Simon Sackett

Full text https://archive.org/details/sackettsofameric00weyg/page/12 "Sackett: The Sacketts of America, Their Ancestors and Descendabts, 1630-1907" by Charles H. Weygant, Newburgh, N.Y., 1907 pp. 12-19

https://archive.org/stream/sackettsofameric00weyg/sackettsofameric0... ibid digital text

Simon Sackett-1 (Thomas , Thomas ) was born in 1595 in St Peter, Isle of Thant, County of Kent, Eng.. He died 1 on 5 Oct 1635 in Newtown (Cambridge), MA. He was baptized 2 on 23 Nov 1595 in St Peter the Apostle, Thanet. He emigrated 3 in 1628/1632 from From Thanet, Kent, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass.. He immigrated 4 in 1628/1629. He immigrated 5 on 5 Feb 1630/1631 to Boston, Mass.. He emigrated 6 on 1 Dec 1630 from From Isle of Ely, C, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass.. He immigrated 7 in 1632. He immigrated 8 in 1632. He was employed as in Colonist.

1. SIMON SACKETT (THOMAS2, THOMAS1) He married (2) ISABEL PEARCE 6 Aug 1627 in St. John the Baptist, Margate (Source: Sackett, Marion: Church records, Marriages.).

More About SIMON SACKETT:

Admon: 3 Nov 1635, Administration of Simon's estate granted by the General

Court to his widow, Isabel. (Sources: (1) Paige, Lucius: History of Cambridge, Mass, p651., (2) Anderson, Robert: Great Migration, p1615.)

Emigration 1: Bet. 1628 - 1632, From Thanet, Kent, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass. (Source: Consensus view based on available data.)

Emigration 2: 1 Dec 1630, From Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass. (Source: Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America, p12, [Note: Weygant's conclusion that Simon's origin was Ely, Cambs. is now known to have been mistaken.].)

Different dates given for Simon's Immigration to America:

(1) 5 Feb 1630/31, Boston, Mass. (Source: Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America, p12.)

(2) Bet. 1628 - 1629 (Source: Riker, James: Annals of Newtown, NY, p344, "Among the early puritan emigrants to New England, was Mr. Simon Sackett, who, about the year 1628 or '29, came from the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng., and located at Cambridge, Mass., where he d. in 1635."See Appendix Riker.)

(3) 1632 (Source: Savage, James: New England Dictionary, p2, "Simon, Cambridge 1632, came with w. Isabel, and, prob. both s. Simon and John, all, perhaps, in the Lion, that brot. in Sept. of that yr. sev. sett. of C."See Appendix Savage..)

(4) 1632 (Source: Anderson, Robert: Great Migration, p1615, Anderson quotes 1632 as the date of Simon's migration but gives no source. He may have based this on the assumed date of the earliest record in Cambridge, Mass [Cambridge Town Records]: ""Symon Sackett" appears in an undated list, but probably from 1632, which includes the earliest settlers of Cambridge [CaTR 2]."See Appendix Anderson.See Appendix Cambridge Town Records.)

Property granted to Simon:

(1). 5 Aug 1633, Granted half acre for cowyard in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p5, "Lotts Granted for Cowyardes. [listed among others] Symo Sakt 1/2 akr.")

(2). 20 Aug 1635, Granted share of meadow in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p12-13.)

More About ISABEL PEARCE:

Property:

(1). 10 Oct 1635, "[ ] Sackett" [i.e. Isabel] listed as holding a house & lands in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Proprietors' Records, p33, See Appendix Cambridge Proprietors' Records.)

(2). 8 Feb 1635/36, "Widdow Sackett" listed as having a house in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p16-18.)

   ===============

Notes for Simon Sackett:

[by Chris Sackett]

Despite a short life - he had probably not reached forty when he died in 1635 - Simon Sackett, the colonist, enjoys a pivotal position in the history of the Sacketts, being regarded as the progenitor of a major part of the American branch of the family.

