Settlers of Hartford
The following is from the website http://foundersofhartford.org.
By the time white settlers arrived in Connecticut in the early 17th century, Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years; indeed, it was the Algonquin word for “long tidal river,” quinnetukut, that gave the colony (and later the state) its name.
Various tribes, all part of the loose Algonquin confederation, lived in or around present-day Hartford. These included the Podunks, mostly east of the Connecticut River; the Poquonocks, north and west of Hartford; the Massacoes, in the Granby-Simsbury area; the Tunxis tribe, in West Hartford and Farmington; the Wangunks, to the south; and the Saukiogs in Hartford itself. Saukiog, or as it is sometimes spelled, Sickaog or Suckiaug, was the Native American name for Hartford.
After preaching briefly in the parish of Esher in Surrey, Eng., Thomas Hooker about 1626 became lecturer to the Church of St. Mary at Chelmsford, Essex, where he delivered fervent evangelical addresses. Such church lectureships, an innovation of Puritanism, came under attack in 1629, and in 1630 Hooker was cited to appear before the Court of High Commission. He fled to Holland, forfeiting his bond, and in 1633 emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony. At New Towne (now Cambridge, MA), he became the pastor of a company of Puritans who had arrived from England the previous year; in expectation of his joining them, they had been called Mr. Hooker’s Company. But Hooker and his supporters became restive, and in October 1635 he led a group to Connecticut to settle Hartford, CT where he served as pastor until his death.
The "Adventurer's Boulder" above, a Hartford, CT monument, lists Great-grandfathers Robert Day, Edward Stebbins and William Goodwin among the 25 men who made the trip with Hooker.
In the meantime, in England, a Puritan minister named Thomas Hooker was attracting the attention of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who fought fiercely against Puritan attempts to reform the established English Church. Eventually, Hooker was forced to leave England for Holland, and in 1633 came to Massachusetts to escape more persecution. There, he became the first minister of the church at Newtown, now known as Cambridge, MA. His assistant was Samuel Stone, who had been born in Hertford (or, as it was usually spelled then, Hartford), north of London.
Rev. Thomas Hooker
Finding the Boston area too cramped, Thomas Hooker and about 100 people from his congregation, along with as many cattle, left Massachusetts in the Fall of 1635 and traveled to Connecticut, where they started a settlement to the north of the small Dutch settlement. They originally called their new home Newtown, but changed it to Hartford, probably at the suggestion of Samuel Stone, after his home town in England.
Links to Bissell ancestors who were
Founders of Hartford
Andrew Warner and Mary Humphrey
Robert Day and Editha Stebbins
Thomas Olcott & Abigail Porter, 9th Great-grandparents
William Goodwin & Elizabeth White -- Hartford Founders from Adelaide Boutelle's side of the family
The Hartford congregation was originally founded as a Reformed congregation in 1636 with the Rev. Thomas Hooker serving as the first pastor. The members of the congregation had previously migrated from England to Massachusetts and spent four years there before leaving eastern Massachusetts after a dispute with the Massachusetts government. (What is now Connecticut was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.)
The old burial ground adjacent to the building in Hartford dates to around 1640. The current church meeting house dates to 1807 and is the fourth meeting house to serve as a place of worship for the congregation. The church meeting house and cemetery were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The congregation is currently affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC).
In addition to the stories of these Hartford Founders, there are several other early Hartford or Windsor ancestor settlers who deserve special mention:
** Benoni Olcott, 5th Great-grandfather and father of Eunice Olcott (who married Noah Bissell born 1753) lived through several crucial parts of American history in the 1700's. According to Britannica.com, King George's War, 1744-48, was the North American part of the third war between France and Great Britain for control of North America. There were disputes about boundaries of northern New England and about control of the Ohio Valley. Both the French and the English used native Indian tribes as part of their forces. The only important victory for the British was the New Englanders’ capture of Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, on June 15, 1745.
When the war began, the New England colonies (which essentially still considered themselves to be English) recruited men to fight against the French coming down from Canada.
