|
a.
|
Note: IN416
Note: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~legends/ferris.html Jeffrey Ferris, born 1610 in Leicestershire, England, died 31 May 1666 in Greenwich, Fairfield Co., Connecticut; married before 1633, probably in England, MARY, born about 1606 in England, died 31 May 1658 in Stamford, Fairfield Co., Connecticut. He second married Susannah Norman, born about 1606 in England, died 31 May 1660 in Stamford, Fairfield Co., Connecticut. He third married Judith Feake, born about 1618 and died 1667 in Greenwich, Fairfield Co., Connecticut. Mary, Jeffrey's first wife, was the mother of all his children. A tradition claims that she was of noble birth and married Jeffrey against the wishes of her family, and so they fled to New England. She was once suggested to have been Anne Howard. It was also once claimed that she was Anne Milton, sister of the blind poet, but this was not supported by research of the Milton Family. The maiden names of Browne, Thorne, or Bowne have also been suggested, as well as a Judy Burns. Her badly weathered tombstone appears to read "Mary .....ne". Her death is recorded in Stamford Town Records, the edge of the page worn away: "____, wif to Jeffrey Ferris, diec 31:5:58" (i.e., 31 July 1658). Jeffrey was possibly the son of Richard Ferris of Greenwich, Kent, England, who was a messenger in the Queen's Court. Jeffrey stood over 6 ft., with blue eyes and flaming red hair. He came to America sometime between 1630 and 1634, and was made a freeman at Watertown 6 May 1635, at which time Puritan Church membership was required for citizenship. It is claimed in "The Story of Jeffrey Ferris," a 1937 typescript by Charles P. Stauback, that he was "with the first settlers at Watertown, Mass., in 1630, is on the list of those who paid for the survey and received ten acres of land on the first assignment." From several small clues, it is assumed that Jeffrey was not a rigid Puritan, and much of his family later became Congregationalists and Quakers Probably for lack of freedom, Jeffrey then moved to Wethersfield, where he was granted farm #26, 45 acres of which he later sold to John Deming. He was still in Wethersfield in March 1639 when he served on a jury. He then moved on to Stamford, Connecticut, where he was one of the first settlers, by 1640. He settled in what became Greenwich, a town which was named after his home town in England (New York Times, 1937). The date of 18 July 1640 is commonly accepted for the founding of Greenwich, as that was the date Daniel Patrick and Robert Feake purchased the land from the Indians. However, Jeffrey may have obtained his own land earlier, as the Indian Chief "Keofram hath soulde all his Right in ye above sd necks unto Jeffre Ferris". The Chief (who used pictures to write) had drawn a building on the land, so Jeffrey had apparently built a home there too. By 1655, Jeffrey and a number of other Stamford men had started a settlement in Westchester County which they called East Town, now Eastchester. As this was under Dutch jurisdiction, the settlers were arrested, disarmed, and taken to Manhattan. They were permitted to remain in New Netherlands after agreeing to submit to Dutch rule under Gov. Stuyvesant in 1657. Among the 14 who signed were Jeffrey Ferris, Jonathan Lockwood (son-in-law), and John Finch. Jeffrey returned to Greenwich about 1658. Jeffrey's will was dated 6 January 1664 in Fairfield, Connecticut, and probated 9 March 1667. It named not only his own children, but those of his two later wives by others, Lockwoods and Palmers.
|