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| Thomas Ford migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 1, p. 688) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm |
Contents |
Biography
Six presidents from the United States of America are descended from THOMAS FORD.[1]
Disputed Origins
There seems to be a considerable amount of confusing and almost contradictory information in print and on line about Thomas Ford and his family.
Due to the large number of Thomas Fords contemporary to each other, it is difficult to tease out which Thomas Ford was the emigrant. Famous researcher Jacobus tried to do so in "Thomas Ford of Dorchester, England, and Dorchester, Mass.," in The American Genealogist (TAG)[2]
Three possible set of parents for Thomas Ford have been suggested in the merged WikiTree profiles: John Ford and Jelyon Longe is the first set. A second set is William Ford and Alice Hulburt and the third set are John Ford and Allynor Waldron Since sources have not been cited for this information, all sets of parents have been removed from the profile.
TAG v 16 presents some extracts from English parish registers in Bridport, Dorset. The surname Ford was quite common in that area and there were baptismial and marriage records for at least two indivduals who could have been this person.[2]
Thomas Ford was in Bridport, co. Dorsetshire, England through the 1619 christening of his daughter Abigail. He was in Dorchester by late 1623, when his son was christened and buried there. Bridport is 15.5 miles west of Dorchester.
Numerous Ford families lived in Powerstock, six miles northeast of Bridport. Parish records there do not include names of parents on any of the vitals, nor do burial records include the age of the deceased. To make matters worse, there were two Thomas Fords of Powerstock contemporary to each other. One married 29 Jan 1607/8 Julian Dun; the other married 13 Dec 1610.
Jacobus draws our attention to the will of Thomas Forde, of Dorchester, co. Dorset, dated 20 Jan 1610/11, proved 7 May 1611, which states near the end: "residuary legatee and executor, Thomas, son of my brother, John Forde." Jacobus proposes that this Thomas, son of John, might have been the emigrant and also explain the move from Bridport to Dorchester.
Birth
Thomas Ford was born about 1591, Dorset, England.[3]
Alternatively, he was baptized 6 Jan 1590 in Powerstock, Westmilton, Dorsetshire, England. [It was originally known as ‘Poorstock’ but this was changed to ‘Powerstock’ when the Bridport Railway was built in 1857, possibly to avoid connotations of poor (rolling) stock] The two towns are 13 miles apart[4].
Immigration
He emigrated 30 May 1630 on the Mary & John.[3] He founded, with the rest of the company, the new Dorchester. He moved to Hartford, where he was an innkeeper, before removing to Windsor, Connecticut where he was a major landowner.
Marriage and Children
Note: Anderson Quote: Speaking of the TAG 16 article by Jacobus "In this article are some records for a Thomas Ford of Powerstock, Dorsetshire, which may or may not be relavant to our Thomas Ford." Thomas Ford's first wife may have been Joane Way
- "By his first wife, Joane Way, Thomas had a daughter.Clarence Almon Torrey proves that Major Cooke's mother married second, as his second wife, Thomas Ford... by his first wife, Joane Way, Thomas Ford had a daughter..."[5][2]
D L Jacobus builds on this, mentioning that the records can be inconclusive. Only one parent is named in baptisms and sometimes none, and burials just give a name no description. There were two Thomas Fords living and having children in Powerstock at the same time.[2]
"It is tempting to believe that Thomas Ford the emigrant was a young widower when he married the young widow Elizabeth (Charde) Cooke, in 1616... It is perhaps significant that the first child of Thomas and Elizabeth Ford was named Joan, a complement often paid to a deceased wife."[2]
- Mary or Sarah Ford was baptized at Powerstock (six miles north of Bridport) on August 18, 1612 (Mary) and 6 Jan 1612/3 (Sarah). The original record is not clear as to her parents. There is an unsubstantiated tradition that she married Aaron her step brother, but:
"Torrey had earlier presented evidence on Aaron Cooke which showed that he was a stepson rather than son-in-law of Thomas Ford.[5]"
He married second June 19, 1616 in Bridport, Dorsetshire, England Elizabeth Chard Cooke, widow of Aaron Cooke and mother of Great Migration immigrant Aaron Cooke.[3]
Thomas and Elizabeth had five children:
- Joanna, bp Bridport 8 Jun 1617 [TAG 16:41]; m Dorchester 6 Nov 1633 (Captain) Roger Clapp[2]
- Abigail, bp Bridport 8 Oct 1619 [Tag 16:41]; m abt 1635 as his second wife (Elder) John Strong [Waterman Gen 640-43]
- Thomas, bp Holy Trinity, Dorchester, Dorsetshire, 21 Sep 1623; bur there 6 Oct 1623[2]
- Hepzibah, bp Holy Trinity, Dorchester, Dorsetshire, 15 May 1625 [TAG 16:41]; m1 Richard Lyman, son of Richard Lyman; m2 Northampton 7 Oct 1664 John Marsh[2]
- Hannah, b/d Dorsetshire 1 Feb 1628/9[2]
He married third, in Hartford, Connecticut, on 7 Nov 1644 Ann Scott, widow[6] of Thomas Scott of Hartford, Connecticut.[7]
Thomas had 1 child with Ann:
- Ann, b abt 1657; m in Windsor 12 mar 1676/7 Thomas Newberry of Windsor.
