SAMUEL French 1

SAMUEL French ¹

Birth:	7 Oct 1655 in South Perrott, Dorset Co, England ¹ ²
Death:	13 Oct 1718 ⁴
Sex:	M
Father:	JEREMIAH French b. About 1623 in Saxmundham, England
Mother:	ELIZABETH HORSEY b. About. 1617 in Clifton Maybank, Dorset, England

Christening: 25 Oct 1655 St Mary's, South Perrott, Dorset Co, England 3
Reference: >2 1
Changed: 29 Mar 2004 03:29:55

Susannah Pitman (Wife) b. About 1659 in Bradford Abbas, Dorset, England

Marriage:

ABT 1680 in Bradford Abbas, Dorset, England

Children:

Jeremiah French b. 4 Jul 1681 in Bradford Abbas, Dorset, England

SAMUEL French 2nd the Joiner b. 15 May 1687 in Bradford Abbas, Dorsetshire, England

Individual:

p25, "Ancestors...

Samuel French, Senior, of Bradford Abbas.

County Dorset, England.

Samuel French, son of Rev. Jeremiah and (Horsey?) French, was born O ctober 7, 1655 in South Perrott*, County Dorset, England, and was baptized October 25, 1655, by his father. These records are entered in the writing of Rev. Jeremiah French, in the parish register of St Marys Church in South Perrott. Possibly he was that Samuel French, recorded in John Camden Hotten's "Original Lists of Persons Who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700". On page 369 is "From Barbados Island May 28 1679, ticket granted to French, Samuell, in the Ketch 'Joseph and Mary' for New Yorke, Abraham Knott, commandr - time out." Whether this was penal servitude or contract service has not been determined. If this refers to the son of Rev. Jeremiah, he undoubtedly went from New York directly back to England, for he married Susannah, possibly of the maiden name of Pitman, and their first child, Jeremiah, was born July 4, 1681 in Bradford Abbas,* County Dorset, England, and was baptized by his grandfather, Rev. Jeremiah French, July 30, 1681.

Samuel is given part of his father's household goods, by his will, dated May 12, 1685 a t Bradford Abbas. The will contains a bequest in these words, "I give to my sonn Samuells child five shillings to be pd by my executor." Samuel, junior, was born, for the records, preserved in America, state that he "was born at Bradford May 15, 1687." This Samuel, junior, is identified as Samuel French, the joiner, of Stratford, Connecticut. Rev. Louis French of Darien and Noroton, Conn., was a great-grandson of Jonathan French, the the sixth child of Samuel French, the joiner, and Mary (Price) French. Jonathan French lived in the easterly part of the Town of Stratford, west of Corum Hill, overlooking the Housatonic River. He was a member of St. Pauls parish at Huntington Center, then called Ripton Parish. He and his wife, Hannah, are buried close beside St Pauls Episcopal Church, in the Huntington Center cemetary. Jeremiah French, of the sixth generation to bear the name, a son of Jonas and grandson of Jonathan, certified under date of Sept. 8, 1838, that "A true Copy of a Record or Writing found among the papers of Jonathan French, my Grand Father, is suppose to be in his, or his father's , (Samuel), the joiner's) hand-writing and is as follows:

"The ages of Samuel & Susannah French's Children:- heremiah French was born at Brafdord May 1 5 1687 and was baptised by Mr. Robert Bartlett June 7 A.D. 1687'." Jeremiah's baptism was last in the certified copy but is changed here for clarity. * See map p.28.

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Rev. Louis French of Darien and Noroton, Conn., a great-grandson of Jonathan French, sen t his records to his first cousin, John Bette French, of Cleveland, Ohio, a son of the Jeremiah French certifying to the quoted records, for comparison and comment. Rev. Louis French submitted to him:

"1. Samuel French married Mary Price

Born 165- in England Born 16âÇî

Died Died

Came to America in 1688

Children:

2. Jeremiah French

Born Jule 4, 1681, in Bradford Dorset County, England.

Baptized by his grandfather, July 30, 1681.

3. Samuel French

Born May 15, 1687, in Bradford Dorset County, England."