Benoni Olcott, born 30 Dec 1716, would have been 28 years old at the time he joined Capt. E. Grant’s Co. in 1745. This information is from the inscription on Benoni’s headstone that he was a member of “Capt. E. Grant’s Co. 1745.” Benoni was born 30 Dec 1716; Died, 2 Jun 1799. Buried in the Edwards Cemetery, South Windsor, CT. I haven't found any more details of Olcott's military service in 1745, although the major battle in which most of the New England troops participated was the capture of Louisbourg. This was a major victory for the British side and one of the things that convinced the French to eventually agree to end the war.
Thirty years later, Benoni Olcott would also play a role in Connecticut's contributions to the American Revolutionary War. From The History of South Windsor, Connecticut by Lori Jean Kremidas, 1981, we learn that Old East Windsor (now South Windsor) was known as a "provision town" during the Revolutionary War. Deacon Benoni Olcott had charge of supplying arms and ammunition; Ebenezer Grant, the merchant, of supplying clothing and Lemuel Stoughton of providing commissariat supplies, beef, pork, and flour to the Continental Army. Since lead was sorely needed by the Army, lead settings of the diamond-shaped panes of glass were taken out of some houses. The meeting house was robbed of its lead window-settings and sash weights. Clock-weights were confiscated, and many clocks at that time were silent “for the duration".
In Henry Reed Stiles’ History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut the material describing Windsor’s role in the Revolutionary War includes a list of people who sold their personal blankets for use by the revolutionary soldiers. The Connecticut State Archives, Revolutionary War, Vol. 86, contains a list of names of people of Windsor who sold blankets that were collected by Benoni. Olcott also maintained an account book in which is recorded his selling gunpowder for the use of the revolutionary soldiers and other activities, beginning in August 1776, that included “to fetch powder from Hartford,” purchasing paper for gun cartridges, buying foods including rye seed and bowls of toddy for the soldiers, and getting clothing and “blankits” for the soldiers.
In the Spring of 1778, after General Lafayette had abandoned the enterprise of invading Canada, he made his headquarters for a time in South Windsor at the house of Mr. Nathaniel Porter (presumably also a Bissell 3G cousin, descended from John Porter, Jr. of Windsor).
At Lafayette's suggestion, British Hessian prisoners were employed in planting trees along the highway. Among the entertainments of the officers were horseracing and betting. The races began at General Lafayette's house and ended at the Fitch house. The citizens of South Windsor disapproved of these races.
General Lafayette made many short trips to Rhode Island, and Mr. Justus Grant of Wapping was usually with him, The two often wrestled together, with Grant often victorious. However, Lafayette was more adept than Grant at fencing, General Rochambeau's French troops were stationed in South Windsor at the same period as Lafayette. Many balls and parties were given in their honor and the townsmen and ladies attended.
Some evidence of Benoni's role in providing guns to the Americans preparing to fight the British in the Revolutionary War comes from a document that still survives, a receipt showing that Benoni Olcott sold a gun to Ensign Alexander King of the Continental Army.
The transcription of this receipt as best I can provide it appears to be as follows:
"August 15th: 1776 then received of Benoni Olcott one of the Selectmen of East Windsor one gun Purchased for the Colony assessed at Three pounds five shillings to be used in the Continental Army this Summer Campaign and then returned to the Selectmen of East Windsor [this?] Day Received per me. Ens. Alex King"
The other side appears to say, "Alexander King's Rec. for a gun bought for the colony." This part also includes a notation made by or made about "Capt. Robinson."
And who was this Alex King to whom Benoni was selling a rifle? Alexander King was born in East Windsor in December 1749. (As an aside, I can't resist occasionally making these genealogical connections: Alex King's mother is a Bissell 3G third cousin, her name was Kezia Loomis, b. 1715. The Connecticut River Valley was a small community -- Kezia's great-great-grandfather was Joseph Loomis born 1590 in England, the common ancestor with the Bissells. Kezia's mother was Mary Cooley, b. 1685 and Kezia's maternal grandparents were Bissell 8th Great-grandparents Joseph Cooley, b. 1662, and Mary Griswold, b. 1663. So Kezia's a cousin on both sides of her family.)
