Sunday, April 2, 2017

More Hunt Family History


John Carren Starr was born in 1620 to John Starr and Dorothy in Old Castle, Meath, Ireland  Died 1650  Coot Hill, Old Castle, County Heath, Ireland



 During the Civil War in England around 1650, John was a Captain in the Parliament Army when Cromwell conquered Ireland. After the war, Captain Starr Settled in Ulster. He also resided at Old Castle, County Heath, Ireland.



 In 1649, Captain John Starr accompanied the forces of William of Orange into Ireland to put down Catholic revolts there. The subjugation of the Irish was bloody and complete. Many ranking officers like Captain Starr were given land grants in Ireland and settled there. Captain Starr settled in county Meath around the town of Oldcastle, and became a Quaker. He married an English woman named Mary.



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9th Great Grandfather   Nicholas Stillwell   Born 605 Guilford, Surrey, England   Died 28 Dec 1671  Staten Island, Richmond, New York, USA



  Fled England to Holland with brothers John and Jasper. Parentage unknown, said that took assumed name Stillwell based on mother's name Still. Nicholas was a tobacco planter in Virginia by 1639, one of the first English steelers. Spends time defending the colonies in VA in the early 1640s. Elected magistrate in Gravesend (Gravenzande) January 1649. Continuously active in colonial affairs and government over the next 15 years. Part of Dutch resistance to English takeover, moves to Staten Island, where he dies. (Ben Still well - 208)



 From the Stillwell Society Newsletter May/June 1987: ""Nicholas Stillwell II had come from Surrey to be one of the earliest tobacco planters at Yorktown in Virginia; and in 1639, when in order to curb the excessive cultivation of the [tobacco] plant it was decreed that crops should be 'viewed',and one half of each crop burned, Nicholas was chosen as a viewer,' being'of experience and dignity.' He was also a famous Indian fighter, and earned for himself the name of Valiant Stillwell. In 1645, however, havingfallen into a dispute with the authorities of Maryland orver a trading post in the Chesapeake, he fled to Manhattan, and became a magistrate in StatenIsland, where he died."



 Lady Moody directed the original settlement of Gravesend. Nicholas was involved in that founding and the early settlement of Manhattan. From an account of Lady Moody's life:



 In late 1642 or 1643, Lady Moody and her followers were warmly received by the authorities at New Amsterdam. [This arrival appears to predate the arrival of Thomas Applegate, who first relocated to Rhode Island before arriving at Gravesend.] Although it was a Dutch settlement, she met several Englishmen at the fort, including Nicholas Stillwell. In the late 1630s, Stillwell had erected a stone house which became the genesis of a small community on Manhattan, called the English Settlement at Hopton. Director-General Kieft's policies toward the Indians caused them to attach this village, prompting the settlers to flee to Fort Amsterdam. In 1639, Stillwell had to abandon his northern Manhattan tobacco plantation after experiencing hostility from the natives. It was at New Amsterdam where Moody, Stillwell, and other English refugees came together and discussed their options. The group was then invited by Director-General Kieft to select a location for a new settlement from the unappropriated lands of the Dutch West India Company. Kieft also granted the small group of pioneers freedom of worship "without magisterial or ministerial interference."



The Stillwell Family

Nicholas Stillwell

After he arrived in Virginia in 1638, Nicholas Stillwell acquired a modest piece of land and then a larger tract on the York River. He became a pioneer tobacco farmer and was named a tobacco inspector. He was also drawn into the local militia and attained the rank of lieutenant. He took part in a number of campaigns against Native Americans and was recorded as “Valiant Stillwell.” However, when Nicholas supported his commanding officer in resisting the transfer from Virginia to Maryland of Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay—where both men were involved with a trading post—he found himself in trouble with the colonial authorities.

