Genealogy Wylie » Thomas Minor Miner Lt. (< 1608-1690)

Personal data Thomas Minor Miner Lt. 

• He was born before April 23, 1608 in Chew Magna,Somerset,England.
• He was christened on April 23, 1608 in Chew Magna,Somerset,England.
• He died on October 23, 1690 in Quiambaug, New London County, Connecticut.
• He is buried in Wequetequock, New London,County, Connecticut.
• A child of Clement Miner and Sarah Pope
• This information was last updated on May 29, 2007.

Household of Thomas Minor Miner Lt.

He is married to Grace Palmer.

They got married on April 23, 1634 at Charlestown,Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Child(ren):

1. John Miner  1635-1719 
2. Clement Miner  < -1700 
3. Thomas Minor Miner  ± 1640-1662
4. Ephraim Miner  < 1642-1724 
5. Joseph Miner  < 1644-???? 
6. Judah Miner  1646-????
7. Manasseh Miner  1647-1728 
8. Ann Minor Miner  1649-1652
9. Maria [Mary) Miner  
10. Eunice or Hannah Miner  ± 1651-????
11. Samuel Miner  -1682
12. Elizabeth Miner  1653-????
13. Hannah Miner  1655-± 1692

Notes about Thomas Minor Miner Lt.

Burial - [place: Wequetequock Cemetery, Stonington, New London County, CT]

Immigration - [date: JUL 1629] [place: Salem, Massachusetts in Lyon's Whelps, John Gibbs, Master]

Thomas (Minor) Miner moved into the neighborhood in 1654
building his house at Mistuxet, later Quiambaug. He spelled
his name "Minor" when he arrived in the colonies with the
Winthrop fleet in the Arbella in 1630. When he later received
the Herauldical Essay* Upon the Surname of Miner (See his
notes for information) for some time he changed the spelling
to "Miner" to conform to the spelling in the "Essay". He
apparently settled for "Miner" as his gravestone indicates.

Miner was of Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1632. He was one of the church founders in
Frothingham and Budington, Freeman March 4, 1634, removed to Pequot, New London in
1643 and then to Stonington. He removed to Mystic in 1653 where he spent the rest of his
days. He is buried with his wife under a large wolf stone from his house, on which is cut:

"Here lyes the body of Lieutenant Thomas Miner aged 83 -- departed 1690"

*Note from Larry Cheseboro':
“The ancestry of Thomas Minor (1608) presents a major problem. The "Herauldical Essay Upon the Surname of Miner" was accepted as authentic for over 300 years. This manuscript is held by the Connecticut Historical Society. It is a work of art, but probably is a work of creativity. Research in 1979 failed to substantiate it. Therefor, all claimed ancestors of Thomas prior to those listed below are at best questionable."
( Thomas Minor - Clement Minor, father - Thomas Minor , gf - William Minor ggf)

ORIGIN: Chew Magna, Somersetshire
MIGRATION: 1632
FIRST RESIDENCE: Charlestown
REMOVES: Hingham 1636, New London 1646, Stonington by 1655