Early migrants from England to the New World had various motivations for undertaking the hazardous journey and for facing a new life in a virtually unknown country. Many fled religious persecution, but others removed in hopes of a better, more prosperous future. England had entered on a half-century of chronic trade depression. Propagandists for the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been founded in 1629, were active in the recruitment of settlers. And there was the promise of boundless fertile lands. Some were escapees from threatening plague or famine. Survival in the new land would depend crucially upon the application of essential practical skills; thus, many were farmers or were engaged in allied trades. Well-placed migrants took with them their servants and these, too, were to become founding fathers of America.

Simon's reasons for embarking on his American adventure are not known. Nor do we know his occupation. Given the documentation of the time, it would seem likely that, had Simon emigrated for reasons of religious conviction, there would remain recorded evidence of the fact. But it is dangerous to speculate as to his reasons; it is to be hoped that further information will come to light. It is worth, however, considering Simon's family circumstances at the time.

Simon Sackett was born, probably in November 1595 [he was baptised on 23 November 1595], in the small rural parish of St Peter in the Isle of Thanet on the north-east coast of Kent. He was the sixth of nine children, and third of five sons, born to Thomas Sackett and his wife, Martha [nee Strowde]. Simon's father, Thomas, who had died when Simon was 20, was a yeoman farmer in Birchington, a parish some five miles west of St Peter. Thomas had evidently established a farm at Birchington some time after the birth of his youngest child, Elizabeth, in 1604.

The description of Thomas, in his Will made in 1615, as a 'yeoman' implies that he owned at least some of his land. However, the term does not necessarily imply significant wealth and it is clear from his Will that his house and land at St Peter's were mortgaged and that his house and land at Birchington were rented. His Will directed that the St Peter's property be sold to pay his debts and legacies. Thomas had inherited lands and a tenement at St Peter's from his father, also Thomas. Thomas the elder, although possessed of property, described himself in his Will as a 'labourer'; again, that Will does not suggest significant wealth.

Simon was about 35 years old when he made his fateful decision to emigrate. Two of his brothers had died, older brother Thomas some eleven years earlier, and younger brother William about fifteen years earlier. Although there is no direct confirmatory evidence, it is possible that they were victims of plague or other epidemic which occurred frequently in Birchington in the early part of the 17th century [see Appendix Quested, p47-8]. His eldest brother John and youngest brother Henry survived and, although it had not been specified in their father's Will, it would seem possible that John continued to farm the family lands in Birchington.

Simon had by then been married twice; first in 1618 to Elizabeth Boyman, and following her death in 1625/26, secondly to Isabel Pearce in 1627. Elizabeth had borne him three daughters, Christianna in 1620, Elizabeth in 1623, and Martha in 1625. Of these, only Christianna is known to have survived to adulthood, marrying Thomas Tanner in 1641. No death or burial records for Elizabeth or Martha have been found but it is a reasonable hypothesis that they died in infancy or childhood, perhaps the victims of a plague. In any event, when he emigrated, Simon left at least one young, motherless, daughter behind, presumably in the care of one of his brothers or sisters.

Although Weygant gives specific details of the dates and method of Simon's journey to Boston, Mass., on the ship Lyon from Bristol on England's west coast, it has not yet proved possible to verify from primary sources that he was a passenger on this particular voyage. Weygant's version is probable but is known to be inaccurate in the important particular of Simon's origin, Weygant stating this to be the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire instead of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Other writers have proposed various dates for Simon's migration [Riker, "about the year 1628 or '29"; Savage and Anderson, 1632]. The earlier dates would seem less likely as there were relatively few settlers before the sailing of the Winthrop fleet of eleven ships in 1630. If Simon was indeed on this Lyon voyage then he would certainly have met John Winthrop as the latter boarded the ship on 8 February as it rode at anchor off Long Island.

Weygant records Simon as being engaged, with others, in building dwellings in Newtown, Mass., in 1631 but, again, we have been unable to confirm this date. The first record of Simon found in Newtown (Cambridge) is in the undated list (almost certainly of 1632) in the Cambridge Town Records. Weygant relates the 'family tradition' as told to him by his father-in-law, Samuel Bailey Sackett, that Simon with his brother, John, travelled on the Lyon in company with Roger Williams. The existence of this brother has since been challenged (by Anderson) and our further researches have revealed that Weygant's primary evidence in support of the family tradition, that John Sackett, Simon's alleged brother, filed an inventory of his own son's estate (in 1684) was mistaken. With the removal of Simon's brother, John, the question is opened of the relationship between Simon and John of New Haven (claimed by Weygant to have been the son of Simon's brother) - and, indeed, the migration of this John Sackett.