Consequently, in 1645, Nicholas sailed north to the port of New Amsterdam, at the time under the control of the Dutch West Indies Company. He was soon able to obtain a grant of land in Gravesend, in the southwestern section of Brooklyn bordering on the Outer Bay. He established a pioneer farm and with his English wife, Anne, raised eleven children. Nicholas also became a magistrate, again joined the militia, and fought Native Americans in the Hudson River Valley. He supported the Dutch, who had given him settlement opportunities and advancement, against the English takeover in 1664. When the Dutch lost the colony, Nicholas adapted to the new authorities in New York, obtained a larger tract of land on Staten Island, and moved his family there. The children of Nicholas and Anne settled on Staten Island and Long Island and in Monmouth and Cape May counties in New Jersey.

Their oldest son, Richard Stillwell (Theodosia's great-grandfather), was born between 1633 and 1638. Like his parents, he had a farm first in Gravesend and then on Staten Island. He was also a magistrate and held various court positions; he was a captain in the militia; and he served as an arbitrator in municipal boundary disputes and as an interpreter and intermediary in dealing with Native Americans. He married Mary Cook, the daughter of another magistrate in Gravesend. With her (and possibly with a second wife), he had fifteen children. He died in 1688.

Richard Stillwell

Richard and Mary (Cook) Stillwell's second son, who was named Richard for his father, was born in 1672. He became an affluent merchant in New York City; he was also one of the founders and an important supporter of the Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He married Lydia Bowne of Gravesend, but she died before they had children. Richard then married Mercy Sands around 1708. Mercy, born in 1693, belonged to a very well-to-do family from Long Island.

Theodosia’s mother, Ann (born circa 1714), was the third child of Richard and Mercy (Sands) Stillwell. Her brothers and sisters would do well. One brother became a doctor, and one became a merchant; two sisters married British officers, one of whom became a general and both of whom had wealth and standing. Two other sisters married well-to-do merchants, and one married a noted Presbyterian minister who had been educated at Harvard.



8th Great Grandfather  Major John Mason Born April 1620  Dorchester, Oxford, England  Died 30 Jan 1672  Norwich, New London, Connecticut, USA





John Mason (c. 1600–1672) was an English Army Major who migrated to New England in 1632. Within five years he had moved west from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to settlements along the Connecticut River that would become the Connecticut Colony. Tensions there arose between the settlers and the Pequots, leading to bloodshed after the Manissean Indians on Block Island killed John Oldham in 1636.

Because the Manisseans were tributaries of the Pequot Nation, Massachusetts Bay sent an expedition, which included John Mason, to Block Island to kill the Manisseans. They were then to proceed to the Connecticut River to demand that the Pequot turn over Oldham's murderers. When the Pequot refused, the English expedition burnt wigwams and corn, initiating the Pequot War, which ended in the Mystic Massacre, which virtually destroyed the Pequot tribe.

Mason recounted his experiences in the Pequot War in his narrative Major Mason's Brief History of the Pequot War, which wasn't published until 1736.[1] After the war, Mason became Deputy Governor of Connecticut. He and a number of others were instrumental in the founding of Norwich, Connecticut, where he died in 1672.

Early life

Mason was born in England about 1602. He became an officer in the English army and served as a lieutenant under Sir Thomas Fairfax.

In 1632 Mason immigrated to America and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he represented that village in the General Court. He was elected freeman March 4, 1634/5 (as "Captain John Mason") and is shown in the October 9, 1681 list of Connecticut freemen in Norwich.

In his few years in Massachusetts John Mason was found very useful by town and colony. On July 2, 1633, an order is "given to the Treasurer to deliver to Lieutenant Mason £10 for his voyage to the eastward, when he went about the taking of Bull". On November 5, 1633, "Sergeant Stoughton is chosen ensign to Captain Mason". On September 3, 1634, "Captain Mason" was appointed to a committee to "find out the convenient places for situation, as also to lay out the several works for fortification at Castle Island, Charelton, and Dorchester". A rate was gathered for the support of Captain Mason on December 29, 1634.

In 1635 he moved to what would become Windsor, Connecticut, in company with the Reverend John Warham, Henry Wolcott, and others, prominent settlers of the town. He was elected an assistant or magistrate of the Connecticut Colony from Windsor in 1642. On September 3, 1635, "Captain Mason is authorized by the Court to press men and carts to help towards the finishing of the fort at Castle Island, and to return the same into the Court".

