Samuel Greenhill

Samuel Greenhill was christened on 23 August 1591 in Hawkhurst, Kent, England (1) and died by 1637 in Hartford, Connecticut.

He migrated with his wife and children in 1634 from England to the Colonies.

Parents: ?

Marriage 1? : On 24 June 1628 in Cranbrook, Kent, England, to Rebecca Baseden.

Children of Samuel Greenhill and Rebecca Baseden:

1. Rebecca (baptized 24 Feb 1630 - died 22 Dec 1689) m. married John Shepard, son of Capt. Edward Shepard and Violet Stanley. (3)

2. Thomas (baptized 20 January 1632/3; d. soon after 16 July 1653.

Weblinks:

http://www.theroyfamily.com/p11935.htm

Citations

(1). Mahler, Leslie. "The Roberts Family of Brenchley, Kent", The American Genealogist volume 83, number 4 (July/October 2009).

(2). Ancestral File. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, 1994.

(3) Gozzaldi, Mary Isabella. History of Cambridge, Massachusetts 1630-1877 with a Genealogical Register - Supplement and Index. 1930. Reprint Bowie, Maryland: Heritage Books, 1986.

From the Great Migration Database:

ORIGIN: Staplehurst, Kent.

MIGRATION: 1634.

FIRST RESIDENCE: Cambridge.

REMOVES:Hartford1636.

CHURCH MEMBERSHIP:Admission to church prior to 4 March 1634/5 implied by freemanship.

FREEMAN:4 March 1634/5 (twelfth in a sequence of nineteen men)[MBCR 1:370].

ESTATE:On 4 August 1634, "Samuell Greenhill" was granted eight acres in the Westend in [CaTR 9].On 20 August 1635, "Sam[uel] Greenhill" was granted a proportional share of two in the undivided meadow[CaTR 13].

In the land inventory, on 5 September 1635, "Samuell Greenhill" held two parcels: "in the town, one house with garden and backside about half a rood"; and "in West End about eight acres"[CaBOP 17].

BIRTH:By about 1603 (based on date of marriage).

DEATH:By 1637.

MARRIAGE:Cranbrook, Kent, 24 June 1628 Rebecca Baseden[ 34].

CHILDREN:

i REBECCA GREENHILL, bp. , 24 February 1630[ 34]; m. Cambridge 4 October 1649 John Shepard[ 2:2-3].

ii THOMAS GREENHILL, bp. , 20 January 1632/3[ 34]; d. soon after 16 July 1653 (see COMMENTS below).

COMMENTS:On 16 July 1653, Thomas Greenhill made his will, in which he gave to his mother "Rebeckah Addams" the use of all his land during her natural life, and at her decease one-half of his lands to "her children, that is to say, to her son John Addams & to her 3 daughters, Hanna, Hester & Sarah," and the other half to "my sister Rebeckah Shepherd's two children, John and Rebeckah Shepherd," unless these two children die without issue before their mother, in which case the mother is to inherit one-half his land[Manwaring 1:119].

As might be expected, this will sowed the seeds of dispute, and in later years John Shephard and his wife, the former Rebecca Greenhill, pursued their perceived right vigorously in the Connecticut courts. They argued that Thomas Greenhill was not yet twenty-one when he made his will, that the will was therefore void, and that Thomas Greenhill had in fact died intestate. They then argued that in an intestacy all the estate of Thomas Greenhill should fall to his only full sibling, the wife of John Shephard, and that his half-siblings, the children of Jeremy Adams, should get nothing. The dispute carried on into the third generation and into the eighteenth century, but was in the end unsuccessful. The documents produced in this case have much useful information beyond the immediate matter of the descent of the land[ Series One, 2:1-18, 177-84].

Some of these documents have been summarized in print in conjunction with the will of Thomas Greenhill[Manwaring 1:119-20], but not always accurately. In particular, a brief item with the heading "No. 1 of Index, Vol. II, P.C." misreads the nineteenth-century index to these papers. The statement that Jeremy Adams had three children with the widow of Samuel Greenhill, namely John, Hannah and Sarah, comes from Volume II, folio 17, of the Private Controversies, Series One, a copy of a court order of 30 May 1682; Manwaring inaccurately and incompletely summarized this document immediately after the incorrect index extract. The last statement of the index extract, that John Adams was "age 33 years 29 May, 1683," is from a deposition of that date made by John Adams of , of a different Adams family altogether[ Series One, 2:80].

Source:

The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III (Online database: NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002), (Orig. Pub. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Volumes I-III, 3 vols., 1995).

Biographical Summary:

Samuel Greenhill came from Staplehurst, Co. Kent, to New England, May, 1634, in the same ship with William Pantry, Timothy Stanley and wife, Mr. Simon Willard, and others; freeman, Massachusetts, March 4, 1634-5. An original proprietor of Hartford; his home-lot was on the west side of Main St., stretching from the highway on the bank of the Little River to the road from George Steele's to the South Meadow (Buckingham St.). He died soon after his removal to Hartford, and his widow, Rebecca, married Jeremy Adams (q. v.).

Children:

i. Thomas, baptized Jan. 20, 1632-3, at Staplehurst, Co. Kent; betrothed to Sarah Fruen; died 1653, in Hartford, unmarried; will dated July 16, 1653.

ii. Rebecca, born about 1634; married October 1, 1649, John Shepard, of Cambridge, who removed to Hartford about 1666; died in Hartford, December 22, 1689, aged about, 55. (Judd says she died December 26, 1690.)

SOURCE: James Hammond Trumbull, editor, The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Volume 1 (Boston, Massachusetts: Edward L. Osgood, 1886), page 241. Retrieved: 3 May 2011 from Google Books

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Came from Staplehurst, Kent to Massachusetts Bay in 1634. First settled in Cambridge; moved to Hartford in 1636.

Samuel Greenhill came from Staplehurst, Co. Kent, to N. E., May, 1634, in the same ship with William Pantry, Timothy Stanley and wife, Mr. Simon Willard, and others; freeman, Mass., March 4, 1634-5. An original proprietor of Hartford ; his home-lot was on the west side of Main St., stretching from the highway on the bank of the Little River to the road from George Steele's to the South Meadow (Buckingham St.). He d. soon after his removal to Hartford, and his widow, Rebecca, m. Jeremy Adams (q. v.).Ch. : i. Thomas, bapt. Jan. 20, 1632-3, at Staplehurst, Co. Kent; betrothed to Sarah Fruen ; d. 1653, in Hartford, unm. ; will dated July 16, 1653.1 ii. Rebecca, b. ab. 1634 ; m. Oct. 1, 1649, John Shepard, of Cambridge, who removed to Hartford ab. 1666 ; d. in Hartford, Dec. 22, 1689, aged ab. 55. (Judd says she d. Dec. 26, 1690.)