MEIGS, John Sr

1612 - 1672  (59 years)  Submit Photo / Document

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• Name	MEIGS, John
  Suffix	Sr
  Birth	29 Feb 1612	Bradford, Devonshire, England   [1]
  Christening	23 Jan 1613	Chardstock, Dorset, England
  Gender	Male
  Burial	Jan 1672	Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States
  Death	4 Jan 1672	Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States
  WAC	6 Mar 1934	SLAKE
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I30752	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	MEIGS, Vincent Sr ,   b. 1583, Bradford, Devonshire, England Bradford, Devonshire, Englandd. 1 Dec 1658, Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 75 years)
  Mother	STRONGE, Emma ,   b. 8 Jan 1581, Chardstock, Devonshire, England Chardstock, Devonshire, Englandd. 1 Dec 1658, Guilford, Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut (Age 77 years)
  Marriage	1608	England
  Family ID	F10517	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Father	MEIGS, Vincent Sr ,   b. 1583, Bradford, Devonshire, England Bradford, Devonshire, Englandd. 1 Dec 1658, Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 75 years)
  Mother	CHURCHILL ,   b. Abt 1587, Bradford, Devonshire, England Bradford, Devonshire, Englandd. 1634, Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England (Age 47 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1608	Bradford, Devonshire, England
  Family ID	F10518	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	FRYE, Tamasine ,   b. 29 Feb 1612, Weymouth, Dorsetshire, England Weymouth, Dorsetshire, Englandd. 4 Jan 1672, Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 59 years)
  Marriage	1632	England
  Children	1 son and 4 daughters
  1. MEIGS, Mary ,   b. 3 Mar 1633, Bradford, Devonshire, England Bradford, Devonshire, Englandd. 30 Apr 1703, Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 70 years)   2. MEIGS, Elizabeth ,   b. 4 Oct 1647, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United States Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, United Statesd. 4 Jan 1687 (Age 39 years)   3. MEIGS, John Jr. ,   b. 28 Feb 1640, Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United Statesd. 9 Nov 1713, Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, United States (Age 73 years)   4. MEIGS, Concurrence ,   b. 1643, Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States Weymouth, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United Statesd. 9 Oct 1708, Killingsworth, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 65 years) + 5. MEIGS, Tryal ,   b. 1646, New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut, United States New Haven, New Haven, Connecticut, United Statesd. 1690, Guilford, Guilford, New Haven, Connecticut, United States (Age 44 years)
  Family ID	F16942	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Notes

