Elizabeth Fones: Founder and Survivor

Elizabeth Fones

My tenth great-grandmother, Elizabeth Fones, is among the most well-known of my early ancestors, and her life has inspired numerous books and articles in the centuries since her death. As I learned more about her story, I was struck by what a remarkable survivor she was, demonstrating a level of courage, independence, and resilience that was extraordinary for a woman living in the seventeenth century. Her choices often defied the rigid expectations of her time, and it is no surprise that her legacy continues to resonate today. 

Elizabeth was born on January 21, 1610 in Groton, Suffolk. This is in the east of England, between London and Norfolk. Her parents were Thomas Fones and Anne Winthrop. Thomas was an apothecary, rather like a pharmacist, who ran a successful shop in London. 

Thomas ran an apothecary at the sign of the Three Fawns on Old Bailey Street, recorded there in 1628. In the apothecary, he prepared herbal preparations to help people heal from, deal with, or prevent illnesses. His daughter Elizabeth and an apprentice worked with him and learned the art. In addition to his pharmacy responsibilities, Thomas offered general medical advice and a range of services such as surgery and midwifery. He also operated a retail shop selling ingredients for medicines, tobacco and patent medicines. By the 15th century, his profession had gained the status of skilled practitioner. Such work marked the beginnings of chemistry and pharmacology. [Source: The Frost Genealogy published by The New England Historic Genealogical Society via Wikitree]

The Fones family lived in rooms above the shop in London. They were materially successful, and Elizabeth was well educated. 

Elizabeth's mother, Anne Winthrop, was the daughter of Adam Winthrop, a London clothier. Adam had inherited this trade from his father, Adam Winthrop, Sr., an enterprising and socially ambitious man who greatly raised the family's fortunes.

He [Adam] was born in Lavenham, Suffolk, and came to London in 1515 where he was apprenticed to a clothworker. He became a Freeman of the City in 1526 and was successful in his trade. However, he was noted for being, "a little too enterprising for his own immediate good" and in 1543 he served time in the Fleet Prison, paying £600 for his release: "His offense was negotiating with foreigners contrary to an edict of the King of England". Despite the fine, in the following year (1544) he purchased the Manor of Groton, a church property seized by King Henry VIII. He was granted a coat of arms in 1548 and in 1551 he was named Master of the Clothworkers Company. [Source: American Aristocracy]

A contemporary view of Groton Manor in Suffolk

Anne's father, Adam Winthrop, Jr., was raised in the manor at Groton before taking up the mantle in his family's clothing business. Adam and his wife, Anne Browne, had three daughters, Anne, Jane, and Lucy, and one son, John Winthrop.

The union of the Winthrop and Fones families with the marriage of Thomas and Anne united two very successful and upwardly mobile merchant class London families. However, they had become Puritans, and their radical religious beliefs set their children on a new path.

Elizabeth was the eldest surviving child of Thomas Fones and Anne Winthrop. Their first child, Dorothy Fones, was born in October 1608 and died just two months later. Elizabeth was born in 1610, and four more Fones babies were born in the following years: Martha, Ann, Samuel, and John. In 1619, when Elizabeth was just nine years old, her mother died. Thomas Fones, busy with his apothecary business in London, enlisted his eldest children, Elizabeth and Martha, to help out in his shop. Elizabeth learned responsibility and resourcefulness young. However, ten years later, at the age of 19, she threw caution to the wind and committed to a reckless and unsanctioned love affair that would change her life.

Graphic showing the marriages of the Winthrop and Fones cousins

Born in 1608, Henry Winthrop was the second son of John Winthrop and his first wife, Mary Forth. John was Anne Winthrop Fones' brother, and this made Henry and Elizabeth first cousins. The Winthrop family was wealthy, and at the age of 21, Henry took his funds to Barbados, where he hoped to start a tobacco plantation. That venture did not come together as planned, and Henry returned to England in 1629, where he fell head over heels for his cousin, Elizabeth Fones. The two started an intense romance that their families disapproved of, but could not seem to extinguish. On April 2, 1629, Thomas Fones wrote to John Winthrop, saying, "your sonne hath wooed and wonne my daughter Besse for a wyfe and they both pretend to have proceeded so far that there is no recalling of yt at least promise of Mariage and all without my knowledg or consent what grief this is to me I leaue yt to your consideracion being no fitt mach for ether of them. I will not multiply argumentes agaynst my Nephew being your sonne but his hart I see is much to bigg for his estates." 

After signing his name to the letter, Henry again took up his pen and added a postscript, saying, "I cannot write yow the many trobles of my mind what to do for my Nephew sayes playnly yf he cannot have my good will to have my daughter he will have her without: and though I have entreated him to forbeare my howse a while he will not but comes and stayes at vnfitting howres he lay here till last night: I am sure he is in debt for his owne occasions, I doubt far and I feare engaged for others whose company he vseth and they have had thinges so common betweene them of whom formerly I have given him frendly warning but I am weak and cannot I see now be master in myne owne howse and tis hard medling betweene the barke and the tree for yf he were not so neare allied to me and the sonne of him whom I so respect I could hardly beare such braving oppositions in mine owne howse: but I long to heare from yow for I doubt he will draw hir forth of mine owne howse and soddaynly marry hir without any Scrupules." [source: Massachusetts Historical Society]

In plain English, Henry and Elizabeth had betrothed themselves without permission from their families and refused to back down when Thomas Fones disapproved. Henry was visiting Elizabeth at her father's house at all hours, perhaps staying the night, and vowing that he would marry Elizabeth with or without the permission of her father. In his letter, Thomas also said that Henry had been incurring debt to procure flashy clothes. In their youth and passion, Elizabeth and Henry were behaving recklessly. Thomas wrote this letter from his deathbed, too sick to fully take charge of the situation, and he died on April 15, just eleven days later. Thomas Fones had remarried in 1621, to Priscilla Burgess, but his will gave responsibility for his daughters Elizabeth and Martha to John Winthrop. He put their uncle in charge of the young women's affairs until they were age 21 or married. Taking up this mantle, Winthrop decided to allow the marriage of Henry and Elizabeth, and they were wed ten days after Thomas' death, on April 25, 1629 at the Church of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate, in London.

St. Sepulchre in London. I took this photo in April 2025.

In coming years, there were two more unions between these families. In 1631, Elizabeth's younger sister, 20-year old Martha Fones, married Henry's elder brother, her cousin John Winthrop, Jr. In 1630, Henry and John Winthrop's younger brother, Forth Winthrop, became engaged to Elizabeth and Martha Fones' stepsister Ursula Sherman, the daughter of Priscilla Burgess Fones, the second wife of Thomas Fones. Sadly, Forth died suddenly, at the age of 20, before the wedding could take place.

The marriage of Henry Winthrop and Elizabeth Fones took place during a time of heightened discontent among Puritans in England. Puritans had been emigrating to the colonies in New England in small groups since 1620, when the Mayflower passengers founded Plymouth. This emigration escalated dramatically with the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

In 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Company had obtained from King Charles I a charter empowering the company to trade and colonize in New England between the Charles and Merrimack rivers. The grant was similar to that of the Virginia Company in 1609, the patentees being joint proprietors with rights of ownership and government. The intention of the crown was evidently to create merely a commercial company with what, in modern parlance, would be called stockholders, officers, and directors. By a shrewd and legally questionable move, however, the patentees decided to transfer the management and the charter itself to Massachusetts. By this move, they not only paved the way for local management, but they established the assumption that the charter for a commercial company was in reality a political constitution for a new government with only indefinable dependence upon the imperial one in England. [source: Britannica.com]

In the summer of 1629, a preliminary fleet of six ships, carrying about 300 emigrants, livestock, and supplies, sailed from England to Salem to make preparations for the Massachusetts Bay Company. On October 20, 1629, John Winthrop was elected governor, upon his assurance that he would relocate to Massachusetts with a larger group in 1630. Plans were underway for a massive migration, with ships scheduled to set sail in March 1630.