Alex King served as a soldier during the Revolutionary war. In June, 1776, he was commissioned by Gov. Jonathan Trumbull (the only colonial governor who took up the rebel cause) as ensign of a company raised to join the Continental Army, and was again commissioned Oct. 16, 1777, by Governor Trumbull, as an ensign in the 19th Regiment of Militia. King served in 1776 in Captain Elijah Robinson’s Company in the Northern Department at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He married Abigail Olcott, Eunice Olcott's sister and Benoni's daughter, in May 1781. So when Alex purchased the gun from Benoni, it was from his future father-in-law. Note, too, that Abigail and Eunice's mother Deborah Cooley Olcott was a "Cooley" and so Deborah was a second cousin to Alex.
And for anyone interested, this souvenir of Benoni Olcott's involvement in the Revolutionary War was recently on sale on E-bay for only $350!
In the town history section of James H. Trumbull’s Memorial History of Hartford County, Trumbull writes, “Benoni Olcott was a prominent man upon the east side of the river, both before the town of East Windsor was organized and afterward. The Olcott family was not one of the old Windsor families; it belonged rather to Hartford. Benoni Olcott appears to have come when a young man from Bolton to Windsor before the middle of the last century [i.e., mid-1700s]...Mr. Olcott filled many important offices. He was in middle life when the town of East Windsor was organized and his name is conspicuous in all the early records of the town. He was on the board of selectmen; he was moderator of town-meetings; he was deacon of the old Edwards church...he was largely trusted, and seemed for many years to divide public responsibilities with Mr. Erastus Wolcott."
** Noah Bissell, born 1716. So, Benoni Olcott's other son-in-law, married to Eunice, was 5th Great-grandfather Noah Bissell born 1753. His father, 6th Great-grandfather (also named) Noah Bissell born 26 Jun 1716, was about the exact same age as Benoni Olcott and like Benoni he served in Grant's Company in King George's War. Note that there were a number of other men from Windsor who were also in Grant’s Company in King George’s War who were very likely Bissell 3G Generation distant cousins, with family names including Ellsworth, Rockwell, Strong and Moore.
** Sixth Great-grandfather Noah's brother was Ensign David Bissell, a Great-uncle born in 1708. He had a son David, born in 1732. One of these two Davids, and I believe it is the David born in 1732 who would be a Bissell first cousin, served in the Crown Point expedition in the 4th Co, 3rd Regiment of the expedition. As noted below, like many, many other Bissell cousins, he also served in the Revolutionary War. Connecticut public records from May 1775 also show the state legislature identifying David Bissell as a Lt. in the Second Company, 4th Conn. Regiment, Revolutionary War. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s book about the history of the University of Pennsylvania has a section about Frederick Meade Bissell, a graduate who became an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and refers to his family history and mentions “David Bissell, 3d, who was a member of Captain Benjamin Allyn’s Fourth Company, Third Regiment in the expedition against Crown Point, August 1755 and Lieutenant in the Fourth Connecticut Regiment during the Revolutionary War.”
One other cousin, Daniel Bissell, held the title to "Ore Hill" near Salisbury, CT which proved to be the region's largest iron ore deposit. After Bissell had acquired the rights to the land in 1731 from the state legislature, he sold it to men who developed the iron business in the area.
Ore Hill became the center of a new industry and within five decades, at the time of the Revolutionary War, the area produced one-third of all cannons in the Revolutionary War, outfitted "Old Ironsides" and gave rise to Connecticut's gun trade. This four-pounder cannon pictured above was cast in Salisbury and buried in Danbury in 1777 to save it from the British. It was brought from Danbury to Litchfield and then to Winchester in 1811, it would be buried and recovered at least three more times before being presented to the Winchester Historical Society in 1914.
