Person:Thomas Hewitt (2)

Purchased tract of land on east side of the Mystic River on which he erected a dwelling. The Elim Gove Cemetery in Stonington is now on this land.

Thomas was a seafaring man who apparently was the first of his line in Stonington appearing in Thomas Miner's diary in 1656 in command of a ship receiving surplus products of the early planters on the Mystic River. During the year of 1662 Thomas purchased a cargo of neat stock, sheep and poultry, designed for the West Indies market, with which he set sail for that place, expecting a pleasant voyage and successful exchange of his cargo for goods in merchandise suitable for the local residents. Months and years passed with no word of his arrival in the West Indies, nor any trace of him anywhere, which forced the conclusion upon his family and friends, that amid some fearful storm, his vessel floundered and all on board were lost in the sea. Although it was known at the time that her first husband, Capt. Thomas Hewitt of Stonington, was lost at sea in 1662, an order of the Connecticut Court was necessary in 1670 to free her to remarry.

DESCENDANTS OF CAPTAIN THOMAS HEWITT OF STONINGTON, CONN.

Compiled by Virginia Hewitt Watterson, 1996. Found in the Joseph Smith Library, Salt Lake City, UT. Page 1. The ancestry of Thomas Hewitt, a sea captain, has yet to be discovered. He probably came from England or Ireland, and possibly from one of the coastal towns since he took to the sea for his livelihood. The first record of him in the Colonies is from the diary of Thomas Miner, which mentions Thomas Hewitt in 1656 as having command of the ship on the Mystic River. He was a trader taking surplus products from the early Connecticut planters in exchange for goods from Boston. Thomas purchased a tract of land on the east side of the Mystic River, in present day Stonington, Conn., to use as a home base when he was not at sea. There he built a primitive dwelling house. Through his trading transactions, Thomas was aquatinted with the planters in the area. Walter Palmer, one of the wealthy planters, had a daughter who became Thomas Hewitt's wife. HANNAH PALMER was born in Charlestown, Mass. in 1634, daughter of Walter Palmer and his 2nd wife, Rebecca Short. The First Church of Charlestown recorded Hannah's baptism on 15 Jun 1634. Walter moved his family to Rehoboth, Mass. and by 1653 had settled in Stonington, Conn. Thomas Hewitt married Hannah Palmer on 26 Apr 1659 at Stonington. (Wheeler). Thomas continued his coastal trading business and extended it to include the West Indies. In May 1662, he sailed from Mystic River with a cargo of livestock and poultry, which he purchased to trade for goods in the West Indies. The ship was lost at sea and Thomas was never heard from again. Hannah and their two infant sons waited months and years for his return. It was finally concluded that the ship floundered and sank during a storm. Before the General Court of Conn. in 1670, Hannah presented a petition to allow her, as a widow, the liberty to marry again. She and neighbors testified that not a word had been heard of Captain Thomas Hewitt or his vessel or his company from the time they left eight years before. The court granted Hannah's petition. The following year, on 27 Dec 1671, she married Roger Sterry. Two children were born to them. Roger died sometime prior to 1680 and Hannah married a 3rd time, on 25 Aug 1681, to John Fish as his 3rd wife. Hannah lived in Stonington the rest of her life. No report has been found of her date of death.^[1][2][3][4]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Wheeler, Richard Anson. History of the Town of Stonington, County of New London, Connecticut, from its First Settlement in 1649 to 1900 (1900): With a Genealogical Register of Stonington Families. (New London, Conn.: Press of the Day Publishing Company, 1900)
   418-419, 508.
2. ↑ Connecticut, United States. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records.
3. ↑ Buys, Doris Palmer. Walter Palmer of Charlestown and Rehoboth Massachusetts and Stonington, Connecticut: a 400 year (1585-1985) family history. (Orem, Utah: D.P. Buys, c1986)
   77.
4. ↑ 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)
   2:491.

   HUET, THOMAS, Stonington 1651, mariner, m. 26 April 1659, Hannah, eldest d. of Walter Palmer by his sec. w. had Thomas, b. a. 1660; and Benjamin, bef. ment. a. 1662, perhaps posthum. went a voyage bef. May 1662, perhaps bef. b. of his youngest s. was never heard of after. See Trumbull, Col. Rec. II. 129. His wid. m. 1670, Roger Sterry of Stonington.