John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts

The planned departure in March 1630 was delayed by poor weather, but John Winthrop finally set sail aboard the ship Arbella, leaving from the Isle of Wight, on April 8, 1630. The Arbella was accompanied by at least three other ships, including Talbot, which bore John's son Henry Winthrop. A total of eleven ships, carrying approximately 700 to 1,000 people, made their way from England to the colonies in the coming months, in a mass migration aboard ships known as the Winthrop Fleet.

A painting of the Winthrop Fleet at sea [Source: The Winthrop Society]

Elizabeth was heavily pregnant when her husband and father in law sailed for the colonies. She stayed behind in England when they departed. Henry and Elizabeth's daughter, Martha Johanna Winthrop, was born in Groton on May 9, 1630, while the Arbella and Talbot were still at sea. Tragically, Henry would never get to meet his daughter.

Henry Winthrop arrived in Salem aboard Talbot on July 2, 1630. That same day, Henry eagerly joined a group of men who set out to explore the area. He saw a canoe, almost certainly belonging to Native Americans, on the opposite side of the North River as they walked along its banks. He jumped in the river and swam towards the canoe to investigate, but a few minutes later he was either overcome by the current or seized with cramps, and drowned in front of the party of men, who were unable to help him. Henry was 22.

On July 30, John Winthrop wrote a letter to his wife, Margaret Tyndall Winthrop, who had remained in England.

We have met with many sad and discomfortable things, as thou shalt hear after; and the Lord's hand hath been heavy upon myself in some very near to me. My son Henry! My son Henry! Ah poor child! Yet it grieves me much more for my dear daughter. The Lord strengthen and comfort her heart, to bear this cross patiently. I know thou wilt not be wanting to her in this distress. Yet for all these things (I praise my God,) I am not discouraged; nor do I cause to repent or despair of those good days here, which will make amends for all. [Source: Life and Letters of John Winthrop by Robert C. Winthrop (1869)]

The news must have devastated Elizabeth, who had married Henry for love, and now faced a life without him. John Winthrop made arrangements to bring his wife Margaret to Massachusetts, along with Elizabeth and her infant daughter Martha. All three arrived safely on 2 November 1631 aboard the Lyon. Elizabeth's sister, Martha Fones Winthrop and her husband John Winthrop, Jr. also emigrated to the colonies in 1631, arriving in October, just a month before Elizabeth.

Once in Massachusetts, John Winthrop arranged for Elizabeth to remarry, and she wed Robert Feake in early 1632. In England, Robert had been a goldsmith and jeweler who was trained by his father, James Feake, in that trade. Upon emigrating to the Massachusetts Bay Company, likely in early 1631, Feake established himself in the settlement of Watertown. He was educated and had financial resources, but he had also found favor with John Winthrop, which must have worked to his advantage. In Watertown, Robert became a landowner and militia officer, and he served as a selectman. It is not clear whether he and Elizabeth had a romantic rapport of any kind, or whether they were each making the best of their circumstances, but together they had five children over the next 15 years.

Elizabeth Feake (b. 1633; d. 1675; m. John Underhill)
Hannah Feake (b. 1637; d. 1677; m. John Bowne)
John Feake (b. 1638; d. 1724; m. Elizabeth Prior)
Robert Feake, Jr. (b. 1642; d. 1669)
Sarah Feake (b. 1647; d. 1647) 

In 1640, Elizabeth and Robert joined with Daniel Patrick to purchase land from Native Americans in the area that would become Greenwich Point, Connecticut. They called it "Elizabeth's Neck," and they are recognized today as founders of Greenwich. However, by 1640, Robert was unwell. His malady is not named specifically in historical records, but it seems to have been a mental illness, and he experienced a steep decline between 1640 and 1647. In April 1642, when Elizabeth and Daniel Patrick signed an act of submission to Dutch jurisdiction for the Greenwich settlement, Robert was not present. Elizabeth signed the act of submission without him, and it was said that Robert was absent due to illness, perhaps even having traveled to Boston or to England for treatment of some kind. 

Elizabeth's Neck, now known as Greenwich Point, across the cove from downtown Greenwich [Source: Greenwich Historical Society]

Reports of Robert's status, and Elizabeth's actions between 1640 and 1647 are inconclusive, but there were whispers that Robert had become disassociated from reality and obsessed with the spiritual, to the point that he could no longer care for his property or family. 

Testimony was later given in court by John Bishop, Richard Lawe, and Francis Bell that Robert Feake “was a man whose God-fearing heart was so absorbed with spiritual and heavenly things that he little thought of the things of this life, and took neither heed nor care of what was tendered to his external property,” and so allowed his wife to dominate him.” [Source: Moser Genealogy]

Later, there would be suspicions that mental illness ran in the family, as Robert's aunt, Mary Feake, was institutionalized due to insanity in England. Some wondered if the fumes created by melting metals in the jewelry trade had affected the health of Feake family members.

In the 1640s, with her husband unable to fulfill his role at home, Elizabeth grew close to the family's property manager, William Hallett, and at some point they embarked on an affair. Whether Robert knew of this affair and if it exacerbated his disconnect from reality is not known, although it was a rumor at the time. There are a lot of different ways this period in Elizabeth's life can be viewed. Some have written of her as a determined survivor who made plans to care for herself and her children in the absence of a stable husband, and as a woman stuck in a loveless, declining marriage who found love again with the man caring for her property. Others have criticized her for being unfaithful to Robert Feake, and perhaps abandoning him during difficult times, when he needed care. We do not know exactly what happened in the Fones-Feake marriage, nor what specifically was amiss with Robert Feake's health. The outcome, however, was that in early 1647, Robert Feake returned to England, leaving his family in Connecticut. This was not a permanent move, but it was the end of his marriage and his time in Greenwich. In 1661, he was back in Watertown, penniless and ill, and the city had to pay people to care for him because he was incapable of looking after himself.

By 1647, Elizabeth was firmly in a relationship with William Hallett. Their first child, William Hallett, Jr. was born in October 1648. Regardless of how her marriage to Robert Feake had broken down, the fact remained that during the beginning of her relationship with William, Elizabeth was still married to Robert. This scandalized their community and made Elizabeth and William pariahs. There is much speculation as to when Elizabeth and William were actually married. The Compendium of American Genealogy states that William Hallett was married to Elizabeth (Fones) Feake, the divorced wife of Robert Feake, in 1647. However, there are questions about this, and about whether Elizabeth was ever legally divorced. 

The other issue upending Elizabeth's life in 1647 was that her son-in-law, Thomas Lyon, the husband of her eldest child, Martha Winthrop, decided to take this moment of uncertainty to lay claim to Elizabeth's property, in collaboration with Tobias Feake, Robert Feake's nephew.

...Elizabeth Feake and William Hallett tried to sell a piece of property jointly owned by Robert Feake and Daniel Patrick. Thomas Lyon and Tobias Feake viewed that property as theirs. They began to spread salacious rumors about Elizabeth and William, claiming they had no right to sell the land. Lyon had moved into the Feake household, and wrote a letter to John Winthrop, his wife’s grandfather, claiming William had gotten Elizabeth pregnant. He also wrote to the English authorities in the New Haven Colony. Tobias Feake chimed in with the claim that William Hallett did not have a legitimate right to sell the property. The magistrates in Stamford issued an edict: If Elizabeth wanted to stay in Greenwich and keep her property, William Hallett would have to leave. If she left Greenwich, the Puritan authorities in Stamford would seize her children and her real estate. [Source: New England Historical Society]

Elizabeth and William fled together to New London, Connecticut, and took shelter with her cousin, John Winthrop, Jr. In their absence, Peter Stuyvesant, the leader of New Amsterdam, seized their property. John Winthrop, Jr., worked directly with Stuyvesant on behalf of his cousin, and finally reached an agreement with him that allowed Elizabeth and William to return to their land in Greenwich in 1649. In 1650, they had another son, Samuel Hallett. 

