RNT Family History

Brownson, John

Male 1602 - 1680  (78 years)


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  • Name Brownson, John 
    Born 1602  Chelmsford, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Christened 21 Sep 1602  Holy Innocent's Church, Lamarsh, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    OCCU Miller 
    RELI Puritan 
    Buried Nov 1680 
    Died 28 Nov 1680  Farmington, Connecticut Colony Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I1687  Taylor
    Last Modified 31 Dec 2003 

    Father Brownson, Roger,   b. Sep 1576, Earls Colne, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1635, Aldham, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 58 years) 
    Relationship Birth 
    Mother Underwood, Mary,   b. Abt 1591, Lamarsh, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   bur. 18 Mar 1623, St Andrew's Church Cemetery, Earls Colne, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 32 years) 
    Relationship Birth 
    Married 12 May1600  Holy Innocents Church, Lamarsh, Essex, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F802  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • Immigrated: 8 Oct 1635 Boston on ship Defence (probably) 1
      Removed to: 1636 Hartford, Hartford, CT 2
      Military Service: 1637 Pequot War received lot Soldiers Field Hartford 1
      Resided: Neck Rd northern part of Hartford CT
      Founded: 13 Oct 1652 Church in Farmington CT 1
      Inventory: 28 Nov 1680 amounted to L312-01-06 1
      Removed to (2): About. 1641 Farmington, Hartford, CT 2
      Served: May 1651 Deputy to the Connecticut General Court from Farmington 1
      Freeman: 1659 Farmington Hartford Co CT 1
      Served 2: Oct 1655 Deputy to the Connecticut General Court from Farmington 1
      Served 3: May 1656 Deputy to the Connecticut General Court from Farmington 1
      Served 4: Oct 1656 Deputy to the Connecticut General Court from Farmington 1
      Property: Feb 1639/40 Assigned several parcels of land 1
      Will: Died Intestate 1
      Election/Elected: 4 Mar 1651/52 Constable of Farmington Hartford CT


      [12147] Though there is no record of John Brownson in
      Massachusetts Bay, it may be assumed he was among those men in
      or around Newton [Cambridge] who felt compelled to leave due to
      the crowded conditions of the Colony. "Within
      months of Hooker's arrival in Massachusetts Bay, there were
      stirrings of restlessness. [The Rev. Thomas Hooker had arrived
      on September 4, 1633, aboard the Griffin.]
      Reports reached the Boston area of fertile land along the
      Connecticut River in an area where Indians were depleted by
      small pox. Newtown was a town inconveniently shaped like an
      hour glass, eight times longer than it was wide. Its soil was
      found to be too sandy and dry for cultivation. On May 15, 1634,
      its inhabitants complained to the Massachusetts General Court
      'of straitness for want of land, especially meadow, and desired
      leave of the court to look either for enlargement or removal.'
      Watertown and Dorchester experienced the same 'want of
      accommodation.' By September the Newtown men had opted for
      removal to Connecticut _ during the summer of 1635, plans were
      laid in Dorchester, Newton, and Watertown to remove to
      Connecticut, and by the end of 1636 about 800 settlers from
      Massachusetts had formed three plantations on the west side of
      Connecticut River-Windsor, Wethersfield and Hartford."

      [12148] [12149]

      [12150] "five years after permission to settle was granted, the
      plantation of Tunxis became the town of Farmington"

      [12151]

      [12152] While the Brownson's and their contemporaries may
      have opted to emigrate from England for religious reasons,
      there were additional factors behind the migration. It has been
      shown "that local economic and agrarian distress was acutest in
      that part of England whence came the greatest numbers during
      the period of the Great Emigration. This was a widespread
      situation superimposed on the dead hand of the manorial system
      which for generations had been bleeding the patient tenantry
      white. The copy-holders of 1630 were exactly where there
      ancestors of 1330 left off - hopeless and helpless. The sweat
      of their brows gave them no return beyond mere existence. To
      say that the victims of such a system of serfdom to lords of
      manors could be influenced to abandon a life of profitless
      drudgery for religious reasons only, would be to convict our
      ancestors of ignoring their obvious future welfare and that of
      their children as freeholders. The opportunity to own land in
      fee simple was offered to them and was more important than the
      alleged desire for religious liberty"

      [12153]

      [12158] "Pequot Indians raided Wethersfield, murdered 6 men and 3
      women, and kidnapped 2 girls. It was the final provocation in a
      series of acts and set off what the English believed was a
      purely defensive war"||"was among the 90 militiamen who
      destroyed the Pequot tribe and gave to the other Indian tribes
      of southern New England visible demonstration of the military
      superiority of the new English settlers"

