Woodworkers of Windsor
A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and Their World, 1635-1715
The excellent 68-page book The Woodworkers of Windsor, by Joshua Lane and Donald White, was published by Historic Deerfield, Inc., in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 2003, (available online at AbeBooks.com) as a catalog for an exhibition of early colonial furniture by the group of woodworkers from Windsor, Connecticut. It contains interesting historical material about Bissell ancestors, including Captain John Bissell and his descendants and Deacon John Moore and his descendants. It was purchased from the Windsor Historical Society. The following is drawn from The Woodworkers of Windsor.
John Moore (1614-1677) was the brother of Thomas Moore, both born in England. John was born in Southwold, Suffolk England. They set sail in the Mary and John from Plymouth, Eng. March 30, 1630 and arrived at Nantasket, Mass. May 30, 1630. They began a settlement at Mattapan, now called Dorchester. Both Moore brothers moved to Windsor in 1639, four years after part of their group that had come over on the Mary and John had gone off to establish Windsor in 1635. After first arriving in Dorchester, Mass., a group of about 40 Puritans and their families settled with the Rev Warham in 1635 in an area north of what is now Hartford along the banks of the important fur-trade conduit of the time, the Connecticut River. They named the new settlement "Windsor," after a town in England. The immigrants brought traditional English taste to the New World -- simple straightforward well-proportioned furniture with flat carved decoration that alleviated its sturdy functionality. These English styles followed the highly wrought designs of Renaissance artists from Germany and Italy in the abstract geometric style known as Mannerism, found also in ceramic decoration, embroidery and engravings.
Among the immigrant congregation of Windsor was the 21-year-old John Moore (1614-1677), a woodworker from Southwold, Suffolk, in England. Moore became a patriarch of the community as well as a deacon of the church. As a woodworker, he was master of what Lane titles the "Foliated Vine Group." The name refers to furniture decorated with vines and blossoms carved in shallow relief with flat surfaces. The flowering vines curve and twist in an ordered symmetrical fashion with Mannerist taste that was precisely planned out to make full use of the space.
John Moore left behind a sizeable record of his life. Lane writes in the catalog, "Deacon John Moore was at the center of a nexus of woodworking families that extended through four generations to include the Drakes, Bissells, Loomises, Barbers, Griswolds, Stoughtons and others. Together, these families largely controlled the woodworking trade in the region until the mid-Eighteenth Century."
Moore eventually was ordained a deacon in Windsor’s First Congregational Church in 1651. He was deputy governor of Connecticut under John Winthrop. He had two sons, John, Jr., and Andrew, and four daughters: Elizabeth, Abigail (who married John Bissell’s son Thomas); Mindwell (who married John Bissell’s son Nathaniel) and Hannah. Thus, for those who descended from Nathaniel and Mindwell, John Moore is as much of a 9th great-grandfather to the great-grandchildren of Herbert Hunt Bissell and Mertie Bisbee as is Captain John Bissell.
Deacon John Moore House, 37 Elm St., Windsor, CT.
The following is drawn from The Woodworkers of Windsor.
John Moore, ordained a deacon in 1651, was one oof the original settlers of Windsor, arriving in 1635 with the Dorchester group, led by the Reverends Maverick and Warham. Moore was a woodworker associated with the “Foliated Vine Group” of seventeenth-century chests. Moore’s house, built around 1664, originally stood on the east side of Broad Street Green. In the late eighteenth century, the large house of William Loomis was built on the west side of the Green and the old Deacon Moore House was moved and attached to the rear of the new house as a kitchen ell. By the end of the nineteenth century, the combined house was owned by Horace Clark, who detached the ell around 1897 and moved it to 37 Elm Street. In its new location, the Moore House originally had its gable end to the street, but was later moved to face the street. The house originally had the large center chimney typical of First Period Colonial Houses.
John Moore is celebrated as a famous woodworker, known for using the foliated vine design (which depicts vines and blossoms carved in shallow relief with flat surfaces) and was at the center of a network of Windsor families, including the Bissells, who dominated the woodworking trade. Deacon John Moore House is on the National Register of Historic Places.