In April 1642, Elizabeth and Daniel Patrick had signed an act of submission to the Dutch for the Greenwich settlement. However, the English also had their eye on this land. Between 1640 and 1650, the area was plagued with disputes between English and Dutch interests and battles with the native peoples in the area. The native Siwanoy and Munsee tribes were part of the broader Lenape nation. Multiple raids and many murders occurred due to tension between the natives and the white settlers. In 1650, the Dutch relinquished Greenwich, and the town was formally incorporated into the English-controlled New Haven Colony. It later became a separate township. Elizabeth and William did not feel welcome or safe under English rule, and they left Greenwich to move into Dutch territory on Long Island. Peter Stuyvesant granted them 12 acres in present day Astoria, Queens, near Hellgate. 

Over time, William and Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett amassed a 2,200-acre plantation in Astoria from Bowery Bay to Sunswick Creek. [Source: New England Historical Society]

The area where Elizabeth and William owned property in Astoria

Elizabeth died in 1673 in Astoria. In her 63 years she suffered the loss of two husbands and one child, but survived despite these tragedies. She owned land under her own name, committed to marriages despite opposition from others, and always stayed one step ahead of circumstances that would have impoverished or isolated her. The house that Elizabeth and Robert Feake built in Greenwich between 1640-1645 still stands on Shore Road.

The Feake-Ferris House in Greenwich

I descend from Elizabeth's daughter Hannah Feake, who married John Bowne in 1656. Hannah and John became Quakers and were enormously influential in New York and within the Quaker community. They both, separately, undertook missionary trips to England and Holland to advocate for Quakers, and were skilled organizers for their cause.

For deeper historical insight on Elizabeth Fones, the Winthrops, and their world, here are four books to read:

• Insubordinate Spirit: A True Story of Life and Loss in Earliest America, 1610–1665 by Missy Wolfe (A modern, well‑researched biography focusing on Elizabeth Fones’s life.)
• The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton (A historical novel based on Elizabeth’s life)
• The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop by Edmund S. Morgan
• John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father by Tom Lewis

Genealogy Goals for 2026

It's a new year and time to set my genealogy-related goals for 2026.

In 2025 I only wrote three blog posts, one about my Kilcullen ancestors in Sligo, Ireland, and two about my Chandler and Brown ancestors and Chandler and Dane ancestors in colonial America. Despite the lack of writing, I did a lot of research, mainly around those same ancestors, in anticipation of future posts. I also visited American Ancestors in Boston and scanned a bunch of books relating to New England ancestors. I am still reading through those scans and working to align the details with my own research.

Goals for 2026:

• Write a follow-up to my Kilcullen post about the generation of Kilcullens who left Sligo for America (I am still in progress on this research)
• Write a follow up to a 2015 post I wrote about some Dickson relatives, having recently learned some very disturbing information about one of them
• Continue to read through the documents from American Ancestors related to the Chaplin, Ingersoll, Scoville, and Webster families.
• Finally write the post I started drafting over a year ago about my 10th great-grandmother, Elizabeth Fones

Wishing anyone who reads this little blog a very happy 2026! May this be the year you smash all those brick walls.

The Dane and Chandler Families and the 1692 Andover Witchcraft Hysteria

An illustration of the hanging of a convicted witch

In my last post, I shared information about our Chandler ancestors, who emigrated from Bishop's Stortford, England to Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1637. The matriarch of that family, my 10th great-grandmother Annis Bayford Chandler, married as her second husband, John Dane, after the death of her first husband, William Chandler. This was not the only Chandler-Dane marriage.

In 1658, Annis' son William Chandler married John Dane's granddaughter, Mary Dane. Mary was the daughter of John's son John Dane, Jr. and his wife Eleanor Clark.

In 1690, at the age of 75, John Dane's son Francis Dane married Annis Chandler's daughter Hannah, who was then a widow of 60.

The Dane family, while related to me only via marriage, was at the center of the witch trials that plagued the Massachusetts towns of Salem and Andover in 1692. Theirs is such a fascinating story and historical connection that it is worth detailing here, even though the Danes are not biological relations.

Multiple descendants of my 10th great-grandparents William Chandler and Annis Bayford Chandler, and the children of my 9th great-grandfather John Chandler, were also caught up in the witchcraft accusations in Andover. Two were accused, and four leveled accusations that resulted in executions. 

This horrific time in American history had few heroes, but in Andover, Rev. Francis Dane, the stepson of Annis Bayford Chandler, rose to the occasion.

Rev. Francis Dane

Francis Dane in Andover, Massachusetts

Francis Dane was born in about 1615 in England, likely in Bishop's Stortford, and came to the American colonies with his parents, John Dane and Frances Bowyer, by 1639. The family settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. As an adult, Francis moved from Roxbury to Andover, Massachusetts, located about 25 miles northwest of Roxbury. In 1641, he married Elizabeth Ingalls, the daughter of Edmund Ingalls and Annis Telbe. The Ingalls family settled in Lynn, Massachusetts after immigrating from England sometime between 1629-1632. 

Between 1641 and 1656, Francis and Elizabeth had six children together. Elizabeth died in 1676, at the age of 56. All six of their children were adults at that time. A year later, Francis married the widow Mrs. Mary Thomas, who died in 1689, after twelve years of marriage. The following year, he married Hannah Chandler, the widow of George Abbot. Less than two years after this marriage, Hannah and Francis found themselves at the epicenter of Andover's worst moments.

An aerial view of North Andover showing the North Parish Church. [Source]

The Church in Andover

Francis Dane was the minister of North Parish Church in Andover, Massachusetts. He was appointed to lead the church in Andover in 1648. He did so for 48 years, until his death in 1697, becoming one of the most important figures in Andover, and its moral center. However, as he aged, Andover's citizens began agitating for change.

... there is no record of any discord between Dane and his congregation from 1649 to 1680, although historian Sarah L. Bailey calls the reality of such a situation into question in her Historical Sketches of Andover. Whether flawless or not, it is evident that Dane was a highly respected and powerful member of the Andover community, comparable only to Dudley Bradstreet, former Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Around 1680, church members began to complain about the capabilities of Dane and requested a younger, more vibrant minister for their church. In January of 1682, the congregation called the young Rev. Thomas Barnard, a recent graduate of Harvard and protege of Cotton Mather. Soon thereafter, the congregation stopped paying Dane's salary and gave Barnard a full salary. Dane petitioned the General Court in Boston, and the Andover church was required to pay Dane thirty pounds a year to share pastoral duties with Barnard. The church decided to pay Barnard fifty pounds a year, which was much less than Barnard expected, with the stipulation that when Dane retired or died, Barnard would receive the full eighty pounds annual salary. [source: History of Andover: from its Settlement to 1829 by Abiel Abbot]

The jostling for authority and salary meant Barnard and Dane started their relationship as opponents rather than colleagues. It must have been difficult for them to work together as real partners, as they were not being paid the same fee for their ministry. Barnard was young (just 22 in 1682), ambitious, and eager to assume full authority in Andover's church. Barnard had many supporters in town, but Dane hung onto his position and his prominent role in Andover, not ready to step aside. It was into this dynamic that the fear of witchcraft, ignited in nearby Salem Village, exploded in 1692.

Andover in 1886, nearly 200 years after the witchcraft hysteria

Martha Carrier, Smallpox, and Witchcraft

The first person to be accused of witchcraft in Andover was Martha Allen Carrier. Martha was Francis Dane's niece by marriage -- the daughter of his wife Elizabeth Ingalls' sister, Faith Ingalls Allen. Martha married Thomas Carrier in 1674 and settled in Billerica, Massachusetts. However, Thomas and Martha were embroiled in conflict there, and faced legal charges that they had engaged in fornication prior to their marriage (irrefutable, since Martha was seven months pregnant at their wedding). The Carriers were eventually asked to leave Billerica. Rumors of problematic behavior followed Thomas and Martha back to Andover in the mid-to-late 1680s, where they moved in with Martha's father. 

