Person:Benjamin Butterfield (5)

Common Errors to Avoid in this family:

Incorrect LNAB of Wife: It is commonly found on the internet that his wife was Ann Jundon. There is no evidence to support this LNAB. The name also comes from a time when the English origins of Benjamin and Ann were unknown, so there is no way the identification can be correct.

No sources: No place of birth has been found and proven for either Benjamin or Ann in England. No proof of when or where married.

Origin theories: There are two older theories regarding his parents; which can now be considered disproved. Thomas Butterfield (c1576-1615) and Hazel Murgatroyd (c1576-1611)

Thomas Butterfield (c1592-1614). This younger Thomas m. 1611 to Susan Wood d/o Edmund (c1589-1646). They had three children, none of whom were Benjamin. Susan Wood Butterfield m (2) after the death of Thomas Butterfield to Matthew Mitchell. They had 8 children. They came to America in 1635 from Yorkshire Co. and the family settled in Massachusetts then eventually in the Connecticut area of America.

Benjamin Butterfield and Susan Wood These Butterfield's who came to America in 1635 from Ovenden, Yorkshire are not connected to this Benjamin Butterfield family of Middlesex, MA.

• • • Parents of Benjamin have not been proven. Place of birth has never been located. There is still controversy regarding where in England Benjamin's family is from Hertfordshire or Yorkshire. There may be two separate families intermingled in the research. Beware of attaching without sources. Even, I've made that mistake in the past...assuming (you know what that means) that the Yorkshire family is correct, yet for over 37 years I've not seen any information connecting Benjamin to Yorkshire. However, three children having parents of Benjamin & Ann and the correct years to the ones we have for Benjamin have been located in the Hertfordshire records. Ann (Jundon, still no proof on this name)is supposedly from Malden, Hertfordshire, Eng and Benjamin's second wife, Hannah was married to Thomas Whitmore who was also from Hitchens, Hertfordshire, England. We do believe that Benjamin came to America abt 1638 and that is when he first shows up in the MA records. NOT 1635. There is no proof that he is connected to the Mitchells/Wood's/Butterfield's who came in 1635 (again, more assuming). Ridge, Hertfordshire is only 23 miles from Hitchens. There is also, an indication that this family is from Co. Essex which is next door to Hertfordshire and the town of Chelmsford, Co. Essex is about 40 miles from Ridge. Chelmsford, MA is where Benjamin helped settle the town. "Suepcard"

Ancestral File Number:<AFN> 34ZZ-FL Matthew Mitchell, his wife, Susan Wood Mitchell and four children, David, Sarah, Jonathan and Hannah came to America with Benjamin and Ann Jundon Butterfield (and Mary and Benjamin), and Samuel Butterfield (half brother to Benjaman and Susan Wood). They sailed on the ship James on Saturday 23 May 1655 from Bristol, England and apparantly arrived at Charleston or Boston. Also on the ship were the Sherman Family and the family of the Rev. Richard Mather. Two more Mitchell children were probably with them ( Abagail and Mary).

• • (The above paragraph is incorrect first off they sailed on Ship James in 1635 not 1655. The first three children of Benjamin and Ann were born in England between 1632 and 1637, so Benjamin and family were not sailing on Ship James in 1635. There is no record of Benjamin in America until 1738. This all part of misinformation being repeated on the internet over and over, with no first source proof.)

From "The Butterfields of Middle " 33:

Benjamin was at Charlestown in 1638. His name appears among the first town orders of Woburn, and in 1643 was made a Freeman. In 1645 we find his name on the Woburn tax list. In 1652 the inhabitants of Woburn petitioned for leave to explore the west side of the Concord river. The report was, "a very comfortable place to accomodate a company of God's people." In 1653 Benjamin headed a petition of twenty-nine, including the petitioners of the preceeding year, for a tract of land six miles square, "to begin at the Merrimack river, at a neck of land next to Concord river," to run southerly on Concored river and westerly into the wild country. The spot was known to the natives an Naamkeek. The Indian apostle, Rev. John Eliot, about the same time received a grant of "the Great Neck", lying between Pawtucket falls on the Merimack and the Massic falls on the Concord, as a reserve for the Christianized Indians. This tract was known as Wamesit. The six mile tract was occupied in 1654 by Butterfield and his associates, and in 1655 was incorporated as Chelmsford. The line betweenthe Indians and the whites was run "on the East side of Butterfield's high way," and was marked by a ditch. On this highway, Benjamin Butterfield pitched his farm and built his house, somewhere within the limits of what is now ward iv., Lowell. In 1656 he was named as one of the citizens of Chelmsford, to whom the Gov. Dudley farm of 1,500 acres in Billerica was conveyed. In 1661 his wifedied, and 3 June 1663 he married, 2d, Hannah, the widow of Thomas Whittemore of Cambridge. In 1666 , Newfields, a tract os 241 acres of intervale across Stony brook and extending up the Merrimack was granted to Chelmsford. On this, perhaps the best land in the growning town, Benjamin Butterfield obtained 42 acres, the largest share of any one person. In 1686 the Indian reservation, Wamesit, was purchased by the whites. Three of Butterfield's sons, Nathaniel, Samuel, and Joseph were among the grantees. This territory, which had been occupied by Wanalancit and his tribe as a cornfield and fishing station, is now occupiedby the manufactories of Lowell. The purchase included also 500 acres upon thenorth and east side of the Merrimack, of "Wilderness" land, a general term forthe unsettled countryh outside incorporated limits. Nathaniel and Samuel Butterfield settled on the Wamesikt lands, and Joseph ijn the wilderness, between Tyng's pond and the river.

Coming to Boston Bay Colony http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=document&guid=f084308c-50d8-4a2c-aa67-f37014098aef&tid=2367764&pid=-1296615166

Death of Benjamin Butterfield

1. ↑ Vital records of Chelmsford
   372.

   Butterfield, Benjamin, [died] Mar. 2, 1687-8. CT.R.

2.   The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ancestral File (TM). (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 JAN 1998).