Thomas FOOTE

Other Events and Attributes:

• Residence: Resided in Springfield, Brimfield and Monson
• Birth: 1687, Hatfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA

Family/Spouse: Abigail SEAGER. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: 01 May 1648, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Samuel married Mary MERRICK between 1670 and 1671 in Springfield, Hampden Co., Massachusetts. Mary was born about 1650; died on 03 Oct 1690. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Fact: Daughter of Thomas Merrick

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptism: Between 05 Mar 1619 and 1620, Colchester, County Essex, England
• Death: 1655, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

Nathaniel married Elizabeth SMITH about 1646 in Poss. Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut. Elizabeth (daughter of Lieut. Samuel SMITH and Elizabeth SMITH) was born before 28 Jan 1627 in St. Mary the Virgin, Hadleigh, Suffolk Co., England; was christened on 28 Jan 1626/7 in Hadleigh, Englan; died after 05 Jan 1702 in Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Birth: Abt 1593, England
• Emigration: 1633
• Death: 20 Nov 1644, Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
• Fact: 20 Nov 1644, Inventory of estate taken.

Notes:

Excerpt from "The Descendants of Nathaniel Foote Sr. & Elizabeth Deming" by Ellwood Count Curtis:
From all that we an learn Mr. Foote came from Shalford, in Colchester, England, and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. The first mention I find made of his name is in the Records of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, in 1633, when he took the oath of freeman.........
Mr. Foote married in England, about the year 1615, to Elizabeth Deming, sister of Mr. John Deming, who was one of the first settlers of Wethersfield, and for many years one of the magistrates of the Colony of Connecticut, and one of the patentees named in its charter. His children were all born in England, except perhaps the youngest. Mr. Foote died in 1644, aged about 51 years, and was buried in the ancient burying ground in the rear of the Meeting House, where are gathered together the ashes of nine generations. He left behind him, surviving, a widow, two sons and five daughters. He left no will. At a Particular Court held at Harford, 20 November 1644, the following inventory of his property and distribution of his real estate were exhibited, and an order of court granting distribution of his estate and directing a distribution to be made, was passed.
"An inventory of the good and lands of Nathaniel Foote, of Wethersfield, deceased, being truly taken and indifferently apprised by Richard Treat, Samuel Smith, and Nathaniel Dickinson. The estate was valued at over L380."

Excerpt from "Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines": Nathaniel, with his wife and probably six children, emigrated to New England where he became a freeman of Watertown, Massachusetts,on September 3, 1634, owned a homestead of sixteen acres and a two-acre marsh and was still a proprietor as late as 1642, but removed before that date to Wethersfield, Connecticut, probably with the first group of its settlers in 1634-6.
In this new home he was the wealthiest man and the largest holder of the so-called "Adventurers' lands." He held a ten-acre home lot and gradually added various other tracts including the southern part of "Pennywise Island." In 1639 he laid out a road two rods wide which ran east from the Connecticut River "to the Wilderness" through his "3 mile lot." Farming was his occupation and, apparently, he established a good reputation as a stock raiser, or else he had superior breed of swine, for in May 1637, when the time "army" of ninety men under Captain John Mason was being provisioned to go against the Pequots, the Colonial authorities specified that "there shalbe 1 hogg provided att Wythersfield for the designe in hande, wch is conceiued to be Nathanial Footes.........."
He acted as Representative to the General Court from 1641-4 and served the community in other useful capacities.
This family, as a whole, had a large share in the tragedies of that early day for Philip Smith, husband o Rebecca Foote, was announced to have been "murdered with an hideous witchcraft"; among the members of the early generations, Nathaniel Foote had, (a), a daughter-in-law and two of her children taken captive by the Indians and another child killed; (b), a daughter and three of her children killed, while (c), her husband and two other children were made captives; and (d), two more of her children wounded; and Frances Foote lost two husbands by the Indians as well as one son-in-law killed and another, with four of his children, taken into captivity.
Nathaniel, aged about fifty-one, died intestate before December 11, 1644.

Nathaniel married Elizabeth DEMING about 1615 in England. Elizabeth (daughter of John DEMING, Sr. and ? UNKNOWN) was born about 1595 in Colchester, England; died on 28 Jul 1683 in Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut; was buried in Wethersfield, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Will Proved: Between Aug and Sep 1683
• Will: 16 Aug 1682

Notes:

Excerpt from "Genealogies of Hadley Families": Lieut. Samuel Smith, with wife Elizabeth and children, Samuel, age 9, Elizabeth, age 7, Mary, age 4, and Philip, age 1, sailed from New England, the last day of April, 1634, in the "Elizabeth" of Ipswich. He and his wife were each then called thirty two years of age. He came from Wethersfield, Ct., where he was a leading man, to Hadley, where he held important offices both in church and state. He is supposed to have died in 1680, age abt. 78. His inventory was taken January 17, 1681.

Name:
The following evidence supports the identification of Samuel Smith, the 1634 immigrant, as the son of John and Mary (Gardiner) Smith.

The 1634 passenger list shows Samuel as aged 32, which agrees with his baptismal date.

He was baptized in Burstall, Suffolk, near Whatfield (where he married in 1624) and where his older children were baptized (Whatfield and Hadleigh).

He was named in the wills of his grandmother Gardiner in 1615 and his father in 1618. Because he had immigrated to New England in 1634, he was not named with his brothers in 1635 will of their aunt Elizabeth (Gardiner ) Hayward.

Samuel and Elizabeth named a son Philip, presumable either for his brother or her father (or both).

Four of Samuel and Elizabeth's six grown children named a child Nathaniel, perhaps for his brother Nathaniel.

Samuel married Elizabeth SMITH on 6 Oct 1624 in Whatfield, Suffolk, England. Elizabeth was born about 1602; died on 16 Mar 1686. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]