John Bidwell

John Bidwell was not a known son of Richard Bidwell & Anna Eno

John Bidwell

• Born 1614 in England
• Died about 4 Jun 1687 at about age 73 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut
• Parents: unknown
• Husband of Sarah (Wilcox) Bidwell — married about 1641 in Hartford, Connecticut
• Spelling variations as found in old English records: Beadle, Beddele, Beddell, Bedel, Bedell, Bedle, Bedwel, Bedwell, Beedell, Beedle, Biddell, Biddle, Biddoll, Biddwell, Bidle, Bidwell, Byddell.

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John Bidwell was of Hartford with Rev. Thomas Hooker (Original Proprietors of Hartford)

Biography

John Bidwell was one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. In 1640, he was a proprietor “by the courtesie of the town”. His home-lot was south of Seth Grant's home-lot, and on the east side of the road from Seth Grant's to the Mill. He owned a tan-yard on an island in Little River, receiving four acres in all. He married Sarah, daughter of John Wilcocks, of Hartford.

He and his wife, Sarah, were original members of the Second, or South Church, Feb. 12, 1670. He was chosen chimney-viewer, 1655, 1661. He was freed from watching, warding, and training, Nov. 9, 1670.

John was the sole executor for his mother-in-law, Mary Wilcox. Her will was dated 4 March 1668/69 at Hartford.

He was an early settler at Hartford, CT and had four acres of land allotted him in the division of lands there in 1639 In 1640, he had a house lot north of Mary Betts, south of Seth Grant and west of John Skinner on the east side of Trumbull Street near Pearl in Hartford. He owned a tan yard ob an island in Little River, in what is now Bushnell’s Park, south of Nathaniel Richards’ house lot in 1640. In 1666 he had land allotted him in East Hartford; his name is upon the monument erected in memory of the first settlers at Hartford. From the original records of the Second or Center Street Church of Hartford. John and his wife were members, dated February 1672.

John Bidwell, Sr’s will dated FEB 10, 1680, mentions wife Sarah, sons:

• Jonathan (5 MAR, 1684),
• Joseph, (d. 1692)
• Daniel (b. 1655 ; d. 29 Nov, 1719)
• Samuel, (b. 1650; d. 5 Apr, 1715)
• David (1687),
• James (1691-7 MAY 1718) and daughters:
• Sarah (b. 19 AUG, 1681)House,
• Hannah (b. 31 AUG, 1680)Waddams,
• Thomas (27 DEC, 1682-1716), Mary Meekins.

John died 1687.[5].

Family

John Bidwell married Sarah Wilcox, daughter of John and Mary Wilcox. She died June 15, 1690. Her father, John, died before OCT 1666; his wife survived him and her will is dated MAR 4, 1668-69, Hartford CT.

Their children included:

• i. John, Hartford; m. Nov. 7, 1678, Samb, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Tuttle) [Pantry] Welles, of Hartford; admitted to the South Church, Feb. 21, 1685. He owned six saw and grist mills; three at Hartford, one each at East Hartford, Wethersfield, and Middletown; died July 3, 1692. Inv. £1081.
• ii. Joseph, Wethersfield, east side of the river; married May 18, 1675, Mary Colefax, dau. of Wm.; adm. to the South Church, Hartford, Feb. 1672; had a saw-mill in Glastonbury ; died in 1692.
• iii. Samuel, b. 1650; Middletown ; m. (1) Nov. 14, 1672, Elizabeth, dau. of Thomas Stow, of Middletown ; (2) Sarah, dau. of Capt. Daniel Harris; (3) Abigail-; he d. April 5, 1715.
• iv. Sarah, m. William House, of Hartford; adm. to the South Church, March 31, 1678.
• v. Hannah, married John Wadhams/ Waddams. (John Waddams, of Wethersfield )
• vi. Mary, m. Lieut. John Makin (Meakins), of East Hartford.
• vii. Daniel, b. 1655; in. (1) Elizabeth-; (2) Dorothy -; lived in East Hartford, where he was first constable, 1699, and held other offices; d. Nov. 29, 1719

Source: Excerpts from the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford

