Richard Church of Hartford

Richard Church, original proprietor of the Hartford Colony, died Dec 16, 1667 at the home of his daughter, Mary Graves, in what was then part of Hadley, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.

Disambiguation

• Not the son of Richard Church of London & Elizabeth Church
• Not the same as Richard Church, of Hingham

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Family

Richard's parents and siblings are unknown. His birth is estimated at about year 1600 in England.

He was married to Anne (1600 – 1683). Her origins are also unknown.

Their children’s birth dates are estimated. In Ann’s probate documents, John was listed as 2nd son and Samuel as 3rd.

1. Mary (Church) Graves (abt. 1625 – 1695). Married Isaac Graves.
2. Edward Church (1628 – 1704). Married Mary Hopkins.
3. John Church (c 1637 or before – 1691). Married Sarah Beckley. John Church was made freeman, May 20 1658, so was at least 21 on that date.
4. Capt Samuel Church I (c 1638 or before – 1684). Married Mary Churchill. Samuel Church was made freeman in Hartford on May 21, 1657, so was at least 21 on that date.

Source: Richard Church, in Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley. (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1952) 491-92. AncestryImage

Biography

Fraud!

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Church-166

The history of Richard and his family is made murky by fraud: Gustave Anjou created one of his many fraudulent genealogies around this family, exploiting the family's lack of known history.[2][3] The duped descendant, Charles Washburn Church, published the results in 1914.[4] Worse, Anjou birthdates were accepted by many later genealogists, even appearing in Lucius Barbour's Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut.[5]

The wary genealogist of the Richard Church family should look to sources that either predate 1914, or which discuss Anjou genealogy, and which are backed by primary sources.

What is wrong

A page from Charles Washburn Church's defrauded genealogy. Fraudulent information in red, reasonable guesses in green. The rest is accurate, from primary sources.[6] So far as is actually known: He was NOT the son of Richard Church and Alice Vassell [7]; neither he, nor his wife Anne, nor her father, were from Braintree, England (or Braintree, Massachusetts); his wife's last name is unknown, she is NOT the daughter of Edward Marsh.

He was not born Feb. 6, 1610; c. 1600 is more likely, based on Anne's birth year, and on the likely birthdate of their daughter Mary (c. 1625; see below)

He did not come to Hartford with Hooker in 1636: first, no profile in Anderson's Great Migration argues an arrival later than 1636; second, William Deloss Love does not list him among those who came with Hooker, or who came soon after[8]; third, his plot of land shown in the 1640 map of Hartford is very small and to the north[9], both of which indicate a later-comer, also according to Love[10].Benjamin Tinkham Marshall

In fact all of the exact Church family birth and marriage dates prior to 1647 are unknown; the first birth record we have is for Richard and Anne's granddaughter, Mary Graves, born July 5, 1647 in Hartford [11], to Mary (Church) Graves and her husband, Isaac Graves.

What we do know

Here is what know or can deduce from the records: his wife Anne, died in Hatfield, March 10, 1684, in her 84th year[12], so was born about 1600; lacking other evidence, it's reasonable to assign Richard the same birth year. Their son Edward's tombstone gives his age at death as well as his death date: [13] he was 76 in September 1704, so he was in fact born c. 1628.

Son Samuel Church was made freeman in Hartford on May 21, 1657, so was at least 21 on that date; thus was born before May, 1636. [14]

Similarly, son John Church was made freeman, May 20 1658, so was at least 21, and was born before May, 1637.[15]

Daughter Mary (Church) Graves' first child Mary Graves, m. Frary, was born July 5, 1647, according to the Hartford vital records [16]. Mary Graves was also Anne and Richard's first grandchild; Anne would have been 47 when she was born, and it is thus quite possible that both Anne and her daughter Mary Church were about 23 at the birth of their first child -- very typical for the era. A 1625 birthdate for Mary Church seems a reasonable estimate.[17]

Biography

Richard Church and his family first appear in Connecticut's records in January 3 1639/40, when he was awarded the right to 12 acres of land[18]; what we know about the family must be deduced from that and later records. (While this is often called "the first division," it was actually a general cleaning-up and regularizing of prior claims and grants, including reclamation of undeveloped plots, by the fledgling Hartford town government.)