In Andover, Martha became known as difficult and argumentative. She engaged in conflict with neighbors. Then, in 1690, her family contracted smallpox. Martha, Thomas, and their five children survived the disease, but Martha's father, Andrew Allen, and her two brothers, Andrew and John, died, along with other members of the extended family. Ultimately, this outbreak killed thirteen people in Andover. Many already disliked Martha, and the smallpox outbreak made things worse. 

Martha's sister, Mary Allen, married a farmer named Roger Toothaker. Roger also practiced as a doctor, but he was more of a folk healer. Medical practices in the American colonies were very different than what we experience today. Roger would have primarily prescribed herbs and folk remedies to ill patients. Like others of his time, he was superstitious, and believed witchcraft responsible for many diseases. In the 1680s, Roger left his family in Billerica to set up a practice in Salem Village. At that time, what we think of as Salem was two towns: Salem Town, a prosperous coastal settlement, and Salem Village (now called Danvers), a poorer and less-populated agricultural area to the northwest of the town. In Salem Village, Toothaker ascribed many ailments to witchcraft, and claimed that he knew counter-magic to cure those ills, causing locals to view him with suspicion. The increasing concern about Roger Toothaker in Salem Village in the early 1690s also cast aspersion on his sister-in-law, Martha Carrier. 

Then, in late 1691, Martha got into an argument with her neighbor, Benjamin Abbot. There was a tiff about their property line and where livestock grazed. After this argument, Abbot became ill, and he accused Martha of cursing him, calling her a witch. This lit match, tossed on top of Andover's struggle for church authority, and the witchcraft accusations surfacing in nearby Salem Village, ignited a frenzy. 

An illustration of a witch trial in progress, created in 1892. [Source: Library of Congress]

The Witch Trials Begin

In 1692, Francis Dane and Thomas Barnard were now ten years into their co-leadership of the community church. That February, accusations of witchcraft were made in Salem Village, and by March, arrests and a full-blown hysteria were in motion. The madness was poised to spread through surrounding communities, and in the spring of 1692, it did.

On May 28, 1692, Joseph Houlton and John Walcott of Salem Village filed a witchcraft complaint against Martha Carrier and ten other people: Elizabeth Fosdick, Wilmot Redd, Sarah Rice, Elizabeth Howe, John Alden, William Proctor, John Flood, Arthur Abbot, Mary Toothaker (Martha Carrier’s sister, the wife of Roger Toothaker), and Mary’s daughter, Martha Emerson.

Martha Carrier was taken to Salem Town, where she was examined by Judges John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin. Several of the afflicted girls of Salem Village, including Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Hubbard, and Mary Walcott, were brought to the court and asked to testify as to whether Martha had harmed them with witchcraft. The girls accused Martha of tormenting them and forcing them to sign the devil’s book. Carrier denied all charges, calling the proceedings shameful and insisting, "...I am wronged. It is a shameful thing that you should mind these folks that are out of their wits." The girls then claimed Martha had killed 13 people in Andover, likely referring to the smallpox outbreak that locals blamed on her family in 1690. When one of the girls fell into fits, the judges ordered Martha bound, and the record noted that the afflicted then felt “sudden ease.” Following her examination, Carrier was indicted on two counts of witchcraft and returned to jail. Francis Dane spoke in Martha's defense, saying that she was simply a victim of gossip.

Martha Carrier's children were also targeted. Her sons, Richard and Andrew, were imprisoned in Salem Town. Fellow prisoner John Proctor wrote to Governor William Phips claiming that the boys had been tortured in jail, brutally tied at their necks until blood came from their noses. Richard and Andrew later testified against their mother, surely in an attempt to save their own lives. Martha's seven year old daughter Sarah was also accused and jailed. She confessed under duress, claiming that her mother had forced her into witchcraft. 

As Martha sat in prison, Elizabeth Ballard of Andover fell gravely ill with a mysterious fever, and when doctors could not help her, her husband Joseph Ballard sought an alternative solution. He brought two of the afflicted girls from Salem Village, possibly Ann Putnam and Mary Walcott, to Andover. Suspecting that Elizabeth was cursed by witches, Joseph hoped the girls could reveal those causing his wife’s illness. At a meeting hosted by Thomas Barnard, the girls accused residents, including Ann Foster and William Barker, of witchcraft. They also pointed the finger at Ann Foster's daughter, Mary Lacey, and her granddaughter, also named Mary Lacey. All were subsequently arrested and sent to trial in Salem Town, marking the start of a wave of accusations. When William Barker was brought in for questioning, his niece, Mary Barker, and his wife's niece, Mary Marston, were also detained. They all confessed to witchcraft and accused others of coercing them, surely in an attempt to save themselves, and this led to further arrests. The accused deflected blame onto family members and neighbors, and made colorful confessions, hoping to shift the focus of authorities.

By August 1692, the Salem witchcraft hysteria had fully engulfed Andover. On August 11, Francis Dane's daughter, Abigail Dane Faulkner, was arrested on charges of witchcraft. On August 25, residents Mary Osgood, Eunice Frye, Deliverance Dane, Sarah Wilson, and Abigail Barker were accused of witchcraft. Abigail Barker was Francis Dane's granddaughter. Deliverance Dane was his daughter-in-law, the wife of Nathaniel Dane. On August 29, Dane's daughter Sarah Dane Johnson was arrested, along with her daughter, Sarah. Three more of Dane's grandchildren were arrested in the weeks that followed.

In response to the accusations, Andover town selectmen arranged "touch tests," bringing the afflicted girls from Salem Village to Andover to identify supposed witches. The touch tests were a method used to determine the guilt of those accused. Magistrates ordered the afflicted girls to touch an accused person. If their fits stopped or lessened upon that touch, it was taken as proof that the accused was the witch harming them. The idea was based on the belief that a witch’s power flowed physically to their victim, and that direct contact could interrupt the spell. 

Francis Dane was opposed to the touch tests, but Thomas Barnard was in favor. Reports differ as to whether Barnard helped make arrangements for the touch tests, and how involved he was in the proceedings, but he was undoubtedly supportive of the process. Barnard’s perspective was influenced not only by the ongoing trials in Salem Town, but the sway of Cotton Mather, whose writings and sermons during that time period justified aggressive action against witchcraft as a divine duty. Barnard had been at Harvard at the same time as Cotton, and would certainly have been familiar with his theology. In contrast, Francis Dane was an outspoken critic of the proceedings. Having lived through earlier witchcraft accusations in the region, he cautioned against the use of spectral evidence and the reliance on coerced confessions. Unfortunately, Andover was too far gone to heed his warning.

On August 19, 1692, Martha Carrier was executed by hanging at Gallows Hill in Salem Town. 

On September 7, 1692, another wave of accusations was made against Andover women, and Mary Marston, Hannah Tyler, Martha Tyler, Mary Bridges, and Mary's daughter (also named Mary Bridges) were taken for questioning. Two weeks later, dozens of Andover residents were jailed and pressured into confessing to witchcraft. As the hysteria spread and arrests continued, Andover soon had more accused witches than any other New England town. 

The elite of Andover were caught off guard. Captain Osgood, Deacon Frye, and other pillars of the church urged their friends and family members to confess, believing the message preached by Thomas Barnard that confession was the way to eternal life. And, “confess” they did, hoping that confession would keep them from being tried and executed. However, once numerous wives and children were in prison, the church pillars began to realize that they had been deceived by the fanaticism of their younger minister, Thomas Barnard. Finally comprehending the full implications of the hysteria, they turned to their older minister, Reverend Francis Dane, and formed a resistance movement. Under his guidance, they started to take the strong steps required to free the imprisoned members of their families. [source]

Salem Village and Andover are marked with red stars. Salem Town is outlined in red dots.

