For His Own Good: Nathaniel Winchell, Connecticut, 1683

On December 10, 1683, a court session in Windsor, Connecticut (just north of Hartford) took notice of a Windsor man who was over-indulging in cider – presumably hard cider — and prescribed the seventeenth-century equivalent of social work:

   Mr. John Porter In behalfe of the Grand Jury Complaining
   of Nathaniel Winchell that he doth much abuse himselfe by
   Cyder & thereby dissturb his Neighboures & Hazard of his
   Majesties Good Subjects[.] for prevention of Such
   Inconveniencies this Court doth apoynt the constables &
   Townsmen to remove his Cyder to Some place where it
   may be secured for his comfort or dissposed for his
   advantage & he prevented from abuseing himselfe.

NATHANIEL WINCHELL

born early 1630s England

married 8 April 1664 Farmington, Connecticut, Sarah Porter, daughter of Thomas Porter and Sarah Hart, born 1646, died 7 Oct 1725, Windsor, Hartford County, Connecticut (married second 3 Jun 1713 Joseph Judd)

died 8 March 1700

ANCESTORS: We know only his father Robert.

COUSINS: Nathaniel’s siblings Jonathan and David have descendants.

DESCENDANTS: All six of Nathaniel and Sarah’s children grew up and married and are believed to have descendants, surnames Winchell, Phelps, and Gibbs.

Person:Nathaniel Winchell (2)