Person:Jonathan Gillett (3)

Alleged to have sailed with his brother Nathan and 140 puritans on 20 Mar 1630 with Rev. John Warham and Rev. John Maverick on the ship Mary and John from Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, England. Arrived on 30 May 1630 off Nantasket, MA. (Great Migration says this is possible, but "not a necessary conclusion.") He first settled at Dorchester, MA and returned to England in 1633. He married there in 1634, then returned to New England. He was admitted to the Dorchester church and became a freeman there in 1635. He settled at Windsor in late 1636 with his new wife Mary. Lived next to his brother Nathan.

Named as son of William Gillett "Clarke parson of Chafecombe in the countie of Somerset" in the will of Rev. William Tyes, dated 1 Apr 1623^[4]. Abiah, William Gillett's wife, seems to have been the step-daughter of Rev. Tyes (he called her "daughter in law" in his will), and Jonathan may have been her step-son (rather than her son). Rev. Tyes, who made bequests to many relatives, appears to have had no issue, and might well have formed a grandfatherly relationship with the step-son of his step-daughter.

In his will, dated 8 August 1677 and proved 6 September 1677, "Jonathan Gillett sen. of Windsor ... being at present very ill and under distemper of body above ordinary" named "my wife ... sole executrix " and "my son Josiah Gillett to take care for the improvement of his mother's estate," she to have the use of "both my houselots, my one and that which was my brother Nathan Gillett's, which are both nine acres, also at the upper end of the first meadow, or that which is Timothy Phelpes," and "all that remains of that to me I set out three acres to my son John"; after "my decease ... my son Josias" to assist his mother, and after her death "he shall enjoy for his own ... my now dwelling house and all the appurtenances with it, with five acres of houselands & all other parcels of land, as are expressed to be his mother's for her use whilst she lives, only excepting the house & four acres of the houseland to it, which my son Jeremy shall possess for his own after my wife's decease" and "the six acres in the second meadow I set out to him, he is to possess for his own at the present"; "thirdly, my will is that if the Lord should take me and my wife both of us away by death within four years after the date hereof, my son Josiah shall pay some legacies, as to his brother Jonathan Gillett ~4 and a gun, and to his brother Cornelius Gillett ~4, & to my daughter, Peter Browne's wife, ~2, and to my daughter, Samuel Fyllye's wife, ~2, and to the two children which I have taken that were my son Joseph's, deceased, as the little son Jonathan ~5, and the girl ~5. My son Jonathan is to have the other twenty acres of woodland joining to the twenty acres expressed to my wife. He is to have his twenty acres next to Thomas Barber, ten acres of it I give him, the other ten he hath bought. Also, Jonathan and Cornelius my sons are to have my eleven acres without the west bounds of Windsor, betwixt them, after my decease. And my son John Gillett to have six acres of the other parcel without the bounds at present, and Jeremie to have the remainder of it" [Hartford PD Case #2202; Manwaring 1:200-01].

1. ↑ Windsor Vital Records (Barbour Collection).
2.   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).

   JONATHAN, Dorchester, freem. 6 May 1635, rem. next yr. to Windsor with ch. Cornelius, Jonathan, and Mary, wh. m. 16 July 1658, Peter Brown; there he had Ann, bapt. 29 Dec. 1639, wh. m. 29 Oct. 1663, Samuel Filley; Joseph, 25 July 1641; Samuel, 22 Jan. 1643; John, 5 Oct. 1644; Abigail, 28 June 1646, d. at 2 yrs.; Jeremiah, 12 Feb. 1648; and Josiah, 14 July 1650; was a constable 1656, and d. 1677.

3. ↑ Jonathan Gillett, in Anderson, Robert Charles. The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995)
   pp. 766-770.

   'BIRTH: By about 1609 (based on presumed age at marriage), son of Rev. William Gillett.
   DEATH: Windsor 23 August 1677 (from inventory).
   MARRIAGE: Colyton, Devonshire, 29 March 1634 Mary Dolbiar, bp. Colyton, Devonshire, 7 June 1607 [TAG 15:208-17]. She died Windsor 5 January 1685[/6] [CTVR 56; TAG 15:210].'
   