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admitted to Charlestown church as a founding member, 2 November 1632 [ChChR 7]. One of the founders of the church at Stonington, June 1674 [Minor Diary 207].
FREEMAN: 4 March 1633/4 [MBCR 1:368]. Connecticut freeman at Stonington, 5 October 1669 [CCCR 2:523].
EDUCATION: Sufficient to write long letters to John Winthrop Jr. [WP 6:240, 275]. Grace (Palmer) Minor and son John Minor could understand Algonquian [WP 6:34, CCCR 1:265].
OFFICES: Assistant Magistrate (John Winthrop Jr. "taking unto himself Thomas Mynott and SamuellLathrop as Assistants") 17 May 1649 [CCCR 1:186]. Deputy to Connecticut Court from New London, September 1650, May 1651, September 1651; from Stonington, May 1665, October 1665, October 1667, October 1670, October 1672, May 1677 [CT Civil List 37]. Judge (New London) May 1649, October 1664; (Stonington) May 1665, 1669-1677 [CT Civil List 37]. Committee to "hear the case depending between Uncass and the inhabitants of N[ew] London," 14 May 1663 [CCCR 1:405]. Sergeant, New London Train Band, May 1649 [CT Civil List 37; CCCR 1:187]. Chief Military Officer, Mystic Train Band, July 1665 [CT Civil List 37]. Lieutenant in King Philip's War, February and April 1676; Captain, August 1676; Committee on Indians, October 1676; member of New London County Court Martial, January 1677[/8?] [CT Civil List 37]. "This 24th of April 1669 I Thomas Minor am by my accounts sixty one years old. I was by the town & this year chosen to be a selectman the Town's Treasurer, The Town's Recorder, the brander of horses by the general court, recorded the head officer of the train band by the same court one of the four that have the charge of the militia of the whole county and chosen and sworn Commissioner and one to assist in keeping the county court" [Minor Diary 207-08].
ESTATE: Granted four acres of planting ground at Charlestown, 10 January 1634/5 [ChTR 12]. Had hayground share of in 1635, increased to 1 [ChTR 19, 20].
On 15 September 1635 Charlestown selectmen "agree with Goo[dman] Minard for his house & ground at £18 whereof £10 to be paid 14 days hence, & the other £8 two months hence, & 4s. more given to help gather his corn" [ChTR 22, 26, 30]. He had five acres Mystic Side in 1637 [ChTR 27].
On 23 April 1653 several residents of New London and vicinity deposed regarding Thomas Minor's lot at Poquanock Plains [WP 6:280-82]. Caulkins says that New London granted Minor an island in Mystic Harbor
15 December 1651 [New London Hist 80-81]. Minor himself says he was granted land "at the plaine" four years before 17 January 1652/3 and "I have since bought twenty acres of William Nickhols being the third lot and exchanged my thirty acres with Goodman Calkin being laid out at Nayanticke for the first lot which was twenty acres more and now I have sold all and taken my pay for it the most part. Now they go about and take this from me as they did the Iland which you know I never cousened the town to get" [WP 6:240-41, 280-81, 291-92].
On 22 June 1664 all parties agreed that Thomas Minor of "Southertowne" with the consent of "my wife Grace Minor" would grant to "my four younger sons Ephraim, Josepth, Manaseth and Samuel Minor" equally, a parcel of upland and meadow, and that Ephraim was fully satisfied with what his father gave him and also what his "Brother Thomas did give him of the farm of Carie Latham" and "I have fully given to my son Ephraim the house at Tagwonke with the fenced lands" in place of the part brother Thomas gave him of the Cary Latham farm [Minor Diary 200-01].
In May 1666 Thomas Minor was granted one hundred acres and in October 1667 he was granted fifty acres (presumably for service to the colony) [CT Civil List 37; CCCR 2:36, 74].
At various times Thomas Minor made wills, including several recorded in his Diary [Minor Diary 203-04].
The earliest, made 8 February 1653[/4], indicates that "if I die or come no more" all was to go to his wife "Grace Minor" for her own maintenance and that of the children [Minor Diary 7].
In his will written 16 June 1679 and recorded in his Diary, "Tho: Minor ... being the 72. years of my age" bequeathed to "my beloved wife Grace Minor all that is my own moveables and unmoveables without exception during her lifetime to dispose on for her comfortable subsistence and after her death, if my son Samuel outlive her, to have and enjoy the housing and the whole land I bought of Carie Latham because he have been careful to uphold and renew the fences at his own cost and been willing to carry on the affairs of the house in mine and his mother's weakness"; residue to "be equally divided amongst the rest of our children then living, namely John, Clement, Epraim [sic], Joseph, Manaseth and my daughter Hanah Averie only one cow and one mare and one ewe sheep to my grandchild Anne Minor now living with me and my wife"; my dear children having had their portions already [Minor Diary 209-210].

BIRTH: Baptized Chew Magna, Somersetshire, 23 April 1608, son of Clement Minor [NEHGR 138:182-85].
"23 [April 1684] the first day of my .76. of my age" [Minor Diary 183].
DEATH: New London 23 October 1690, aged 83 [New London Hist 326, citing gravestone].
MARRIAGE: Charlestown 23 April 1634 Grace Palmer (this date given in several secondary sources; but primary source not found [Savage 3:216; Wyman 675]); she was admitted to Charlestown church 1 June 633, daughter of WALTER PALMER [ChChR 8]; she was alive as late as 22 February 1684/5, when her husband reported that "my wife was very sick" [Minor Diary 187]. (Wyman and Caulkins say she died in 1690, but do not give a source [Wyman 675, New London Hist 326].)
Grace Palmer was born about 1614 (wife of Sgt. Thomas Minor aged 53 in 1667 [TAG 24:43, citing WMJ 764]; Banks errs here in giving Minor's residence in Norwalk, when the original says Stonington, and he errs in another place by calling Minor's wife "Sary," when the original reads "Miner, Serg:, his wife" [WMJ 512; TAG 24:43]).

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