References:

Appendices:

Anderson, Robert: Great Migration

Cambridge Proprietors' Records

Cambridge Town Records

Collingwood, Deryck: Thomas Hooker

Cutter, William: Family History of Connecticut

Lyon

Paige, Lucius: History of Cambridge, Mass

Quested, R K I: Thanet Farming Community

Riker, James: Annals of Newtown, NY

Savage, James: New England Dictionary

Weygant, Charles: Family Record 1897

Weygant, Charles: Sackett Colonists

Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America

Winthrop Journal.1

Winthrop Journal.2

   _________________________

Baptism Record. St Peter the Apostle, Thanet.

"23 Nov 1595 bap Symon s. Thomas SACKETT."

   _________________________

Charles Weygant's account of Simon's migration is as follows:

pp3-4

"About ten years after the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Simon and John Sackett, brothers, came from England to Massachusetts, in company with Roger Williams. John Sackett followed Mr. Williams to Rhode Island and finally settled at New Haven, becoming the founder of the New Haven branch of the family. Simon Sackett remained in Massachusetts, was one of the founders of the City of Cambridge, and is the progenitor of the Massachusetts and Long Island, N.Y., branches."

pp12-13

"On December 1, 1630 the ship Lyon, laden with provisions consigned to colonists who had the preceding year accompanied or followed Lord John Winthrop to New England, sailed from the seaport city of Bristol. The passenger list of the Lyon on this particular voyage contained 26 names, a little band of well-to-do Puritan colonists who had voluntarily left comfortable homes in the land of their birth, where liberty to worship God in accordance with the dictates of conscience was by law denied them, and seeking new places of abode, with such fortune as might await them on the rugged shores and in the primeval forests of the New World. Among the heads of families of this pioneer band were Roger Williams, Simon Sackett, John Sackett, John Throkmorton and Nicholas Bailey. The family of Simon Sackett included his wife Isabel, and their infant son, Simon Sackett Jr.

"This mid-winter voyage of the ship Lyon was unusually severe. She did not reach Nantasket roads, off Boston town, the port of her destination until February 5, 1631. About a month previous to her arrival, Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor Dudley, and the "Assistants," to whom, and their successors, King Charles had committed the charter government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had formally selected, a few miles from Boston, on the Charles river, a site for a new town, which it was their avowed purpose to fortify and make the permanent seat of government. It was understood and agreed that the Governor, Deputy Governor, and six of the eight assistants, should each erect on the site selected a permanent house, suitable for the accommodation of his family, in time to spend the following winter there. But shortly thereafter several of the assistants became deeply interested in private business projects at Boston and other settlements and neglected to carry out their part of the agreement. The undertaking was not, however, abandoned or long delayed, for in the spring of 1631, Winthrop, Dudley and Bradstreet together with six other "principal gentlemen", including Simon Sackett, "commenced the execution of the plan" by erecting substantial dwellings. The house built and occupied by Simon Sackett and his family stood on the north side of what is now Winthrop Street, in the centre of the block, between Brighton and Dunster Streets.

"From the commencement of the settlement records were made of the "agreements of its inhabitants" touching matters of mutual interest, as well as of the public acts of town officials - all of which have been preserved to the present day. Wood, in his "New England's Prospects", written in the latter part of 1633, gives the following description of the place, which at that time was called Newtown, but three years later was re-christened Cambridge:

"This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many hundred acres of land poled in with general fence, which is about a mile and a half long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts."

"Newtown did not, however, become the permanent seat of government of Massachusetts Bay Colony, but it did become, is to-day, and will undoubtedly long remain the seat of America's most famous university.

"In the founding and laying out of this embryo "city in the wilderness", Simon Sackett was a potent factor, but the exposure and privations of his mid-winter voyage on the ship Lyon had undermined his health, which continued to decline until October 1635, when he died. On the third day of November following, widow Isabel Sackett was granted, by the court, authority to administer on his estate. At same session of court, the memorable decree was entered which banished Roger Williams from the colony. Mrs. Williams had come to Newtown with her husband on that occasion, "he being in feeble health", and it is altogether probable they were entertained at the home of their bereaved friend and fellow passenger on their voyage from England, whose dwelling was convenient to the public building where the court was held.