      [12159]

      [12161] "It should be understood that emigration to parts
      beyond seas was not an unrestricted right of Englishmen.
      Permission to leave England had to be obtained in each
      individual case from the Privy Council and this included
      persons of all classes - nobility, gentry, and merchant - who
      desired this privilege for any reason whatsoever. The records
      of the Privy Council are full of these grants _ persons
      desiring to emigrate thither were required to take the Oath of
      Supremacy and Conformity"

      [12162]

      [12163] If the Brownson's did sail upon the
      Defense, the following journal entry of Rev.
      Thomas Sheppard [traveling on that ship under the pseudonym of
      John Shepard] is relevant, "in our voyage upon the sea the Lord
      was very tender of me and kept me from sea-sickness. The ship
      we came in was very rotten and unfit for such a voyage, and
      therefore the first storm we had we had a very great leak,
      which did much appall and affect us. Yet the Lord discovered it
      unto us when we were thinking of returning back again; and much
      comforted our hearts. We had many storms in one of which my
      dear wife [Margaret, age 31] took such a cold, and got such
      weakness as that she fell into a consumption of which she
      afterwards died. And also the Lord preserved her, with the
      child [Thomas, age less than a year], from imminent and
      apparent death. For by the shaking of the ship in a violent
      storm her head was pitched against an iron bolt, and the Lord
      miraculously preserved the child and recovered my wife. This
      was a great affliction to me, and was a cause of many sad
      thoughts in the ship, how to behave myself when I came to New
      England. And so the Lord after many sad storms and wearisome
      days, and many longings to see the shore brought us to the
      sight of it upon October 2 Anno 1635. My dear wife's great
      desire being now fulfilled, which was to leave me in safety
      from the hands of mine enemies, and among God's people, and
      also the child under God's ordinances."

      [12164]

      [12165] the General Court ordered "for the satisfaction of those of
      Hartford & Windsore, who formerly mooved the Court for some
      inlargement of accomodaçon, and also for o[u]r neighbors of
      Wethersfeeld who desire a pantcon there" that a committee of
      six men was to view those parts of Tunxis Sepus "wch may be
      suitable for those purposes"

      [12166]

      [12167] "All Farmington inhabitants, the town's permanent residents,
      whether members of Hooker's church or not, were required by law
      to repair to some meetinghouse for church services whether in
      fine weather or foul. The long trip by horseback along a narrow
      cart path to Hartford was tedious under the best of
      circumstances; bad weather rendered the passage hazardous as
      well._The records indicate that Farmington families traveled to
      Hartford in all seasons; Farmington marriages, deaths, and
      baptisms were recorded in Hartford in all months of the year
      until October 1652."

      [12168]

      [12136] in England


      [12138] in the Connecticut records


      [12140] aboard the Defence "(Edward Bostock, master),
      which sailed from London. . . and arrived at Boston 8 Oct.
      1635. Passengers on the Defence included the
      celebrated Mr. Thomas Shepard, who had preached at Earl's Colne
      in 1630, and was later to become minister at Cambridge, Mass. .
      . Other passengers on the Defence were Mr. John
      Wilson, future teacher of the church at Boston; Mr. Hugh Peter,
      former pastor of the English church at Rotterdam and future
      minister at Salem, Mass.; Mr. John Norton, future minister at
      Ipswich, Mass., and later teacher of the church at Boston; Mr.
      John Jones, future minister at Concord, Mass., and Fairfield,
      Conn.; and most significantly for the Brownsons, Mr. Roger
      Harlakenden, aged 23, of Earl's Colne, with his wife Elizabeth
      (Bosvile), aged 18, and his sister Mabell, aged 22, the said
      Roger and Mabell being younger brother and sister of Richard
      Harlakenden, esquire (1606-1677), lord of the manor of Earl's
      Colne. The passenger list of the Defence is
      incomplete, and though the Brownson's name does not appear on
      it, there is no reason to believe that they did not come on
      that ship, and every reason to think they did"