He married in July 1640, at Hingham, Massachusetts, Anne Peck. She was born on November 16, 1619 in Hingham, England and died on January 30, 1671/72 in Norwich, New London County, Connecticut. She was the daughter of Rev. Robert Peck, who was born at Beccles, Suffolk, England, in 1580.[2] He was graduated at Magdalene College, Cambridge; the degree of A. B. was conferred upon him in 1599, and that of A. M., in 1603. He was a talented and influential clergyman and Puritan who had fled his Hingham, Norfolk, England, church after the crackdown by Archbishop Laud.[3][4] She died shortly before her husband.

Education

His prose is vigorous and direct in his regular correspondence with the Winthrops and in his history of the Pequot War.[5] His activities from the earliest days in New England give evidence of training as a military engineer.

Pequot War

On May 1, 1637, the Connecticut General Court raised a force of 90 men to be under the command of Captain John Mason for an offensive war against the Pequot. Mason commanded the successful expedition against the Pequot Indians, when he and his men immortalized themselves in overthrowing and destroying the prestige and power of the Pequots and their fort near Mystic River, on the Groton side. During the attack, they killed virtually all of the inhabitants, about 600 men, women, and children. This event became known as the Mystic massacre. The event is commemorated by a boulder monument that formerly was on Mystic Hill upon the pedestal of which is a life-size statue of Major Mason drawing his sword, representing the moment when he heard the war-whoop of "Owanux."

On 8 March 1637/8, in the aftermath of the Pequot War, the Connecticut General Court "ordered that Captain Mason shall be a public military officer of the plantations of Connecticut, and shall train the military men thereof in each plantation".[6]

John Mason fought alongside two Native American tribes, namely the Mohegan and Narrangansetts.

Later career

John Mason was one of the most trusted men in Connecticut during his three and a half decades of residence there, in both civil and military matters. In his latter years the formal colony records referred to him simply as "the Major," without forename or surname. Only a sampling of his activities can be presented here.

John removed his family to Old Saybrook, Middlesex County, Connecticut in 1647. He was awarded land by the state of Connecticut where Lebanon, New London County, Connecticut was founded and in 1660 united with a number of distinguished families in the settlement of Norwich, New London County, Connecticut where he was Deputy/Lieutenant Governor (1660–1669), and Major General of the forces of Connecticut.[7]


1640

In 1640 an event took place that forever changed the political boundaries of the Connecticut River Valley. From its founding until that time, Springfield, Massachusetts (then called Agawam) had been administered by the Connecticut Colony along with Connecticut's three other settlements - at Wethersfield, Hartford, and Windsor. In the spring of 1640, grain was very scarce and cattle were dying of starvation. The nearby Connecticut River Valley settlements of Windsor (then called "Matianuck") and Hartford (then called "Newtown") gave power to William Pynchon, the founder of Springfield, to buy corn for all three English settlements. If the natives would not sell their corn at market prices, then Pynchon was authorized to offer more money. The natives refused to sell their corn at market prices, and then later refused to sell it at "reasonable" prices. Pynchon refused to buy it, believing it best not to broadcast the English colonists' weaknesses, and also wanting to keep market values steady.[8]




Leading citizens of what would become Hartford were furious with Pynchon for not purchasing any grain. With Windsor's and Wethersfield's consent, the three southerly settlements commissioned John Mason to travel to Springfield with "money in one hand and a sword in the other." [9] On reaching what would become Springfield, Mason threatened the local natives with war if they did not sell their corn at a "reasonable price." The natives capitulated and ultimately sold the colonists corn; however, Mason's violent approach led to the natives' deepening distrust of the English colonists. Pynchon, an avowed "man of peace," believed in negotiation with the natives (and thus, quickly made a fortune), whereas Mason believed in subduing natives by force. This philosophical difference led to Mason using "hard words" against Pynchon. Pynchon's settlement, however, agreed with him and his philosophy, and that same year voted to separate from the Connecticut Colony and be annexed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As this local controversy was heating up the Massachusetts Bay Colony decided to reassert its jurisdiction over the land bordering the Connecticut River, realizing that it was its most valuable for farming.