Francis Dane Attempts to Rein in the Madness

As dozens of Andover residents were accused and imprisoned following the touch tests, Francis Dane became increasingly outspoken. He circulated letters and petitions to colonial authorities questioning the evidence used in trials and protesting the imprisonment of so many respected citizens. His standing as Andover’s senior minister lent weight to these objections, though his own family’s involvement made his position precarious. He was accused of witchcraft himself while advocating for those who had been jailed, but was never arrested.

On September 22, 1692, Mary Parker of Andover was hanged in Salem, having been convicted of witchcraft. Dozens of other women languished in prison, some spared from the gallows only because they were pregnant, like Francis Dane's accused daughter, Abigail Faulkner. By October, as public confidence in the trials waned and leading ministers in Boston, including Cotton Mather, began to urge caution, Thomas Barnard started to pull back his support of the trials. Barnard, likely influenced by Dane’s steady opposition to the witch trials and the growing local outrage, joined his fellow minister in advocating mercy and moderation, acknowledging that the proceedings had gone too far. Together, Dane and Barnard helped organize petitions for the release of the accused Andover residents and worked to restore unity to their divided congregation.

On October 18, 1692, twenty-six men in Andover, including Francis Dane and Thomas Barnard, signed a letter written to Massachusetts Governor William Phips. In it, they claimed that the accusations had spiraled out of control and that good, God-fearing people had been arrested and were suffering in prison, causing extreme hardship to their families. They said that people had wrongly confessed out of fear and pressure from their terrified relatives. The letter-writers claimed that the accusers were under a diabolical influence, and that no one could think themselves safe in such an environment.

Now though we would not appear as Advocates for any who shall be found guilty of so horrid a crime, but we heartily desire that this place, and the whole land, may be purged from that great wickedness: yet if any of our freinds and neighbours have been misrepresented, as tis possible some of them have been; wee would crave leave (if it might be without offence) to speak something in their behalf, haveing no other desighn therein, then that the truth may appear. We can truly give this Testimony of the most of them belonging to this Town, that have been accused, that they never gave the least occasion (as we hear of) to their neerest relations or most intimate acquaintance, to suspect them of witchcraft. Severall of the women that are accused were members of this church in full Communion, and had obtained a good report, for their blameless conversation, and their walking as becometh woemen professing godliness. But whereas it may be alledged, that the most of our people that have been apprehended for witchcraft, have upon Examination confessed it. To which we Answer that we have nothing to plead for those that freely and upon conviction own themselves guilty; but we apprehend the case of some of them to be otherwise. for from the information we have had and the discourse some of us have had with the prisoners, we have reason to think that the extream urgency that was used with some of them by their friends and others who privately examined them, and the fear they were then under, hath been an inducement to them to own such things, as we cannott since find thay are conscious of; and the truth of what we now declare, we judge will in time more plainly appear. And some of them have exprest to their neighbours that it hath been their great trouble, that they have wronged themselves and the truth in their confessions.

...there are more of our neighb'rs of good reputation & approved integrity, who are still accused, and complaints have been made against them, And we know not who can think himself safe, if the Accusations of children and others who are under a Diabolicall influence shall be received against persons of good fame.

On October 29, 1692, after his own wife was accused of witchcraft, Governor Phips dissolved the special court of Oyer and Terminer, effectively ending new prosecutions. Dane’s outspoken criticism of the trials and the petitions of family members from Andover were among the voices that helped turn public sentiment. As new accusations and trials ceased, many convicted of witchcraft were still detained in Salem Town. Dane advocated for those in jail, pressing for their release and for the clearing of their names. He and Thomas Barnard both worked to rebuild the town’s moral fabric after months of terror and suspicion.

The Chandler-Bixby-Abbot house, home of Hannah Bixby, which still stands in Andover

The Chandlers in the Andover Witchcraft Trials

While there are no accounts detailing the experiences of Hannah Chandler Dane during the 1692 Andover witch trials, it is reasonable to assume that she experienced significant distress due to the widespread accusations affecting her family. Her husband, Francis Dane, was the most vocal critic of the hysteria in Andover, and both Chandler and Dane relatives were arrested and imprisoned. This tumultuous period must have caused extreme anxiety and emotional strain for Hannah.

Several other Chandler family members were impacted by the witchcraft scare in Andover. Two of William and Annis Chandler's grandsons (the sons of their son John Chandler) were accused. William and Annis were my 10th great-grandparents, and John was my 9th great-grandfather.

John Chandler, Jr. was accused of witchcraft in Andover and was questioned and imprisoned, but later released. His brother William, an innkeeper whose property lay on the Ipswich Road to Billerica, was also accused and briefly jailed.

William Chandler's daughter Phebe, who was eleven in 1692, was one of the accusers of Martha Carrier. In May 1692, she testified that she encountered Carrier’s threatening specter in the meeting house, and heard Carrier’s disembodied voice while running an errand for her mother. She claimed that she became ill after these events, and that Martha's witchcraft was the cause. 

Thomas Chandler, brother of William and John, Jr., testified against Andover fortune teller Samuel Wardwell in 1692 saying, “I have often heard Samuel Wardwell of Andover tell young persons their fortune and he was much addicted to it.” An accusation of fortune telling was enough to bring suspicion of witchcraft in the 1600s. Wardwell was executed in Salem on September 22, 1692. However, Thomas later had a change of heart and signed petitions in support of the accused.

Thomas Chandler's daughter Hannah, the wife of Daniel Bixby (sometimes spelled Bigsbee), testified that the specter of Mary Parker afflicted her. Thomas' granddaughter, ten year old Sarah Phelps, also accused Mary Parker, a widow with no previous complaints against her in Andover. The accusation of Mary Parker was so perplexing that Mary suggested in court that Hannah and Sarah must have meant another Mary Parker, for there was a second Mary Parker in Andover. However, when the touch test was administered, the afflicted girls cried out that this was the person cursing them, and Mary was convicted. She was later executed in Salem, on the same day as Samuel Wardwell.

The Salem Village Witchcraft Victims Memorial in Danvers, which lists the names of the victims from Andover. [Source: Danvers Library]

The Aftermath

In total, 45 people from Andover were accused of witchcraft in 1692, more than any other New England town. While Salem is the focus of historical accounts of this time period, because their hysteria started first and because the trials and executions largely took place in Salem Town, what happened in Andover was greater in scale and was unquestionably traumatic for all residents.

Some accounts question whether the citizens of Andover truly repented the conviction and execution of Martha Carrier. There seems to have been some sentiment that her arrest and death sentence were legitimate, but those that followed were regrettable hysteria. The change of heart about witchcraft accusations only began when well-liked people from prominent families were jailed, but Martha remained unpopular until the end.

Martha Carrier was officially exonerated when Massachusetts reversed her witchcraft conviction in 1711, and her family received financial restitution. The full exoneration of all victims took place in waves, with the court overturning some verdicts in 1702 and 1711 and additional official apologies and pardons coming much later. The last person to be exonerated was Elizabeth Johnson, the granddaughter of Francis Dane (daughter of Elizabeth Dane Johnson), whose conviction was officially overturned on May 26, 2022, 329 years after her arrest, thanks to the efforts of a middle school civics class.

Mary Parker's sons, John Parker and Joseph Parker, petitioned for restitution of her lands, which had been confiscated when Mary was executed. This request was granted, but Mary's conviction was not formally overturned until 1711. Like the Parkers, many families of those accused and killed worked to claim recompense for their losses. The trauma of their experiences would live with them the rest of their days.

As it became clear to officials, judges, and clergy the scope of the delusion of 1692, and how unjust it had all been, there was some effort to bury the official evidence of it. In Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and A History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects, Charles W. Upham touches on a cover-up.

