Priscilla GRANT ¹

   Ancestral File Number: 8JQJ-QM. User ID: 2313.

   General Notes:

NOTES
Lucy Mayberry BARBER Cole, Dictated by her father Capt Levi BARBER, and copied by her great grand daughter Linda Jean ENGLE Lackore Summer 2000:
"The first settlers of Simsbury Connecticut came from Windsor Connecticut. A very large proportion of the inhabitants as late as 1845 can trace their ancestry to that small flock who under the pastoral charge of the Rev Mr Warham left England in 1630 and after remaining a short time in Dorchester Massachusetts near Boston removed in the fall of 1635 and spring of 1636 to Windsor Connecticut."

BOOKS
Directory of Descendants of Founders of Windsor CT, 350th Anniv Comm, Stephen E Simon, Kent CL Avery, 24 Sep 1983
pv: "Humphrey, Michael (D = Dorchester MA)."
p87: "Earliest date mentioned in Windsor records 1647. Mar 14 Oct 1647 to

Priscilla Grant. Died 1695/1696. See 'The Humphreys Family in America' Frederick Humphreys M.D. New York Humphreys Print 1883."

The Mary and John The Story of the Founding of Dorchester Massachusetts 1630, Maude Pinney Kuhns, Charles E Tuttle Co, Rutland VT,1943, (CT Historical Society) p1:
"On the twentieth of March, 1630, a group of men and women, one hundred and forty in number, set sail from Plymouth, England, in the good ship, the 'Mary and John'. The company had been selected and assembled largely through the efforts of the Reverend John White, of Dorchester, England; with whom they spent the day before sailing, 'fasting, preaching, and praying.' These people had come from the western counties of England, mostly from Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Somerset. They had chosen two ministers to accompany them: 'men who were interested in the idea of bringing the Indians to the knowledge of the gospel.' The Reverend John Maverick was an elderly man from Devon, a ministerof the Established church. Reverend John Warham was also an ordained minister of the Church of England, in Exeter, eminent as a preacher. There is some evidence that both of these men were in some difficulties with the church on account of their sympathies with the Puritans.
"Edward Rossiter and Roger Ludlow, two men who were members of thegovernment in England, were also chosen; and several gentlemen, middleaged, with adult families were next joined to the association. Among these were Henry Wolcott, Thomas Ford, George Dyer, William Gaylord, William Rockwell, and William Phelps. But a large portion of the company were young men, eager for adventure, such as Israel Stoughton, Roger Clapp, George Minot, Richard Collicott, and Nathaniel Duncan.
"So we came, writes Roger Clapp in his Memoirs, by the good hand of the Lord, through the deep comfortably; having preaching or expounding of the word of God every day for ten weeks together by our ministers. When we came to Nantasket, Capt. Squeb, who was Captain of that great ship of four hundred tons, put us on shore and our goods on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for ourselves in a forelorn place in this wilderness.
"It had been their original intent to land in the Charles River, but a dispute with Captain Squeb, the commander of the vessel, caused the whole company, on May 30, 1630, to be put ashore at Nantasket. The 'Mary and John' was the first of the Fleet of 1630 to arrive in the bay. At that time there could not have been pilots, or charts of the channel, and it does not seem unreasonable that the captain refused to undertake the passage, but Roger Clap has sent Captain Squeb down to posterity as a mercilessman.
"According to tradition they landed upon the south side of Dorchester Neck, or South Boston, in Old Harbor. Ten of the men, under the command of Captain Southcote, found a small boat, and went up the river to Charlestown Neck, where they found an old planter, probably Thomas Walfourd, who fed them 'a dinner of fish without bread.' Later they continued their journey up the Charles River, as far as what is now Watertown, returning several days later to the company who had found pasture for their cattle at Mattapan. The settlement was later called Dorchester, in honor of the Reverend John White, of Dorchester, England.
"Roger Clap tells of the hardships that followed. They had little food, and were forced to live on clams and fish. The men built small boats, and the Indians came later with baskets of corn. 'The place was a wilderness,' writes Roger Clap. 'Fish was a good help to me and to others. Bread was so scarce that I thought the very crusts from my father's table would have been sweet; and when I could have meal and salt and water boiled together, I asked, 'who could ask for better?'
"Here they lived for five or six years. Other boats arrived and other towns were settled. But the life at Dorchester was not entirely congenial to the lovers of liberty of the 'Mary and John'. The group of settlements around Massachusetts Bay was dominated by clergymen and officials of aristocratic tendencies. Their Governor, John Winthrop, had little sympathy with the common people. 'The best part (of the people),' he declared, 'is always the least, and of that best part, the wiser is always is always the lesser.' And the Reverend John Cotton put it more bluntly when he said,'Never did God ordain democracy for the government of the church or the people.'
