Person:Thomas Gridley (3)

Thomas Gridley
b.Est 1612
  • HThomas GridleyEst 1612 - Bef 1655
  • WMary SeymourEst 1624 - Aft 1689
m. 29 Sep 1644
  1. Samuel Gridley1647 - 1712
  2. Thomas Gridley1650 - 1742
  3. Mary Gridley1652 - 1673
Facts and Events
Name[1] Thomas Gridley
Gender Male
Birth[6] Est 1612
Emigration[1] 1637
Military[2][3] 1637 Served in Pequot War.
Residence[1] 1637 Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Residence[1][2][3] 1639 Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Marriage 29 Sep 1644 Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United Statesto Mary Seymour
Death[3][5] Bef 12 Jun 1655 Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United StatesBefore date of inventory.
Estate Inventory[2] 12 Jun 1655 £282, 12s. 6d.
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

References
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Thomas Gridley, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Directory. (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jun 2015)
    141.

    "Gridley, Thomas: [Origin] Unknown; [Emigration] 1637; [Resided] Windsor, Hartford [CCCR 1:33, 2:161; HaBOP 341; HaVR 605; Manwaring 1:122]."

  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Thomas Gridley, in Stiles, Henry R. History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut (1892): including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks and Ellington, 1635-1891. (Hartford, Connecticut: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Company, 1892)
    2:346.

    "Gridley, Thomas, was a prop'r of Hfd. 'by courtesie of the town' 1639; (Htfd. Co. Mem. Hist., i. 242); was at W. 5 Sept., 1639, when he was fined and ord. by the Ct. to be whipped for 'strong suspicions of drunkenness,' for refusing to watch, and for striking one of Mr. Stiles's servant men; in 1648 was one of highway surveyors; no rec. of land or family; was res. prob. Farmington, 1671 [died 1655], and his heirs had grant of land for services in Pequot War, 12 Oct., 1671; he d. at Htfd.; inv. 12 June. 1655, £282, 12s. 6d."

  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford
    [1].

    "Thomas Gridley, Hartford, 1639, a proprietor 'by courtesie of the town'; his home-lot was on the south side of the road from George Steele's to the South Meadow; was of Windsor, Sept. 5, 1639; had been one of the thirty men sent from Windsor to the 'Pequot fight' under Capt. Mason, and his heirs received a grant of fifty acres, Oct. 12, 1671. He m. Sept. 29, 1644, in Hartford, Mary Semmor, perhaps Seymour, and she may have been sister of Richard Seymour. He appears to have been interested in the settlement of Nonotuck (Northampton), as he was present at a meeting of the proprietors held in Springfield, Oct. 3, 1653. But he d. in Hartford; inv. June 12, 1655, £282.12.6. His widow, Mary, m. (2) Deacon John Langdon, of Farmington."

  4.   2:313, in 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).

    THOMAS, Hartford, m. 29 Sept. 1644, Mary Seymour, d. prob. of Richard of the same, had Samuel, b. 25 Nov. 1647; and Thomas, 1650; rem. to Farmington, thence, perhaps, to Northampton, there d. his wid. m. deac. John Langdon. Perhaps had d. Mary, wh. m. 7 Oct. 1675, Thomas Root.

  5. Manwaring, Charles W. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. (Hartford, Conn.: R. S. Peck & Co., 1904-06)
    1:122.

    Gridley, Thomas, Hartford. Invt. £282-12-00. Taken 12 June, 1655, by Nathaniel Ward, Andrew Bacon & James Ensign.
    The children : Samuel 8 years of age, Thomas 5, and Mary 3 years.
    Adms. granted to John Langton, he to pay the Debts and educate the Children.
    Court Record, Page 79—December, 1655. Invt. exhibited.

  6. Specific origins are often ascribed to Thomas, with a christening date in 1612 in Ashen, Essex, as well as being a passenger on the Griffin. Anderson (Great Migration Study Project) has not found any evidence he was on the Griffin, and Thomas Gridley was a fairly common name, so the Thomas christened 1612 needs to be tied specifically to the immigrant.