Person:John Griffin (3)

George E. McCracken on the Origin of Sergeant John Griffin

"More than forty years have passed since the appearance, over the signatures of Z. T. Griffen of Chicago and the Rev. Duane N. Griffin of Hartford, of an article devoted to Sergeant John Griffin or Griffen of Simsbury, Conn. (New York Gen, and Biog. Record, 49:23-26]. In the interval no one has challenged the many errors in this sketch or pointed out the remarkable freedom with which the compilers allowed their imagination to run unchecked. With their manuscript they supplied an elaborate Welsh pedigree presumably going further back, but the good judgment of the editor of The Record suppressed this and it is not now in the library of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

They would make the Simsbury settler, who died there in August 1681, the son of a John Griffin residing presumably in Wales by his wife Ann Langford of Bigander, to which couple they also attribute another son Edward, born ca. 1601, who came to Virginia, they say, and later removed to New Amsterdam. These two brothers are also given four sisters, Ann, Joan, Catherine and Margaret, all four of them married by 1613. They further allege that the son John was born in 1609 and arrived in Simsbury after having lived in both Virginia and New Haven, and died aged 72, as the result of having drunk spring water while overheated, since which time the said spring is stated to have been known as 'Lord Griffin's Spring.' They further claim that he was able to speak Welsh, an accomplishment which stood him in good stead when he acted as Indian interpreter, as if the Welsh and Indian tongues were somehow related. [McCracken then demonstrates that this John Griffin is not the man of that name who was early at New Haven, that man having died there before 24 January 1648/49] …

Thus, the first evidence of our John Griffin really consists of his marriage at Windsor on 13 May 1647 to Ann Bancroft who may have been the daughter of John Bancroft."^[2]

The Estate of John Griffin of Simsbury

"Probate Records. Vol. IV, 1677 to 1687. Page 64.

Griffin, John, Simsbury. Invt. £184-18-00. Taken 23 August, 1681, by John Case and Samuel Willcoxson. The children: John 25 years, Thomas 23, Ephraim 12, Nathaniel 9, Hannah 31, Mary 27, Sarah 26, Abigail 21, Ruth 16, and Mindwell 19.

Court Record, Page 44—1st September, 1681: Invt. exhibited. This Court grant Adms. on the Estate to Hannah Griffin, the Widow, & her two sons, John & Thomas Griffin.

Page 69—(Vol V) 4 April, 1694: An Account of the Wastage of John Griffin's Estate being brought into this Court, amounting to £21-09-00, by the Account appears a clear Estate of £125-05-09, which this Court Dist: To the Eldest son a double portion, viz, £22-15-06; and equal portions, viz, £11-07-09, to each of the other nine Children. And whereas the Town of Simsbury granted to the Widow of sd. John Griffin a peice of Upland of about 4 acres near John Terrie's Land, and 12 acres under the Mountain, which, by the sd. Widow's mind declared, and consent of the Rest of the Children, the sd. Land should belong equally to Ephraim and Nathaniel Griffin, This Court doth approve thereof, and doe order Mr. John Higley, John Slater & Peter Bewill to make a Partition of the Estate accordingly."^[3]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} John Griffin, 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)
   2:313.

   "John (Griffin), Windsor 1646, m. 13 May 1647, Ann Bancroft, had Hannah b. 4 July 1649; Mary, 1 Mar. 1652; Sarah, 25 Dec. 1654; John, 25 Oct. 1656; Thomas, 3 Oct. 1658; Abigail, 12 Nov. 1660; Mindwell, 11 Feb. 1663; Ruth, 21 Jan. 1666; Ephraim, 1 Mar. 1669; and Nathaniel, 31 May 1673; was one of the first sett. at Simsbury, where he had gr. of ld. as reward for his introduct. of manuf. of pitch and tar; rep. some yrs. d. 1681, when his ten ch. were liv. Hannah m. 20 May 1667, Isaac Pond; and Mary, m. 1 May 1672, Samuel Wilson."

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} McCracken, George E. John Griffin of Windsor and Simsbury, Connecticut. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Apr 1962)
   38:100-12.

   [This is the most thorough scholarly treatment of John Griffin, his children and grandchildren.]

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Griffin, John, Simsbury, in Manwaring, Charles W. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. (Hartford, Conn.: R. S. Peck & Co., 1904-06)
   1:313-14.