Andrew Warner and Mary Humphrey
Andrew Warner and Mary Humphrey, are Bissell 3G Great-grandparents in this family on two occasions. First, they are 9th Great-grandparents through their son (and 8th Great-grandfather) Robert Warner, whose daughter Ruth is the Bissell 7th Great-grandmother. More on Ruth Warner and David Bissell below. Second, Andrew and Mary are 10th Great-grandparents in the ancestral line of 3rd Great-grandmother Mercy Ann Searle, through their son Isaac and granddaughter Sarah.
Andrew Warner was born about 1595, the son of John and Mary (Purchas) Warner of Great Waltham, Essexshire, England. He married Mary Humphrey, born 13 Feb 1602, on 5 Oct 1624 in Thaxted, Essex, England. Andrew Warner was a farmer, trader and a malster in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essexshire. Andrew and Mary’s son Robert was born in England in 1630. He arrived in Cambridge, MA in 1633 and was made freeman of the Massachusetts Bay colony on May 14, 1634. His homestead was near the present location of Harvard University. He moved to Hartford with the original proprietors in October 1635, following the Rev. Thomas Hooker from his church in Cambridge, and was a deacon in Rev. Hooker’s Puritan church in Hartford. Many Puritans fled England at this time because of religious persecution under King Charles I, who was an orthodox “high church” Anglican and who was influenced by his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, an orthodox Roman Catholic.
Andrew was one of eight commissioners named in the original 1636 charter from the General Court of Massachusetts creating the Colony of Connecticut. The commissioners had “full power and authority” to lead and govern the new colony. The charter provided in part that the commissioners, “... shall have full power and authoritie to hear and determine in a judicial way,...to make & decree such orders, for the present, that may be for the peaceable & quiett ordering the affairs of the said plantacon, bothe in tradeing, planting, building, lotts, militarie dissipline, defensiue in warr [if neede so require], as shall best conduce to the publique good of the same...” (Original spelling and punctuation preserved.)
Andrew and his second wife Esther (Wakeman) Selden (Mary had died between 1650 and 1657) in 1657 moved to the newly established town of Hadley, Massachusetts. These “removers” and much more about Andrew and his family are described in Settlers of Northampton, Andrew Warner and Mary Humphrey.
Andrew may have worked as a malster in Hadley. A malster would have been someone who selected cereal grains from the growing fields, mainly barley, and modify the barley (soaking it in water to begin germination and create sugar in the barley, which the yeast will turn into alcohol) to allow the brewmaster to be able to make beer from it. Roasting of the barley at that point stops further germination growth and preserves the sugar for later in the brewing process. Andrew may also have been a brewmaster, as often farming, malting and brewing were combined. More about Andrew in general and his brewing activity in Settlers of Northampton and Hatfield.
Most of the information about Andrew Warner in this piece comes from a website written by one of Andrew Warner’s descendants, Mary E. Warner.
Robert Warner, Andrew's son, was born in Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, England in 1626. He came to Cambridge, MA with his parents in 1633 and to Hartford, CT in 1636. Robert married (first) Elizabeth Grant, in 1654 in Hartford, and then moved to Middletown, CT. and had seven children with her. He married (second) Deliverance Bissell 2 Feb. 1674/75 in Hartford. Deliverance was born 11 Jun 1640 in Dorchester, MA, her parents Richard and Ann Hawes came to Dorchester on the Truelove in 1635. She died June 12, 1718 in Middletown, CT. Deliverance married (first) John Rockwell, Jr. (a Bissell Great-uncle and a member of the family that are ancestors to Bissell Notable Cousin Norman Rockwell) 18 Aug 1662 in Dorchester. Deliverance and John had several children. John died 3 Sep 1673 in Windsor, CT. Deliverance married (second) Robert Warner and they had Ruth Warner, b. Nov. 1675 in Middletown, CT., christened 14 Nov. 1675. Robert was appointed Deputy to the General Court from 1660-1665 and was chosen constable for the town of Middletown in March 1670/1 Robert and Deliverance also had two other children, Bethia in 1680 and Samuel in 1683, as well as her children from her first marriage to Rockwell. Robert Warner died 11 Apr 1690. Deliverance then married (third) Nathaniel Bissell about 1692, when Ruth Warner was 16 years old. Nathaniel's first wife had been Mindwell Moore. Nathaniel and Mindwell Moore’s son David (Bissell 7th Great-grandfather) was born in 1681. Ruth Warner and David Bissell were step-siblings for many years. Ruth married David in Windsor, CT on 24 Feb 1703/04 when she was about 27 and he was about 22, and they had six children. (Most of this information on Robert Warner is from The Society of Middletown First Settlers Descendants, which also indicates many land transactions there in which Robert owned a lot of land, more than 700 acres at his death in 1690.)
