John Graves

John Graves (bp. 1626–1677), son of Thomas Graves and Sarah Unknown

Mary Smith (bp. 1628–1668), daughter of Lieutenant Samuel Smith and Elizabeth Smith

John Graves, the son of Thomas Graves, was born in England. [1][2] He was baptized on 26 December 1626 in Thundridge, Hertfordshire. He died in the 19 September 1677 Indian attack on Hatfield. [4][5, 53][6] He married first Mary, the daughter of Lieutenant Samuel and Elizabeth Smith. [2][4][7] He married second Mary (Bronson) Wyatt, the daughter of John and Frances (Hills) Bronson and widow of John Wyatt of Haddam on 2 July 1671 in Hatfield. [4][5, 53][8] Mary was baptized on 12 December 1627 in Earl's Colne, co. Essex. [8] She married third as his second wife Lieutenant William Allis on 25 June 1678 in Hatfield. [4][5, 6, 235][8] William died on 6 September 1678 in Hartford. [8] Mary married fourth as his second wife Captain Samuel Gaylord. [4][8] Samuel, the son of William Gaylord, was baptized on 19 December 1619 in Crewkerne, co. Somerset. [8] He married first Elizabeth Hull. [8]

Mary, the daughter of Lieutenant Samuel and Elizabeth (Smith) Smith, was baptized on 9 October 1628 in St. Mary the Virgin, Hadleigh, co. Suffolk. [9] She died on 16 December 1668. [7]

John was a freeman in Wethersfield on 18 May 1654. [1]

John moved from Wethersfield to Hatfield in 1661. [7]

John Graves was one of 25 heads of households who agreed to settle on the Hatfield side of the Connecticut River on 25 March 1661. [4] He was granted on eight-acre household. [4]

On 21 November 1668 John was on a committee to call a minister for Hatfield. They procured Reverend Hope Atherton. [4]

On 19 September 1677 John and his brother Isaac were building a house for John's son John, who was about to marry Sarah White when there was an Indian attack on Hatfield. Both John and Isaac were killed. [4]

Children of John Graves and Mary Smith:

i. John Graves was born about 1653. He died on 2 December 1730. He married Sarah White.

ii. Mary Graves was born about 1654. [4] She married first Samuel Ball on 15 January 1671 in Hatfield. [4][5, 10] She married second Benjamin Stebbins. [4]

iii. Isaac Graves was born about 1655. [4] He married first Sarah, the daughter of John and Mary (Bronson) Wyatt, on 5 April 1679. [7] He married second Abigail ___. [7] She died on 13 July 1697. [7] He married third Deliverance, the widow of his first cousin Samuel (Isaac, Thomas) Graves. [7]

iv. Samuel Graves was born about 1657. [4] Samuel of Hatfield married Sarah Colton on 31 October 1678 in Springfield or Hatfield. [10: 2:1683][5, 161]

v. Sarah Graves was born about 1659. [4] She died on 12 June 1700 in Springfield. [10, 1:23] She married Edward Stebbins in April 1679 in Springfield. [10, 1:23][7]

vi. Elizabeth Graves was born on 6 December 1662 in Hatfield. [4] She married Thomas Jones. [7]

vii. Daniel Graves was born on 7 December 1664 in Hatfield. [4]

viii. Ebenezer Graves was born on 20 November 1666 in Hatfield. [4]

ix. Bethiah Graves was born on 7 January 1668 in Hatfiefld. [4] She died there on 21 January 1668. [4]

Children of John Graves and Mary Bronson:

x. Nathaniel Graves was born on 10 June 1671 in Hatfield. [4][5, 152] He died about 1757. [7] He married Rebecca Allis on 30 April 1702. [7]

Endnotes:

1. John Card Graves, Genealogy of the Graves Family in America (Buffalo, N.Y. : Baker, Jones & Co., 1986).

2. Gemont Graves, Graves Genealogy (Burlington, VT: Free Press Printing Co., 1911).

3. Leslie Mahler, "The English Origin of Thomas and Sarah (Scott) Graves of Hartford, Connecticut and Hadley, Massachusetts," The American Genealogist 82 (2007): 107–110.

4. Daniel White Wells and Reuben Field Wells, History of Hatfield, Massachusetts (Springfield: F.C.H. Gibbons, c. 1910), 23, 43, 55, 89–90, 409–10.

5. "Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1620–1850," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Hatfield.

6. Gladys Redfield McPherson, Ancestry of Addie Clark Harding : daughter of Abner Clark Harding, Jr., and Maud McCain. (Chicago: unknown, 196-?).

7. John Montague Smith, Henry Walbridge Taft and Abbie Talitha Montague, History of the Town of Sunderland, Massachusetts (Greenfield, MA: E.A. Hall & Co., 1899), 349–50.

8. John Insley Coddington, "The Brownson, Bronson, or Brunson Family of Earl's Colne, Esse, England,—Connecticur and South Carolina," The American Genealogist 38 (1962): 193–211.

9. "Great Migration 1634–1635, R–S," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume VI, R–S (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009), 396–402.

10. Vital Records of Springfield, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, 3 vols. (Boston: NEHGS, 2003).

Last revised: 11-Aug-2023