"Widow Sackett's name appears on the Newtown records for the last time under date of February 8, 1636. In June of that year the Rev. Hooker's congregation, having either sold or leased their dwellings, removed to Connecticut - widow Sackett and her boys forming part of the migrating company. Dr. Trumble gives the following account of their journey:

"About the beginning of June 1636, Mr Hooker and about 100 men, women and children took their departure from Newtown and traveled more than a hundred miles through a hideous wilderness to Hartford. They made their journey over mountains, through swamps, thickets and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those that simple nature offered them. They drove with them 160 head of cattle and carried their packs and some utensils. This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of the company were persons of figure, who had lived in England in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger."

"After Mr. Hooker's migrating company had become established at Hartford, widow Isabel Sackett became the second wife of William Bloomfield."

========= End of Notes by Chris Sackett ==========

Simon married (1) Isabel Pearce-1sp2 on 6 Aug 1627 in St. John, Isle of Thant, County of Kent, Eng.. Isabel was born in England. She died about 1663.

Notes for Isabel Pearce:

The coincidence of Isabel's surname and that of the captain of the Lyon, William Peirce, has not gone un-noticed by Sackett researchers. Captain Peirce enjoyed a degree of fame for his skills as a seaman and for the safety of his many trans-Atlantic voyages. His career is well-documented.

Little, however, is known of Isabel. Her birth or baptism records have not so far been discovered. Weygant states that, after migrating from Cambridge to Hartford, Isabel became the second wife of William Bloomfield. Again, this marriage record has not yet been found, nor has a death or burial record.

References to Capt. William Peirce.

Appendix:

Hotten, John: Persons of Quality

---

Simon Sackett 160?-1635. On December 1, 1630 the ship Lyon, laden with provisions consigned to colonists who had the preceding year accompanied or followed Lord John Winthrop to New England, sailed from the seaport city of Bristol. The passenger list of the Lyon on this particular voyage contained 26 names, a little band of well-to-do Puritan colonists who had voluntarily left comfortable homes in the land of their birth, where liberty to worship God in accordance with the dictates of conscience was by law denied them, and seeking new places of abode, with such fortune as might await them on the rugged shores and in the primeval forests of the New World. Among the heads of families of this pioneer band were Roger Williams, Simon Sackett, John Sackett, John Throkmorton and Nicholas Bailey. The family of Simon Sackett included his wife Isabel, and their infant son, Simon Sackett Jr.

This mid-winter voyage of the ship Lyon was unusually severe. She did not reach Nantasket Roads, off Boston town, the port of her destination, until February 5, 1631. About a month previous to her arrival, Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor Dudley, and the "Assistants" to whom and their successors, King Charles had committed the charter government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had formally selected, a few miles from Boston, on the Charles River, a site for a new town, which it was their avowed purpose to fortify and make the permanent seat of government. It was understood and agreed that the Governor, Deputy Governor, and six of the eight assistants, should each erect on the site selected a permanent house, suitable for the accommodation of his family, in time to spend the following winter there. But shortly thereafter several of the assistants became deeply interested in private business projects at Boston and other settlements and neglected to carry out their part of the agreement. The undertaking was not, however, abandoned or long delayed, for in the spring of 1631, Winthrop, Dudley and Bradstreet, together with six other "principal gentlemen," including Simon Sackett, "commenced the execution of the plan" by erecting substantial dwellings. The house built and occupied by Simon Sackett and his family stood on the north side of what is now Winthrop Street, in the centre of the block, between Brighton and Dunster Streets.

From the commencement of the settlement records were made of the "agreements of its inhabitants" touching matters of mutual interest, as well as of the public acts of town officials-all of which have been preserved to the present day. Wood, in his "New England's Prospects", written in the latter part of 1633, gives the following description of the place, which at that time was called Newtown, but three years later was re-christened Cambridge:

"This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many hundred acres of land poled in with general fence, which is about a mile and a half long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts."

