Humphrey Griffin (abt. 1605 - bef. 1662)

Born about 1605 in Stepney, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Sherratt — married 1639 in Ipswich, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died before Mar 1662 before about age 57 in Ipswich, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Humphrey Griffin migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 141) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Humphrey Griffin, immigrant, was born about 1605 and first appears in our colonial history in 1639, in the plantation of Ipswich, where it is written in the records: "The Town doth refuse to receive Humphrey Griffin as an inhabitant to provide for him as inhabitants formerly received, the Town being full". But our Humphrey Griffin did not appear in Ipswich in the quality of medicant, asking support, nor even seeking a share in the division of lands there, and notwithstanding the town's decree he soon became a commoner by purchase, January 1641, of the house and land formerly owned by David Denison, "near the mill which was granted to Denison in 1635; also a meadow at "Labor in Vain" and a planting lot at "Heartbreak Hill". His occupation was that of a butcher and in 1655, was granted "liberty to set up a "shamballs", or slaughterhouse, about twenty feet square, by the pound". In 1659, "the daughter of Humphrey Griffin presumed to indulge in a silk scarf, and her father was fined 10s and court fees". For this offense, our ancestor seems to have suffered more seriously than his townsmen, who "was able to prove his pecuniary ability and his wife wore her silk scarf henceforth unquestioned". Humphrey and his mother-in-law apparently did not always agree and records show two cases in court as a result. Humphrey also paid a fine for harvesting barley before sundown on the Sabbath. However, although refused admission to the town, he was permitted to build a simple house among the ledges in a nearby rough hillside known as Rocky Hill, where he prospered. (Griffin Genealogy)

Marriage

BET 1636 AND 1659^[1]

ABT 1634

Wife: Elizabeth Andrews

Child: John Griffin

Child: Elizabeth Griffin

Child: Nathaniel Griffin

Child: Lydia Griffin

Child: Samuel Griffin

Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony ... By Thomas Franklin Waters https://books.google.com/books?id=asUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA386&dq=%22humphry+griffin%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj-_ujMis7tAhVpqVsKHW4eDgsQ6AEwCHoECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=%22humphry%20griffin%22&f=false

CHAPTER XVI.

The Poor And The Stranger Within The Gates.

In the first year of their settlement, the men of Ipswich passed a very significant vote:

That theire shall noe forriner amongst us come into our meetinge unless he will subject himself unto the like orders and penalties that we the freemen of the Towne have established for our own peace and comfort in our meeting.

They affirmed by this vote their exclusive right to all the privileges of citizenship in the new community they had established, and gave formal notice that no stranger coming among them could have place or standing except by conforming to the regulations they had made. They proceeded to divide the land among themselves, giving to every man a house lot, tillage lots, and rights in the common land and large farms to the more favored. But when one Humphrey Griffin appeared, they felt no delicacy in refusing to do anything for his comfort or convenience.

The Towne doth refuse to receive Humphry Griffin as an Inhabitant to provide for him as Inhabitants formerly received the town being full.

But Griffin was not expelled, nor was he refused the liberty of purchasing land and of dwelling among them, and no one questioned his right to remain, even when in later years his tippling habit had brought him under the censure of the law. In contrast to his reception, was the welcome extended to another in 1647.

Rob't Gray hath free liberty to come to towne and to dwell amongst us.

This jealous guarding of their community against the intrusion of strangers was due not to Pharisaic self-righteousness, nor to Puritanic narrowness and intolerance, but had its origin in the ancient and inalienable right of a community to control its membership. Francis Palgrave, in his "Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth,"1 remarks:

The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1635-1664^[2] Essez Co. Probate Files, Docket 25,590. ESTATE OF HUMPHRY GRIFFEN OF IPSWICH.* Administration on the estate of Humphry Griffen, granted Nov. 19, 1661, to his widow, Elizabeth, by Mr. Samuell Symonds and Major Genll. Denison. It was ordered that an inventory be brought into the next Ipswich court. Ipswich Quarterly Court Records, vol. 1, page 97.

Administration having been formerly granted to Elizabeth Griffen on the estate of her late husband, Humphry Griffen, by the Honered Mr. Samuell Symonds and Major Genrll. Denison, the clerk being present, and now an inventory, amounting to 71li., clear estate, being presented to court Mar. 25, 1662, the estate was ordered to be divided as fol. lows: To John Griffen, the eldest son, 20li.; to the two younger sons, 10li. each; and the rest of the estate to the widow. Ipswich Quarterly Court Records, vol. 1, page 104.

Inventory of the estate of Humphry Griffin, late deceased, appraised by James Davis and Theophilus Shatswell, allowed Mar. 25, 1662, in Ipswich court: Wearing apparell, 7li.; beding, boulster, sheets, hanging or curtaines, 9li.; brass, Iron pot, pewter, tinn & leaden waites, 2li. 10s.; gun, pistoll & powder, a rapier & belt, 2li. 10s.; 2 corsletts & another raper and houlsters, 3li. 58.; a bible, 12s.; axes, beetle rings, wedges & sicles & Irons for fire, lli, 10s.; chests, payles, bowles, trayes, dishes, beer barrells, chaires, 2li. 15s.; beefe, 3 fatt swine & 3 leane swine, 10li, 10s.; In corne English & Indian in the straw, 40li. 6s.; cart plows, plow Irons, yokes, chaines & timbrell, 4li. 10s.; hows, forks, & spade, shovells, 18s.; a fan, a halfe bushell, 14s.; a yoak of oxen, 15li. ; 2 cowes & 2 calves, 11li.; 2 horses, 2.11i.; in land, upland & mcddow, 100li.; debts dew by bill or promise, 52li. 7s.; in cotton woole & a horse coller, 10s.; an ox hyde & a cow hyde, lli. 38.; total, 290li. 6d. Debts dew from Griffen to sererall men when he dyed was 190li. Copy made, Apr. 1, 1669, by Robert Lord, cleric. Esscu Co. Quarterly Court Files, vol. 14, leaf 149.

Research notes

Great Migration Directory: Unknown; 1639; Ipswich [ITR 42; EPR 1:27, 353; Annis Spear Anc 145-48]. Key

Sources

1. ↑ World Family Tree Vol. 2, Ed. 1 (Brøderbund Software, Inc., November 29, 1995) Tree #0636 Date of Import: Dec 7, 1999
   • Davis, Walter Goodwin. The Ancestry of Annis Spear, 1775-1858, of Litchfield, Maine (1945) Page 145-8
2. ↑ The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1635-1664: The Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts: 1635-1664 By Massachusetts. Probate Court (Essex County) https://books.google.com/books?pg=PA353&dq=%22humphry+griffin%22&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=Lb0TAAAAYAAJ&output=text

• Hoyt, David W. The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury Massachusetts (Providence, Rhode Island, 1897) Page 187
• <Stearns, Ezra S. Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire (Lewis Publishing Company, 1908) Vol. 3, Page 1408
• Griffin , Rodney A., Griffins of Franklin, New Hampshire, a partial genealogy and some descendants of Humphrey Griffrin 1605-1661
• World Family Tree Vol. 2, Ed. 1 (Brøderbund Software, Inc., November 29, 1995) Tree #0636 Date of Import: Dec 7, 1999
• Davis, Walter Goodwin. The Ancestry of Annis Spear, 1775-1858, of Litchfield, Maine (1945) Page 145-8