| Notes |
- RESEARCH_NOTES:
1. FHL book 929.242 G868f "The Greswold Family, 12 Generations in England," researched and edited by Robert L. and Esther G. French, comp. by Coralee Griswold [Wethersfeld, CT; 1999]. The authors standardize spelling as Greswold for England and Griswold for America. As of 2012, it appears that this book is the most current evolution of the Griswold ancestry and includes all previous research up to 1999 when it was published. (It also supersedes the author's own work in 1990 for the later English generations). See notes in this database of the original Griswold for a more detailed explanation of the various sources and a bibliography of previously published books that the authors include in this genealogical compilation.
"Thomas12 Greswold (George11, Roger10, John9, John8, John7, John6, John5, William4, Richard3, Ralph2, John1) was born about 1622 in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England. Thomas stayed in England. He lived at the "Hill" in Stoneley. Thomas died 1699. His spouse has not been identified. They had 2 children:
i. Thomas Griswold, born about 1645 in England.
ii. Matthew Griswold, christened 1 May 1649 in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, died after 20 Feb 1702."
2. The book "The Griswold Family, the First Five Generations in America," comp. and ed. by Esther Griswold French and Robert Lewis French, May 1990, printed by The Griswold Family Association, 116 Garden St., Wethersfield, CT, 06109, pages 6-24. The authors note that their book updates Vol. II, "The Griswold Family England - America," which was published 50 years ago:
"George (son of Roger, gson of William) was baptized 6 Nov 1574 at Wooten Wawen, died after 1620. Married (1) Dousabel, possibly Leigh (Lye, Ley) who was buried at Wooten Wawen 28 Ag 1615 (TAG 39:177). Her only known child is Edward.
A letter of Ralph Phillips of Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York, to Donald Lines Jacobus gives the information from the Wooten Wawen parish register that Richard Lye and his wife Dousabelle had a son Richard bp. 1549 and a son Thomas bp. 1552. It is conjectured that one of these sons was the father of Dousabel who married George Griswold. It is also noted that Sir Thomas Leigh was the arbitrator of the entailed land dispute of Roger Griswold.
George Griswold married (2) about 1616 an unknown wife by whom he had two sons, Matthew and Thomas. "On Nov. 12, 1616 George Grissold purchased from Hugh Underhill and his sister Lettice with her husband, a cottage and garden at Kenilworth." (TAG 41:214) This is undaoubtedly a move taken upon the occasion of his second marriage. There is also the possibility that his second wife was a connection of the Underhills.
This possibility is further enhanced by the recollection of Edward's son, George, in a disposition taken 9 May 1700 stating that as a youth he had lived with his father Edward in Kenilworth, Warwickshire and had heard that the house they lived in belonged to Edward's brother Matthew.
If George had settled the property upon his second wife at the time of their marriage, it would have become the property of her oldest son, Matthew, at her death. If both parents had died, Matthew may have been under Edward's guardianship.
Child by first wife:
Edward, bp. 26 July 1607 Wooten Wawen.
Children by second wife:
Matthew, b. ca. 1620.
Thomas, b. ca. 1622 at Kenilworth, married c. 1644 to an unknown wife. Death date is also unknown. He remained in England. Children:
Thomas, b. ca. 1645.
Matthew, bp. 1 May 1649 Kenilworth, will dated 20 Feb. 1701/2."
3. The book "The Phelps Family of America and their English Ancestors," comp. by Oliver Seymour Phelps of Portland, Oregon and Andrew T. Servin of Lenox, Massachusetts, 1899, pp. 88-89:
"Samuel Phelps, b. England, about 1625, emigrated to New England with his father, in ship Mary and John, settling with his father in Dorchester, removing from there to settling of Windsor, Ct., in 1635-6, where he m. Sarah Griswold, and b. Kenilworth, England, and came to New England with her father in 1639. After the death of Mr. Phelps, she m. 2nd Nathaniel Pinney, 21st July, 1670, and had Nathaniel Pinney b. 11th May, 1671, and Sarah Pinney b. 11th Oct., 1673. Mrs. Pinney died 6th Nov., 1715... [Nathaniel Pinney was the brother of Sarah Pinney who married Samuel Phelps' brother William.]
