Person:John Bissell (1)

John Bissell
b.Abt 1591 England
  1. John BissellAbt 1591 - 1677
m. Est 1627
  1. Mary Bissell1627 - 1689
  2. Thomas BissellAbt 1628 - 1689
  3. John Bissell1630 - 1693
  4. Samuel BissellEst 1636 - 1700
  5. Joyce BissellEst 1638 -
  6. Nathaniel Bissell1640 - 1713/14
Facts and Events
Name John Bissell
Gender Male
Birth? Abt 1591 England
Marriage Est 1627 Englandto Unknown Unknown
Death[1] 3 Oct 1677 Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Burial? Palisado Cemetery, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut

Listed in some accounts as arriving in Plymouth in 1628, but he is not listed in Great Migration (meaning there is no evidence of his presence before 1634). At any rate, he moved from Plymouth to Windsor in 1639 or so. He was admitted to the Windsor Church 3 May 1640 and served as a jury at Hartford 1640-1643, 1645 and 1647. He later served as a deputy to the general court and attended 46 sessions of the General and Particular Court before the union of the Connecticut and New Haven colonies.

John is recorded in the 1640 Town Records at Windsor in the list of “First Settlers of Windsor, five years after their removal from Dorchester.” [3]

He was an enlisted trooper of Windsor in 1657-8 and "was confirmed by the General Court, Quarter Master of the County Troop of Hartford County in 167k7"s (the first toop of horse in the Colony)

He and his sons John Jr, Thomas and Nathaniel were all freeman in Windsory by 1669. [4] In 1648, he established Bissell’s Ferry connecting Windsor and East Windsor. He was the first settler on the east side of the river. By 1675 the Bissells had neighbors, and during King Philip's War their house was fortified and garrisoned.


John died at the home of his son Nathaniel. The memorial in the Palisado Cemetary reads: “Heare lyeth the body of John Bissell deceased Oct. the 3rd, 1677 in the 86th year of his age.”[5]


Will

Invt. œ520-16-03. Taken 22 October, 1677, by Daniel Clarke, Benjamin Newbery, Return Strong.

Will dated 25 September, 1673: I John Bissell of Windsor doe make this my last Will & Testament: I give to my daughter Mary, the wife of Jacob Drake, œ10; to my daughter Joyce, wife of Samuel Pinney, œ30. I give to my son John œ50. The remainder of my estate after my just debts and funeral charges are paid, with 20 shillings a peice to each of my grand children naturally descending from my foure sons and two daughters, I bequeath to my four sons, John, Thomas, Samuel, and Nathaniel. The remaynder of my estate to be equally divided. I appoint my sons John and Thomas Bissell to be executors. I desire Deacon John Moore and Daniel Clark to be supervisors.

Witness: John Moore sen., Daniel Clarke.
John X Bissell. Ls.
Court Record, Page 165--6 December, 1677: Will approved.

References

  1. Windsor Vital Records (Barbour Collection).
  2.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
    1:186-187.

    JOHN, Windsor 1639, the progenit. of many disting. men, is said to have come from Eng. with Rev. Ephraim Mewett, was rep. 1648-57, and d. 3 Oct. 1677, aged 85, had John, Thomas, Samuel, Nathaniel, Mary, and Joice, of wh. Nathaniel, b. 24, bapt. 27 Sept. 1640, was perhaps the only one b. on our side of the ocean. His w. d. 21 May foll. and his next w. d. 29 Nov. 1665; but of both the names are unkn.

  3. NEHGR 5:365 [The list includes people who arrived after 1635, such as those who came with Huit in 1639]
  4. NEHGR Vol. 5
  5. Jones, Edward Payson, Genealogy of the Descendants of John Bissell of Windsor, CT by 1640, Typewritten manuscript bound at NEHGS, 1939.


Founders of Windsor, CT
Windsor was the first permanent English settlement in Connecticut. Local indians granted Plymouth settlers land at the confluence of the Farmington River and the west side of the Connecticut River, and Plymouth settlers (including Jonathan Brewster, son of William) built a trading post in 1633. But the bulk of the settlement came in 1635, when 60 or more people led by Reverend Warham arrived, having trekked overland from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Most had arrived in the New World five years earlier on the ship "Mary and John" from Plymouth, England. The settlement was first called Dorchester, and was renamed Windsor in 1637.

See: Stiles History of Ancient Windsor - Thistlewaite's Dorset Pilgrims - Wikipedia entry

Loomis homestead, oldest in CT.
Settlers at Windsor by the end of 1640, per the Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor: Abbot - Alford - S. Allen - M. Allyn - Barber - Bartlett - M. (Barrett) (Huntington) Stoughton - Bascomb - Bassett - Benett - Birge - Bissell - Branker - Brewster - Buckland - Buell - Carter - Chappel - D. Clarke - J. Clarke - Cooke - Cooper - Denslow - Dewey - Dibble - Dumbleton - Drake - Dyer - Eels - Eggleston - Filley - Ford - Foulkes - Fyler - Gaylord - Francis Gibbs - William Gilbert - Jere. Gillett - Jon. Gillett - N. Gillett - Grant - Gridley - E. Griswold - M. Griswold - Gunn - Hannum - Hawkes - Hawkins - Hayden - Haynes - Hill - Hillier - Holcombe - Holmes - Holt - Hosford - Hoskins - Hoyte - Hubbard - Huit - Hulbert - Hull - Hurd - Hydes - Loomis - Ludlow - Lush - Marshfield - A. Marshall - T. Marshall - Mason - M. (Merwin) (Tinker) Collins - M. Merwin - Mills - Moore - Newberry - Newell - Oldage - Orton - Osborn - Palmer - Parsons - Parkman - Pattison - Phelps - Phelps - Phillips - Pinney - Pomeroy - Pond - Porter - Preston - Rainend - Randall - Rawlins - Reeves - J. Rockwell - W. Rockwell - B. Rossiter - St. Nicholas - Saltonstall - Samos - M. Sension (St. John) – R. Sension - Sexton - Staires - Starke - F. StilesH. Stiles - J. StilesT. Stiles - Stoughton - Stuckey - Talcott - E. Taylor - J. Taylor - Terry - Thornton - Thrall - Tilley - Tilton - Try - F. (Clark) (Dewey) (Phelps) - Vore - Warham - Weller - Whitehead - A. Williams - J. Williams - R. Williams - Wilton - Winchell - Witchfield - Wolcott - Young
Current Location: Hartford County, Connecticut   Parent Towns: Dorchester, Massachusetts   Daughter Towns: Windsor Locks; South Windsor; East Windsor; Ellington; Bloomfield