Chris & Julie Petersen's Genealogy

Mrs. John Finch

Female Bef 1600 - Bef 1634  (< 34 years)


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  • Name Mrs. John Finch 
    Born Bef 1600  , , England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died Bef 1634  of Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I5392  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family John Finch,   b. Abt 1595, , , England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 5 Sep 1657, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 62 years) 
    Married Bef 1620  , , England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. John Finch,   b. Abt 1620, , , England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Jun 1685, Huntington, Suffolk, New York, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 65 years)
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F619  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. "The Great Migration," by Robert Charles Anderson:
      "John Finch
      Origin: Unknown
      Migration: 1632
      First Residence: Watertown
      Removes: Stamford 1642
      Estate: Granted four acres in Beaverbrook Plowlands, 28 February 1636/7 [WaBOP 7]; granted four acres in Remote Meadows, 26 June 1637 [WaBOP 9]; granted a farm of ninety-one acres, 10 May 1642 [WaBOP 13]. (Presumably he had held a houselot and other small holdings prior to 1637. He does not appear in the early Watertown land inventories, and all lands known to be granted to him are at that time in the hands of John Wincoll, who purchased them from John Finch, presumably in mid-1642.)
      Granted six acres by Stamford in October 1642 [TAG 10:42, 19:58].
      An inventory of Stamford landholding was prepared on 1 March 1650, and John Finch's real estate is summarized there [Gillespie Anc 140, citing Stamford Town Records 1:43-44].
      Birth: By about 1 595 based on estimated date of marriage.
      Death: Stamford 5 September 1657 [TAG 10:44, 19:58].
      Marriage:
      (1) By about 1620 ___; not seen in any New England record.
      (2) By about 1635 Martha (assuming she was the mother of his last four children), who married [blank] September 1658 John Green [TAG 10:113, 19:58].
      Children:
      With first wife:
      i John, b. say 1620; m. (1) ___; m. (2) after 8 November 1652 Hannah (Marsh) Fuller, widow of Laun­celot Fuller.
      With second wife:
      ii Isaac, b. say 1635; m. (1) Stamford [blank] October 1658 Elizabeth Basset [TAG 10:113]; m. (2) by 1682 Ann ___.
      iii Samuel, b. say 1638; m. by about 1663 Sarah Hoyt, daughter of SIMON HOYT.
      iv Joseph, b. about 1647 (deposed 6 May 1700 aged about fifty-three); m. Stamford 23 November [1670] Elizabeth Austin.
      v Abraham, b. say 1648; m. about 1670 ___ ___.
      Associations: See Daniel Finch for possible relations among Finch immigrants.
      Comments: As noted under Daniel Finch, John has been credited as the man who lost his belongings in a fire in September 1630, but this is more likely Daniel. On 7 November 1632 "John Finch is fined 10s. for wanting arms for his man, & for being absent himself from training" [MBCR 1:102], and this is the earliest record we have for him in New England.
      Savage has assigned to this John the death at the hands of the Pequots suffered by Abraham, son of Daniel.
      The grants of Beaverbrook Plowlands and Remote Meadows in 1637 were for four acres each, which indicates that the maximum size of his family at that time was four heads. This would account for himself, wife, and two eldest sons John and Isaac, both of whom were born by this time.
      Bibliographic Note: In addition to the sources cited under Daniel Finch, we take note here of the magnificent work by Paul Prindle on John Finch, which we follow here in many instances [Gillespie Anc 138-51]. In particular we have relied on Prindle for the data on the marriages of the sons of John Finch, and refer the reader to his work for fuller citations on these men."

      2. The book "Ancestry of Elizabeth Barrett Gillespie (Mrs. William Sperry Beinecke)," by Paul W. Prindle, 1976, pp. 138-42:
      "FINCH
      No satisfactory account of the early generations of this prominent family has yet been published. In a series of articles entitled "Source Material for a Finch Genealogy," which began in "The American Genealogist," 19:50, Donald Lines Jacobus wrote, "The writer, although he has no personal interest in the Finch family, became intrigued by the difficulty of arranging in proper relationship the early generations of Finches -perhaps the most difficult family he has studied." Based on the material in Mr. Jacobus' article and on this compiler's own searches in original records, the following reconstruction of that portion of this difficult family which is involved in the subject pedigree is tentatively ventured. Because of the uncertainties involved in the reconstruction of this family's record, more details than are customarily given concerning siblings of members of the subject line will be presented.
      1. JOHN FINCH, born say, about 1590 in England, died 5 September 1657 at Stamford, New Haven Colony ("Stamford Town Records," 1:19-20). It appears that he was married twice, for his putative son John seems to have been about 15 years older than his next-born child. John Finch Sr. married second, Martha, maiden surname undetermined. As John's widow, Martha married second, on 7 (September?) 1658, John Green (ibid., 1:74) of New Haven, widower of Mary Jarvis ("The Washington Ancestry, and Records of the McClain, Johnson and Forty Other Colonial American Families," 3:539, by Charles A. Hoppin).
