Person:William Peck (27)

One of the six adult male Pecks coming from England to America in the late 1630s was Deacon William Peck who came to New Haven. He was an adherent of Rev. John Davenport (1597–1670), Church of England cleric. Davenport turned more and more to nonconformity, and as pastor of an influential City of London church, he fostered the puritan cause and had to flee to Holland in 1633. There he also had theological troubles. He returned to London, and with Theophilus Eaton, organized a party of puritans, including Thomas Yale, David Atwater, John Cooper and others, which sailed on the ship Hector, arriving at Boston in June 26, 1637. In 1638 Davenport led his colonists to a spot selected by Eaton and the New Haven Colony was founded. Deacon William Peck was among the signers of the Compact of New Haven (as “William Peckke”) and a cofounder of the colony. The Early List of Estates published by the New Haven Church in 1640 lists William Peck with four people in his household with an estate valued at 12 pds.

William had land in New Haven in 1641 between the two rivers, but outside the orginal nine squares. ^[8]

William was involved in a number of estates: he witnessed the will of Thomas Lamson with Nicholas Auger on Mar. 1, 1663/64, the will of Henry Peck with John Moses and Samuel Whitehead on Aug. 30, 1651, the will of William Potter with Richard Miles, the will of John Parmely with Henry Linden on Nov. 8, 1658, the will of John Thomas, Sr., on Jan. 4, 1669 with Roger Alling. In addition he took the inventory of the estate of Henry Lindon with John Nash and James Bishop on Feb, 1660 and to distribute the estate of Robert Preston in 1650 with Andrew Low. He is listed as a Proprietor of New Haven, CT, in the Year 1685. ^[9] His brother, Joseph, also immigrated and came to Milford, CT. When Elizabeth died, he married Sarah, the widow of William Holt and she died in 1717.

9g grandfather of Clint Eastwood through daughter Elizabeth.

8g grandfather of Richard Gere through son Jeremiah and Barbara Bush through son John.

Text References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} Peck, Darius. A Genealogical Account of the Descendants in the Male Line of William Peck: One of the Founders in 1638 of the Colony of New Haven, Conn. (Hudson, N. Y.: Bryan & Goeltz, 1877)
   7-8.
2. ↑ Norris, Henry McCoy. Ancestry and Descendants of Lieutendent [sic] Jonathan and Tamesin (Barker) Norris of Maine: in which are given the names, and more or less complete records from 1550 to 1905, of about twelve hundred persons, among whom are sixty-nine of their ancestors, nine of their children, forty-eight of their grand- children, one hundred and nine of their great-grandchildren, and one hundred and fifteen of their great-great-grandchildren. (New York: Grafton Press, 1906)
   Appendix, paragraph VIII.
3. ↑ 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)
   3:384.

   WILLIAM, New Haven, a merch. from London, b. 1601, with w. Elizabeth and s. Jeremiah, came prob. in the Hector, as company, with Govs. Eaton and Hopkins, Rev. John Davenport, and the s. of the Earl of Marlborough, arr. at Boston 26 June 1637, was one of the first compact for N. H. in june 1639, an orig. propr. freem. 29 oct. 1640, deac. from 1659 to his d. had John; Joseph, bapt. 17 Jan. 1641; and Elizabeth 7 May 1643, not 6, as pr. in Geneal. Reg. IX. 262, for that was Saturday. The harvest of blunders in that list of bapt. is not chargeab. to the very careful transcr. Henry White, Esq. but I fear the names assing. for parents by conject. in that docum. may sometimes be erron, as in this instance, for the ch. Eleazar and 2d Elizabeth are neither in fam. geneal. allow. to the deac. His w. d. 5 dec. 1683, on a visit to her s. at Lyme, and he m. Sarah, wid. of William Holt, and d. 4 oct. 1694. his gr.st. is still to be seen in the cemet. By the rec. of Lyme (where he d. at the ho. of his s. Joseph) the age is 83; but New Haven says, at the reput. age of 90. As a gen. rule, the shorter term of a prolong, life, where two or more dates are report. must be prefer. but, in this instance, to ascertain the exact truth we may safe. presume, that the s. of whose ho. the f. d. wrote the acco. and the greater number may be adopt. The only d. his youngest ch. Elizabeth m. 1661, Samuel Andrews. In his will, of 9 Mar. 1689, made at N. H. the sec. w. and his four ch. are ment, but no more. Sixteen of this name had in 1834 been gr. at the N. E. coll. of wh. four were of Yale, three of Harv.

4. ↑ Doolittle, William F.; Louise Smylie Brown; and Mary Malissa Raison Doolittle. The Doolittle Family in America. (Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland: National Printing (1901), 1901-1967).
5. ↑ Lyme Town Records, Copied by Rev. F.A. Chapman, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   Vol. 23 (subsequent), (1869).
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Peck, in Jacobus, Donald Lines. Families of Ancient New Haven. (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1974)
   6:1383.

   William (Peck), b. c. 1604, d 14 Oct 1694 æ. 90 (New Haven Vital Records), æ. 93 (gravestone, City Burial Ground, New Haven); Dea.

7. ↑ William Peck, in Find A Grave.
8. ↑ map: http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/nhmap.htm
9. ↑ NEGHR, vol. 1, pp. 157–8.