[Following needs sourcing from Hartford early records -- Trumbull. And some narrative and background.]

1639 - He drew 12 acres of land in the first division.

1643 - Richard volunteered and served as Sargent in the Pequot Indian War.

1652 - One of the original members of The Church of Hartford.

1658 - Richard was made Freeman in Connecticut.

1659 - Because of a religious squabble withdrew from Conn. with 60 other persons to form the town of Hadley, Massachusetts. One of the original citizens to sign the agreement on Apr 18, 1659 at Goodman Ward's home in Hartford agreeing to settle the area then (or soon) called Hadley, Massachusetts. (This was later divided into Hadley, and Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Granby. The Church family settled in the portion west of the Connecticut River which became Hatfield in 1670.) (Suspect lack of land was a partial motivation.)

1667 Dec 16 - Richard died at the home of his daughter, Mary Graves, in what was then part of Hadley.

(1670 After much petitioning, Hatfield is allowed to form its own town from the portion of the original Hadley west of the Connecticut River. Suspect this meant they could build their own church and didn't have to cross the Connecticut every Sunday.)

1683/4 Mar 10 - his widow, Ann Marsh, [daughter of Edward Marsh, - NO] died in Hatfield, Massachusetts, in her 84th year[19].

References

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Church-166 cites
• Free of Anjou information Lesses, Richard; Richard Church of Hartford's Ancestry, posting to soc.genealogy.misc 11/16/1996
• Link to groups.google.com record Boltwood, Lucius Manlius; Genealogies of Hadley Families: Embracing the Early Settlers of the Towns of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Granby; Metcalf printers, 1862. Judd, Sylvester; History of Hadley, including the early history of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst and Granby, Massachusetts; H.R. Hunting and Company. Springfield, Mass. 1905 Love, William DeLoss The Colonial History of Hartford: Gathered from the Original Records; published by the author, Hartford, CT, 1914. At archive.org. Porter, William S.; Hartford in 1640 prepared from the original records by vote of the town and drawn by William S. Porter Very high-resolution copy at University of CT Trumbull, J. Hammond, ed.;The public records of the Colony of Connecticut, prior to the union with New Haven Colony, May, 1665, transcribed and published under the supervision of the Secretary of State; Hartford: Brown & Parsons, 1850 (Public Records Hartford) At archive.org
• White, Lorraine Cook, Bailey, Christina. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records: Hartford 1635-1855 Genealogical Publishing Company,
• 2003 Findagrave.com memorial for Deacon Edward Church, (Hill Cemetery, Hatfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts),
• 15358255 Link to memorial at Findagrave
• Bartlett, J. Gardiner; Erroneous Pedigrees; Church. The Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 3 (Dec. 1915/Sept. 1916), Boston : Eben Putnam,1905-1917 Compromised by Anjou information
• Church, Charles Washburn; Simeon Church of Chester, Connecticut, 1708-1792, and his descendants, by Charles Washburn Church (C.W. Church genealogy); The Mattatuck Press, Waterbury, CT, 1914. Title page. This is the original publication which included the fraudulent Anjou information. Marshall, Benjamin Tinkham; A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut, Volume 2, 1922. This has the bogus genealogy, hook, line & sinker. If you need a summary of the fraudulent genealogy, here it is.
• Barbour, Lucius; Families of Early Hartford, Connecticut, Doesn't reproduce the fraudulent ancestry, but includes the [fraudulent birthdates and Anne as daughter of Edward Marsh of Braintree.] With other errors
• Descendants of Richard Church of Plymouth, Mass., by John Church, Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle Co., 1913. Conflates Richard Church of Hadley with Richard Church of Hingham Footnotes