From 1647 to 1657


On 2 June 1647 the court ordered

“
that Captain Mason should for the peace, safety and good assurance of the Commonwealth, have the command of all soldiers and inhabitants of Seabrooke, and in case of alarum or danger by approach of an enemy, to draw forth or put the said soldiers & inhabitants in such posture for the defense of the place as to him shall seem best," and "whereas Captain Mason, at the special instance & request of the inhabitants of Seabrooke, together with the good liking of the Commonwealth, did leave his habitation in the River and repair thither, to exercise a place of trust. It is this day ordered, that his former salary of £ 40 per annum be continued.
”

During the winter of 1647/8 Winthrop records that

“
in the depth of winter, in a very tempestuous night, the fort at Saybrook was set on fire, and all the buildings within the Palisado, with all the goods, etc., were burnt down, Captain Mason, his wife, and children, hardly saved. The loss was estimated at one thousand pounds, and not known how the fire came.
”

Prior to the sitting of the court on 6 October 1651, Captain Mason had sent a letter to the court,

“
wherein he desires, among other things, the advice of this Court touching a motion propounded by some of New Haven interested in Dillaware design, for his assistance of them in that business, with some encouragements for his settling there." The Court did not like the idea, but admitted they could not prevent him, and gave the irreluctant permission to "attend the service for 3 months, provided he will engage himself to return within that time and continue his abode amongst them as formerly.
”

New Haven was at this time attempting to establish a daughter colony on the Delaware River.[10]

By the sitting of the Court on 18 May 1654 he had been advanced from Captain to Major, the rank that he would hold for the remainder of his life. On 13 June 1654 he and Captain John Cullick were sent to Boston as agents of Connecticut, to discuss Cromwell's plans for fighting the Dutch at New Amsterdam. In April 1657 he received from the General Court an extensive commission, requiring him to go to Southampton and investigate the complaints of the inhabitants of that town (then under Connecticut jurisdiction) regarding depredations made by the Montauk Indians.

From 1659 to 1670

On 15 June 1659 Mr. Willis was

“
requested to go down to Sea Brook, to assist the Major in examining the suspicions about witchery, and to act the rein as may be requisite.
”

In the summer of 1669 residents of Easthampton, Southampton and Stonington addressed letters to Mason, warning him of an impending attack by several groups of Indians. Mason passed these letters on to the colony authorities in Hartford, and added his own strongly worded advice.

In the summer of 1670 John Mason acted as an intermediary between Roger Williams and the Connecticut government regarding a boundary dispute between Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Estate

On 10 February 1634/5 "Captayne Mason" received a grant of 2 acres (8,100 m2) in Dorchester. He drew 6 acres (24,000 m2) of meadow beyond Naponset in lot #73.

In the Windsor land inventory on 28 February 1640[/1] John Mason held seven parcels, six of which were granted to him: "a home lot with some additions to it", 10 acres (40,000 m2); "in the Palisado where his house stands and mead adjoining" 20.5 acres (83,000 m2); "in the first mead on the north side of the rivulet, for mead and addition in swamp" 8 acres (32,000 m2); "in the northwest field for upland" 8 acres (32,000 m2) "with some addition on the bank side"; "over the Great River in breadth by the river twenty-six rods more or less, and continues that breadth to the east side of the west marsh, and there it is but sixteen rods in breadth and so continues to the end of the three miles"; 9 acres (36,000 m2) "of land by Rocky Hill"; and "by a deed of exchange with Thomas Duy [Dewey] ... on the east side of the Great River in breadth eighteen rods more or less, in length three miles".

On 5 January 1641/2 Connecticut court ordered "that Captain Mason shall have 500 acres (2.0 km2) of ground, for him and his heirs, about Pequot Country, and the dispose of 500 more to such soldiers as joined with him in the service when they conquered the Indians there".