   In the COMMENTS section, Anderson says that Jonathan and Nathan were not on the passenger lists of the Mary & John, and could have arrived as late as 1633. He concludes '... and as a result we would not be justified in placing them on the Mary & John.' Jonathan apparently returned from New England to marry in 1634, and according to a statement by his son Benjamin in the family bible, he "came into new-inglan the second time in June in the year 1634". He was on the 1634 passenger list of the Recovery.

4. ↑ Mahler, Leslie. Various English Wills Relating to New England Colonists, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   162(2008):113-14.

   The will of Rev. William Tyes, dated 1 April 1623, bequeathed the remainder of a 99-year lease of several properties to "Jonathan Gillet the sonne of Will[ia]m Gillett Clarke p[ar]son of Chafecombe in the Countie of Soms[e]t".

5. ↑ Birth year estimated based on the baptism date of his wife, and the assumption that he was at least 18 (if not 21) when Rev. William Tyes bequeathed him a lease in 1623 (without mention of a trustee).

Founders of Windsor, CT

Windsor was the first permanent English settlement in Connecticut. Local indians granted Plymouth settlers land at the confluence of the Farmington River and the west side of the Connecticut River, and Plymouth settlers (including Jonathan Brewster, son of William) built a trading post in 1633. But the bulk of the settlement came in 1635, when 60 or more people led by Reverend Warham arrived, having trekked overland from Dorchester, Massachusetts. Most had arrived in the New World five years earlier on the ship "Mary and John" from Plymouth, England. The settlement was first called Dorchester, and was renamed Windsor in 1637. See: Stiles History of Ancient Windsor - Thistlewaite's Dorset Pilgrims - Wikipedia entry Loomis homestead, oldest in CT. Settlers at Windsor by the end of 1640, per the Descendants of the Founders of Ancient Windsor: Abbot - Alford - S. Allen - M. Allyn - Barber - Bartlett - M. (Barrett) (Huntington) Stoughton - Bascomb - Bassett - Benett - Birge - Bissell - Branker - Brewster - Buckland - Buell - Carter - Chappel - D. Clarke - J. Clarke - Cooke - Cooper - Denslow - Dewey - Dibble - Dumbleton - Drake - Dyer - Eels - Eggleston - Filley - Ford - Foulkes - Fyler - Gaylord - Francis Gibbs - William Gilbert - Jere. Gillett - Jon. Gillett - N. Gillett - Grant - Gridley - E. Griswold - M. Griswold - Gunn - Hannum - Hawkes - Hawkins - Hayden - Haynes - Hill - Hillier - Holcombe - Holmes - Holt - Hosford - Hoskins - Hoyte - Hubbard - Huit - Hulbert - Hull - Hurd - Hydes - Loomis - Ludlow - Lush - Marshfield - A. Marshall - T. Marshall - Mason - M. (Merwin) (Tinker) Collins - M. Merwin - Mills - Moore - Newberry - Newell - Oldage - Orton - Osborn - Palmer - Parsons - Parkman - Pattison - Phelps - Phelps - Phillips - Pinney - Pomeroy - Pond - Porter - Preston - Rainend - Randall - Rawlins - Reeves - J. Rockwell - W. Rockwell - B. Rossiter - St. Nicholas - Saltonstall - Samos - M. Sension (St. John) – R. Sension - Sexton - Staires - Starke - F. Stiles – H. Stiles - J. Stiles – T. Stiles - Stoughton - Stuckey - Talcott - E. Taylor - J. Taylor - Terry - Thornton - Thrall - Tilley - Tilton - Try - F. (Clark) (Dewey) (Phelps) - Vore - Warham - Weller - Whitehead - A. Williams - J. Williams - R. Williams - Wilton - Winchell - Witchfield - Wolcott - Young Current Location: Hartford County, Connecticut   Parent Towns: Dorchester, Massachusetts   Daughter Towns: Windsor Locks; South Windsor; East Windsor; Ellington; Bloomfield