(Noted - Edward and Matthew Griswold, two brothers, the latter of whom was the ancestor of the two Govs. Griswold, resided in Kenilworth, England, where they had a third brother, Thomas. These two brothers came to New England in 1639, in a vessel sent out by Mr. William Whitney. Edward b. in England, 1607, settled in that part of Windsor, called Poquonock, m. 1st Margaret, and later settled in Killingworth, Ct., one of the first settlers, and a prominent man. His wife died Aug 22nd, 1670. (A slab may be seen in the Clinton, Ct., burying ground, 7 in. by 2-1/2 ft., with inscription M.G. 1670.) Had eleven children all by 1st wife. He m. 2nd Sarah Bemis, daughter of James Bemis, of New London; of his children a daughter Sarah, m. Samuel Phelps, and. m. Nathaniel Pinney. Another daughter, Mary, m. Timothy Phelps son of William the emigrant of 1630.)
4. Henry R. Stiles, "The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut," 1892, v. 2, pp. 346-353:
"The Connecticut Griswolds are descended from Edward and Matthew, who came to Windsor in 1639, and from Michael, who, some years later, came to Wethersfield. There appears to have been no relationship between the latter and the brothers Griswold of Windsor. [See footnote #1 below.]
Edward and Matthew came from Kenilworth, Co. Warwick, Eng., in the year 1639, in company with Rev. Mr. Huit's party, who came to Windsor that year. [See footnote #2 below.] They had lived at Kenilworth [see footnote #3 below] and owned property there; but we know not whether it was their birthplace. They had a brother Thomas [see footnote #3 below], who continued to reside there, and the record of his marriage, in 1634, is still to be found in the old Kenilworth Church records, also the baptisms of several of the children of Edward, and the burial of a daughter, but the old church records of K. suffered greatly from the ravages of the War of the Great Rebellion, it has been found impossible to find any other connecting links between that parish and the two emigrant brothers.
It has been claimed that they belonged to the ancient county family of Solihull, near Kenilworth,and, as such, entitiled to the use of the family arms, but there exists no evidence to prove the claim. Indeed, all that has been said in regard to their relationship to Humphrey Greswold, lord of the manor of Greet in Yardley, and also rector of Yardley parish; or of their connection with the Greswolds who held Malvern Hall in Solihull, has no foundation in fact, and can be proved untrue... There is a tradition that the name of their father was George...
Footnotes:
1. Michael Griswold's Eng. origin is unknown; he di. 1684, his will and the wills of his sons being now on file in 'Htfd. Co. Prob. Rec.' One of the grandsons, Capt. Jacob, was a first settler in Litchfield; another, Maj. Josiah, was famous as a soldier in the French War.
2. See pp. 74 and 75. The affidavit of Edward, then aged about 77 yrs., as given May 15, 1684, in the celebrated case of Henry Whiting's sons vs. John Bissell, says; 'About the yeare 1639, Mr. Wm. Whiting (deceased) was undertaker for a shipp in England, in which shipp I came to New England': and his brother Matthew (then aged 64) in his affidavit made in the same suit, says: 'Further I testifie that, when I came over to New England about the year 1639.' - 'State Archives, Private Controversies,' Vol. II, Doc. 203, 204.
3. From 'New London Prob. Rec.': Georg Griswold, aged about 67 yeares, testifyeth as follows: that in his youthfull years he lived with his father in England, in a town called Keillinsworth (Kenilworth was, in Queen Elizabeth's time, called Killingworth), in Warrackshire; he did severall times since hear his father Edward Griswould say that the house they then lived in, and lands belonging thereto, was his brother Mathew Griswold's; and have lately seen a letter under the hand of Thomas Griswould of Keilinsworth aboves'd, directed to his brother Mathew Griswould aforesaid, wherein the said Thomas Griswould intimated that he did then live in the abovesaid house belonging to his said brother Mathew Griswould aforesaid.
'May 9th, 1700. George Griswould appeared before me in Hartford, and made oath to ye above testimony. Joseph Curtiss, Assistant.'