Death
He died at Northampton 28 November 1676[3] or 9 November 1676.[8]
Timeline
From "Dwight's History of the Strong Family", orig. Albany 1871; reprinted Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1984:[9]
- 1623 - Thomas Ford and his family were living in Dorchester, Dorset, England and were members of Holy Trinity Church, whose rector was Rev. John White. John White has been called the "Founder of Massachusetts".
- 15 Oct 1629 - Rev. John White wrote to Gov. John Endicott, 'to appoint places of habitation for sixty families out of Dorsetshire which were to arrive the following spring." A meeting was held on 15 Oct. 1629, "at the Deputyes House". Twenty five members of the council which financed the planters were there and "MR. FORDE, wth divers others of the genalitie."
- This meeting was arranged so that the finance company would benefit for seven years by the shipping of furs. The government of the colony was to be placed into the hands of Gov. John Winthrop in New England.
- 1630 - Thomas Ford and his family came on the MARY AND JOHN, 1630. The passage costs were 5 pounds per adult, 10 pounds per horse, 3 pounds per ton of freight.
- 19 Oct 1630 - Thomas requested admission as a freeman.
- 18 May 1631 - Thomas took the oath in Dorchester, Massachusetts. To become a freeman at that time you had to be a member of the Church.
- 3 Apr. 1633 - "It is agreed that a doble rayle with morteses in the posts, of 10 foote distance one from the other, shall be set up on the marish.....by the owners of the Cowes vnder named, p'portionally. 20 foote to everye cowe." Thomas Forde owed two cows.
- 5 July 1636 - The last record of Thomas Ford in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
- 1637 - Thomas was one of four men who purchased a large tract from Sachem Tehano, which now includes Windsor Locks, the northern third of Windsor and the southern part of Suffield.
- 1637 - Granted fifty acres - Simsbury, Connecticut.
- Feb. 1639/40 - George Hull, "moved the court in behalf of Thomas Ford of Windsor, that in regard the workmen are much taken up and emplyed in making a bridge and meetinghouse with them, and his work hindered of impaling in the ground which was granted him by the court for a hog-park, that there may be granted him a year longer time for the fencing it in; which was upon the reasons aforesaid, condescended to."
- 1644 - Thomas removed to Hartford, Connecticut. He ran an "Ordinary", as an accomodation for strangers passing through. It was located in the Scott house located on the southwest corner of State and Front Streets.
- 17 Nov. 1645 - Diary of John Winthrop, Jr. - "reached the Inn of Thomas Ford at Hartford." The Inn was sold to Thomas Cadwell in 1652.
- Before 1672 - Thomas removed to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he spent the rest of his life.
- Nov 1676 - Thomas died in Northampton, Mass. Either 9 November[8] or 28 November[3]
Research Notes
Discrepancy in death date Anderson, in the Great Migration cites Pynchon Vital Record Collection for 28 November 1676. A copy of the Northampton Vital records gives the date of death as 9 November 1676.
Sources
- ↑ Gary Boyd Roberts, Ancestors of American Presidents, New England Historic Genealogical Society; Location: Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA; Date: 2009
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Jacobus, Donald and Clarence Almon Torrey. "Thomas Ford of Dorchester, England, and Dorchester, Mass." The American Genealogist, 16 (1939) 41-43. AmericanAncestors.org $
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins. Volume 1, A-F. (GMB) Boston, MA: NEHGS 1995. p. 688 Ancestry $ or AmericanAncestors $
- ↑ Miner Descent --Thomas Ford
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Torrey, Clarence Almon. "English Origin of Major Aaron Cooke." The American Genealogist. Volume 11 (1934), p 179-80. AmericanAncestors.org $
- ↑ Connecticut Vital Records to 1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928. Hartford, Page 117
- ↑ Barbour, Lucius Barnes. Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: Baltimore, Maryland, 1977' p. 495-496
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FC9P-CMJ : 14 February 2020), Thomas Ford, 1676.
- ↑ Dwight, Benjamin: The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong of Northampton, Mass., Albany, N. Y.: Joel Munsell 1871. p 17- 18.
- Stiles, Henry R.. The History of Ancient Windsor, The New Hampshire Publishing Company, Somersworth, New Hampshire, 1976. Originally published in 1892. Two Volumes. (v1 is online here [1] with many mentions of Thomas.)
- Clarence Almon Torrey, Elizabeth Petty Bentley, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Seventh Printing, 2004
- The Settlement of Windsor, Connecticut by the Windsor 350th Anniversary Committee.
See also:
- "England, Dorset, Parish Registers, 1538-1936," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QJDH-LRJC : 29 July 2017), Thomas Ford and Joane Way, 13 Dec 1610; Marriage, citing Poorstock, Poorstock, Dorset, England, Record Office, Dorchester; FHL microfilm 2,427,562.