• John A. Church, For an early published genealogy, it is well sourced and refers to original or published records. HOWEVER, it appears it confuses Richard of Hadley with Richard of Hingham! ↑ Lesses ↑ Bartlett, p 192 ↑ C.W. Church genealogy ↑ Barbour ↑ C.W. Church genealogy, p.11, detail, with overdrawing by Patricia J. Hawkins showing fraudulent items ↑ Lesses; Gardiner ↑ Love, p.32 At archive.org ↑ Porter; Note that north is to the right on this map at U.Connecticut ↑ Love, p.32 At archive.org ↑ Bourbour CT Vital Records, p.178. At books.google.com ↑ Boltwood p.18; this may be from an old gravemarker, or a town record; I've found no clear source, but several older genealogies repeat it. At archive.org ↑ link to photo at findagrave.comEdward Findagrave memorial ↑ Public Records Hartford, p. 297, At archive.org ↑ Public Records Hartford, p 315, At archive.org ↑ Hartford Vital Records, p.178 At books.google.com ↑ Like many genealogists, I round estimated birth years to the nearest five; assigning Mary Church a 1625 birth year moves her closer to her brothers' likely birthdates; also Anne and Richard were not a very fertile couple for the era, with only four children, whereas Mary and Isaac Graves proceeded to have ten children, averaging one every 2.5 years until Mary's death, so an earlier first child is likelier for Mary than for Anne. ↑ Love, p.125 At archive.org ↑ Boltwood p.18. Several older sources state "in her 84th year" or "AE 84". This may be from a town record, or it may have been a transcription from an old wooden grave marker.
• http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=pjmpjm&id...
• from TORREY: CHURCH, Richard (-1667) & Anne _____; ?Braintree, Eng, ?18 May 1627, ca 1625/30? (not in 1627); Hartford/Hadley {Hale 491-2, 577; Brainerd Anc. 85; Church (1914) 7; Church (1920) 19; Wethersfield 2:58; Gen. Mag. 3:192; Sv. 1:385; Drake 233; Blakeney-Sabin 66; Morse (#1) 106-107}
• Came to Boston in 1630 with Hooker and Stone. [NO] Came 1636 to Hartford with relatives [?] John Marsh, Nathaniel Marsh and Isaac Graves, who came from Braintree County, Essex, England. An original properietor of Hartford, 1639-40 received a home lot on what is now North Main St. Held several offices there.He signed the 4/18/1659 agreement to form Hadley and move 1659. Will Dec 13, 1667. Died Hadley Children: Edward, John, Samuel, Mary Sometimes confused with the RIchard Church from London who married Elizabeth Warren
• founders of hadley, mass list: http://www.hadley350.org/founders_day.htm
• founders of hartford, ct list: http://www.foundersofhartford.org/founders/index.htm
• http://tapefamily.com/pafg22.htm
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/129016681/richard-church
• ”Richard Church/Anne Williams marriage” posted by Ann Neal. AncestryImage
• Richard Church, in Jacobus, Donald Lines, and Edgar Francis Waterman. Hale, House and Related Families, Mainly of the Connecticut River Valley. (Hartford: The Connecticut Historical Society, 1952) 491-92. AncestryImage
• The Genealogical magazine. Topics genealogy Publisher Boston : Eben Putnam,1905-1917. “An unauthenticated Church Pedigree.” Archive.Org
• Bible records and genealogical notes collected by Michigan D.A.R. AncestryImage

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https://stjohngenealogy.com/getperson.php?personID=I105550689&tree=...

Richard Church
Richard Church
Male 1600 - 1667 (~ 67 years)

Personal Information

Name Richard Church
Relationship with Mathias St. John
Birth abt. 1600
Gender Male
Death 1667
Person ID I105550689 St. John Origin and Ancestry DNA Database
Last Modified 22 Dec 2017

Family Ann _____, Church, b. 1601 d. 1684 (Age 83 years)
Children

	1. Deacon Edward Church,   b. 1628

Last Modified 22 Dec 2017
Family ID F398558 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Reference St. John, Suzanne. "Richard Church". The St. John Genealogy Project. https://stjohngenealogy.com/getperson.php?personID=I105550689&tree=... (accessed February 6, 2023).