      It is possible, though proof is entirely lacking, that Martha was born a Brett. The 13 November 1646 will of Thomas Brett of Tenterden, County Kent, England, "gentleman," refers to "my sister Finche, now wife of Mr. John Finch" (The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 44:300). If the reference was to the subject John Finch (who was never styled "Mr." in colonial records) it would seem probable he would have been described as of New England, where he had lived for at least 16 years prior to the date of the will.
      John Finch is believed to have been a brother of the Daniel Finch who was in 1636 the constable at Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony, a founder of Stamford in 1641, and who moved to Fairfield, New Haven Colony, by‘ 1649, where he died in March 1666/7. As will be seen below, it is significant that Daniel had no son named John Finch, and that his only grandson of that name, born 20 December 1699 at Branford, Connecticut Colony, died in 1721 without issue.
      Henry Bond, in his "Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts:" 207, stated, "John Finch came over with Gov. Winthrop in 1630, and settled in Wat., where his wigwam and all his goods were burnt, Sept. 1630. He was a proprietor of Wat. 1636-7, was one of that small colony from Wat. that first settled Wethersfield, Conn., and was killed by an Indian, Oct. 30, 1637." This last statement, at least, is incorrect. It was Abraham Finch, son of Daniel, who was murdered on that date by Nepaupuck, an Indian, who confessed to the killing of "Abraham Finch, an English man att Wethersfield ... accordingly, his head was cutt off the next day and pittched upon a pole in the market place" (an entry dated 28 October 1639 (sic) in "Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven, 1638-1649": 23, by Charles Hoadley). A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, II: 160, by Henry Savage, says this act was later called judicial murder, for the Connecticut Colony had on 1 May 1637 declared open war on the Pequot Indians, of whom Nepaupuck was an officer.
      N.B. Shurtleff, in "Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay," I:102, reports John Finch being fined on 7 November 1632 for "wanting [i.e., lacking] arms for his man and for being absent himself from training."
      A curious early reference to John Finch is found in the minutes of "a court of assistants held at Cambridge the 5th day of the 4th month 1638. Lawrence Waters's wife was enjoined to give John Finch 18 d. and Nice Theale to give John Finch 18 d. and Edward Lamb to give him 2 s. and Lamb was fined 15 s. 6 d. for his contempt and all of them were admonished to avoyd dancing" ("Descendants of Abraham, Daniel and John Finch of Connecticut," 1:252, by Claude B. Thummel, a typescript at the Connecticut State Library, Hartford). It is not clear why these individuals were ordered to make payments to John Finch. Perhaps defamation or slander of Finch was their offense.
      Shurtleff makes several other references to Daniel Finch and to Samuel Finch, both probably brothers of John. Katherine, wife of Samuel Finch, must have been exceptionally sharp-tongued, for on 4 September 1638, "for speaking against the magistrates, aga[inst] the churches & against the elders, [she] was censured to bee whiped" (ibid., I:234). Although she promised on 4 June 1639 "to go to the ordinances & to carry herselfe dutifully to her husband" (ibid., 1:265), her resolution must have been short lived, for on 2 June 1640 the record bears the notation, "Gooddy Finch was censured to bee severely whiped to morrow, & so kept in prison" (ibid., I:297). By 1643 Samuel and Katherine were living in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony ("Register," op. cit., 2:53).
      At Watertown John Finch was granted four acres "of the Plowlands at Beverbroke Planes" by the town in February 1636/7, and another four acres "of the Remote or Westpine Meaddows" four months later, in each instance "allowing one Acre for a person & likewise for cattle valued at £20 the Head" ("Watertown Records, ... Volume I, Part 227, 9, by the Historical Society of Watertown). This means that in 1637 John's family consisted of only four persons and beasts. He must have increased his ownership of livestock by April 1638, for on that date he received 91 acres in the town's grant to "all the Townes Men that had not Farmes laid out formerly .... allowing 13 Acres of upland to every head of Persons & Cattle" (ibid.:13), indicating seven persons and cattle credited to him at that time.
      As stated above, Daniel Finch, thought to have been a brother of John (1) Finch, was one of the 30 founders of Stamford. The names of eight of the 30 founders are lost, a portion of the original record having been broken off and lost long ago. It is possible that John Finch was one of these eight men, but since he was from Watertown and Stamford was settled by Wethersfield men, the probability seems doubtful. Bond's identification of John Finch as a resident of Wethersfield is questionable. In any event, John Finch was granted, at a town meeting in Stamford held in the fall of 1642, a house lot of one acre, two acres of marsh and three acres of woodland ("Stamford Town Records," 1:7-8). His land holdings at 1 March 1650 were described ibid.:43-4, in great detail, and included a house and home lot of one and one-half acres, and 10 acres of upland in the North Field (both of which he sold 15 November 1652 to Richard Ambler of Stamford), and three parcels of meadow aggregating seven acres in the East Field (three acres of which he sold 26 November 1652 to William Potter).
