records start about 1650, although his first-born child Samuel was born about 1647. Thomas first married in 1650. Hannah's records start with her 1653-4 marriages.

If we ignore the unsupported stories about Joseph (see his profile) and rely on the marriage and children's birth records to make inferences, the likely birth order for the siblings would be:

1. Elizabeth, b. ca 1620, children born 1641-1661
2. Joseph, b. ca 1625, children born ca 1647-1663
3. Thomas, b. ca 1628, marriages 1650, 1651/2, children born 1651-1658
4. Hannah, b. ca 1633, marriages 1653-4, children born 1654-1675

In this admittedly speculative but logical scenario, the siblings appear on records as they become of marriage age. In the absence of any parent records, the most common way that they would have arrived in Connecticut Colony would have been as servants of one or more early Stratford families.

Note that relegating the "early" Joseph and Thomas arrivals to the hearsay bin fixes issues like a supposed earlier marriage, totally undocumented early years in the Colonies, and how old they were when their first and last children were born.

Sources

1. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. Torrey, v.1 p.172 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. NEHGS member site
   • Text: "BOOTH, Richard (1607-1688+) & Elizabeth [HAWLEY?]; by 1641; Stratford, CT {Stratford Hist. 2:1156; LBDF&P 4:116, ,221; Colchester CT VR; Fairfield Fam. 1:88, 264; Fairfield Prob. 32; Sv. 1:212; Hawley-Nason 29; Fulton Anc. 505; Trubee 109; Dawes-Gates 2:411; Beach (1898) 169; Booth (1892) 15; Dunham-Boyd 97; Hawley 2, 3; Curtis (1903) 2; Derby CT VR 12; Booth (1952) 1; Curtis (1953) 2; McCormick-Hamilton 306, 535, 1088}"
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Jacobus, Donald Line, The genealogy of the Booth family; Booth families of Connecticut for six or more generations, 1952, pp.1-1 InternetArchive
3. ↑ Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 Stratford, pp.20-22 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928.NEHGS member site
4. ↑ Mead, Spencer P., Abstract of probate records at Fairfield, County of Fairfield, and state of Connecticut, 1648-1757, 1929, pp.32-3 FamilySearch
5. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. Torrey, v.3 p.1562 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. NEHGS member site
   • Text: "UFFORD, John (OFFIT in early records) (?1626-1692) & 1/wf Hannah/Anna? [HAWLEY], m/2 John BEARD 1654?; ca 1654?, div; Milford, CT {McCormick-Hamilton 1010; Parke Anc. 119; Stratford Hist. 2:1319; Fairfield Fam. 1:624; Dawes-Gates 2:411; Beard (1915) 10; Hawley 23; Baldwin 92; Peabody And. 113; NYGBR 43:299} "
6. ↑ Hoadly, Charles, compiler, Records of the colony or jurisdiction of New Haven, from May, 1653, to the union. Together with New Haven code of 1656, 1858, p.211 InternetArchive
7. ↑ Fairfield, CT: Families of Old Fairfield. v.1 p.264 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield. Compiled and edited by Donald Lines Jacobus. 2 vols. New Haven: The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1930-1932. NEHGS member site

• Hawley Society
• Donald Lines Jacobus, History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, CD-Local and Family Histories: CT, 1600's - 1800's, (Produced in collaboration with the Genealogical Publishing Company, 2000), vol 1, p 88.
• Hawley, Elias. The Hawley Record (E. H. Hutchinson & Co., Buffalo, N.Y., 1890) Page 436
• Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents,' (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 2009)