Josiah Ellsworth

Not the son of Sir John Ellsworth, {Fictional} & Lucia Ellsworth, {Fictional}

Lived in Windsor Connecticut. He resided in Cambridgeshire. From this branch of the family belongs Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. CBW Notes

Biography

Josiah Ellsworth He was born in 1629. He was in Connecticut as early as 1646. In 1654 he bought a house and lot in Windsor south of the Rivulet, near the old mill, on what was afterwards known as the Gillett place. In 1655 he bought the property afterwards known as the Chief Justice Ellsworth place. He was a juror in 1664; admitted a freeman May 21, 1657. His wife was admitted to the church in Windsor about 1663, and he contributed three shillings to the Connecticut relief fund for the poor of other colonies. He died August 20, 1689, leaving an estate valued at six hundred and fifty-five pounds.

He married, November 16, 1654, Elizabeth Holcomb, who died September 18, 1712.

Children:

• Josias, born December 5, 1655;
• Elizabeth, November 11, 1657;
• Mary, May 7, 1660;
• Martha, December 7, 1662;
• Sergeant Thomas, September 2, 1665;
• Jonathan, June 28, 1669, mentioned below;
• Lieutenant John, October 7, 1671;
• Captain Job, April 13, 1674;
• Benjamin, January 16, 1676, died April 14, 1690.

——

Note: The name of "Eelstown" so often seen in texts about the history of the Ellsworth family has long ago been disproven. There is no such town in Cambridgeshire or even in England nor was there ever.

Spurious Pedigree

Supposedly the Ellsworth's are a descendant of Sir John Ellsworth of the time of Edward the Third. (1312-1377).

(I) Sergeant Josias Ellsworth, the immigrant ancestor, was the son of John Ellsworth, and said to have been a descendant of Sir John Ellsworth, in the time of Edward III, who resided in Cambridgeshire, England. This conjecture is derived from "Mr. John Ellsworth, who was a respectable merchant in London, early in the nineteenth century, who stated that it was a tradition in his family which had long resided in Yorkshire, that a member of it had formerly removed to foreign parts; that he was a young man when he left, and never returned."

https://www.aylesworth.net/Confidence_family_DWT_CSS/ellsworth_fami...

"Among the earliest records of the family in England were of Albin de Ellesworthe of Cambridgeshire in 1273, Samson de Ellesworth and Robert de Elesworde of the same country at a slightly later date. Thomas de Ellesworth of the same place in 1292, Sir John Ellsworth of the same line in the early fourteenth century (who is claimed by some authorities to have been an ancestor of the emigrant Josiah or Josias.) … “. (Note: this pedigree is disproved.)