Gomes Heritage » Thomas Josselyn (1590-1661)

Personal data Thomas Josselyn 

Source 1
  • He was born in the year 1590 in Prob Roxwell, Essex Co, England.
  • Profession: In 1635, Thomas and his family embarked for New England in the Ship Increase. He became an original proprieter of Sudbury, Ma. He later lived in Hingman where he was a proprietor and Selectman., Husbandman.
  • Resident:
    • in the year 1654: .
  • (Arrival) in the year 1635 in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • (Departure) in the year 1635.
  • He died on January 3, 1661 in Lancaster, Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA, he was 71 years old.
  • He is buried on January 3, 1661.
  • A child of Ralph "Raffe" Josselyn and ??

Household of Thomas Josselyn


Notes about Thomas Josselyn

    land, 1590, married 1614 Rebecca Marlow and with his wife and five children and a maid-servant, Eliza Ward, embarked at London on the "Increase" 17 Apr. 1635 and arrived at Boston the latter part of May, and took up his abode in Hingham, Massachusetts, where he was one of the early proprietors. Bought land from his son-in-law Thomas Nichols in 1638, removed in 1654 to Lancaster, Massachusetts, where he died 3 Nov. 1661. Thomas' will was dated 9 May 1660 and probated 29 January 1661. 
    Ancestral file ~G42S-DB has birth as 1591/2, Roxwell, Essex, England, marriage as 1628 
    NEHGR, vol 71, pp 236-257. (#28)

    Source: History of the Town of Surry, Cheshire County, New Hampshire by Frank Burnside Kingsbury, published by the town of Surry, New Hampshire 1925, page 723. 4
;">Note:only five pounds, whereas the other sons received much larger portions.

Thomas married Rebecca Marlowe born in London in 1592. After living in or near London for a number of years, they moved to Barham, co. Suffolk, where their youngest child was born. Thomas embarked for New England in the ship Increase, of London, commanded by Captain Robert Lea. The passenger list contain the names of "Thomas Jostlin, husbandman, age 43, Rebecca, his wife, age 43: Elizabeth Ward, a maid-servant, age 38; and five of seven children -- Rebecca, 18, Dorothy, 11, Nathaniel, 3, Elizabeth, 6, and Mary, a year old.

On his arrival in New England, the ship docked at Boston. Thomas went first to Watertown, Massachusetts. The settlers there heard the glowing reports of the Musketsquid Valley, the long lush meadows, the tall swamp grass, the rolling hills with timber. The fish were plentiful in the stream. The natural clearings could be planted without the drudgery of stump pulling and woodcutting. As shipload after shipload of immigrants arrived from England to settle in the seacoast communities, the inhabitants of Watertown were feeling the need of more meadow. Consequently, in 1637, the greater part of the Watertown inhabitants petition the general court that they "might leave to remove and settle a plantation upon the river which runs to Concord.

Thomas became an original proprietor in the new settlement which in 1639 was given the name, Sudberry. Other settlers who went with him were Nathaniel Treadway and John Howe. That same year Daniel Hudson came over from England.

On the east side of this new community lay Watertown; on the North was Concord. The south and west wilderness, and in the ancient records it was called wilderness land. 

Samuel Maverick probably the town clerk and 1660, wrote -- "They plant and breed cattle, and get something by trading with the Indians."

In 1640, the first Sudbury church was organized. Congregationalist in government, and Calvinist in doctrine. It was called a meeting house. So bitter were the New England colonists against the Anglican Church, that the word church was forbidden and excluded from common usage for a full century.

Like all Puritan houses of that day, we may assume that Thomas's first house in this new land was built on what we would term the medieval pattern; with huge chimneys, casement windows, sturdy doors, and many gables. He was a man of substance, and men of substance, especially Englishmen, did not live in log cabins in that particular period.

It appears that his sons, Abraham and Joseph, joined their parents between 1637 and 1645. Joseph probably remained in the family home in Sudbury, and Abraham went to Hingham, a town southeast of Boston, at the Southern end of Boston Bay.

We find Thomas and his family in Hingham and 1645, where he was a proprietor and selectman. He had bought land of his son in law Thomas Nichols. 

Thomas is listed in the colonial records as" husbandman and pioneer:" as a man of "business ability and generous disposition."

We find this notation in the records -- John Merrick had a grant of land in Hingham, and 1649, between widow Cutter and Thomas Joslin's upland. And this notation -- on March 11, 1653, Thomas Nichols purchased of Thomas Joslin, his dwelling house, barn, and three acres of his land which had belonged to Stephen Lincoln before Thomas Joslin bought it.

Thomas and his son, Nathaniel, sold their other property that year to George Lane and Moses Collier who were in Hingham as early as 1635, and removed to the new town of Lancaster, Massachusetts on the western outpost of civilization, known in the ancient records by the Indians named "Naeshaway." Thomas purchased 50 acres of upland and 20 acres of swampland in those remote wilds.

The meadows of that day he were open and produced an abundance of grass, thereby giving the settlers a supply of food for their cattle without the labor of clearing the dense forest. No fencing was needed as they put bells on their cows. This purchase of land was on the west side of what decades later became known as Main Street in Lancaster.

He signed the covenant for new local government, Sept. 12, 1654, and is listed as one of the original proprietors of the town.

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Timeline Thomas Josselyn

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Ancestors (and descendant) of Thomas Josselyn

John Josselyn
1525-1578
Lady Alice of Fyfield Neville
1525-1601
??
????-

Thomas Josselyn
1590-1661


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    Sources

    1. joslyn Web Site, wil joslyn, Thomas Josselyn, November 12, 2017
      Added via a Smart Match

    Historical events

    Day of death January 3, 1661

    •  This page is only available in Dutch.
      Van 1650 tot 1672 kende Nederland (ookwel Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden) zijn Eerste Stadhouderloze Tijdperk.
    • In the year 1661: Source: Wikipedia
      • January 6 » English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England. The revolt is suppressed after a few days.
      • February 3 » Maratha forces under Chattrapati Shivaji defeat the Mughals in the Battle of Umberkhind.
      • April 23 » King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
      • July 16 » The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco.
      • August 6 » The Treaty of The Hague is signed by Portugal and the Dutch Republic.
      • September 5 » Fall of Nicolas Fouquet: Louis XIV Superintendent of Finances is arrested in Nantes by D'Artagnan, captain of the king's musketeers.
    

    Same birth/death day

    Source: Wikipedia


    About the surname Josselyn

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    Tim Gomes, "Gomes Heritage", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/gomes-heritage/P419.php : accessed February 15, 2026), "Thomas Josselyn (1590-1661)".