John BECKWITH

Notes:

Name:
John was born about 1665, married Prudence Manwaring about 1688, and died on 5 December 1757, aged 92. No records are known for the births or baptisms of their children, and they left no probate records naming them. A death notice states that John had thirteen children, all of whom lived to have issue; of these, six sons and four daughters have long been recognized, leaving three reputed children unidentified.

The six sons are unambiguously identified in a set of deeds of gift. On 24 November 1733, John Beckwith of New London gave 50 acres of his son Oliver Beckwith of Lyme, and on 7 June 1743 he gave 10 acres to son John Beckwith Junr of New London, 10 acres to son Richard Beckwith of New London, 20 acres to son Jonathan Beckwith of Saybrook, and his homestead or farm of 200 acres to youngest sons Joseph and Benjamin Beckwith of New London. Further, on 5 August 1746 Joseph and Benjamin Beckwith of New London gave 20 acres to their brothers Jonathan Beckwith of Saybrook, Joh Beckwith Junr of New London, and Richard Beckwith of New London.

Of the four daughters, two are identified by reasonably direct evident. Hannah Beckwith married George Chappell in New London in 1718, and in 1737/8 Joshua Hempstead recorded in his diary the burial ofGeorge Chappell's wife, "the Daughter of John Beckwith." Another daughter, Mary, was discovered by Parkhurst in a volume of Hempstead's marriage and Justice Court records; Mary was identified as a daughter of John Beckwith of New London when she was charged with fornication in 1729, and as a daughter of John Beckwith in the record of her marriage to Benjamin Luther the following year.

The other two daughters, Bathsheba and Prudence, are identified indirectly by onomastic evidence, by the fact that their 1716 and 1717 marriages took place in New London, and as will be explained below, by the near-complete absence at that time of any other Beckwiths residing in New London except John and his brood.

Regarding the last point, in 1704 the Connecticut General Court issued letters patent granting ownership of the town of New London to the inhabitants already owning property there ("proprietors"), who were specifically named. John was the only Beckwith named in the patent, indicating that by 1704 he was the only Beckwith residing in New London who owned land there. The town common lands were eventually divided among proprietors enrolled as of 25 March 1728. The only Beckwith in whose right land was laid out was again John, indicating he was still the only Beckwith landowner in New London. Beyond that date, the extensive surviving New London rate books, show that the only Beckwiths taxed there up to 1761, were John, his sons, and grandsons, and a William Beckwith (Sr.). This William was in New London by 1727 and died about 1784. Evidence will be presented indicating that he was probably one of John's previously unidentified children.

The specific location of John's land within New London turns out to have consequences. His deeds and those of his sons frequently mention as bounds the Niantic River on the east, the town line with Lyme on the west, or both, and Hempstead in his diary also mentions that John "lived on ye west side Nihantick River near Lyme line." Their location on the periphery of New London may have played a role in the complete failure of John and his sons to register the births of their children with the town clerk. More significantly, in May 1726 the sliver of New London lying between the Lyme line and the Niantic was annexed to the East Society in Lyme, also called the Second Congregational Church of Lyme.

John married Prudence MANWARING about 1688. Prudence (daughter of Oliver MAINWARING and Hannah RAYMOND) was born in 1668; was christened on 10 Sep 1671; died on 17 Nov 1740. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
John Beckwith, second son of Matthew (1st), was born about 1639, and appears to have been living as late as 1723, in which year he was of New London, and in that year gave to Joseph a deed of his share and proportion of his father Matthew Beckwith's right in the third part of the fourth division - (Lyme). There may be uncertainty as to which of two or three Josephs was grantee, but probably none as to which of at least as many Johns then living was the grantor. That he had a son John is undoubted, and that he had a daughter Elizabeth, who was wife of James Birchard, of Norwich, is fairly probable. That he had other children is at least possible, and if this can be shown, it may explain some of the mystery of the fourth generation.he was neither the patentee of New London in 1704, nor a centenarian at Niantic in 1740.

John married ? UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]