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Governor John Sanford (1600/10–1653)

Bridget Hutchinson (bp. 1619–1696/8), daughter of William Hutchinson and Anne Marbury

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The migrant ancestor John Sanford was born about 1600/10. He died between 22 June and 20 November 1653. He married first Elizabeth Webb about 1631/2. She was the sister of Henry Webb, a prominent merchant of Boston. He married second Bridget Hutchinson. [1]

It has been argued that John could possibly have been the son of Henry Sanford of Dedham, County Essex, who died in 1630, and his first wife Ann Payne or Paine. [2]

Bridget Hutchinson, the daughter of William and Anne (Marbury) Hutchinson, was baptized on 15 January 1618/9 in Alford, Lincolnshire. She died between 20 September 1696 and 18 August 1698. She married first as his second wife Governor John Sanford. She married second as his third wife Major William Phillips shortly before 10 March 1656/7. [1]

Bridget was probably named for her maternal grandmother, the sister of Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet, and the great aunt of the poet John Dryden. [1]

Bridget’s second husband was a vintner and a prominent merchant of Boston and later of Saco, Maine, where he was a large landowner. [1]

John probably came from County Essex in England and he probably served in the English forces in the Low Countries. [3] He was originally a servant and later a business agent to the Winthrops. [2] He arrived on the Lyon in 1631 and settled in Boston. [4]

John was well known to the Winthrops in England. He “belonged to that somewhat indeterminate class between the gentry and the highest yeomanry.” [1] Edward Howes, writing to John Winthrop, Jr. in 1632, desired to be remembered to “my loving friend John Samford and his true love.” [3]

In 1631 John became the 115th member of the First Church in Boston. On 3 April 1632 he was made a freeman. [4] He had land early at Pullen Point (later in Winthrop, Massachusetts). [3]

On 6 August 1633 John was on a committee to build bridges over Muddy and Stony Rivers and on 10: 9 mo: 1634 he was on a committee to lay out lots on Hog Island. On 14 May 1634 Mr. Edward Tomlyns and Mr. John Sanford were ordered to look at ordinances, powder and shot and to report on them and on 3 September 1634 John was appointed cannoneer of the fort at Boston. Afterwards he was frequently appointed to surveying tasks and to looking after military material. He was chosen a selectman of Boston from 21:1:1636 to 19:12:1637/8. [1] He attended his last meeting on 19 February 1637. [4]

On 20 November 1637 John was ordered disarmed as an adherent of Mrs. Hutchinson. On 7:1 mo:1638 he signed the Portsmouth agreement. About the middle of March 1638 he left Boston and went to Providence with the other Antonomian leaders. He then went to Aquidneck and was present at the first Portsmouth town meeting on 13:3:1638. [1]

John was granted 240 acres at Black Point on 10:12 mo:1639. [1] He was chosen constable on 12 March 1639/40. [4]

John was chosen a lieutenant of the military company on 15 March 1642/3. He was an Assistant on 19 May 1647 and 22 May 1649. He was deputy to the Rhode Island General Court on 16 May 1651. He was chosen President (Governor) of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations on 17 May 1653. He died in office. [4]

A copy of John’s will, dated 22 June 1653 exists. John named his wife Bridget his executrix. His brother-in-law Edward Hutchinson of Boston was one of his overseers. He mentions his eldest son John, his second Samuel, his third son Peleg, his fourth son Restcome, his fifth son William, his sixth son Esbon and his seventh son Elisha, his eldest daughter Eliphal and his youngest daughter Anne. He wrote, “And I do bequeath my Children unto my wife next unto God Intreating that they may be carefully provided for and tenderly brought up as heitherto they have been. And that they may be well Educated and brought up in the fear of the Lord…” [5] On 20 November 1653 his widow signed receipts for legacies. [1]

Inventory was taken on John’s estate on 15 November 1653. It amounted to 824 pounds, not including real estate. [4]

Bridget and her stepdaughter Eliphal were Quakers and they were more than once publicly whipped “for indulging in certain vagaries of opinion not agreeable to the magistrates of Boston.” [6]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left Bridget Phillips a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

Bridget signed her will on 20 September 1696; it was proved on 18 August 1698. She left a large tract of unsettled land in Wells, Maine to her children Peleg Sanford, Samuel Phillips, William Phillips and Eliphal Stratton. She also left bequests to, among others, her son Elisha Sanford, her daughters Sarah and Deborah Phillips, and her son Esbon Sanford’s daughter. [1]

Children of John Sanford and Elizabeth Webb: [25]

i. Captain John Sanford was born on 4 June 1633 in Boston. He was baptized on 26:4 mo: 1633 in the First Church in Boston. He died on 25 January 1686/7 in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He married first Elizabeth Spatchurst on 8 August 1654 in Portsmouth. She was the daughter of Henry Spatchurst of Bermuda and Jamaica. She died on 6 December 1661 in Portsmouth. John married second Mary (Gorton) Greene on 17 April 1663. Mary was the daughter of Samuel Gorton of Warwick, who was President of Providence and Warwick in 1651 to 1652, and of Mary Maplet, the sister of Dr. John Maplet, the Principal of Gloucester Hall (Worcester College), Oxford and a physician to Charles II. [1] She married first John Greene. [4]

John was a large landed proprietor of Portsmouth and very active in the affairs of the colony. He was a large raiser of horses and sheep and shipped horses and wool to Barbados through his brother Peleg. [1]