"These principles were repugnant to the people of the 'Mary and John', who had come to America to escape such restraint. They had no wish to interfere with the methods of worship of others, and they did not wish others to interfere with them. Too, they were land-hungry, after centuries of vassalage to the lords of the manors, leading hopeless lives without chance of independence. Perhaps they were influenced also, by the fact that a great smallpox epidemic had raged among the Indians, killing off so many that they wre not the menace that they had been at first. The settlers turned their attention toward the fertile meadows of the Connecticut Valley.
"A group under Roger Ludlow set out and reached the Plymouth Trading house that had been erected by William Holmes near the junction of the Connecticut and the Farmington Rivers, early in the summer of 1635. A little later sixty men, women and children, with their 'cows, heifers and swine', came overland from Dorchester. The winter was severe and the food scarce, and many returned to Massachusetts, but in the spring they came back to Connecticut with their friends, and by April, 1636, most of the members of the Dorchester Church were settled near the Farmington River, along the brow of the hill that overlooks the 'Great Meadow'. This in spite of the fact that the Plymouth people disputed their claim to theland. They built rude shelters, dug out of the rising ground along the edge of the river bank. The rear end and the two sides were simply the earth itself, with a front and a roof of beams. The town was later named Windsor.
"In the following year, 1637, danger from the Pequot Indians forced them to abandon their dugouts and to come together around the area known as the Palisado Green. Their new homes were at once enclosed with a strong palisado.
"In 1639 they began the construction of their first real meeting house. It stood in the center of the palisado, and was topped with a cupola and platform, where the sexton beat a drum to summon the people to attend services or public meetings. About the same time there was built and presented to the pastor, the Reverend John Warham, a corn mill, which is supposed to have been the first grist mill built in Connecticut. For many years it served all the settlements in the river valley, as far south as Middletown.
"All over America today live the descendants of the fathers and mothers of the 'Mary and John.' Their sons and daughters have written their names on the pages of American History. They have filled the pulpits of famous churches; they havesat on judges' benches, and in the seats of Congress; they have occupied Governors' Mansions, and even the White House. Some fought at Lexington, and wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. They joined in the trek to the West, and one followed Brigham Young into Utah. One marched with Sherman as he burned and pillaged his way through Georgia, and perhaps one fought on the other side with Lee. One is called the 'Hero of Manila Bay,' and one was hanged! They learned strange names like Saint-Mehiel, Chateau-Thierry, the Argonne Forest and Sedan. Perhaps one lies in Flanders Field...
"An effort has been made to show through the ancestry of people living today, or through famous men of history, how this little group lived together, married and intermarried, even beyond the third and fourth generations. The names of descendants of the men and women who came to America on the 'Mary and John' are found in every state of the Union."
p5: "The Passenger List (Compiled from various sources, and not official)
...67. Mathew Grant
68. Priscilla Grant
69. Mathew
70. Priscilla...
...78. Thomas Holcomb
79. Elizabeth Ferguson...
..101. George Phelps
102.Richard Phelps
103. William Phelps
104. Elizabeth Phelps
105. William..."
p37: "...Mathew Grant was born in England 27 Oct 1601 and died in Windsor CT 16 Dec 1681. He was made a freeman at Dorchester MA 18 May 1631. "He was a carpenter by trade, and was the first, and for many years, the principal surveyor of his section. He held the office of Deacon of the First Church for a number of years; was town clerk from 1652 until 1677; was select- man for several years and held other important offices. In 1654 he compiled a 'Book or Records of Town Ways in Windsor.' He was also the compiler of the 'Old Church Records,' which has furnished the basis for the history of most of the families of ancientWindsor.
"He married first 16 Nov 1625 Priscilla Grey (1602-27 Apr 1644); married second 29 May 1645 Susanna (Capen) Rockwell (5 Apr 1602-14 Nov 1666), widow of William Rockwell, and daughter of Bernard Capen.
"Children: 1. Priscilla, b 14 Sep 1626, m 1647 Michael Humphrey.
2. Mathew, d 1639..."

17th Century Colonial Ancestors of Members of the National Society of Dames of the XVII Century 1915-1975, Mary Louise Marshall Hutton, Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Co Inc, 1987, p134:
"Michael Humphrey (1620-1695) CT, m. Priscilla Grant, Landowner."

Genealogies of Connecticut Families, Gary B Roberts, Vol II, p78: "For Descendants see Stile's Windsor, Art. Humphrey."