      On 24 October 1653 John Finch Sr. purchased from Henry Ackerly of Stamford ("Stamford Town Records," 1:51-2):
      "my now dwelling house in Stanford, w'th my barne and all other of my out houses ... upon my whom lot in ye streete called the Est Streete in Standford aforsayd, with thee ... orchards, gardens, yards & cet.; also a lott at the reere of ye sayd home lot called the pond lot, and sixe akers ... in a pertickeler inclosure by the sayd pond lot. Also, three akers of planting land in the South feild 8cthree akers more or lesse in the North feild, and four akers of medo [W] in the Est feild, mor or less, with all my right of accommodations of land & p[rivi]lidges in Stanford ... in consideration whereof the sayd john Finch is to pay ... the some of fiftie pound..."
      Sometime in 1647 (the day and month are illegible) David Mitchell brought an action in court against John Finch to recover a sum of money due him. Finch's answer was not satisfactory to the court, which ordered him to pay Mitchell two pounds, five shillings "as ye du debt, and for damedge for want of du payment, ten shillings and ye charge of ye Court."
      As noted in the Ferris section herein, John Finch was fined by the court 13 February 1648 for felling and removing timber on land of Jeffrey Ferris.
      An inventory of the estate of John Finch Sr. was taken 9 February 1657/8 by Richard Law and Francis Holmes, who found its total value to be, "errowrs excepted," £98:12:04. Debts to be paid came to £74:15:05, leaving a clear estate of only £23:16:11. Included were his house and land, £40; Bible, 12 shillings; two oxen and one heifer, £15; 42 1/2 bushels of wheat, £9:11:03, and 35 bushels of peas, £6:02:06.
      John (1) Finch and his unidentified first wife are believed to have had one child:
      i. John Finch Jr., born say, about 1620, who died 19 June 1685 at Huntington ("Huntington Town Records, Including Babylon, Long Island, N.Y.," 1:432, by Charles R. Street). This John Finch was a mariner (ibid., 1:323-6). By his unidentified first wife he had a daughter Mary, wife of Nicholas Ellis, and a son John (ibid.). He may also have been the father of the Francis Finch who was an appraiser at Jamaica, Long Island, for the minister's rate in 1663. This Francis Finch was on a Jamaica tax list about 1681. He was called "My Kinsman" and received the home lot of Richard Bratnell of Jamaica under the terms of the latter's will dated 1 February 1662/3 ("The American Genealogist," 19:55).
      John married, second, soon after 8 November 1652, Hannah Marsh, widow of Launcelot Fuller of New Haven. In 1656 John was recorded as living in Westchester County, New York ("Old Fairfield," op. cit., 1:203).
      The compiler's identification of the Westchester County and Huntington, Long Island, John Finch as son of John (1) Finch of Stamford is based on his belief that all the early Finches of New England and New York were of the same family, and because John Finch of Huntington had a son, also named John Finch, living there as late as 6 October 1683, when John Finch Jr. sold property ("Huntington Records," op. cit., 1:327-8). This son had moved to Stamford by 17 March 1684 ("Stamford Land Records," A:152). Daniel Finch of Stamford and Norwalk had no son named John, and Samuel Finch of Roxbury and his family apparently never moved west of that area.
      John (1) Finch and his second wife, Martha, had at least four sons:
      2. ii. Isaac Finch, born about 1635.
      3. iii. Samuel Finch, born circa 1638.
      iv. Joseph Finch, born probably in 1647 for he, aged about 53, testified 6 May 1700 ("Greenwich Early Records": 125). He died before 3 January 1714, when the inventory of his estate was exhibited for probate ("Fairfield Probate Records," 5:296).
      Joseph Finch married Elizabeth Austin, daughter of John and Catherine Austin ("The American Genealogist," 48:96), on 23 November "[1670]" ("Old Fairfield," op. cit., 1:201). The official transcript of the "Stamford Town Records" has the year as "16( )" (1:136) and erroneously shows (1:90) an Elizabeth, born 14 November 1669, to "Jos. Finch." The original record (1:76) has her as daughter of "lsac Finch" (Joseph's brother). Joseph and Elizabeth Finch lived in Greenwich, Connecticut Colony.
      v. Abraham Finch, born about 1648. That he was a brother of Samuel Finch is proved by a deed dated 3 December 1686 in which Samuel Finch of Stamford "have of my own free & volentary will given unto my well beloved brother, Abraham Ffinch of Staford, ... five roods of upland" (Stamford Land Records, A2153).
      The inventory of Abraham's estate was taken 4 December 1708, administration being granted to Samuel Blatchley of Stamford ("Fairfield Probate Records," 5:130-1). A deed recorded in "Stamford Land Records," F:171, proves that the wife of Samuel Blatchley was the only child of Abraham Finch.
      Samuel "Blachley" and Abigail Finch had been married 6 April 1699 ("Stamford Town Records," 1:104).
      References:
      As cited.
      Stamford Town Records.
      "History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield," by Donald Lines Jacobus, F.A.S.G."