On 12 July 1644 John Mason of Windsor sold to William Hosford of Winds or 8 acres (32,000 m2) in a little meadow with addition of swamp. On 11 September 1651 "the island commonly called Chippachauge in Mistick Bay is given to Capt. John Mason, as also 100 acres (0.40 km2) of upland and 10 acres (40,000 m2) of meadow near Mistick, where he shall make choice".

On 14 March 1660/1 the "jurisdiction power over that land that Uncus and Wawequa have made over to Major Mason is by him surrendered to this Colony. Nevertheless for the laying out of those lands to farms or plantations the Court doth leave it in the hands of Major Mason. It is also ordered and provided with the consent of Major Mason, that Uncus & Wawequa and their Indians and successors shall be supplied with sufficient planting ground at all times as the Court sees cause out of that land. And the Major doth reserve for himself a competence of land sufficient to make a farm".

On 14 May 1663 the court granted "unto the Major, our worshipful Deputy Governor, 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land for a farm, where he shall choose it, if it may not be prejudicial to a plantation already set up or to set up, so there be not above 50 acres (200,000 m2) of meadow in it". On 13 October 1664, the "Major propounding to the Court to take up his former grant of a farm, at a place by the Indians called Pomakuck, near Norwich, the Court grants liberty to him to take up his former grant in that place, upon the same terms as it was granted to him by the Court".

On 20 May 1668 the "Major desiring this Court to grant him a farm" of about 300 acres (1.2 km2), for "one of his sons, his desire is hereby granted (provided there be not above 30 acres (120,000 m2) of meadow) and Lt. Griswold & Ensign Tracy are hereby desired to lay it out to him in some convenient place near that tract of land granted Jer[emiah] Adams, it being the place the Major hath pitched upon, the name of the place is Uncupsitt, provided it prejudice no plantation or former grant".

On 9 May 1672 "Ensign Tracy is appointed to join with Sergeant Tho[ma s] Leffingwell in laying out to the Major and Mr. Howkins their grants of land according to their grants".

Offices

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/40px-Edit-clear.svg.png
This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (January 2014)

  • Deputy for Dorchester to Massachusetts Bay General Court, 4 March 1634/5, 2 September 1635.
  • Captain by 1637.
  • Deputy for Windsor to Connecticut Court, November 1637, March 1638, April 1638, September 1639, February 1641, April 1641, September 1641.
  • Assistant, 1642–1659, 1669-71 [CT Civil List 35].
  • War committee for Saybrook, May 1653, October 1654.
  • Major, June 1654 (but he was called Major at the General Court of 18 May 1654).
  • Connecticut Deputy Governor, May 1660, May 1661, May 1662, October 1662, May 1663, May 1664, May 1665, May 1666, May 1667, May 1668.
  • Commissioner for United Colonies, June 1654, May 1655, May 1656, May 1657, May 1660, May 1661.
  • Patentee, Royal Charter, 1662.

Family

In his list of "some omitted in former records being gone yet had children born here", Matthew Grant included "Captain Masen" and credited him with four children born in Windsor,[11] which are best accounted for as the daughter Ann who died in 1640, and Priscilla, Samuel and John.

The record of births of John Mason's children by his second wife was entered in Norwich vital records, even though none of the births had occurred there, with only the month and year of the birth given. The division of births between Windsor and Saybrook is based on the knowledge that Mason was in Saybrook by 1647, and on the accounting of Matthew Grant, discussed in the previous paragraph.

Descendants

John Mason's descendants number in the thousands today. Some of his notable descendants include;


Memorials

Mason's Island in Stonington, Connecticut, is named after John Mason.

A statue of Major John Mason is on the Palisado Green in Windsor, Connecticut, at 41°51′29″N 72°38′11″W The John Mason statue was originally placed at the intersection of Pequot Avenue and Clift Street in Mystic, Connecticut, near what was thought to be one of the original Pequot forts. The statue remained there for 103 years. After studying the sensitivity and appropriateness of the statue's location near the historic massacre of Pequot people, a commission chartered by Groton, Connecticut voted to have it relocated. The State in 1993 relocated the statue to its current setting.[12]


















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