In addition to apprenticing his own sons, Moore apprenticed the sons of several of his neighbors and thus brought into his workshop as apprentices Thomas and Nathaniel Bissell. Windsor became the region’s premier woodworking site throughout the mid-1700’s. Although the woodworkers represented only one-third of the adult male population of Windsor, they controlled nearly three-quarters of the seats for elected selectmen of the town, who controlled the contracts for large town construction projects (such as the town’s meetinghouse) and grants of land which were awarded by the board of selectmen. These woodworking families established kinship ties and this intermarriage provided them connections to gain political allies, secure land and timber resources, divide town contracts and resolve disputes. Seventy-one percent of the sons of first generation woodworkers married daughters of other woodworkers.
John Moore and John Bissell were in the same church. Thomas Bissell was apprenticed at age 12 to Moore in 1640. In 1649, Moore was selectman and awarded Bissell the coveted seven-year contract to run the town ferry, charging fees that Bissell would retain. In 1655, Thomas married Moore’s daughter Abigail. The next year, the ferry contract was renewed for 10 years. After Thomas had finished his apprenticeship, in 1652 Moore had taken on 12-year old Thomas Bissell's brother (and Bissell 9th Great-grandfather) Nathaniel, who then married Mindwell Moore in 1662. Upon their marriage, John Bissell gave Nathaniel and Mindwell land and John Moore, again acting with other selectmen, granted the couple a substantial allotment of land. Both families benefited from these relationships.
In 1649, Thomas Bissell had finished his apprenticeship and established his own furniture-making shop. He married Abigail Moore in 1655. In the late 1660’s, he took on Nathaniel Gaylord as an apprentice. In 1678, upon finishing his apprenticeship Nathaniel Gaylord married Thomas Bissell’s oldest daughter Abigail.
The forms that have most commonly survived are hardy boxes and chests and a few tables and chairs. The chests were typically used to store linens, which would have been much more costly than the chests used to protect them. Beds, standing presses (similar to an armoire) and other forms have yet to be found and are probably no longer extant, although there are records of their creation.
An extremely rare example of a Foliated Vine chest attributed to the Moore shop tradition, this piece was probably made by Nathaniel Gaylord (1656-1720), Windsor, Conn., circa 1680, of oak and pine. Gaylord was married to the granddaughter of John Moore. This chest is from the Collection Old Sturbridge Village. This Joined Chest With Drawer is thought to be done by Nathaniel Gaylord in the Moore woodworking shop tradition.
Attributed to the Drake shop tradition, this box is part of the Calligraphic Group, possibly by Jacob Drake, Windsor, Conn., circa 1680. Collection of J. Peter Spang.
Other styles of woodworking included those of Jacob Drake. The colorful blue and peach paint on the box used to illustrate this group make it a standout. Although not original, the choice of color is probably accurate said Lane. He notes that it is carved in a style characteristic of England's South West Country. The box belonged to Elizabeth Bissell and the initials EB are prominently carved in a flowing calligraphic style with asymmetrical flourishes, leaves and flowers. It is attributed to the Drake family, quite likely by Jacob Drake, Elizabeth's uncle, on the occasion of her marriage in 1682. Lane writes, "Some of the principle carved elements of the 'EB' box may prefigure ornamentation characteristic of Hampshire County joinery."
Note 1. The information in this footnote is from a web genealogy site. John’s father Thomas was born 1584 in England and died in Windsor, CT in 1645. He and John both witnessed the will of John Russell of Dorchester, Mass in 1633 a few years after they had arrived on the Mary and John. Thomas’ father Walter was born about 1560 and died in 1604 in England. Thomas’ mother was Alice, born about 1560 in England. Walter’s father was William Moore, born about 1530 in England, married to Margaret Brenchley, also born about 1530. William’s father was Thomas Moore, born about 1500, and died Unknown. He married Agnes Austin.