Person:Wolston Brockway (2)

Taken from http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/b/r/o/Celeste--K-Brockway/GENE9-0002. html

The earliest known mention of this doubtless first representative of this family name in America, and the ancestral head of all bearing it here prior to 1800, is found in the Town Records of Lyme, CT where it is stated that Dec 3 1659 he bought "housing and land of John Reynolds of Norwich, formerly of Lyme, on the East side of the river, over against the town of Saybrook." No prior notice of him has yet been found in either Lyme, Saybrook, or the Hartford State Records, (1887 Brockway Genealogy, p. 6.) He is named as "Cooper of Black Hall". In 1697 Wolston devised land to his eldest son William "according to God's command to provide for my children". Wolston Brockway, Sr. married in Lyme, Hannah Briggs of that town, daughter of William Briggs, and the number of children recorded was 10.

"Goodwife Brockway" died Feb 6 1687. Where she is buried is not known. He, without doubt, died at his son William's house in Joshuatown, near Brockway's Ferry and was interred in the first burying ground of the family on the hillside in the rear of Mr. Warner's home, but no mark or stone remains. Many of the next generation were buried there, also.

Of the sons, William, the eldest, succeeded to his father's homestead, and his descendants were still living on Brockway property in 1887. Other sons scattered, settling along the shore of the Sound, and thus were separated from the later branch, their descendants have been thought to be of a separate family.

From Genealogy of the Puritans, page 341

"Wolston Brockway was a respectable and early settler at Lyme. He deeded lands in Lyme to John Robins in 1672 signed by himself and his wife Hannah. He deeded a piece of land in Lyme to his father William Briggs; the deed entered for record 1680. In 1682 he sold land to Mr. Christopher Christophers, of New London. His wife was the daughter of William Bridges; was probably m. before he settled at Lyme.

Woolson Brockway on the 12 day of March 1671-2, was one of the Saybrook and Lyme men, against whom John Prentice of New London, complained for "riotous practices and assaults on New London people, & etc." The Saybrook people had also complained to the County Court in Hartford that same year against the people of New London for similar complaints. The controversy between the towns was a strip of land which included Black Point in Lyme. Wolston is buried in the Duck Creek Cemetery in Old Lyme, CT.

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

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

Deeds and vital-record entries in the land records of Lyme, Connecticut, establish that John's widow Hannah married Wolston Brockway by September 1664 (first child) and died there as Wolston's wife on 6 February 1687/88. In February 1679/80, Wolston sold a four-acre Lyme parcel "to my father [father-in-law] William Briggs of said Lyme," and the next year, in February 1680/1, William Briggs of Lyme, planter, sold "to my sonne John Briggs of Lyme, turner," the four acres that "I purchased of my sonne Wolston Brockway." Wolston claimed Lyme common land in right of his deceased "son [stepson] John Harris in 1702, and gave it to his son John Brockway in 1716. Stepson John Harris no doubt was the son of John and Hannah (Briggs) Harris born at Boston in 1658.

Seventeen years after his wife Hannah died at Lyme, Wolston married, on 29 November 1705 at Boston's Old South Church, one Sarah Briggs, almost certainly the widow of Hannah's brother John Briggs of Boston (as shown in summary sections below). Sarah died soon, and Wolston married third by March 1707/8 another Hannah, who was living in May 1717.

In his youth, Wolston Brockway probably lived with his Waller and Wolterton relatives in the Hartford-Wethersfield locality. While still single in March 1659/60, "Wilston Brockwel" and "John Witelstead" were in Middletown, the town then adjoining Wethersfield on the south, when Humphrey Hughes sued them and (their employer?) John Scott for "abuseing [Hughes] in a violent manner and breaking the peace." The case grew out of a dispute between Scott and Hughes, traders from Southampton, Long Island, over a shipping venture. Wolston's companion seems to have been young John Whitehead from New Haven, who settled in 1661 at Branford, Connecticutt.

Although Brockway's father-in-law Briggs joined him in Lyme, he did not come there directly from Boston. William and Mary Briggs sold their Boston property to the Sopers in 1665 plainly in preparation for removal to Wethersfield, where their daughter Hannah had gone several years before with her first husband, John Harris. John Winthrop, Jr. entered a prescription for her father on 11 June 1666: "Biggs [sic] William at Wethersfield [aged] 61 y[ears]: pain in left shoulder… upon being at work in planting his india[n] corne."

William soon moved south across the town line into Middletown (later Middletown Upper Houses, now Cromwell). While still "of Wethersfield" on 6 August 1667, he bought fifty acres in Middletown from John and Marie Willcocke "nere peistoll point on the West side the Great River" adjoining lands of John Warner, David Sage, and John Kirby. By 6 July 1668 William was "of Middletown planter" when, with his wife Mary's consent and both signing by mark, he sold eighteen acres of this purchase to his neighbor Sage. "William Briggs, or Biggs" was included in a "List of the Householders and Proprietors [of Middletown], as taken March 22d, 1670," with property valued at 42 lbs.