On 20 November 1653 John Sanford of Portsmouth gave a receipt to his mother Bridget Sanford, executrix to his father John Sanford, for his share of his father’s estate. [4] On 5 April 1660 Henry Webb made a bequest to his late sister Elizabeth Sanford’s sons John and Samuel. [4]

On 4 June 1655 John was Chief Magistrate at Portsmouth. He was a frequent member of the Town Council. In 3 June 1672 he was town clerk. In 1655 to 1664 he was General Treasurer of the Colony. In 1662 to 1663 he was Commissioner. He was a long-time Secretary of State and Attorney General of the Colony. He was many times a deputy from Portsmouth to the General Assembly. In 1664 to 1665 and in 1680 he was a member of the Council of Assistants. On 10 August 1667 he was captain of a troop of horses. [1]

John’s widow Mary Sanford presented the inventory on his estate on 19 September 1687. [8]

Children of John Sanford and Bridget Hutchinson: The names, birthdates and birthplaces of John Sanford’s children are from [8], citing a copy of a register written in John Sandford’s handwriting.

iii. Eliphal Sanford was born on 9 December 1637 in Boston. She was baptized on 10:10:1637 in the First Church in Boston. She died on 19 January 1723/4, “in her 88th year.” She married Bartholomew Stratton about 1656/7. [1]

Bartholomew was a merchant of Boston. Eliphal and her husband were Quakers and they were frequently in trouble with the authorities. [1]

On 17 October 1663 Bartholomew Stratton, mariner of Boston and husband of Eliphal Sanford, gave a receipt to Mr. William Phillips of Boston—the husband of his mother-in-law Bridget, formerly Bridget Sanford and executrix to John Sanford. [4]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left Eliphal Stratton a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

iv. Governor Peleg Sanford was born on 10 May 1639. He died shortly after 1 September 1701. He married first Mary Brenton. He married second Mary Coddington.

v. Endcome Sanford was born on 23 February 1640/[1?] in Rhode Island. He died young. [1]

vi. Restcome Sanford was born on 29 January 1642/[3?] in Dutch [Island?]. He died without children between 12 August and 24 September 1667. [1]

On 27 June 1666 Restcome’s brother Peleg wrote to his brother in Barbados that Restcome had recently recovered from small pox. On 13 December 1667 he wrote to him again, advising him about the disease. [1]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left Restcome Sanford a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

Restcome wrote his will on 12 August 1667 and inventory was takine on 24 September 1667. He named his brother Samuel Sanford his executor and he left legacies to Esbon “if he is heard from within a year,” Samuel, his wife Sarah and their children, his sister Eliphal Stratton and her children. The legacy left to him by his uncle Samuel Hutchinson was to be divided between his siblings Samuel, Peleg, William, Esbon and Elisha Sanford and Eliphal Stratton. [1]

vii. William Sanford was born on 4 March 164[3?]/4 in Rhode Island. He probably died, childless, not too long after 10 March 1671/2, when he last appears in the family papers. [1]

William was a merchant at Bridgetown, Barbados and acted for his brother Peleg in disposing of his cargo in Barbados. [1]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left William Sanford a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

viii. Captain Esbon Sanford was born on 25 January 1645/[6?] Rhode Island. He died on 6 October 1682 at Port Nelson, Hudson’s Bay. He married Sarah Unknown. [1]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left Esbon Sanford a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

Esbon gave his mother a receipt for is share of his father’s estate on 17 June 1670. [4]

Esbon was a mariner. He left New England before 12 August 1667 and went to England. He came back to Portsmouth briefly in 1670. He entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company. On 3 March 1681/2 he was given command of the Albemarle and on 31 May 1682 he was appointed Deputy Governor of the company’s settlement at Port Nelson. He probably died in the French attack on Port Nelson. [1]

ix. Frances Sanford was born on 9 January 164[7?]/8 in Portsmouth and died in infancy. [1]

x. Elisha Sanford was born on 28 December 1650 in Portsmouth. He died without children before 1690. [1] Elisha “no doubt died before 1691 & I think in Barbados.” [8, transcript of a letter from Governor Thomas Hutchinson]

Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left Elisha Sanford a bequest in his will of 7 April 1667. [7]

Elisha was a merchant in Bridgetown, Barbados. [1] His brother Peleg was his heir. [8]

xi. Anne Sanford was born on 12 March 1651/[2?] in Portsmouth. She died on 26 August 1654. [1]

Endnotes

1. G. Andrews Moriarty, "President John Sanford of Portsmouth, R.I., and His Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 103 (1949): 208-216, 271-277.

2. Edwin G. Sanford, “The Early Years of President John Sanford of Boston, Mass., and Portsmouth, R.I.,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 114 (1960), 83–95.

3. G. Andrews Moriarty, "Additions and Corrections to Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island," The American Genealogist 20 (1943): 58 (John); 26 (1950): 54 (Esbon).

4. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 1626–8.

5. G. Andrews Moriarty, “The Will of President John Sanford,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 79 (1950) 304–7.

6. Elliot Sanford, “The Hutchinson and Sanford Families,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 27 (1873), 81–82.

7. William B. Trask, “Abstracts from the Earliest Wills of Suffolk, Mass.,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 16 (1862) 331–3.

8. Almon D. Hodges, Jr., “Notes on the Sanford Family of Portsmouth, R.I.,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 56 (1902), 294–7

Revised August 9, 2023

© 2019 A. Buiter