Descent

• John Bidwell b. 1620 d. 1687 Hartford, CT m. 1640 Sarah Wilcox at Hartford, CT, b. 1623 d. 15 June 1690 Hartford, CT, dau. of John and Mary (___) Wilcox
  • John Bidwell b. 1641 d. 3 July 1692 m. 7 Nov. 1678 Sarah Welles in Hartford, b. Apr. 1659. Sarah was b. in Wethersfield, CT, dau. of Thomas and Hannah (Tuttle) pantry Welles and the granddaughter of Gov. Thomas Welles. John was b. and d. at Hartford. Sarah d. 1708.
    • John Bidwell b. 1 Sept. 1679 d. 30 Sept. 1751 m. Hannah Pitkin, dau. of Capt. Roger and Hannah (Stanley) Pitkin. John and Hannah are buried at the East Hartford Cemetery, East Hartford, CT

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Disputed Origins

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bidwell-86

According to The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640 the parents and origins of John Bidwell are not known.[1] Anderson cites Hale, House: Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley (Hartford 1952; rpt. Baltimore 1978) 459. Jacobus writes: "Edwin M. Bidwell, compiler of the Genealogy published in 1884, supposed him to be the son of Richard Bidwell of Windsor; and brother of a younger Richard of Windsor, of Anna [Hanna] wife of James Eno of Windsor, and of the early Bidwell who settled at Marshfield, Mass. These are assumptions and the present compiler finds little to sustain them."

Extracted from Bidwell Family History, (1587-1982). Compiled By Joan J. Bidwell. Volume 1. Baltimore, Maryland Gateway Press (1983) pp. 1-2 <link>

According to old family records, Richard Bidwell and son, John were passengers on the vessel, "Mary and John" coming to America in 1630 to make a new life for themselves on this new land. It is uncertain in what exact location in England this Bidwell family had resided before coming to America, but according to notes of family historian, Frederick David Bidwell 1873-1947 he states that Richard Bidwell and son John came from County Devon.

Through correspondence dated 1979, between Rev, John Scott, Vicar of Newton St. Cyres in County Devon, and Robert F. Bidwell of Urbana, Ohio, we are informed that a manor is located in Newton St. Cyres called Bidwell Barton, which according to parish historical materials, was where the Bidwell family lived in the 16th Century and was the beginning of the Bidwell family in England, and presumably where the family took it's name. Rev. Scott states the fact that the parish records contain a mass of entries relating to the Bidwell family, including the baptism of a John Bidwell, who may be the son of Richard Bidwell. However, no documented proof has been found that Richard Bidwell was the name of the father of John, Joseph, Samuel and Richard, although all evidence certainly leads one to believe this is the correct relationship.

References

• (Robert Charles Anderson, FASG [Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists], The Great Migration Directory: Immigrants to New England, 1620–1640; a Concise Compendium [Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 2015], 29). “ The origins of John Bidwell of Hartford, Connecticut are uncertain.”
• A copy of his will is available in the publication “The Bidwell Family History” by Joan Bidwell. Source Link: https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000175876178823label=@S965@
• "Genealogy to the seventh generation of the Bidwell family in America" By Edwin M. Bidwell pages 25 - 30
• “John Bidwell [of] Hartford, Connecticut,” within Donald Lines Jacobus [Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists] and Edgar Francis Waterman, Hale House and Related Families (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1952), online at HathiTrust.org, beginning at page 459: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89066151523?urlappend=%3Bseq=481
• GEDCOM Note: Credited as a founding member of Hartford CT
• GEDCOM Source: MH:S163 U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Yates Publishing Ancestry.com Operations Inc Source number: 301.000; Source type: Electronic Database; Number of Pages: 1; Submitter Code: JEP
• GEDCOM Source: Age: 68-69
• GEDCOM Source: Age: 18-19
• GEDCOM Source: MH:S162 U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. Find A Grave
• removed: “John Bidwell, born 1620, died 1687, was only ten years old when he and his father Richard boarded the Mary and John to sail to America. to what is now Boston Harbor”
• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bidwell-86 citations include

1. Barbour, Lucius Barnes, 1982, Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut, Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore, Maryland and Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc., Glastonbury, Connecticut pp.58
2. Bidwell, Edwin M. 1884, Genealogy of the first seven generations of the Bidwell family in America. J. Munsell's Sons, Albany, New York
3. Cooke, Raeola Ford, 1988, John Wilcox and some descendants of Hartford and Middletown, Conn., Unpublished MSS, Twin Falls, Idaho
4. Manwaring, Charles William, 1904, A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records R. S. Peck & Co., Printers, Hartford, Connecticut
5. Torrey, Clarence A., 2004, New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., Baltimore, Maryland
6. Stevens, Harriet Weeks.Wadhams genealogy, proceded by a sketch of the Wadham family in England (Frank Allaben genealogical company, 1913) Page 23