5. The booklet "The Griswold Family in England before 1639 - A Report of the Findings of Bonnie Boone Day Griswold and James Wells Griswold," 1984, Exeter, NH, copy in the library of the Windsor CT. Historical Society. The authors went to England to look up actual records. Quote from pp. 10-13:
"The search for hard facts about our direct Griswold ancestors in England has yielded information only on Edward. This we found in the Warwickshire County Records Library. Even this information is evidently not new because the names and accurate dates are given in Glen E. Griswold's Vol. II of the Griswold Family. But since he does not cite the source of his information, maybe the following will add a bit...[See notes for Edward for full transcription of records found of his children.]
The publication, the "American Genealogist," Volumes 39, 40, and 71 reports the extensive work of Genevieve Kiepura and John Hunt. Since their findings take 12 pages of close print, we will attempt to summarize it here. None of the original documents reported here have we seen personally, but the source reported in these articles suggest other areas for investigation.
The articles clearly represent the extensive and careful work they have done and further dramatize the difficulties encountered because there were so many Griswolds in the area and so many of the families used the traditional first names.
Mrs. Kiepura reports that the parish regester for Wootten Wawen lists the baptism of "Edward, son of George Griswold, 26 July 1607. There are references to the baptisms of George, son of Roger, 6 Nov. 1574; and to the burial of Dousabele, wife of George Griswold, 28 Aug. 1615. No Matthew or Michael in the index."
For their research, Mrs. Kiepura and Mr. Hunt had copies of 11 wills that were on file at the Worcester Records Office. Piecing the fragments of facts given in each will to create a sequential chart is like a detective story. However, as a summary, the following is given by Mr. Hunt:
Roger Griswold of Rowington. Will 1545 [had son:]
William, b. ca. 1515-20? [had son:]
Roger of Kenilworth, b. ca. 1540-45?, d. before 1607 [had sons:]
Roger of Kenilworth, b. ca. 1570? of age by 1607.
Thomas of Stonley, d. 1620. House in Kenilworth.
George, bp. 1574 at Wootten Wawen [had sons:]
Edward, bp. 1607 Wootten Wawen.
Matthew, b. 1620.
Thomas of Kenilworth [had sons:]
Thomas.
Matthew of Stonley. Will of 1701/2.
(BDG and JWG Note: We still have not found an English source that proves that Matthew is a brother of Edward. The listing given above is based on the testimony given by George Griswold in 1700 for a court in Connecticut as to what he remembers.)
In Volume 71 of the 'American Genealogist', Mr. Hunt reports on a copy of a will of 'Thomas Griswold of Stonley, Warwickshire dated the last day of Feb. 1620 wherein the testator, besides mentioning the rent of his house and gorunds in the town and parish of Kenilworth, names his close called Beggerspath and the ground called Broomfield, alias Thickthorn clearly in the vicinity of Kenilworth.'"
6. From the book "The Griswold Family," by Edward Elbridge Salisbury, privately published 1884, copy in Windsor, Conn. Historical Society Library. Some of the information is dated and has since been updated with more modern research; but the book contains many prime sources not found in other Griswold publications. I do not quote the portions wherein Mr. Salisbury dismisses that the two other Griswolds in New England, Francis and Michael, were not brothers of Edward, Matthew, and Thomas. Pp. 3-8:
"From a valuable document in the New London Probate Office (relating to a lawsuit in which the only son of our first Matthew Griswold was involved), we obtain proof that, beside Edward and Matthew, there was another brother, Thomas by name, who remained in the old English homestead; and the same paper gives documentary evidence as to what part of England the emigrants came from. It deserves to be quoted here, exactly and in full:
'George Griswold, aged about 67 years, testifyeth as followeth - that in his youthfull years he lived with his father in England, in a town called Keillinsworth (Author's note: 'In Queen Elizabeth's time Kenilworth was called Killingworth.') in Warrackshire; he did severall times since hear his father Edward Griswould say that the house they then lived in, and lands belonging thereto, was his borther Mathew Griswould's; and have lately seen a letter under the hand of Thomas Griswould of Keillinsworth abovesd, direct to his brother Mathew Griswould aforesaid, wherein the said Thomas Griswould intimated that he did then live in the above said house belonging to his said brother Mathew Griswould aforesaid.
'May 9th 1700. George Griswould appeared before me in Hartford, and made oath to ye above testimony.' 'Joseph Curtiss, Assistant.'"