Robert Day and Editha Stebbins Day
And her brother Edward Stebbins
Robert Day and Edward Stebbins are two of the original pioneers settling Hartford, coming in October 1635 from Cambridge, Mass. to Connecticut. This group included about 25 men. The Rev. Thomas Hooker and the rest of his congregation arrived from Cambridge the next year, 1636. Edward's sister Editha probably arrived with that 1636 group and married Robert Day, son of Richard Day and Anna Kirby, in about 1636.
"Connecticut River Valley, Claremont, New Hampshire." Painted by German-American Painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) in 1865 or 1868, and now located in the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA.
Robert Day was born in 1604 in Ipswich, co. Suffolk, Eng. and died before 14 Oct 1648 in Hartford, Hartford Co., CT. The Day name is said to have come from Wales, where it was originally "Dee," the name of a small river in Wales. It is not known exactly when Editha arrived but it likely was not with her brother in 1635 but rather with the congregation that journeyed through the wilderness and arrived in 1636. Editha and Edward Stebbins’ father William Stebbins was born in 1567 in Black Notley, Essex, England. His wife and Editha’s mother Mary (last name unknown) was also from Black Notley. Editha was born in 1613 in Woodham, Eng and died on 24 October 1688 in Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts. Her older brother Deacon Edward Stebbins, was born before 24 Feb 1594/95 in Black Notley, Essex, England and died before 19 Aug 1668 in Hartford, CT. Edward Stebbins was in Cambridge, MA in 1633, in Hartford as an original proprietor in 1635, a constable in Hartford in 1638; and deputy of the colony's court various times from 1639 to 1656. He was leather sealer, 1659. (The leather sealer was responsible for assuring, sometimes with a jury, that leather was being made properly according to the colonial laws that governed that trade.)
There doesn't seem to be much information about what Robert did in Hartford. He was chosen "viewer of chimneys and ladders." A Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the Time of their Arrival in the Colony, and their standing in society, together with their place of residence, as far as can be discovered by the records., collected from the state and town records, by R.R. Hinman and published, Hartford 1846 tells us,
"As the office of Chimney Viewer is attached to the names of some of the first settlers, I take the liberty of explaining the cause. Immediately after the organization of the town of Hartford as a town, or rather as a company of land holders – a law was enacted that all chimneys should be cleansed by the owner once in a month, upon a penalty provided by law. [The reason was to prevent chimney fires, a common occurrence if a chimney is not properly cleaned and one that would be devastating to a small colonial community.] Therefore that the law should be strictly obeyed and carried out by the inhabitants, for several years a committee of respectable men, (for no others held offices at that day) were appointed to see that all house-holders fully obeyed the law. It was also a law that each house-holder should provide a ladder for his house, where there was not a tree standing by his house which reached within two feet of the top of the chimney. This law also came within the duties of the viewers of chimneys."
Editha was the mother of four children with Robert Day, the oldest being their son Thomas who is the Bissell 3G 9th Great-grandfather. There is more information about Edith under "Ancestors M-Z" at "Edith Stebbins, a founding pioneer of the Connecticut River Valley." After Robert died in 1648, Editha married second John Maynard, also a founder of Hartford. He died in 1657-8. His will names his wife Editha, her eldest son Thomas Day, youngest son John Day, and daughters Sarah and Mary Day. John Day received the property of Maynard, and it is probably in remembrance of him that he named a son Maynard Day. Maynard gave his dwelling-house and lands in Hartford to Editha, and after her decease to go to her youngest son, John. After Maynard died, Editha married Elizur Holyoke of Springfield, one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts. He died in King Philip's War.
