Through inheritance, business acumen, and social aplomb, the Wolcott family rose in just a few generations from being tenant farmers in England to political elites in America. Henry Wolcott Sr., has been described as “the most prominent member of the Windsor settlement throughout his long life, and its richest citizen.”
When John Hoskins sailed to the New World, he was a middle-aged family man. The paper trail that establishes his English background is shaky, but has recently been fleshed out using advancements in DNA technology. Hoskins’s story is of interest not only to descendants, but also to anyone whose family research might benefit from similar genetic study.
Frances (unknown) (Clark) (Dewey) Phelps is one of the few women included on the Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor’s founders list, which only includes heads of household. Women in Frances’s era rarely show up in official records, but their circumstances can be partially deduced from their husband’s and other contemporaneous records.
For students of Windsor’s early history, there are few figures more important than Matthew Grant. It is thanks in large part to his careful record keeping during his years as town clerk that we are able to piece together much of our information about Windsor’s beginnings.
Probate inventory of Thomas Holcombe, showing he owned joinery and husbandry tools at the time of his death in 1657. | From Ancestry.com History loves a bad boy, mostly because folks who are [...]
Windsor founder Jonathan Brewster’s time in our town was brief, but pivotal. He was Plymouth Colony’s resident agent here, and in 1635 he penned a letter to Governor William Bradford expressing his concern over the influx of newcomers into the fledgling settlement. He wrote, “Ye Massachusetts men are coming almost dayly...some have a great mind to ye place we are upon...I shall doe what I can to withstand them.”
Woodblock print of William Holmes' party passing the Dutch fort in what is now Hartford. Last fall, archaeological finds on the grounds of the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum in Wethersfield reignited the burning question of whether Windsor [...]
Founders of Windsor, defined by the Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor genealogy group as heads of families who arrived in Windsor by 1641, have millions of descendants living in the United States. [...]
Like most founders of Windsor, James Eno was born in England. Unlike most founders, he was of French Protestant, or Huguenot decent. James was baptized as Jacques Hennot (later anglicized to James Eno) on August 21, 1625 in the Threadneedle Street Church in London, a church for Huguenot congregants.
Bray Rossiter (1610-1672) was born to a family of wealth and power. They were Puritans, but were also loyal to the royal family. Bray was well-educated and likely received some medical training before coming to New England aboard the Mary and John in 1630, along with his father Edward, an influential Assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and eleven other family members and servants.