John EDWARDS

Abt 1600 - 1664  (64 years)

• Name	John EDWARDS  [1, 2]
  	John Edwards appears often in records of local affairs after 1640, though he was in Wethersfield before his son John was born in December 1638. He served on juries at Hartford twelve times between July 1640 and September 1648.Edwards and Nathaniel Foote were co-defendants in a trespass action by Leonard Chester in July 1640, and with John Hollister he gave security for Robert Bedle's appearance at court in December 1644. In March 645/6, John Edwards and Samuel Ireland's widow, then wife of Robert Burrows of New London, presented Ireland's inventory to the court. Ten years later in Mach 1655/, William Gibbons's brother-in-law Luke Hitchcock sued John for a debt, and he was sued in May 1657 by William Gull. John had recorded his three-acre lot with a house and barn on 26 April 1641 and sold it to John Lattimer in 1654 (Wethersfield Deeds, l:220). Stiles's brief sketch cited above shows that Edwards was townsman in 1648/9, that he bought the homestead of his wife's former husband, Abraham Finch, in 1651 (also stated as 1657), that he was Town Drummer and caretaker of the meeting house in 1659, and that in February 1661/2 he was consignee on account of his stepson, Abraham Finch, for two hogsheads and one tierce of sugar from Barbados to be delivered at New London on the 'Tryall'. John Lattimer, the buyer of Edwards's homelot in 1654, was in Hartford by 1639 and had returned to England in 1642 as an agent for Gov. Wyllys or his steward, William Gibbons. in light of other affiliation noted in the introduction, it is of interest that Lattimer, Samuel Gardner, and Richard Risley, were among the several grantees of lands in the (modern) East Hartford section of Hockanum in 1640 and 1641. Risley's inventory was taken in 1648 by William Gibbons, and his descendants appear later as spouses of Edwards's descendants. Samuel Gardner and Edward's son Thomas became the first settlers in the adjacent Wethersfield part of Hockanum, and Lattimer's widow the second-largest creditor of John Edwards's estate..... In his last years, John was called "John Edwards, Senior, of Wethersfield" when Winthrop treated him in April 1661, in February 1663/4 (prescription "sent by his son Tho: Edwards"), in July 1664, and shortly before he died in December 1664. Aside from the local religious dissension which divided the community and the Edwards family itself, another discord had surfaced between the older half-brother Thomas, and the rest of the family. On 9 May 1665, the son John Edwards and the widow Dorothy Edwards, administrators of John Edwards's estate, sued Thomas "for illegal possessing and misprouving two allotments of the said John Edwards on the East Side of the Great River at Nabuck to the damage of L30". John died intestate. His inventory was taken by the townsmen on 27 December 1664. [1]
  Birth	Abt 1600	England   [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	27 Dec 1664	Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut   [1]
  Person ID	I103248	Main Tree
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2022

  
  

  Family 1	? UNKNOWN   d. Bef Dec 1638, England
  Children	+ 1. Thomas EDWARDS,   b. Abt 1623, England d. 27 Jul 1683, Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut (Age 60 years)  [Birth]
  Family ID	F43079	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	11 Sep 2021

  
  

  Family 2	Dorothy MOULTON,   b. 1618, England
  Marriage	Bef Dec 1638  [1]
  Children	1. John EDWARDS,   b. Dec 1638   d. 19 Dec 1675, Great Swamp Fight - King Philip's War (Age 37 years)  [Birth] + 2. Hester EDWARDS,   b. Jun 1641, Wethersfield, Connecticut d. Bef Jan 1680, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (Age 38 years)  [Birth] + 3. Ruth EDWARDS,   b. Dec 1643   d. 31 Dec 1714, Hatfield, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts (Age 71 years)  [Birth]   4. Hannah EDWARDS,   b. Jan 1644/5  [Birth] + 5. Joseph EDWARDS,   b. May 1648   d. 10 Dec 1681, Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut (Age 33 years)  [Birth] + 6. Lydia EDWARDS,   b. Jul 1650   d. 10 Aug 1683, Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Connecticut (Age 33 years)  [Birth]
  Family ID	F43077	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2022

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - Abt 1600 - England  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S12607] The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 1991, Vol. 145 October. [S3569] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration - Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol. II.