The effect produced upon the public mind, when it became convinced that the proceedings had been wrong, and innocent blood shed, was a universal disposition to bury the recollection of the whole transaction in silence, and, if possible, oblivion. This led to a suppression and destruction of the ordinary materials of history. Papers were abstracted from the files, documents in private hands were committed to the flames, and a chasm left in the records of churches and public bodies. The journal of the Special Court of Oyer and Terminer is nowhere to be found.

In early 1693, Francis Dane wrote a letter lamenting the Andover witchcraft hysteria by stating, "Had charity been put on, the devil would not have had such an advantage against us," and acknowledging the role of spectral evidence in influencing trials and the unjust imprisonment of many innocent people, including his own family. He argued that a focus on grace and not solely on the accusations from afflicted individuals would have prevented the panic, and he believed the accusations themselves were a tool of the devil.

...had Charity been put on, the Divel would not have had such an advantage against us, and I beleeve many Innocent persons have been accused, & Imprisoned, the Conceit of Spectre Evidence as an infallible mark did too far prevaile with us Hence we so easily parted with our neighbours of honest, & good report, & members in full Communion, hence we so easily parted with our Children, when we knew nothing in their lives, nor any of our neighbours to suspect them and thus things were hurried on, hence such strange breaches in families. [Francis Dane, 1693]

In Salem Witchcraft: With an Account of Salem Village and A History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Subjects, Charles W. Upham writes of Francis Dane, "He deserves to be recognized as standing pre-eminent, and, for a time, almost alone, in bold denunciation and courageous resistance of the execrable proceedings of that dark day."

The Chandler and Brown Families in Colonial America

In the last several years, I've been especially interested in the lines of my family that intertwine in New England in the early-to-mid 1600s. On a recent trip to Boston, I visited American Ancestors (formerly The New England Historic Genealogical Society) and was able to spend a rainy afternoon in the stacks researching some of these families. In particular, I've been wanting to learn more about my Chandler ancestors, who are on my Dickson/Bellangee line, and married into the Brown family.

Immigrant Ancestors: William Chandler and Annis Bayford

My 10th great-grandparents, William Chandler and Annis Bayford, were from Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, England, a market town that served as a major coach stop between London and Cambridge/Newmarket. The primary industry in Bishop's Stortford in the early 1600s was malting, the process of steeping, germinating, and drying grain to convert it into malt for use in brewing and distilling.

A contemporary view of Bishop's Stortford, England [source: Bishop's Stortford Town Council]

 

William was the eldest son of Henry Chandler, a glover, and his wife (Anne or Agnes), and was baptized at Bishop's Stortford on October 12, 1595. On January 29, 1622, William married Alice Thorogood. They had two daughters together, Elizabeth (1622-1636) and Sarah (1624-1626). 

Alice died in June 1625 and William married Annis Bayford later that year, on November 6, 1625. Annis was the daughter of Francis Bayford and his wife Johan. At the time of the wedding, William was the father of two young girls from his first marriage. Sadly, young Sarah died at about age two, just a year after his marriage to Annis. William and Annis had seven children together, six of them in Bishop's Stortford before they departed for Massachusetts. Only their youngest, also named Sarah, was born in the American colonies. 

1. William Chandler, b. 1626, d. 1633
2. Thomas Chandler, b. 1628, d. 1703, m. Hannah Brewer
3. Hannah Chandler, b. 1629, d. 1711, m. (1) George Abbot (2) Francis Dane 
4. Henry Chandler, b. 1632, d. young
5. John Chandler, b. 1634, d. 1703, m. Elizabeth Douglas
6. William Chandler, b. 1635, d. 1678, m. (1) Mary Dane (2) Bridget Henchman
7. Sarah Chandler, b. 1638, d. aft. 1713, m. (1) William Cleaves (2) (first name unknown)Wilson (3) Ephraim Stevens (4) (first name unknown) Allen 

William's eldest child, Elizabeth, died in 1636, and two of his children with Annis, William and Henry, also died young. When the Chandler family left England, the children who sailed with them were Thomas, Hannah, John, and William (this was a second William named for his late brother).

The red pin marks the location of Bishop's Stortford in England

The Chandlers in Roxbury

William and Annis Chandler were Puritans who were associated with Reverend John Eliot, a minister from the neighboring parish of Widford. Eliot left England for Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1631 and later became known as the “Apostle to the Indians” for his dedication to converting Native American tribes to Christianity. In modern times these efforts are regarded through a less complimentary lens, but in his own time, Eliot was widely revered for the sixty years he ministered at Roxbury and his interactions with local tribes.

For over 60 years Eliot served the [Roxbury] congregation faithfully and during that time became one of New England's most respected ministers. His duties in Roxbury brought Eliot into close contact with the Native Americans in the area, and he decided in the early 1640s to attempt to convert them to Christianity. Before this undertaking could begin, however, Eliot had to master the Algonquian language. In the absence of phonetic guides and printed vocabularies, this was no easy task. Undeterred, he studied the language diligently for several years under the tutelage of Cochenoe, a Long Island native whom the Puritans had taken captive during the Pequot War of 1637. By 1646 Eliot became sufficiently fluent to begin proselytizing.

Eliot preached to the native tribes for the first time at Nonantum (later Newton), Massachusetts on October 28, 1646. Although he began with a prayer in English, he conducted the major portion of the three-hour service in his listeners' own language. This initial effort was a great success, and within a short time Eliot had converted a number of natives. In addition to preaching and attracting missionaries and funds for future proselytizing efforts, Eliot sought to convert more natives by making Christianity available to them in printed form. In 1654 he published a catechism that served both to summarize Christian religious beliefs and to familiarize the native peoples with his written version of their language. In 1650 he began a translation of the Bible into an Algonquian language. Published in 1663, Eliot's Indian Bible was the first Bible printed in North America. [Source]

In 1637, William and Annis left England with their children and followed Rev. Eliot to Roxbury, where William’s name appears in a record titled “ye Estates and persons of ye inhabitants of Roxbury,” compiled between 1638 and 1640. This inventory notes that he owned 22 acres located near what are now Bartlett and Washington Streets in modern Roxbury. 

In Roxbury records, William’s trade was listed as “point maker," a craftsman producing metal tips for laces that were used to fasten garments before the widespread use of buttons. These were also known as "aglets." 

This is an example of the points, or aglets, produced in William Chandler's time.

William Chandler died on January 26, 1642 of consumption (now called tuberculosis), after a prolonged illness of nearly a year. His widow, Annis Bayford Chandler, remarried twice, first to John Dane on July 2, 1643. 

When he married Annis, John Dane was about 53 and a widower who had already raised four children. Annis was 40 with five children still living at home. In looking at the historical records, it's not clear if this marriage was a great deal for John Dane, as William Chandler apparently left behind a financial mess when he died. In 1649, Dane petitioned the court in Roxbury to settle Chandler’s estate upon him, noting he had “paid more debts of Chandler than ye house and land was worth, and also brought up ye children of Chandler.” John Dane died in 1658, at the age of 71. The Chandler and Dane families remained close. In 1658, Annis' son William Chandler married John Dane's granddaughter, Mary Dane. At the age of 75, having been twice widowed, John Dane's son Francis Dane married Annis Chandler's daughter Hannah, who was then a widow of 60. These Chandler and Dane families settled primarily in Andover, Massachusetts, and were embroiled in the witch trials there in 1692. This will be the subject of a future post.

After the death of John Dane, Annis Bayford Chandler married for a third time, to John Paraminter, on August 9, 1660. Annis was 57 and John was 72. He died in 1671 at the age of 83. Annis lived another twelve years, dying in Roxbury on March 15, 1683, at the age of 80.

The Next Generation: John Chandler and Elizabeth Douglas

William and Annis' fifth child, John Chandler, was my 9th great-grandfather. John was baptized on July 27, 1634 at St. Michael's Church in Bishop's Stortford. He was only seven years old at the time of his father’s death and was then raised by his stepfather, John Dane. 