Captain John Cullick and Elizabeth Fenwick
John Cullick, 9th Great-grandfather, was from Felstead County, Essex, Eng., born about 1610. His first wife died and as far as I can determine, Mary who is the Bissell ancestor was probably born to John's first wife, who died in 1644; she would have been raised by, if not born to, John's second wife, Elizabeth Fenwick, who he married in 1648. More about Elizabeth below, she was from a wealth English family and her brother George Fenwick was prominent in the Connecticut Colony.
The sketch of a colonial witch trial above is included because John Cullick had several different connections to infamous early witch trials in Hartford. A detailed account of Bissell ancestor involvement in these early colonial witch trials is on another page of this website, America's First Witch Trials.
One connection is the trial of Goodwife Bassett, in which Cullick was one of the three judges who convicted her and which resulted in her hanging in 1651. (The picture at right suggests what Bassett's hanging might have looked like, but is in fact a sketch of the 1656 hanging in Boston of a woman named Ann Hibbins.)
Another witch trial connection with Capt. Cullick is that while she was a single young woman, Katherine Harrison worked as a servant to Great-grandfather Cullick in Hartford. Incidentally, her witchcraft trial was in part presided over by Bissell first cousin John Winthrop, who played a major part in the early New England Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies. Note also that Richard Montague, Bissell 10th Great-grandfather, was a witness against Harrison, alleging her unnatural ability to control a swarm of bees.
Elizabeth Fenwick's brother was Colonel George Fenwick (and so a Bissell step great-uncle). Col. Fenwick was a British lawyer and active in setting up the plans for settling Connecticut. He was the agent for two Puritan Lords, Saye and Brooke, and brought his family to Saybrook in 1639. His wife Alice died and he returned to England in 1645, having sold the Saye and Brook property to the Connecticut colony in 1644 after they had given up the idea of emigrating to America. He was a participant in the Second English Civil War and Cromwell's invasion of Scotland in 1650, for which he was made Governor of Leith and Edinburgh Castle in 1650 and Hume Castle in 1651. An inventory of his estate in 1660 showed that he owned black slaves in Connecticut (some early slaves in the colony were Indians who had been defeated in battle by the settlers).
When he returned to England, Fenwick was one of the many judges at the 1649 trial of King Charles I, who after being convicted of treason was executed at the end of January 1649. The next year, Fenwick was a participant in the Second English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell's invasion of Scotland in 1650, for which Fenwick was made Governor of Leith and Edinburgh Castle (pictured here) in 1650 and Hume Castle in 1651.
Thomas Olcott & Abigail Porter
Thomas Olcott born 1613 is the Bissell 3G generation 9th Great-grandfather. He was baptised 2 Feb 1613, at St Lawrence Jewry, London, England; he died early in 1653/4, on business aboard a ship enroute to Virginia. He was the son of Thomas Olcott and Margaret Hyde. There is more information about Thomas and Margaret on Olcott Family Tree 2.0. Thomas Olcott born 1613 was at Hartford, CT by 1639; he was made constable in 1640 and his name appears on the Hartford Founders Monument. Thomas was a merchant in shipping trade between New England and Maryland and Virginia, likely much of it in tobacco. The Connecticut River Valley included tobacco as a major crop and it is still grown in Windsor, CT and other nearby areas today, much as it was in colonial times. Thomas' will was written 10 Nov 1653, Hartford, CT, and his estate inventoried at £1,466 (a large sum at the time) Feb. 13, 1654. The primary portion of his estate (£1141.18.0) was in debts receivable, presumably from his trading business. Thomas' will includes many doctrinal statements of the Puritan Christian faith, including the Trinity as the "merciful Father and blessed Redeemer and eternal Comforter," man's original state in "the chains of darkness and the dungeons of sin and misery," election in mercy and love "by a mighty and unresistable power," the resurrection of the body when "both body and soul shall be reunited," "worldly goods which the Lord hath been pleased to lend," and "God's faithfulness and goodness" through "his everlasting covenant."