Newtown did not, however, become the permanent seat of government of Massachusetts Bay Colony, but it did become, is to-day, and will undoubtedly long remain the seat of America's most famous university.

In the founding and laying out of this embryo "city in the wilderness", Simon Sackett was a potent factor, but the exposure and privations of his mid-winter voyage on the ship Lyon had undermined his health, which continued to decline until October 1635, when he died. On the third day of November following, widow Isabel Sackett was granted, by the court, authority to administer on his estate. At same session of court, the memorable decree was entered which banished Roger Williams from the colony. Mrs. Williams had come to Newtown with her husband on that occasion, "he being in feeble health", and it is altogether probable they were entertained at the home of their bereaved friend and fellow passenger on their voyage from England, whose dwelling was convenient to the public building where the court was held

---

http://freepages.books.rootsweb.com/~teking/simon/pafg03.htm

---

Simon came to America on the ship Lyon.
Simon Sackett who came to America in 1630 on the ship Lyon, ten years after the Mayflower. John Sackett, with Walter Lee and John Sexton, were the earliest settlers. Sackett had a house here before February, 1667. The house was probably a pioneer cabin and cellar, dug into hill and bank, boarded up and thatched over. It was located just east of the site of the old Springdale Paper Mill.

John Sackett was born 1632 in Newtown, MA. and , according to Weygant, was the first white child born in Newtown. His father, Simon Sackett, Sr. died in 1635 between August when he received a share in the division of land in Newtown and November when his estate was administered. In June 1636 John's mother Isabel and her two sons accompanied Rev. Hooker and his church in their move to Conneticutt where they founded Hartford .

---

1/10/2015 Found the following. CTC:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=35318771 Birth: 1602, England Death: Oct., 1635 Cambridge Middlesex County Massachusetts, USA

Born about 1602 based on date of marriage. Came from St. John Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent to Massachusetts Bay in 1632 & settled in Cambridge. Died in Cambridge between 5 and 10 October 1635. Married at St. John Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent, 6 August 1627 Isabel Pearce. She married (2) William Bloomfield of Cambridge and Hartford. Source: Anderson's Great Migration Begins

Family links: Spouse: Isabel Pearce Sackett Bloomfield

Children: John P Sackett (1632 - 1719)*

• Calculated relationship

Burial: Unknown

Created by: Linda Mac Record added: Mar 29, 2009 Find A Grave Memorial# 35318771

---

Born about 1602 based on date of marriage. Came from St. John Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent to Massachusetts Bay in 1632 & settled in Cambridge. Died in Cambridge between 5 and 10 October 1635. Married at St. John Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent, 6 August 1627 Isabel Pearce. She married (2) William Bloomfield of Cambridge and Hartford. Source: Anderson's Great Migration Begins

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=35318771

---

---

Simon Sackett's legacy
Undoubtedly the most significant migration in the history of the Sackett family was that of Simon Sackett who, with his wife Isabel and their infant son Simon, emigrated from St Peter in Thanet, Kent, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America.

    Despite a short life—he had probably not reached forty when he died in 1635—Simon Sackett the colonist enjoys a pivotal position in the history of the Sacketts, becoming the progenitor of the major part of the American branch of the family.

Simon Sackett, of St Peter in Thanet, Kent, and Newtown (later Cambridge), Massachusetts Bay Colony, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet on 23 November 1595.He died in Newtown between 5 and 10 Oct 1635. He married first at St Peter in Thanet on 2 November 1618, Elizabeth Boyman. She died after only seven years' marriage and was buried at St John in Thanet on 27 February 1625/26. He married second at St John in Thanet on 6 August 1627, Isabel Pearce. After Simon's death, Isabel married after June 1636 and before 1639, probably in Hartford, Connecticut, William Bloomfield. Isabel died after 1 April 1682 (date of will made at Newtown, Long Island, New York.)

    Simon would have been one of the unnamed sons each left £10 in their father's will made at Birchington, Kent, on 23 June 1615.

Simon and Isabel's emigration
Simon and Isabel emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony at about the time of the Winthrop fleet of 1630. Their names have not been found on passenger lists reconstructed by researchers of the early immigrants to New England. However, there is good evidence that they had settled in Newtown probably in 1631 and certainly by 1632.

