Sgt Samuel STEELE

Samuel married Mercy BRADFORD on 16 Sep 1680 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Mercy (daughter of William BRADFORD and Alice RICHARDS) was born on 2 Sep 1660; died in 1720 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Mary/Mercy WARNER on 22 Jan 1645/6 in Hartford, Connecticut. Mary/Mercy (daughter of Andrew WARNER and Mary ?) was born in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Name:
Mary Warner, daughter of Andrew Warner, was doubtless born in England before the removal of the family to this country. Her name has appeared as Mercy in some of the records. Owing to the peculiarities of the writing of some of the early scribes, the two names are easily confused, Mercy often being spelled Marcy.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Son of Richard Steele of Fairsted, in Essex, England

Notes:

Name:
He came to New England when a young man in 1632 and settled first at Cambridge, Mass., with Rev. Thomas Hooker and Stephen Hart, where he was a proprietor; Freeman, May 14, 1634; Representative the following March, May and September, 1635. March, 1635/6, he was appointed with Ludlow, Pynchon and five others to administer government over the great exodus to Connecticut for one year. He was an original Proprietor of Hartford and his home lot was on Main Street, just north of the present Athenaeum. he served as Representative at 66 regular and special and 27 adjourned sessions from the first Assembly in 1639 to 1659; Town Clerk of Hartford from 1639 until 1645, when he was chosen recorder of Farmington by the General Court in December of that year and probably removed thither soon afterwards. He was Secretary of the Colony , 1639-39 and one of its foremost men, a man of means and education, as well as of ability and energy.

John married Rachel TALCOTT on 10 Oct 1622 in Fairsted, Essex, England. Rachel was born in Braintree, Essex, England; died in 1653. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Dau. of John Talcott and Ann Skinner of Brancktree, or Braintee, Essex, England

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: 14 May 1634, Made a Freeman

Notes:

Name:
The first direct mention of Andrew Warne in America is an entry in the town records of Cambridge, Mass., then known as "Newtowne'. On January 7th, 1632/3, there are recorded several votes regarding the erection of houses in the town and the division of the pale or fence to enclose the common, with the number of rods each settler was to build. This was the first entry made in the records of the tow, except for a single item on December 24th calling a monthly meeting. Forty-two names were given in two columns, and the eleventh line in the first column reads:

"Andrew Warner, 20 Rods"

Twenty-four of the forty-two settlers built less than ten rods each, while only eleven built as much as twenty rods. This would indicate that Andrew Warner was already a resident of Cambridge and was among the more prominent and wealthy members of the new colony. Among the other names was that of John Steel, who afterwards married Mary, the oldest daughter of Andrew Warner.

The same record shows that on November 4th, 1633, Andrew Warner received one "Acker" of land in an award of "Lotts for Cowyards." In January 1634, he bought one piece of "swampe ground by the 'ould feild'" and a little later another piece of three acres in the division of planting ground in the Neck.

On February 3d, 1634, Andrew Warner was appointed on a committee of five to survey the Towne lands and enter them in a book. The constable was head of the committee and 'itt is further ordered that these 5 men meet every first Monday in the month at the Constables house...at the Ringing of the bell."

In April 1634, a law was passed by the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony, requiring the inhabitants of each town to choose four or more men who, with the constable of the town, should make a record or survey of the lands of each of the inhabitants and send a report of the same to the colonial officials. Andrew Warner was chosen by the inhabitants of Cambridge or Newtowne as one of the four to act for that town.

On May 14th, 1634, Andrew Warner was made a freeman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

On November 23d, 1635, Andrew Warner was the third of nine persons "Chossen to order bussines of the whole Towne for the year following and untell new bee Chossen in their rooms,...wch nyne are to haue the power of the whole Towne as those formerly Chossen hadd." This record shows that "commission government" is not altogether a modern invention, but was practiced in the early New England colonies.

The above records show that as early as 1632-3 Andrew Warner was residing in America and was a member of the Cambridge colony. He was born about 1595, so he was at this time thirty-seven years old--in the full vigor of early manhood. the reason for his removal to American we can only know by inference. It was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth that Protestantism was restored to England, and it was also during her reign that Puritanism appeared. Towards the close of her life, the persecutions of the Puritans, who were non-conformists to the established church, became severe, and under her successor, James I, matters became decidedly worse for them both in civil and religious affairs.

In 1625, Charles I ascended the throne of England. He at once assumed all the power of Church and State and commenced a pitiless warfare against Puritanism. His chief instrument for that purpose was the infamous Archbishop Laud. The ministers of that religion were driven from their livings, or into exile, and the laymen were tortured and forced from their homes. Thousands of the best blood in old England sought a home or refuge in the new world.

Among those who dared to oppose this policy was the brilliant preacher, Rev. Thomas Hooker. He was "silenced" as a minister of the church by Bishop Laud in 1626, but he continued to speak as a "lecturer" in Chelmsford, Essex County, until 1629, when the persecution became so strong that he left Chelmsford and the following year fled to Holland.

Hooker had a powerful influence in all that part of England where he lived, and after his escape to Holland, a large number of his followers emigrated to America. These were known as the "Hooker Company" and also as the "Braintree Company" from Braintree, which was the chief town in that part of Essex County from which they came. In 1633 Mr. Hooker left Holland and came to America, where he arrived September 4th 1633, on the Griffin, to become the pastor of the church at Cambridge, made up very largely of his former followers.

John Warner, the father of Andrew, moved to hatfield Broad Oak in Essex County, England, in 1609, where he lived until the time of his death in 1614. Hatfield is only twenty miles from Braintree, and only sixteen miles from Chelmsford where Hooker lectured from 1626-29. Andrew Warner must have lived in or near Hatfield at this time, for in 1627 his mother died at Hatfield and Andrew was the executor of her estate.

We see, therefore, that Andrew Warner was a member of the community in England which was so profoundly stirred by the teaching of Hooker and that he came to America at the same time as the large emigration of Hooker's followers. We also learn that later he followed Hooker to Hartford and was a deacon in his church. In view of all these facts, it seems altogether probable that Andrew Warner was one of Hooker's adherents while in England; that he left England to avoid persecution, and that he came to America to find that freedom in religious worship which was denied to him in his own country.

It is interesting to note that Andrew Warner came to America near the beginning of that great tide of emigration which started in 1629. Up to that time Plymouth and Salem had been settled, but the total English population of New England was hardly more than eight hundred. In 1629 Charles I dissolved Parliament and began his crusade against all dissenting forms of religion. In April, 1630, Winthrop left for America, followed later in the year by seventeen ships and over one thousand people. By 1634 the annual emigration had increased to four thousand. In 1640 the Long Parliament met, and the power of the King was checked and the active flood of emigration ceased, but at this time he population of New England had increased to 26,000.

Andrew married Mary ? on 05 Oct 1624 in England. Mary was born in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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