Thomas and Abigail Porter were married in England. Abigail was born about 1615 in England; she died May 26, 1693 in Hartford, CT. Her will was dated Jan. 12, 1692/3, and proved Sep. 7, 1693. It's not clear to me who her father was, see more in notes to Olcott Family Tree Chart 2.0 Timothy Olcott.
William Goodwin & Elizabeth White
William Goodwin, a Founder of Hartford, is a 10th Great-grandfather on the Adelaide Boutelle side of the family. See Adelaide Boutelle Family Tree Chart 2.0.
William Goodwin's father was Ozias Goodwin, b. 1569 in Bocking, Essex, Eng.; he died in 1627, in Bocking. William's brother, also named Ozias, helped organize their trip together to New England. Ozias's wife was Susan Garbrand, who died 17 May 1676 in Farmington, CT. It appears that William was the immigrant ancestor to New England , with his brother, also named Ozias, who was born in 1596. (William's Grandfather was Ozias Goodwin, b. 1543, Lindsell, Essex; died 1568, Bocking.)
William Goodwin was born about 1591; he died 11 Mar 1673, in Farmington, CT. His name appears on Hartford's Founders Monument. William settled first at Newtown (Cambridge), MA (the records show he was made a freeman 6 Nov 1632; he was deputy to the General Court May 1634). He was at Hartford, CT in 1636; moved to help settle Hadley, MA in 1659; and moved to Farmington, CT in about 1670. William's first wife was Elizabeth White, born 7 Nov 1616 in Shalford, Essex, England. (See Robert White & Bridget Allgar's Four Daughters). William married second by Jan. 1669/70 Susan (Garbrand) Hooker (she died 17 May 1676 in Farmington, CT); she was the widow of Rev. Thomas Hooker, leader of the group that settled Hartford in 1636.
With his brother William, Ozias traveled from Bocking, Essex, England as part of the Braintree Co. on the ship Lyon. Ozias Goodwin was instrumental in organizing the voyage, which departed England 22 Jun 1632. The Braintree Co. was headed by Rev. Thomas Hooker and the Lyon arrived in Boston, MA on 16 September 1632 with 123 passengers, including 50 children. Ozias traveled to the New World with his wife, Mary (nee) Woodward and their first child, also named William. William traveled with his wife, Elizabeth White, and their children, Christopher and Elizabeth. Ozias became a citizen of Hartford in 1639 or before, according to records in the Conn. State Library. Ozias Goodwin was one of the company from Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, who on the 18th of April, 1659, signed (along with his brother William) an agreement to remove to Hadley in Massachusetts, "therein to inhabit and dwell, by the 29th of September come twelve months, which will be in the year 1660." That he sympathized with his brother and others who removed on account of the troubles in the church in Hartford is quite likely, but that he did not go to Hadley to dwell is evident from a vote recorded in Hadley at the end of 1661 determining that if Ozias did not move to Hadley by May 1662, he would forfeit his land grant there. Ozias died in Hartford before April 1681.
There are records of William and his wife selling property in England prior to moving to the colonies. In 1622 they sold a messuage (essentially a dwelling house), with cottage and two gardens, located in Barton, county of Bedford, to a John Warren. And again in 1629 William and his wife sold a messuage, a dove-house, a garden, two orchards, thirty-four acres of land, three acres of meadow, and twelve acres of pasture, with the appurtenances, in Worthend, Greenfield, Flitton, and Pulloxhill, also in the county of Bedford, to Sir William Brydges.
Both Ozias and William settled in Newtown Massachusetts, now called Cambridge. William having the funds from the sale of his property in England immediately set up residence in Newtown, near what is now Harvard University.
Sources for the Goodwin information include http://www.foundersofhartford.org/founders/goodwin_ozias.htm and