    Charles Weygant, in The Sacketts of America stated that they made the journey on the Lyon, leaving Bristol, England, on 1 December 1630 and arriving at Nantasket Roads, off Boston, on 5 February 1631, after an unusually severe voyage. He further stated that among the heads of families on the Lyon were Roger Williams, Simon Sackett, John Sackett (who would be Simon's brother), John Throkmorton, and Nicholas Bailey.

    Weygant does not explain his conclusion that Simon came on this ship. It is a reasonable hypothesis, but supporting evidence has not been found. The Lyon's arrival date (February 1631) is a good match with the first record (1631 or 1632) of Simon in New England. And the presence of Williams and Throkmorton on this voyage is confirmed by Winthrop's Journal, Winthrop also recording the names of Perkins and Ong (but not Bailey or Sackett), "and others, with their wives and children, about twenty passengers".

    Other ships on which Simon may have travelled are possible. A fleet of six ships, carrying a group of some 350 settlers led by the Puritan minster Francis Higginson sailed from Gravesend in April and May 1629 for Salem. Numbers of the passengers on these ships settled in Boston, Charlestown, and other Bay Colony places as well as in Salem.

    Gravesend, in the Thames estuary on the north coast of Kent, and only 60 miles from Thanet, commends itself as a starting point for Simon's voyage, and is perhaps more likely than the Lyon's departure port of Bristol in the west of England.

    The possibility of Simon's migrating in Spring 1629 rather than in Winter 1630–31 would also fit better with the fact of his brother John's making his will in April 1628.

    It is possible, too, that Simon went with the main Winthrop fleet of eleven ships. The first five of these sailed from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, in April and May 1630, arriving at Salem in June and July, but, perhaps of more interest, are ships setting out from Gravesend or London. The Thomas and William sailed from Gravesend in May, and the Handmaid from London in August.

    John Winthrop's wife and children made the voyage the following year, 1631, sailing from London in August on the Lyon and arriving at Nantasket on 2 November. Charles Banks, in The Planters of the Commonwealth, identified a number of residents of Newtown who he thought probably came in this ship. These residents first appear in Newtown records on 7 January 1632/33. Simon could have been a passenger on this ship, although it is clear from the town records that Simon was in Newtown at an earlier date than these other residents, and probably by July 1631. The conclusion by the Cambridge Historical Commission that Simon Sackett and others had settled there by 26 July 1631 is discussed below.

Simon in Newtown:
Simon and Isabel were among the first settlers of Newtown, arriving in 1631 or 1632, and remaining there until Simon's death just a few years later in 1635.

    Newtown had been identified by Governor Winthrop and the "Assistants" of the company as a suitable site for a fortified town and he and Deputy Governor Dudley and Secretary Bradstreet as well as other senior men had committed to build houses there in the Spring of 1631 and to settle there before the following winter. (Winthrop did indeed have a house erected there but later took it down and re-erected it at Boston.)

    At the front of The Towne Book of Newtowne (later The Records of the Town of Cambridge (formerly Newtowne), Massachusetts, 1630–1703), Simon's name appears in an undated list, but either 1631 or 1632, of the first eight settlers of Newtown: "The Towne, Newtowne, Inhabitants then, Tho = Dudly Esqr, mr Symon Bradstreet, mr Edmond Lockwood, mr Daniell Patrike, John Poole, William Spencer, John Kirman, Symon Sackett."10

    The Cambridge Historical Commission have placed a historical notice in Winthrop Square stating that these men had completed and occupied houses in Newtown by 26 July 1631. This precise date would appear to refer to an order made at a meeting of the Court of Assistants held in Boston on that day that "eu'y first Friday in eu'y moneth there shalbe a gen'all traineing of the remaindr of them who inhabitt att Charlton, Misticke, & the new towne, att a convenient place aboute the Indian wigwams, the traininge to begin att one of the clocke in the afternoone."

    It would seem unlikely that an order for a general training would have been made for a smaller number of men than the eight named in the undated list. It is therefore likely that the list refers to those resident by July 1631. The Towne Book was started in 1632 and there is missing data from the first two pages. The words "Inhabitants then" introducing the list clearly relate to an earlier date, now missing or illegible in the original. (The transcription "Inhabitants then" appears in the transcription made by the Cambridge City Council in 1901. Lucius Paige's transcription in his 1877 History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877 reads "Inhabitants there".)