      [12142] "Several parcells of land in Hertford upon the river of
      Cannecticott belonginge to John Brunson & to his heires
      forever.
      "One parcell on which his dwellinge house now standeth
      wth yards or gardens therein beinge containinge by Estimacon
      two acres (more or less) abuttinge upon the highway leading
      into the neck of the land to the East & on Willm Heatons land
      on the South.
      "One parcell lynge on the souldjers field contayninge by
      Estimacon foure acres (more or less) abuttinge upon the high
      way leading to the neck of land on the west & on the little
      River on the East & on Willm Heaton land the south & on Thom:
      Spencers land on the North.
      "One parcell more lyinge in the neck of land contayning
      by Estimacon one acre (more or less) abutting upon the Pale now
      common on the west & on the high way leading into the neck of
      land on the East & on Willm Heatons land on the South & on the
      neck of land on the North.
      "Another parcell lyinge in the neck of land contayning
      by Estimacon foure acres more or lesse abutting upon the
      Cowpasture on the west & on the South & on the neck of land on
      the North.
      "One parcell lying on the East side of the great river
      containing by Estimacon eight acres more or less abutting upon
      the great river on the west & on the land now common on the
      East & on Willm heatons land on the South & on Willm Phillups
      land on the North"


      [12145] as a deputy


      [12156] "This Court grant Adms. to the Children of the Dec. and appoint
      Marshall Grave to assist them in the division. There being no
      will made by the deceased, and finding the sayd John Brunson
      had in his lifetime allotted to his foure sons each of them a
      fifth part of his lands in Farmington, This Court confirms the
      same to them and their heirs forever; & whereas John had
      received short of his brothers £8, it is now considered in the
      distribution, as also what his daughters have formerly
      received. . .And the Court orders that there be payd towards
      the maintenance of the Widdow, yearly, the sum of £10 in good
      current pay during the time of her natural life, to be paid by
      the children in proportion, and more if necessity arise"


      [12170] was sworn Constable of||for one year


      [12172] "where as it is represented to this Court by George Kilbourn,
      Thomas Hopkins, John Bracy, Daniel Steele, & Hezekiah Hopkins,
      Heirs by marriage and descent from John Brunson, formerly of
      Farmington, decd. that there is a considerable Estate in Land
      of the sd. Decd that has not yet been Dist., and necessary to
      be apprised in order to be Dist. to and among the heirs of John
      Brunson, This Court grant Adms. on the sd. Real Estate which
      has not been Dist. unto the sd. Thomas Hopkins and John Bracy
      and order that they make an Invt. thereof and exhibit the same
      to this Court as soon as may be, for Dist."


      [12131] [S1163] Records of Farmington


      PAGE: p 323

      [12132] [S1167] Early Connecticut Probate Records, Hartford District, vol. 1


      PAGE: p 278 (Court record vol. IV, 1677-1687, p 52)

      [12133] [S1172] Records of Particular Court of CT 1639-1683


      PAGE: pp 81-82, 109

      [12134] [S1173] Public Records of Connecticut, 1665-1678


      [12135] [S1168] Brownson, Bronson, Brunson


      PAGE: p 196; Parish Registers of Holy Innocent's Church, Lamarsh, co.

      [12137] [S1163] Records of Farmington


      PAGE: p 323

      [12154] [S1163] Records of Farmington


      PAGE: p 323

      [12160] [S1174] Farmington in Connecticut


      PAGE: p 83

      [12139] [S1168] Brownson, Bronson, Brunson


      PAGE: p 196; Parish Registers of Holy Innocent's Church, Lamarsh, co.

      [12141] [S1168] Brownson, Bronson, Brunson


      PAGE: p 194

      [12143] [S1170] Original Distribution of Lands in Hartford


      PAGE: p 182-183 ; the original compiler noted "This record is in the

      [12144] [S1172] Records of Particular Court of CT 1639-1683


      PAGE: p 77

      [12146] [S1173] Public Records of Connecticut, 1665-1678


      [12155] [S1167] Early Connecticut Probate Records, Hartford District, vol. 1


      PAGE: p 278 (Court record vol. IV, 1677-1687, p 52)

      [12157] [S1167] Early Connecticut Probate Records, Hartford District, vol. 1


      PAGE: p 278 (Vol. IV: 52; Court record, page 32)

      [12169] [S1172] Records of Particular Court of CT 1639-1683


      PAGE: p 81-82

      [12171] [S1172] Records of Particular Court of CT 1639-1683


      PAGE: p 109

      [12173] [S1167] Early Connecticut Probate Records, Hartford District, vol. 1


      PAGE: p 278 (Vol. X: 179)

      [18727] [S1168] Brownson, Bronson, Brunson


      PAGE: p 196; Parish Registers of St. Andrew's Church, Halstead, co