Thomas BURNHAM

1617 - 1688  (71 years)

• Name	Thomas BURNHAM  [1, 2]
  	He is said to have been of Hertfordshire descent; came to Hartford about 1647 or 8, perhaps from Ipswich. Others of the name went from there to Wenham. A Thomas Burhan aged 18, "imbarqued for the Barbadoes, Nov. 20, 1635, Peter Blackloe, master; took the oath of Allegenance and Supremacie; examined by the minister of the Towne of Gravesend." (N.E. Reg., 14, p. 357) His name first appears on the Colonial Records of Conn., Dec. 7, 1648; was made Freeman, May 21, 1657, having been elected Constable the previous February and Chimney Viewer Feb. 11, 1658/9; was in the list of Freemen at Windsor, Oct. 11, 1669. He was a large land holder and speculator, buying land from the Indians. In June, 1659, he was required "to appear at ye Court in Octbr to answr for his former cariage, complayned of to ye Court," etc. He was a lawyer and an educated man, and this complaint was in regard to one of his cases. He was attorney in 1662, for Abigail Betts, accused of blasphemy. For offending the Court in his successful defense of her, "saving her neck," as the court record has it, he was condemned to "ye prison keep", but the Court dared not attempt to carry this sentence into effect, for fear of an appeal to England. They deprived him, however, of his citizenship, for a time, and prohibited him from acting as attorney except in his own cases. His offense seems to have been that he compelled the Court to try the woman by the English rather than the Mosaic law, which they preferred and were in the habit of using. At the General Court in April, some of his purchase from Tantonimo, Sachem of the Podunk Indians, was set aside, on the ground that the lands were not the Sachem's to sell. His house on the east side of the River, was one of the five fortified and garrisoned during the Indian War, 1675. [1]
  Birth	1617	England   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	28 Jun 1688  [1, 2]
  Person ID	I68278	Main Tree
  Last Modified	6 Mar 2016

  
  

  Family	Anna WRIGHT,   b. 1620, England d. 5 Aug 1703 (Age 83 years)
  Marriage	1639  [1, 2]
  Children	1. Elizabeth BURNHAM,   b. 1640   d. 2 Dec 1720 (Age 80 years)  [Birth]   2. Mary BURNHAM,   b. 1642   d. 26 Jan 1720 (Age 78 years)  [Birth]   3. Anna BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1644   d. 29 Nov 1722 (Age 78 years)  [Birth]   4. Thomas BURNHAM,   b. 16 Apr 1646, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA d. 19 Mar 1726, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (Age 79 years)  [Birth]   5. John BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1648   d. 20 Apr 1721 (Age 73 years)  [Birth]   6. Samuel BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1650   d. 12 Apr 1728 (Age 78 years)  [Birth] + 7. William BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1652, Podunk, Hartford County, Connecticut d. 12 Dec 1730, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (Age 78 years)  [Birth] + 8. Richard BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1654   d. 28 Apr 1731 (Age 77 years)  [Birth]   9. Rebecca BURNHAM,   b. Abt 1656  [Birth]
  Family ID	F27485	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	6 Mar 2016

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1617 - England  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S3597] Ernest Flagg, "Genealogical Notes on the Founding of New England" My Ancestors Part in that Undertaking. [S4802] Roderick H. Burnham, "Genealogical Records of Thomas Burnham, the Emigrant, who was among the Early Settlers at Hartford, CT, USA and His Descendants", (Hartford: The Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. Print 1884).