St. Michael's Church was originally built in the early 1400s, on the site of a 7th century church. It looks much the same today as it would have when John Chandler was baptized in 1634. 

On February 16, 1658, John married Elizabeth Douglas, the daughter of William Douglas and Anne Mattle. William Douglas was born in 1610 in Scotland and Anne was born the same year in Ringstead, Northamptonshire, England. The Douglases settled in Northamptonshire and had three children there before immigrating to Massachusetts in 1640. They lived first on Cape Ann, where Elizabeth was born in 1641, before settling in Boston. William worked as a cooper (barrel maker) and was a member of the First Church of Boston. When he died on July 27, 1682, at age 72, Rev. Simon Bradstreet, the son of Governor Simon Bradstreet and the poet Anne Bradstreet, wrote that Douglas had been “an able Christian, and this poor church will much want him.” 

Elizabeth was sixteen when she married John Chandler in 1658. He was twenty-four. They settled in Roxbury, on a lot adjacent to John’s mother, Annis.

John and Elizabeth Chandler had eight children together:

1. John Chandler, b. 1659; d. 1659
2. Elizabeth Chandler, b. 1661; d. 1688; m. Robert Mason
3. John Chandler, b. 1665; d. 1743; m. Mary Raymond
4. Joseph Chandler, b. 1667; d. 1668
5. Hannah Chandler, b. 1669; d. 1692; m. Moses Draper
6. Mehetabel Chandler, b. 1673; d. 1758; m. John Coit
7. Sarah Chandler, b. 1676; d. 1711; m. (1) William Coit, (2) John Gardner
8. Joseph Chandler, b. 1683; d. 1749; m. Susanna Perrin

Their first child, John, lived only nine months. Around this same time, Elizabeth’s parents and most of her siblings, except her sister Anna, moved from Massachusetts to the growing settlement of New London, Connecticut. Today, Roxbury and New London are two hours apart by car, but it would have been a much longer and more difficult journey in the 1600s. Elizabeth likely did not see her parents and siblings often after this time.

Elizabeth Douglas Chandler was literate and well educated. During her life, she wrote extensively, including a 64-page autobiography entitled "Meditation, or Poem, being an Epic of the Experiences and Conflicts of a Poor Trembling Soul in the First Fourty Years of Her Life." This document survives in the archives of the Yale University Library.

In 1686, John Chandler and his eldest son, John Jr., decided to relocate the family from its longtime home in Roxbury. They were among the first settlers of New Roxbury, which was later renamed Woodstock and became part of Connecticut. They received Lot No. 10 in the first division of land. In 1688, two years after their arrival in Woodstock, Elizabeth moved the younger children from Roxbury to join them. Woodstock was still an hour away from her siblings in New London, but much closer than she had been in Roxbury.

John Chandler died in Woodstock on April 15, 1703. He is buried at Woodstock Hill Cemetery.

After John's death, in 1704, Elizabeth went to live with her daughter Mehetabel Chandler Coit in New London. She also had siblings and many nieces and nephews nearby. Elizabeth died in 1705 and is buried in the old cemetery in New London.

The Chandlers in Connecticut

John and Elizabeth’s youngest child, Joseph Chandler, born June 4, 1683, was my 8th great-grandfather. He was born in Roxbury, before the family moved to Woodstock.

On June 22, 1708, Joseph married Susanna Perrin, the daughter of John Perrin and Mary Polley. Susanna was named for her grandmother, Susanna Bacon Polley, who had immigrated from England aboard the ship Increase in 1635. Her father, John Perrin, had originally lived in Braintree, but at some point moved the family to Roxbury, where the Perrins likely met the Chandlers. After their marriage, Susanna and Joseph settled in Pomfret, Connecticut, just a few miles south of Joseph's family's home in Woodstock.

The Thomas Goodell Homestead/ James Ingalls Tavern in Pomfret was built in 1707, just a year before Joseph and Susanna were married and settled in Pomfret. It shows the style of colonial home that was typical at that time.

Joseph Chandler was made a selectman in Pomfret in 1716 and was admitted to the church on April 20, 1719. That same year, he served on the Committee for the Division of Land in Pomfret. City records from 1726 note that he was a collector of taxes. 

Joseph and Susanna had twelve children, all born in Pomfret:

1. Joseph Chandler, b. 1709; d. 1709
2. Joseph Chandler, b. 1710; d. 1780; m. Elizabeth Sumner
3. David Chandler, b. 1712; d. 1796; m. Mary Allen.
4. Susanna Chandler, b. 1713; d. 1801; m. William Sabin
5. Peter Chandler, b. 1716; d. 1733
6. Dorothy Chandler, b. 1718; d. 1773; m. (1) John Mason, (2) Jonathan Curtis
7. Hebzibah Chandler, b. 1720; d. 1810; m. (1) Bryant Brown
8. Stephen Chandler, b. 1722; d. 1752
9. Josiah Chandler, b. 1724; d. 1798; m. (1) Freelove Carpenter, (2) Lydia Richardson, (3) Mary Blanchard
10. Eunice Chandler, b. 1726; d. 1769; m. Josiah Burlingame
11. Daniel Chandler, b. 1729; d. 1790; m. Violet Burnham
12. Peter Chandler, b. 1733; d. 1816; m. (1) Mary Hodges, (2) Abigail Wales

Joseph died on January 5, 1749 at the age of 65. Susannah died on January 22, 1755 at the age of 75.

The Brown Family and the American Revolution

Joseph and Susanna’s daughter Hepzibah Chandler was born in Pomfret, Connecticut on August 12, 1720. In 1742, she married Bryant Brown, the son of Nathaniel Brown and Deborah Bryant of Killingly, Connecticut. The Browns descended from John Brown of Reading, Massachusetts, who was the family's immigrant ancestor. Hepzibah and Bryant lived for a short time in Ashford, Connecticut, but in 1745 moved to Thompson, Connecticut and settled on a farm given to Bryant by his grandfather. At that time, Thompson was a parish within the town of Killingly, Connecticut, and in 1785 became an independent town.

Hepzibah and Bryant Brown had eleven children together:

1. Jesse Brown, b. 1741; d. 1818; m. Experience Hughes
2. Mary Brown, b. 1743; d. 1772
3. Bryant Brown, b. 1745; d. 1798; m. Mary Dunbar
4. Deborah Brown, b. 1747; d. 1831; m. Eliakim Robinson
5. Joseph Brown, b. 1749; d. 1810; m. Elizabeth Gary
6. Peter Brown, b. 1751; d. 1756
7. Chloe Brown, b. 1753; d. 1756
8. Solomon Brown, b. 1755; d. young
9. Peter Brown, b. 1757; d. 1759
10. Chloe Brown, b. 1759; d. 1814; m. Solomon Wakefield
11. Solomon Brown, b. 1761; d. 1850; m. Betty Wheston

The gravestone of three of the Brown children who died young, located in the West Thompson Cemetery in Thompson, Connecticut. Inscription:
Brown, Peter son of Brant & Hepsibah died Sept 11, 1756 age 5years 5mos
Brown, Peter son of Brant & Hepsibah died Set 15, 1759 age 2years 4 mos
Brown, Chloe daughter of Brant & Hepsibah died Sept 14, 1756 age 3 years

Throughout the 1760s and 1770s, as Bryant and Hepzibah entered middle age, tensions between the American colonies and England steadily escalated. Protests over new taxes such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 gave way to open conflict by the mid-1770s, marked by events like the Boston Tea Party (1773) and the first shots of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord (1775). In 1774, Bryant served as a member of a Killingly committee that sent relief to Boston during during the British blockade.