  II. John MEIGS, born in England 29 February 1612, was married in England in 1632, to Thomasine (Tamsen, Tarrizin, Thimmerziam) FRY, of Weymouth, England. She was the daughter of William and Sarah (Hill) Fry, and granddaughter of James and Judith (Jourdaine) Hill.[12] Her brother, William Fry, her sister Mary, wife of Walter Harris, and her sister Hannah, wife of William Rawlins, also came to New England, some of them having come on the William and Francis in 1632. It is thought letters from Walter and Mary Harris, sent back to England, influenced the coming of John Meigs and his family, about 1634.[13] The will of Mary(Fry) Harris who survived her husband less than three months, "is one of the oldest wills extant in the country, and is rich in allusion to costume and furniture." [14] A few extracts are here presented of the will, made 18 January 1655, in which mention is made of some of her relationships. Mentions oldest daughter "Sarah . . . daughters Sarah and Mary. . . . daughter Mary Lawrence . . . her eldest sonne and second sonne and youngest sonne . . . youngest daughter Elizabeth Weekes . . . to my sister Migges , a red peticoat, a cloth jacket, a silke hud, a quoife (cap), a cross cloth and a neck cloth . . . my cosen Calib Rawlyns . . . my two cosens Mary and Elizabeth Fry . . . Mary Barnet . . . my sister Hannah Rawlin and my brother Rawlin . . . my two kinswomen Elizabeth Hubbard and Mary Stevens . . . my brother Migges, his three youngest children . . . my soon Thomas, "if he doe come home or be alive" . . . to Rebeckah Bruen a pynt pott of pewter, a new peticoate and wascote wch she is to spin helselfe, alsoe an old byble, and a hatt wch was my soon Thomas his hatt . . . my son Gabriell . . ." John and Tamsen(Fry) Meigs brought one child with them when they came. They settled first in Weymouth, Massachusetts[15], and then in Rehoboth, where they lived until 1644, and removed to New Haven, Connecticut, where John took the oath of fidelity that year.[16] In 1648, he bought a lot fronting New Haven Green, known today as Cutler Corner, one hundred thirty nine feet on Church Street, and two hundred thirty five feet on Chapel Street, in the main business part of the city "the lot along the fronts of which pass daily the greatest number of feet, and on which towers the largest private building yet erected in this city." John was a shoemaker by trade, also a Currier and tanner. He bought considerable property about New Haven, as well as having acquired woodland in Rehoboth shortly before leaving there. He was more or less renowned for possessing many books, among them a Greek and Latin dictionary. He was the first of the family to spell his name Meigs. In 1647 he was admitted as a planter at Guilford, signing the Patentee Charter as one of the twelve men selected and authorized to so do. The same year he was a representative to General Court at Hartford, "standing for Guilford." He purchased much land there and elsewhere, and at his death was possessed of an unusually vast estate.[17] He seems to have been somewhat unpopular, judging from the several suits at law in which he was involved. In the record of one of these, he is called "the quarrelsome John Meigs."[18] These suits seem to have been varied in nature, such as being sued about some shoes he had made which did not wear to suit the purchaser; suing others for debt, for payments on land sold, or because their hogs got through his fences, etc. Once he got into trouble through a failure to observe strictly one of the "blue laws" of his day. The record brings a smile: With all the strictures of the observance of the Lord's Day, we find but one accusation against any one of violating it. This is a most curious complaint, and characteristic of Puritan morals. On Dec. 4, 1657, John Meigs was brought up for having come "with his cart fr' Athomonossock on the Lord's Day (Saturday night) making a noise as he came with his cart, to the offence of many y heard it." He plead that "he was mistaken in the time of day, thinking that lie had time enough for the journey, but being somewhat more laden than he expected, and the cattell came more slowly than usual, and so cast him behinde, it proving to be more late of day than lie had thought." "But he professeth to be sorry for his mistake, and the offence justly given thereby, promising to be more careful for time to come." The Court "seeing the matter seemed to be done upon a surprisall," passed it over with a reproof, and commanded him to make a "publique acknowledgement of his evill on the next lecture or fast day."[19] When the settlement of Hammonassett was begun, 3 March 1653, John Meigs was admitted planter there, upon the purchase of a hundred pound allotment.[20] When trouble arose with Connecticut, he took active sides with Connecticut usurpation, and accepted an appointment as constable of Guilford, from the Connecticut authorities, in defiance of the New Haven jurisdiction. This was in May, 1663. It was a year before this, however, that he made his famous ride on horseback in the night of 12 May 1662, riding from Guilford to New Haven, and reaching that place in time to "notify the Rev. John Davenport that agents of the King were at Guilford, on their way to New Haven, to seize the regicides, Whalley and Goffe, who were then in hiding at Mr. Davenport's. The judges, warned in time, hurried away to another of their mysterious hiching places, and John Meigs was considered to have saved their lives. He is also said to have carried food to them in their hiding places." This interesting episode is quite fully described in The Regicides, by F. H. Cogswell, and The Judges Cave Romance of New Haven Colony, by Margaret Sidney Chak.[21] Several years before his death, John Meigs removed to Killingworth, where he and his son John are named in a list of freemen in 1669. Here he died, 4 January 1672. His will, dated 26 August 1671, indicates that, of his family, only his daughter Elizabeth had preceded him in death. CHILDREN: Mary, born in England, 1633; married 3 March 1652/3, William, son of John and Mary Stevens. She was the mother of two daughters and five sons, one of whom, John, the eldest, called "Skipper John" was killed in King Philip's War. She died 30 April 1703, and he remarried (2) Sarah, widow of David Carpenter, of New London.[22] Elizabeth, probably born in America about 1635. She married in 1650, Richard Hubbell, of Stratford, Connecticut. She died after 1655, when she was mentioned in the will of her aunt, Mary (Fry) Harris.[23] John, born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, 29 February 1640/1; died 9 November 1713. Was elected deacon of First Church of Guilford in 1696. He married (1) 7 March 1665, Sarah, daughter of William Wilcoxson, of Stratford. She died 24 November 1691, and he married (2) XXXXLydia Crittenden. His son John was elected deacon of the Congregational Church in Guilford, 1707, and died 19 February 1718, aged 48.[24] Concurrence, born in Weymouth, 1643; married about 1663, Captain Henry Crane, born 1635; died 22 April 1711. They lived in Killingworth, and were parents of four sons and five daughters. She died 9 October 1708, and he married (2) 26 December 1709, Deborah (Jones) Champion, widow of Henry CHAMPION, of Lyme.[25] See CHAMPION sketch for the biography and continuation of this family line. After the death of Captain Crane, Deborah married (3) at Haddam, 6 March 1716/7, Richard TOWNER.[26] See TOWNER sketch for the biography and continuation of this family line. Tryal, born 1646; married Andrew WARD, Jr. Footnotes ↑ (Meigs Family, Meigs, 8.) Jump up ↑ (History of New London, Caulkins, 269.) Jump up ↑ (New England Historical and Genealogical Register 8: 348) Jump up ↑ (Meigs Family, 9.) Jump up ↑ (Fifty Puritan Ancestors, Nash, 136.) Jump up ↑ (History of Guilford, Steiner, 97.) Jump up ↑ -History of Guilford, Steiner, 88. Jump up ↑ (History of Guilford, Ralph D. Smyth, 19.) Jump up ↑ (Fifty Puritan Ancestors, E. T. Nash, 135.) Jump up ↑ (New England Historical and Genealogical Register 56: 356.) Jump up ↑ (Meigs Family, 9.) Jump up ↑ (Connecticut Genealogy 1: 550; History of Guilford, Steiner, 292, 36o.) Jump up ↑ (Boston Transcript, 8 January 1.923; History Ancient Woodbury, Cothren, 2: 1484.)

  
  

• Sources

  [S644] Audentia Smith Anderson, Ancestry & Posterity of Joseph Smith and Emaa Hale Smith, (Published 1926) (Reliability: 3).