"...I must now return, to record more in detail what we know of the three brothers... Thomas, we know, by the deposition of 1737-38 above cited, that he was the youngest son - born, therefore, not earlier than about 1621 - but neither tradition nor records give us any additional facts respecting him. The yet existing Kenilworth records (as appears from Mr. Chapman's papers) make mention:
of 'Hanna the daughter of Thomas Grissold,' buried Apr. 8, 1632,
of 'Mary the daughter of Thomas Grissold,' buried Apr. 20, 1634,
and of 'Thomas the sonne of Thomas Grissold & Elianor his wife... bapt. July ye 30th Anno Dni 1636;'
also, of a 'Thomas Grissold,' whose wife Joane was buried Jan. 28, 1632 (or 1633),
and a 'Thomas Grissold,' married to Catharine Norris June 11, 1635 -
that is, certainly of two, if not more, separate Thomases. But neither of them could have been the brother of Edward and Matthew, because Matthew himself was not more than about 16 years old at the latest of these dates. On the other hand, he may have been either a 'Thomas Grissold,' who was buried 5 May 1644, or a Thomas, named in the records who had a son Matthew born 1 Mar 1649. The parish-records of Kenilworth, it will be seen, name at least three distinct Thomas Griswolds..."
7. From the book "The Griswold Family," by Edward Elbridge Salisbury, privately published 1884, copy in Windsor, Conn. Historical Society Library. The book contains many prime sources not found in other Griswold publications. In the previous part of the book, Mr. Salisbury documents that Edward, Matthew, and Thomas are brothers (see these individuals' notes for a transcription). Pp. 3-5:
"With regard to the ancestry of the three brothers whom we thus distinctly trace, we have no certain information reaching beyond their father. A deposition lately found among the papers of Rev. F.W. Chapman, 'a full and true copy' of an original now lost, enables me to begin the Griswold pedigree one generation further back than it has been hitherto traced. This valuable document is in these words:
'The testimony of Captain George Griswold, aged about 72 years, and the testimony of Mr. John Griswold, aged about 69 years, they both being sons of George Griswold, The Deponents being both of Windsor in the county of Hartford and colony of Connecticut in New England, is as follows;
'Viz., that our Grandfather's name was Edward Griswold, and it was formerly and has ever since been always accepted and reputed that our said Grandfathers's father's name was George Griswold, and the said George Griswold our Great Grandfather had three sons, the eldest named Edward, the second named Matthew, and third or youngest son named Thomas, and the said Edward the eldest son, and the said Matthew the second son, came into new England from Killingsworth in Warwickshire in England; and in all our discourses amongst the families of said Griswolds in New England, together with other elderly observing gentlemen, they are and have ever been so accepted and reputed to be, without contradiciton or gainsaying, according to the best of our rememberance.
'And the Deponents fruther add and say that the above named Edward Griswold's eldest son has always been called and reputed to be Francis Griswold, without any contradiction or gainsaying as aforesaid that we know of.
'Windsor in Hartford county in Connecticut, New England personally appeared on the 19th day of January Anno Dom. 1737-8, Captain George Griswold and John Griswold the above named Deponents, and made solemn oath, in due form of law, to the truth of the above written testimony, before me. Henry Allyn, Justice Peace.'
(Author notes: This copy was given to Mr. Chapman by Mr. J.S. Griswold of Benson, Vt., whose brother Mr. W.D. Griswold, now of St. Louis, Mo., writes to me respecting the original paper as follows: 'As regards the original paper, I remember to have seen it on occasion of a visit I made to my native home in 1841. My Father, then alive, showed it to me, and I read it over and over with great interest, and I then took a copy of it, which I think I have sent to some inquirer, without retaining a copy of the copy. The affidavit was evidently taken in aid of some pending legal proceeding, and in anticipation of some legal use. It was inherited by my Father with the old papers and muniments of his Father, and that is all that can be said of its history.' In anothre letter Mr. Griswold says: 'I read it over repeatedly, and critically observed the paper, old and faded, and the writing of style verifying its age.' These two Griswolds brothers are descendants of Edward Griswold, through his son Francis.)"
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Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy
Abt 1622 - 1699 (~ 77 years)