Digest of Early Connecticut Probate Records, C W Manwaring, Vol I, 9 Dec 1681, Matthew Grant's Will: "...and alsoe unto my Daughter Humphreys five pounds in Country pay [from son John], two yeers after my decease. Alsoe my will is and I doe give my Daughter Humphrey as a Legassy five pownds, to bee payde in country paye two yeers after my decease." IGI Marriage A184633-184633 Michael HUMPHREY Mar Priscilla GRANT 14 Oct 1647 Windsor Hartford Connecticut, A170709-170709 Michael HUMPHREY Spouse Priscilla GRANT14 Oct 1647 Devon England.

The Mayflower, Kate Caffrey, 1974, Stein and Day, New York, Appendix 3, Typical Letters, p352-353:
"Sir:
"The Massachusetts men are coming almost daily, some by water and some by land, who are not yetdetermined where to settle, though some have a great mind to the place we are upon, and which was last bought. Many of them look at that which this river will not afford, except it be at this place which we have; namely, to be a great town andhave commodious dwellings for many together. So as what they will do I cannot yet resolve you. For this place there is none of them say anything to me, but what I hear from their servants, by whom I perceive their minds. I shall do what I canto withstand them. I hope they will hear reason, as that we were here first and entered with much difficulty and danger both in regard of the Dutch and Indians, and bought land, to your great charge already disbursed, and have since held here achargeable possession and kept the Dutch from further encroaching, which would else long before this day have possessed all, and kept out all others. I hope these and such-like arguments will stop them.
"It was your will we should use their persons and messengers kindly, and so we have done and do daily, to your great charge; for the first company had well nigh starved, had it not been for this house, for want of victuals; I being forced to supply twelve men for nine days together. And those which came last, I entertained the best we could, helping both them and the other with canoes and guides. They got me to go with them to the Dutch, to see if I could procure some of them to have quiet settling near them, but theydid peremptorily withstand them. But this later company did not once speak thereof; also I gave their goods house room according to their earnest request, and Mr Pynchon's letter in their behalf which I thought good to send you, here enclosed.And what trouble and charge I shall be further as I know not, for they are coming daily, and I expect these back again from below, whither they are gone to view the country. All which trouble and charge we undergo for their occasion, may giveus just cause in the judgment of all wise and understanding men, to hold and keep that we are settled upon.
"Thus with my duty remembered, I rest
"Yours to be commanded, "Jonanthan Brewster "Matianuck [Windsor], July 6, 1635."

INTERNET
http://www.holcombegenealogy.com/
Holcombe Family Genealogy
James and Randal Holcombe
Descendants of Matthew Grant
2. Priscilla2 Grant (Matthew1) was born on 14 Sep 1626 at England. She married Michael Humphrey on 14 Oct 1647 at Windsor, Hartford Co., CT.
Children of Priscilla2 Grant and Michael Humphrey were as follows:
6. i. John3, married Hannah Griffin; born 7 Jun 1650.
7. ii. Lt. Samuel, born 15 May 1656 at Windsor, Hartford Co., CT; married Mary Mills.

ANCESTRAL FILE
8JQJ-QM Born Devonshire England, Ver 4.10 Born ?Windsor Hartford Connecticut.

INTERNATIONAL GENEALOGICAL INDEX
IGI Marriage A184633-184633 Mar 14Oct 1647 Windsor Hartford Connecticut, IGI Marriage A170709-170709 Mar14 Oct 1647 Devon England.

LATTER DAY SAINTS
LDS Submission: Mrs. Jennie L Bibb c/o Mrs Hermina Spaulding Suffield Conn. LDS Heir: Jennie Louise Kent 6th Great GrandDaughter SH/MrsSH. PriscillaGRANT Mar Michael HUMPHREY 14 Oct 1647.

LDS Submission: Mernie A Gallagher Bunce 1161 Santa Fe Ave Martinez California. LDS Heir: Mernie A Gallagher Bunce 5th Great Granddaughter LtSH/MBM. Pirscilla GRANT Mar Michael HUMPHREY Mother of (Lt) Samuel HUMPHREY.

LDS Submission: Rebecca Stout 3448 So West Temple Salt Lake City Utah. LDS Heir: Nathaniel Worden 4th Great GrandSon MH/PG. Priscilla GRANT Born 14 Sep 1626 England Chr Windsor Mar Samuel HUMPHREY 14 Oct 1647.

   Marriage Information:

Priscilla married Michael HUMPHREY, son of Michael Samuel HUMPHREY and Susannah, on 14 Oct 1647 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. (Michael HUMPHREY was born on 10 Sep 1620 in Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, England, christened on 10 Sep 1620 in Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, England and died in Mar 1695-1696 in Windsor, Simsbury, Hartford, Connecticut, USA.)