William and his wife Mary were called "of Lyme" as early as 15 December 1670 when, again signing by marks, they conveyed a meadow parcel there to John Robbins. The records do not reveal when or how they obtained that property. But William continued to be "of Middletown" in that town's deeds through 16 October 1671 as he disposed of lands he had purchased or obtained there by right of proprietorship. On 1 January 1671 [probably 1670/1], four acres of "land of William Biges Junior in Middletown" were recorded, they being "given to him by his father," but four days later "this above mentioned record is canseled by William Bigs Senior and the land sould [i.e. mortgaged] with other lands to Mr. Richard Lord… His wife Mary did not sign or consent as she previously had done in the sale of the eighteen-acre portion, an indication that she may have died since she consented to the sale at Lyme only three weeks before. On 16 October 1671, ""William Bigs of Middletowne husbandman," again by mark, sold his remaining land at Pistol Point, "about 32 acres" to Arthur Scovill "of bostowne in Massachusetts Collony." This sale included "half the land to be layed to the said Bigses Estate according to the List of Estate in the yeare Seaventy", no doubt the list of 1670 mentioned above. Richard Lord released his mortgage interest in the land. Attempting to explain some of these Middletown transactions, Royal R. Hinman surmised that Arthur Scovill of Boston was "probably a friend of Biggs."

Having disposed of his Middletown properties, William Briggs, Sr. settled in Lyme, where his daughter Hannah Brockway was living and where his son John Briggs from Boston joined him with his family. Briggs' friend Arthur Scovill was there, too, by 1678, when he gave his children land in Middletown, including that he "bought of William Biggs." Scovill eventually returned to Middletown, but his youngest son, Stephen, born at Lyme about 1680-1684, stayed there and married in 1705 William and Mary Briggs' great-granddaughter Sarah Champion, a granddaughter of Wolston and Hannah Brockway. One of Scovill's older sons, James, returned to Middletown, where his will in 1711 was witnessed by Walter Harris, Jr., an apparent step-grandson of Hannah (Briggs) (Harris) Brockway.

On 12 October 1676, the General Court at Hartford, not stating his residence, relieved "Wm. Biggs by reason of his age from paying rates for his person." In February 1679/80, William bought the four-acre Lyme parcel mentioned above from his son-in-law Wolston Brockway. The parcel was then described as adjoining property that Peter Pratt had "purchased of John Chappell." When William sold it to his son John Briggs on 5 February 1680/81, the day a son Peter was born to John, the parcel had standing on it "the frame of a house which I purchased of John Lareby." Witnesses included a Mary Briggs, perhaps an otherwise unrecorded daughter of William Briggs.

No probate or other record of William Briggs is found after 1681. Probably the late deposition about the sale of his Boston home in 1665 is in some way the origin for a claim that William (misprinted as John) had returned there from Lyme before 1685.

... b. "not far from 1638", though he deposed in July 1714 that he was aged "70 years or thereabouts."

... Children: all but... 11 (John Brockway) recorded at Lyme on 10 Jan. 1683...

4. Wolston2 Brockway (William1) was born London, England 1638. Wolston died September 14, 1717 Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, at 79 years of age. His body was interred 1717 Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, Duck River Cemetery (?).

He married Hannah Briggs ABT 1663. Hannah was born Boston, MA August 28, 1642. Hannah was the daughter of William Briggs and Mary ----. Hannah died February 6, 1687/88 Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, at 45 years of age.

Wolston immigrated, 1659. Destination: Lyme, CT.

Wolston Brockway and Hannah Briggs had the following children:

5 i. Hannah3 Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT September 14, 1664. Hannah died March 2, 1750 in Lyme, CT, at 85 years of age. She married twice. She married Thomas Champion Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, August 23, 1682. Thomas died 1705 Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT. She married John Wade Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, June 21, 1709.

6 ii. William Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT July 25, 1666. William died March 29, 1755 Brockway's Ferry, CT, at 88 years of age. He married Elizabeth ----- Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, March 8, 1692-93.

7 iii. Wolston II Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT February 7, 1667-68. Wolston died 1707 Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, at 40 years of age. His body was interred May 1707 in Lyme, CT, Duck River Cemetery. He married Margaret Jones December 4, 1688.

8 iv. Mary Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT January 16, 1669-70. Mary died April 7, 1714 in Lyme, CT, at 45 years of age. She married Samuel Mott Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, April 6, 1692.

9 v. Bridget Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT January 9, 1671. Bridget died April 6, 1756 East Haddam, CT, at 85 years of age. She married Jonathan Beebe Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, 1714.

+ 10 vi. Richard (II) Brockway was born September 30, 1673.

11 vii. Elizabeth Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT May 24, 1676. Elizabeth died July, 1729 at 53 years of age. She married twice. She married William Harris Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, 1701. William died ABT 1710. She married Roger Alger, Sr. Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT, March, 1711/12.

12 viii. Sarah Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT September 23, 1679. Sarah died January 9, 1739/1740 at 60 years of age. She married Nathaniel Beckwith January 2, 1703.

She resided East Haddam, CT.

13 ix. John Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT ABT 1680.

14 x. Deborah Brockway was born Lyme Twp., New London Co., CT May 1, 1682. She married Joseph Elderkind July 27, 1703.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Harris, Gale Ion. Wolston Brockway of Lyme, Connecticut: With Further Analysis of His Associations. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Jan, Apr 2008)
   162:140-41.
2. ↑ Woolstone Brockway, 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)
   1:258.

   "Brockway, Woolstone, Saybrook, 1664, by w. Hannah, wh. d. 6 Feb. 1687, had Hannah, b. 14 Sept. 1664, William, 25 July 1666; Woolstone, 7 Feb. 1668; Mary, 16 Jan. 1670; Bridget, 9 Jan. 1672; Richard, 30 Sept. 1673; Eliz. 24 May 1676; Sarah, 23 Sept. 1679; and Deborah, 1 May 1682. Hannah m. Thomas Champion."