John Elderkin

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John Elderkin (c. 1616–1687)

Abigail Unknown (d. by 1660)

The origins of the migrant ancestor John Elderkin are unknown. [1] He was born about 1616. He died on 22 June 1687 in Norwich. [1][2][3] He married first Abigail Unknown. [2] He married second the widow Elizabeth Gaylord of Windsor on 1 March 1660 in Windsor. [1][4] Elizabeth, the daughter of John Drake, Sr. of Windsor, died on 8 June 1716 in Norwich. [2][3] She married first as his second wife William Gaylord on 9 February 1653/4 in Windsor. [2] William, the son of William Gaylord, was baptized on 28 December 1617 in Crewkerne, Somerset and died on 14 December 1656 in Windsor. [2] He married first Ann Porter on 24 February 1641/2 in Windsor. [2] Ann, the daughter of John and Ann (White) Porter, was baptized on 22 September 1621 in Felsted, Essex and died on 21 July 1653 in Windsor. [2]

John deposed that he was 56 years old in 1672. [1]

The peripatetic John Elderkin was a millwright, shipwright, house carpenter and general contractor for the building of mills, bridges and meeting houses in New London, Norwich and elsewhere. [1]

John settled in Lynn and was granted 20 acres there in 1638. [5][6] After Lynn, John went to Boston and then to Dedham. [7]

On 8 August 1642 John sold half a watermill in Dedham, ten acres of meadow and 20 acres of upland to Reverend John Allen, Nathaniel Aldus, and John Dwight. [8]

On 16 September 1643 John sold "the new built watermill in Linn" to Samuel Bennett for 100 pounds. [9][10]

After Dedham, John went to Reading. [7]

On 5 (6) 1646 John mortgaged his half of the sawmill in Reading to Mary Kinsley for ten pounds. [10]

John went to Providence and New London, before settling in Norwich. [7]

John was a carpenter and innkeeper in New London in the 1650s. [11]

John Elderkin was chosen by the town of Pequot to keep an ordinary and this was confirmed by the Connecticut Court on 17 May 1655. [12]

Mrs. Lake and John Elderkin had a lot of eight acres divided between them, just south of William Comstock’s land on Post Hill. [1]

John accumulated 700 aces on Saw Mill Brook and sold it to Mr. Antipas Newman on 22 April 1662. [1]

John was at Haddam about or before 1662 when the town, then Thirty-Mile Island, granted John of Norwich the right to build a cornmill. Things apparently went awry as the townsmen were instructed to sue him on 26 March 1669. [7]

On 20 April 1666 Thomas Stanton of Stonington sold two acres of marsh at Sandy Cove to John of Norwich and John sold Thomas a parcel of meadow and ten acres of upland at Pockatuck. [13]

Children of John and Abigail Elderkin: Names in [2]

i. Abigail Elderkin was born on 13 September 1641 in Dedham. [14] She was baptized there six days later. [11] She married John Betts. [11][15] John, the son of John and Mary Betts, was baptized on 5 May 1627 in Claydon, Oxfordshire. [11] He divorced Abigail on 14 October 1672 in Connecticut. [11] He married second Abigail (Smith) Adams, the daughter of Richard of Wethersfield and wife of John of Hartford, on 13 March 1672/3. [11]

Harris [11] argues that Abigail may have been very young—perhaps only fourteen—when she married. Upon marrying her, John Betts made over half his estate to her, but renounced the gift on 23 December 1662 because of her short-comings as a wife. [11] In March of 1662/3 the Quarterly Court at Hartford pronounced punishment for Abigail because of her blasphemy and ordered her father to take custody of her until further order. Abigail and John reconciled and had a daughter, Abigail, in March 1665/6 before divorcing. [11]

On 20 March 1669/70 Mary, the wife of John Coultman, and Abigail, the wife of John Betts, were convicted and whipped for their "lacivious practices" such as "pulling down" the "breeches and drawers" of Edward Hall, John Lattimer and Sigesman Richells. This Abigail was the daughter of John Elderkin. [15]

ii. Hannah Elderkin married Richard Hendee (Handy) probably about 1664 in Wethersfield or Norwich. [16] He died on 4 August 1670 in Killingworth. [1][16]

Richard was the proprietor of a mill built by John Elderkin in Killingworth. [1]

iii. Paltiah Elderkin was born say 1650. She died after 13 November 1683. She married Daniel Comstock.

Children of John Elderkin and Elizabeth Drake: Names and birth dates (month and year) in [2][3]

iv. Anne Elderkin was born in January 1661. [3] She married Samuel Bliss on 8 December 1681 in Norwich. [16]

v. John Elderkin was born in April 1664. He married Abigail Fowler on 8 February 1685 in Norwich. [3] She died in March 1713/4 in Norwich. [3]

vi. Bashua Elderkin was born in November 1665.

vii. James Elderkin was born in March 1670/1. He died on 26 April 1698 in Windsor. [4]

viii. Joseph Elderkin was born in December 1672. He married Deborah Brockway on 27 July 1703 in Norwich. [3][17] Deborah, the daughter of Wolston and Hannah (Briggs) (Harris) Brockway, was born on 1 May 1682 in Lyme or Wethersfield. [17]

Endnotes:

1. Frances Mainwaring Caulkins, History of New London, Connecticut (New London: H.T. Utley, 1895), , 68, 96, 158–9, 178.

2. Alicia Crane Williams, "Early New England Families, 1641–1700," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, entry for William Gaylord (m. 1641).

3. Vital Records of Norwich, 1659–1848 (Hartford: Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Connecticut, 1913), 1: 22, 43–44, 55.

4. "Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630–1870," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org, Windsor, 86.

5. Marcia Lindberg, "It Happened in Essex County, Lynnfield," The Essex Genealogist 19 (1999): 135–58, specifically 138.

6. "Pages from Old Town Book of Lynn," Essex Genealogist 20 (2000): 195.

7. Gale Ion Harris," Captain Richard Wright of Twelve-Mile Island and the Burnhams of Podunk," The American Genealogist 67 (1992): 32–46.

8. "Great Migration 1634–1635, C–F," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume II, C–F (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001), 373.

9. "Great Migration 1634–1635, A–B," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634–1635, Volume I, A–B (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999), 225.

10. "Essex Deeds - Book 1," Essex Genealogist 19 (1999), 189, 190.

11. Gale Ion Harris, "The First Wife of Ralph Keeler of Hartford and Norwich, Connecticut," The American Genealogist 80 (2005): 177–87.

12 J. Hammond Trumble, The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. 1 (Hartford: Brown & Parsons, 1850), 276.

13. "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), 471.

14. Herbert W. Sumner, Jr., "Birth Records of Dedham, Massachusetts," Connecticut Nutmegger 19 (1986): 26.

15. Gale Ion Harris," John Coltman of Wethersfield, Connecticut," The American Genealogist 77 (2002): 248–47.

16. "New England Marriages to 1700," digitized books, AmericanAncestors, originally published as Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015), 1: 162 (Anne's marriage); 2: 694 (Hannah's marriage).

17. Gale Ion Harris, "Wolston Brockway of Lynn, Connecticut," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 162 (2008) 140–8.

Revised July 12, 2023