Thomas Woodford (bef. 1614 - 1666)

Born before 1614 in England [uncertain]

Husband of Mary (Blott) Woodford — married before 1636 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 6 Mar 1666 after age 52 in Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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Thomas Woodford migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 3, p. 2057) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Birth

Thomas was born by 1614, based on the date he became a freeman.^[1] His parents are unknown.^[2]

Emigration

He immigrated from England to Massachusetts on the William and Francis in 1632.^[3] He settled first at Roxbury, Massachusetts, then removed to Hartford, Connecticut, 1636 and to Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1656.^[2]

He was admitted to the church in Roxbury, in 1632. "Thomas Woodforde, a man servant, he came to N. E. in the yeare. 1632. & was joined to the church about halfe a yeare after, he afterwards marryed mary Blott. & removed to Conecticott & joyned to the church at Hartford"^[4]

He became a Massachusetts freeman 4 Mar 1634/5.^[5]

Marriage

By about 1636, Thomas married Mary Blott, daughter of Robert Blott.^[1]

Later Life

“3 March 1640: An order concerning graves: It is ordered that Thomas Woodford shall attend the making of graves for any corpses deceased and that no corpses shall be laid less than four feet deep. None that are above four year old shall be laid less than five feet deep. None that be above ten shall be laid less than six feet deep. He shall receive for giving notice, by ringing the bell, making the grave, and keeping it in comely repair, so that it may be known in future time where such graves have been made: for the lesser sort two shillings and six pense, for the middle sort three shillings, for the biggest sort three shillings six pense.” (spelling modernized and punctuation added for readability) ^[6]

Founders of Hartford Monument: South Face

Thomas Woodford is one of the founders memorialized on the Founders of Hartford Monument in Hartford, Connecticut.

Death

Thomas Woodford died 6 Mar 1666/7^[7]

Will

Thomas made his will 26 April 1665. It was proved 26 Mar 1667. He left his entire estate to his three daughters, Mary, Hannah and Sara, mentioning that each also had children. Son Isaac Sheldon was named executor. An inventory valued at £197 19s 6d was taken 12 Mar 1666/7.^[8]

Children

Children of Thomas Woodford and Mary Blott include:^[1]

1. Mary b. say 1636; m. by about 1654 Isaac Sheldon
2. Hannah b. about 1642; m. Northampton 29 Nov 1659 Samuel Allen
3. Sarah bpt Hartford 2 Sep 1649; m. Northampton 21 Sept 1664. Nehemiah Allen.

Research Notes

Disputed Parents

A previous version of this profile claimed, without source, that he was the son of Joseph Woodford and Alice Upton. They have been detached pending citation of a reliable source for the claim.

Disputed Child

Some researchers have identified Joseph Woodford as an additional child of Thomas Woodford and Mary Blott.^[9] The original source for this claim is unknown and Anderson does not list Joseph as one of their children.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 vols. (Boston: NEHGS, 1995), 3:2057-60, at 2059; American Ancestors link for subscribers.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Anderson, Great Migration Begins, at 3:2057.
3. ↑ Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. (London: John Camden Hotten, 1874.) p. 149
4. ↑ Boston Record Commissioners. Boston Records Commissioners Reports (Rockwell and Churchill, Boston, 1875) Vol. 6. Roxbury Land and Church Records p. 75
5. ↑ Shurtleff, Nathaniel. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Vol. 1 1628-1641 (William White, Boston, 1853-) p. 370
6. ↑ Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Volume VI. “Hartford Town Votes” p. 48. Hartford, 1897.
7. ↑ Anderson, Great Migration Begins, at 3:2059; citing Manuscript volume of vital records kept by John Pynchon at Connecticut Valley Historical Museum.
8. ↑ Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Probate records, 1660-1916; index, 1660-1971 Vol. 1-4 1660-1780 Vol 1:82
9. ↑ E.g., Lucius Barnes Barbour, Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1977), 693 (posthumous publication of unpublished material collected by Barbour in early 1900s); images, Internet Archive, (https://archive.org/details/familiesofearlyh00barb_0 : accessed 29 Jan 2023).

See Also:

• Cambridge, Massachusetts; Year: 1632; Page Number: 74, Ancestry.com. U.S. and Canada, Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2010. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2012.

• Starr, Frank Farnsworth.. Various ancestral lines of James Goodwin and Lucy (Morgan) Goodwin of Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, Conn.: unknown, 1915., Vol 2, p. 184 - 191. [access can be found on Ancestry.com]

• American Ancestry Vol. 8, 1893, Hughes, Munsell, p 209. This document states that it follows the male line. Therefore while daughters and granddaughters and their spouses are listed, no children of them are listed.

• Marriage info updated - "American Marriage Records Before 1699" pp 40, Clemens, William M., Pompton Lakes NJ 1926 (reprint 2004) Baltimore MD