    The settlement grew rapidly with the arrival of the Braintree company in the summer of 1632, and it was decided to secure with fencing a substantial area of common land. By a decision of a town meeting on 7 January 1632/33, these "common pales", of a length of some 580 rods, were divided among the then 42 landholders. Simon was allotted 6 rods (equal to 33 yards). On 5 August 1633, he was granted half an acre for a cowyard in Cambridge.11 On 20 August 1635, he was granted a one-acre share of land at Fresh Pond meadow.

    Subsequent land records relate to Simon's widow Isabel. An inventory of land taken on 10 October 1635 (within days of Simon's death) and recorded in The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the "New Towne" listed several lots in the name of Sackett: a house in the town at Long Street with about half a rood (i.e. one-eighth of an acre), half an acre at Cowyard Row, five and a half acres at Small Lott Hill, one acre and a rood at Long Marsh, and five acres in the Great Marsh.

    Administration of Simon's estate was granted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company to his widow Isabel on 3 November 1635.

    "Widdow Sackett" was listed in the Cambridge Town Records on 8 February 1635/36 as a householder. She owned one of the 76 houses in the town.

Isabel's removal to Hartford and remarriage:
After Simon's death, Isabel removed with her young sons Simon and John to Hartford, Connecticut, travelling in the Spring of 1636 with the hundred-strong Hooker congregation, including William Bloomfield who had immigrated from England and settled at Cambridge in 1634. Isabel's sons Simon and John, about six and four respectively, accompanied her, and William's three-year-old daughter Sarah Bloomfield also made the journey. Isabel and William Bloomfield were married sometime after 8 February 1635/36 when Isabel was listed as a widow and householder in Cambridge and before about 1639 when William and Isabel's first son Daniel was born, presumably in Hartford. William and Isabel had two more sons, both born in Hartford, John in 1645 and Samuel in 1647.

    William and Isabel removed to Newtown, Long Island, in 1662. William died there in 1667 or 1668. Isabel survived him. She made her will at Newtown on 1 April 1682, leaving her share of the "housings and lands" left to her by her husband William to their son Daniel Bloomfield.

    Isabel's son Simon Sackett married his stepsister Sarah Bloomfield in Springfield, Massachusetts, in about 1652.

Simon's reasons for emigrating:
Early migrants from England to the New World had various motivations for seeking a new life in a virtually unknown country and for undertaking the hazardous journey. Many fled religious persecution, but others removed in hopes of a better, more prosperous future. England had entered on a half-century of chronic trade depression. Propagandists for the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been founded in 1629, were active in the recruitment of settlers. And there was the promise of boundless fertile lands. Some were escapees from threatening plague or famine. Survival in the new land would depend crucially upon the application of essential practical skills; thus, many were farmers or were engaged in allied trades. Well-placed migrants took with them their servants and these, too, were to become founding fathers of America.

    Simon's reasons for embarking on his American adventure are not known. Nor do we know his occupation. Given the documentation of the time, it would seem likely that, had Simon emigrated for reasons of religious conviction, there would remain recorded evidence of the fact. But it is dangerous to speculate as to his reasons; it is to be hoped that further information will come to light. It is worth, however, considering Simon's family circumstances at the time.

    Simon Sackett was born, probably in November 1595 (he was baptized on 23 November 1595), in the small rural parish of St Peter in the Isle of Thanet on the north-east coast of Kent. He was the sixth of nine children, and third of five sons, born to Thomas and Martha Sackett. Simon's father, Thomas, who had died when Simon was 20, was a yeoman farmer in Birchington, a parish some five miles west of St Peter. Thomas had evidently established a farm at Birchington some time after the birth of his youngest child, Elizabeth, in 1604.

    The description of Thomas, in his will made in 1615, as a "yeoman" implies that he owned at least some of his land. However, the term does not necessarily imply significant wealth and it is clear from his will that his house and land at St Peter's were mortgaged and that his house and land at Birchington were rented. His will directed that the St Peter's property be sold to pay his debts and legacies. Thomas had inherited lands and a tenement at St Peter's from his father, also Thomas. Thomas the elder, although possessed of property, described himself in his will as a "labourer"; again, that will does not suggest significant wealth.