The Boston Port Act, passed in March 1774 closed the Port from all commerce and ordered the citizens of Boston to pay a large fine to compensate for the tea thrown into the river during the Boston Tea Party. This Act helped unify the Thirteen Colonies in anger against the Crown, and the First Continental Congress met to coordinate a response to this and the other Intolerable Acts. [source: American Battlefield Trust]

As revolution loomed, Bryant was too old to take up arms, but his sons were at the right age to enlist in the fight. While I have not been able to determine if Bryant and Hepzibah's eldest son, Jesse Brown, and their youngest son, Solomon Brown, fought during the Revolutionary War, two of their sons, Bryant Jr. and Joseph, definitely did.

Bryant Brown, Jr. served as a sergeant in the response to the Lexington Alarm in April 1775. This was the first battle of the Revolutionary War, preceded by Paul Revere's famous ride to spread the alarm, and the moment of "the shot heard round the world" on Concord's North Bridge. Immediately following this incident, groups of volunteers were organized in Connecticut to go north to support American efforts in Massachusetts. Following the Lexington Alarm, Bryant served as a sergeant in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment from May 10 - December 16, 1775. This regiment was reorganized, and for the entirety of 1776, Bryant was an ensign in the 20th Continental Regiment under Colonel John Durkee. The 20th Regiment, and presumably that included Bryant, was at Fort Lee when the Americans were defeated by the British under the command of Lt. Gen. Cornwallis (as directed by Gen. William Howe, my husband's 3rd cousin, 9x removed). From January 1, 1777 to April 11, 1777, Bryant was a second lieutenant in the 8th Connecticut Regiment under Col. John Chandler. Col. John Chandler was Bryant's cousin, the son of his mother Hepzibah's brother Joseph Chandler. Bryant resigned from service on April 11, 1777, having served for two years in pursuit of American independence.

A painting entitled North Bridge, Concord, 1775, painted in 1909 by Frank T. Merrill

Joseph Brown, my 6th great-grandfather, also responded to the Lexington Alarm, in a group organized by John Elwell. It's quite likely that he and his brother Bryant headed to Connecticut in the same group of volunteers. At this time, Joseph was recently married to Elizabeth Gary, the daughter of Josiah Gary and Sarah Sprague of Pomfret, Connecticut. The wedding ceremony was performed on March 3, 1774, by Rev. Putnam, likely of the local Congregational Church. Joseph and Elizabeth's first child, Joseph Jr., was born in January 1775, just months before Joseph began his military service.

In May 1775, Joseph enlisted in the 3rd Connecticut Regiment, like his brother, where he served from May 1775 to November 1775. The 3rd saw action at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Siege of Boston. While this battle ended in American defeat, the British lost more soldiers than they anticipated and were sobered by the fierce fighting from the lesser-equipped Americans. 

...the Connecticut 3rd... served with such distinction and brilliance at Bunker Hill and during the succeeding campaign. A large part of this Regiment was retained as guard at headquarters during the Bunker Hill Battle, but a detachment of Killingly men struck in at the last and helped cover Prescott's retreat. [source]

I don't know for certain where Joseph served between November 1775 and October 1777, but the fact that his second child, Randolph Brown, was born in April 1777 indicates that Joseph spent at least part of 1776 at home with his wife, Elizabeth. By October 1777, he had returned to the American forces, and that month he fought in the Battle of Germantown, an American defeat near Philadelphia, under the command of George Washington. Having survived this battle, Joseph was assigned to the brigade led by Brigadier General Jedidiah Huntington, composed largely of men from Connecticut. After the Battle of Germantown, Huntington's brigade joined Gen. George Washington's army at Towamensing, Pennsylvania, around October 11th and then moved with the army to the Valley Forge area for the winter encampment. Huntington's men helped construct earthworks to defend the encampment. The winter encampment at Valley Forge is, of course, a legendary moment in the Revolutionary War, and it's incredible that my 6th great-grandfather was there with George Washington during those months of cold, hunger, and suffering. Following Valley Forge, Joseph was assigned to the 5th Regiment in the Connecticut Line, part of the Continental Army. He served through 1779.

"The March to Valley Forge" by William Trego, 1883

Once Joseph was home, he and Elizabeth had seven more children together. Sadly, their first three children died in infancy, but the latter seven survived to adulthood.

1. Joseph Brown, b. 1775; d. 1775
2. Randolph Brown, b. 1777; d. 1777
3. Randolph Brown, b. 1779; d. 1779
4. William Brown, b. 1780; d. 1868; m. (1) Bridget Palmer (2) Sarah Loomis
5. Bryant Brown, b. 1782; d. 1814
6. Joseph Brown, b. 1784; d. 1877; m. Abigail Morse
7. Abigail Brown, b. 1786; d. 1849; m. Benjamin Seamans
8. Elizabeth Brown, b. 1788; d. 1868; m. (first name unknown) Manchester
9. George Brown, b. 1792; d. 1823
10. Samuel Brown, b. 1794; d. 1822

This brings us to my fifth great-grandfather, William Brown, and then my fourth great-grandmother, William's daughter Amelia Brown, both of whom I've written about before on this blog.

The Legacy of the Chandler and Brown Families

Like many early colonial families, William Chandler and Annis Bayford founded a lineage that extends across centuries of American history. The Chandlers helped build the towns and institutions of early New England, and their descendants went on to shape communities and industries throughout the nation. Among their many descendants are several notable Americans:

• U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes - The 19th President of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes descends from William and Annis Chandler's son Thomas Chandler and his wife Hannah Brewer. William and Annis were his 5th great-grandparents. Rutherford B. Hayes is my 5th cousin, 6 times removed.
• Zachariah Chandler - Zachariah Chandler was a four-term U.S. Senator from Michigan and served as the Secretary of the Interior under President Ulysses S. Grant. He was also a noted abolitionist. He descends from William and Annis Chandler's son William Chandler, Jr. and his wife Mary Dane. William and Annis were his 5th great-grandparents. Zachariah Chandler is my 5th cousin, 6 times removed.
• John Chandler - John Chandler was a state senator and a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts. He descends from William and Annis Chandler's son Thomas Chandler and his wife Hannah Brewer. John fought in the Revolutionary War as a teenager, and then served in the War of 1812 as a Brigadier General. After the war, he moved to Maine, where he was elected a U.S. Senator from that state. William and Annis were his 4th great-grandparents. John Chandler is my 4th cousin, 7 times removed.
• Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr. - Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr. was an astronomer famed for his discovery of the Chandler Wobble, an off-center motion exhibited by Earth as it rotates on its axis. There is a crater on the moon named after him. Like me, Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr. was descended from William and Annis Chandler's son John Chandler and his wife Elizabeth Douglas, and their son Joseph Chandler and his wife Susanna Perrin. William and Annis were his 5th great-grandparents. Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr. is my 4th cousin, 5 times removed.
• Harry Chandler, Norman Chandler, and Otis Chandler - Three generations of Chandlers owned the Los Angeles Times between 1917-1985 and their surname is well known in Los Angeles. Norman Chandler's wife, Dorothy Buffum Chandler, was a notable arts patron in Los Angeles, and the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, one of the largest performing arts centers in America, was named in her honor. Like me, Harry, Norman, and Otis Chandler descended from William and Annis Chandler's son John Chandler and his wife Elizabeth Douglas, and their son Joseph Chandler and his wife Susanna Perrin. William and Annis were Harry's 6th great-grandparents. Harry is my 5th cousin, 4 times removed. Norman is my 6th cousin, 3 times removed. Otis Chandler is my 7th cousin, 2 times removed.

While I don't know of any famous descendants from the Brown line, when I think of this family, I think of their dedication to their country and community. Joseph Brown, my 6th great-grandfather, served in the Revolutionary War alongside his brother Bryant, and endured one of the most famed hardships of that war, the winter camp at Valley Forge. Joseph's son, William Brown, my 5th great-grandfather, was the town doctor in Mendon, New York, and he provided care to his neighbors during a long and devoted medical career. The way they each served their communities makes me very proud to be their descendant.

The many branches of this particular tree are fascinating, and next up, I'll share details about the Chandler family in Andover, Massachusetts during the 1692 witch trials.