Hannah Humphrey

Hannah Griffin, eldest known child of Sgt. John Griffin and Anna Bancroft, b. of record July 4, 1649 at Windsor, Conn. She d. bef. Jan. 10, 1698/9 when not included in the estate record (intestate) of her 2nd husband, Sgt. John Humphrey (q.v. Humphry), who d. at Simsbury Jan. 14, 1698/9. She is assumed to be interred without an extant gravestone at Simsbury's Hop Meadow (aka Simsbury Center) Cemetery.

There is in print and in electronic compilations competing claims as to who was Hannah's 2nd husband. She m. 1) of record on May 1, 1667 at Hartford (by Capt. John Allyn), Isaac Pond, they both of Windsor, latter the s. of Samuel Pond and his wife Sarah of Windsor. There was one child of the marriage, dau. Hannah, b. of record at Windsor Feb. 10, 1667/68. Isaac Pond d. of record [Windsor VRs] on "Nov. 15, 1669, Æ 23," meaning he was then only 22 years old. As no probate record exists for Isaac, and the widow Hannah's remarriage is not of record anywhere in the Conn. records, a confused claim as to who Hannah next married was initially formed by the noted genealogist Donald Lines Jacobus.

Isaac Pond's father Samuel died intestate at Windsor, Conn. Mar. 14, 1654/5. Shortly thereafter the widow Sarah Pond m. 2) as his 2nd wife on July 10, 1655 at Guilford, Conn., John Linsley of Branford, Conn. The three surviving children of Samuel and Sarah Pond relocated with their mother to Branford and adjoining Guilford, Conn. In Jacobus' work on the Barnes family of East Hampton, Long Island, NY and Branford, Conn., Jacobus considered (with slight alternations for clarity):

• The fact that Benjamin Barnes' wife, Abigail, owned land in Branford, implies that she belonged to a Branford family and inherited it. Exhaustive study of Branford families locates only one Abigail who fits the requirements. This is Abigail Linsley, daughter of John Linsley, Jr., who died in 1684, leaving widow Hannah, sons John and Jonathan, and daughters Abigail and Joanna. The widow, Hannah Linsley, died Feb. 16, 1736-7. John Linsley, Jr., was son of John Linsley, Sr. (died 1698), by his first wife Ellen, who died at Guilford, Apr. 6, 1654. • There are circumstances which lead me to believe that the wife of John Linsley, Jr., may have been Hannah (Griffin) widow of Isaac Pond. Hannah Linsley sold land which "my late husband John Linsley (now deceased) and my brother-in-law, Samuel Pond, jointly bought." Deed dated Feb. 4, 1684 [-85], the year following John Linsley's death. (Branford Deeds, Vol. 2, p. 90.) • Isaac Pond, born at Windsor, Connecticut, Mar. 16, 1646 [sic 1646/7]; married May 10, 1667, Hannah Griffen; [he] died soon after without issue [not true]. Isaac's mother, Sarah Pond, was the second wife of John Linsley, Sr. The eldest son of John Linsley, Jr., was born 1671, according to his age at death, so there was time for the marriage of Hannah (Griffen) Pond between the death of Isaac Pond and the birth of John Linsley, Jr. • I think this is probable, but the proof is not positive. The estate of John Griffin of Simsbury, inventory taken August 23, 1681, widow Hannah [sic Anna], names and ages of children given, the eldest being Hannah, age 31. Unfortunately the married names of the daughters are not stated, but this Hannah, born about 1650, is all right for age.

Jacobus' tentative identity of the wife of John Linsley, Jr. was adopted as fact by Herbert Armstrong Poole at p. 358 of his 1950 privately pub. "The Genealogy of John Lindsley (1845-1909) and his wife Virginia Thayer Payne (185t6-1941) of Boston, Mass." Poole claimed:

• John Lindsley [i.e., Jr., son of John Lindsley by his 1st wife Ellen], born 1650 or earlier, died March or May 1684...He married after [sic before] 1688, Hannah Griffen, widow of Isaac Pond, [latter] who was the son of his father's wife by her first husband.

Fortunately, in the well developed 1963 work of Dr. George E. McCracken in "John Griffin of Windsor and Simsbury, Connecticut" (The American Genealogist, 38:100-112), McCracken recognized the first marriage of Hannah Griffin and birth of her dau. Hannah Pond at Windsor. The proof that the widow Hannah (Griffin) Pond next m. Sgt. John Humphrey of Simsbury, Conn. is found in the estate record of Hannah's father, Sgt. John Griffin, and subsequent deeds of the sale of the former lands of Sgt. John Griffin.

Hannah (Griffin) Humphrey is included in the inventory of Sgt. John Griffin's estate taken Aug. 23, 1681 [Manwaring 1:313] in which all ten of his children are named only by their first name, dau. Hannah then called 31 years old. On Apr. 4, 1694, on account of wastage, Griffin's net estate was distributed to his ten children, only eldest son John and sons Ephraim and Nathaniel are specifically named, the other seven heirs not named. However, in Simsbury Land Records 1-12:247 by a deed dated Mar. 14, 1698/9 the heirs of Sgt. Griffin sold land that includes the signature of John Humphrey, the eldest son of his deceased mother Hannah, latter whose husband, Sgt. John Humphrey, had died one year earlier. A further list of the Griffin heirs dated Jan. 1, 1711/12 [ibid. 2:233] involved the sale of land to John Viets and includes the signature of Joseph Humphrey, the youngest son of the deceased Hannah (Griffin) Humphrey.

As the memorialist can find no record of either the death or marriage of the former Hannah (Griffin) Pond's dau. Hannah, might it have been Hannah Pond who married John Linsley, Jr.?

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Ancestry Family Tree