    Simon was about 35 years old when he made his fateful decision to emigrate. Two of his brothers had died, older brother Thomas some eleven years earlier, and younger brother William about fifteen years earlier. Although there is no direct confirmatory evidence, it is possible that they were victims of plague or other epidemic which occurred frequently in Birchington in the early part of the 17th century16. His eldest brother John, later identified by his will as John Sackett the fisherman, survived. There is no evidence that John or Simon were possessed of lands.

    Simon had been married twice; first in 1618 to Elizabeth Boyman, and following her death in 1625/26, second to Isabel Pearce in 1627. Elizabeth had borne him three daughters, Christianna in 1620, Elizabeth in 1623, and Martha in 1625. Of these, only Christianna is known to have survived to adulthood, marrying Thomas Tanner in 1641. No death or burial records for Elizabeth or Martha have been found but it is reasonable to assume that they died in infancy or childhood, perhaps the victims of plague. In any event, when he emigrated, Simon left at least one young, motherless, daughter behind, presumably in the care of one of his brothers or sisters.

    The will of Simon's brother John, made in 1628, reveals that Simon owed his brother a sum of money. It would be stretching the evidence to conclude that this would have been a loan to help finance Simon's voyage (emigration may not even have been under consideration at this early date), but it does indicate that Simon was not a man of means. As a second son, probably without land, his prospects in Thanet may have seemed limited. In the absence of evidence of a religious motive, it is probable that Simon was attracted by the promise of a more prosperous future in New England. Or, he may have been motivated by both religious and economic factors.

Simon and Isabel's voyage:
Although Weygant gives specific details of the dates and method of Simon's journey to Boston, Massachusetts, on the Lyon from Bristol on England's west coast, it has not yet proved possible to verify from primary sources that he was a passenger on that particular voyage. Weygant's version is probable but it is known to be inaccurate in the important particular of Simon's origin, Weygant stating this to be the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, instead of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Other writers have proposed various dates for Simon's migration (Riker, "about the year 1628 or '29"; Savage and Anderson, 1632). The earlier dates would seem less likely as there were relatively few settlers before the sailing of the Winthrop fleet of eleven ships in 1630. If Simon was indeed on this Lyon voyage then he would certainly have met John Winthrop as the latter boarded the ship on 8 February 1631 as it rode at anchor off Long Island.

    Weygant records Simon as being engaged, with others, in building dwellings in Newtown, Mass., in 1631. Confirmation of this date would be of help in determining Simon's date of migration. Although it is likely that Simon was there in 1631, it has not been possible to confirm this. The first record of Simon found in Newtown (Cambridge) is in the undated list (almost certainly of 1632) in the Cambridge Town Records.

    The Cambridge Historical Commission have placed a plaque in Winthrop Park stating that Dudley, Bradstreet, Lockwood, Poole, Patrick, Spencer, Kirman, and Sackett had completed and occupied houses in Newtown by 26 July 1631. However, study of the Commission's source (Lucius Paige's History of Cambridge) suggests that this rather stretches the evidence. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Dudley and Bradstreet had built houses in Newtown by 1631 and it is likely that the others had also done so.

The family tradition:
Weygant relates the family tradition as told to him by his father-in-law, Samuel Bailey Sackett, that Simon with his brother, John, travelled on the Lyon in company with Roger Williams. The existence of this brother has since been challenged (by Anderson) and our further researches have revealed that Weygant's primary evidence in support of the family tradition, that John Sackett, Simon's alleged brother, filed an inventory of his own son's estate (in 1684), was mistaken. With the removal of Simon's brother, John, the question is opened of the relationship between Simon and John of New Haven (claimed by Weygant to have been the son of Simon's brother)—and, indeed, the migration of this John Sackett.
DNA test results:
An early objective of the Sackett DNA project was to see if there was a genetic link between the lines of Simon Sackett the colonist and John Sackett of New Haven. Given the family tradition, it was fully expected that a match would be found. However, test results for a significant number of present-day descendants in each line suggest that Simon and John were not related.
source: https://www.sackettfamily.info/g1/p1306.htm