Person:John Harris (11)

From the New England Historic Genealogical Society "Register", Vol. 151 (January 1997)

William and Mary Briggs of Boston and The Connecticut ValleyWith Notes on their Sons-in-Law John Harris and Wolston Brockway [Footnotes omitted] by Gale Ion Harris

John Harris is distinguishable from other John Harrises in Boston and cannot be placed in known families in that locality. He almost certainly was in Wethersfield, Connecticut, within two years after his son John's birth, where he seems not to have been a stranger. He was already known there well enough in March 1659/60 to be chosen as constable for the east side of the Connecticut River (now Glastonbury), where Thomas Harris, probably a younger brother, later built a sawmill. John died soon, apparently leaving two older sons by a former marriage - Walter and Thomas to be placed as orphans in local households.

...was living in Wethersfield (modern Glastonbury), Conn. in March 1659/60... who prob. had sons Walter and Thomas Harris with a former wife.

From Savage's Genealogical Dictionary

JOHN, Boston, m[arried]. 10 Sept. 1657, Hannah, d[aughter]. of William Briggs, had John, b. 8 Aug. 1658.

JOHN, Boston, had w[ife]. Joanna in 1671, possib[ly]. may be the same as preced[ing]. but it is not likely; nor that John of B[oston]. who m[arried]. 20 Mar. 1675, Susanna Breck of Dorchester, was; or a mariner John of B[oston]. who by w[ife]. Elizabeth d[aughter]. of William Lane had sev[eral]. ch[ildren]. and d[ied]. 1682.

From NEHGS article Harrises in Boston Before 1700

There appears to have been an almost lethal weakness in the genes of these Harrises. At at time when larger families were the rule, the Harris families had difficulty in surviving. John, who married Hannah Briggs in 1657, had an only son, John, Jr. and succombed.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 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)
   2:362.
2.   Harris, Gale Ion. Early Harrises of Wethersfield, Connecticut: Analysis of a Tradition, in The American Genealogist (TAG). (Donald Lines Jacobus, et.al.)
   83(2009):255.