John Bette French, commenting on this record, under date of Sept. 21, 1906, wrote to Rev . Louis French: "The first Samuel's wife was Susannah instead of Mary Price." Unfortunately, no comment was made upon the statement, ïø½came to America in 1688," now known not to be the authentic date of arrival of the family in America. As the will of Samuel French, the joiner, of Stratford, (born in 1687, died in 1763), mentions his wife Mary, and his children, Samuel, Jeremiah, Mary, Susanna, John, Jonathan, Anne, Elizabeth, Thomas, Hannah and Joseph, and we find all children except Samuel, the eldest, in the first baptismal records of Christ Episcopal Church in Stratford, all given as children of Samuel and Mary, it is evident that "3. Samuel" of Rev. Louis French's record was Samuel, the joiner, that he married Mary Price and that Samuel, senior, born in 1655, was the husband of Susannah.

Considering the record in the papers of Rev. Louis French of Darien and Noroton, Conn. , that Samuel and Suzannah cam to America in 897, Miss Karherine A. Pritchard of Waterbury, Conn., a genealogist who usually required documentary proof, wrote, "Rev. Mr. French has given ïø½1. Samuel French married Mary Price of Bradford, Dorset Co., England, and came to Stratford about 1688." This statement antedates the correspondence between Rev. Louis French and John Bette French, given above, and appears to repeat the errors that Mary Price was of Bradford, Dorset Co., England; that they were married before 1688; and we are left to infer that they came directly from Bradford to Stratford. As we know that 1. Samuel was father-in-law of Mary Price and there is no proof that she died in Huntington, Town of Stratford, Conn., on August 4, 1775, it is certain that she was not the mother of Jeremiah, born in Bradford Abbas in 1681. There is an American record of William Glenney French, elder brother of Rev. Louis French, that gives the births of the two sons of Samuel and Susannah as certified by Jeremiah on page 25.

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Then follows the statement, as part of the quoted record, "The rest of the children of Samue l French were born in this country." No record of the other children has been found.

The date 1688, for the arrival of the family in America, may have been obtained from a F airfield or Stratfield, (not Stratford) Connecticut, record of Sergeant Samuel French, born in Guilford, Conn., Aug. 21, 1667, who came to Stratfield about 1686. He made an affidavit, on May 8, 1712, then ïø½about forty-four years of age," relating to the boundaries of land sold in 1686. Rev. Louis French must have known that Sergt. Samuel French was not his ancestor, although Orcutt's "History of Stratford" gives Jonathan's brothers and sisters as descendants of Sergt. Samuel. In 1932, Mrs. Charlotte Mary (French) Jefferson, daughter of Rev. Louis French, loaned all data of importance left by her father, and nothing more was found intimating that Mary Price had lived in Bradford. If Dr. William Freeman French, eldest child of Rev. Louis French, said to have been interested in the family history, discovered anything of importance before his death in 1898, his father, who died in 1912, would have known the facts. Yet we are grateful to Rev. Louis French for preserving much of importance, included in the records of the descendants of his great-grandfather, Jonathan French.

If Samuel and Susannah French did come to America about 1688, they may have come to th e port of New York with, or in a ship of, Samuel's first cousins, Philip French, junior, and Capt. John French, of Kelsale, County Suffolk, England. They may have lived with kinsmen in or near New York City or in New Jersey, near the present New Brunswick, where Philip bought a large tract of land. A Francis French, possibly that kinsman of Samuel who was baptized in Kelsale Church, Saxmundham, July 31, 1597, was in New York City as early as 1655, when he testified for Joshua Atwater of Stratford, Conn. He was clerk of Westchester, New York, in 1680. Thomas Pell of Fairfield, Conn., and Westchester County, willed his tobacco crop to his stepson-in-law, Francis French, possibly that uncle of Samuel, senior, who was baptized in Saxmundham, Mch. 13 1635. Francis French was witness of the will of William Betts of Yonkers, N.Y., Dec. 12,1673. It is possible Samuel returned to Barbados Island and that his son, Samuel the joiner, came to Stratford, Conn., from Barbados. He may have lived temporarily with kinsmen in Ipswich, Mass., later moving to Northampton, Mass., with other kinsmen.

Giving consideration to the probability that Samuel and Susannah French did not come t o America and that the son, Samuel, the joiner, surely married Mary Price in England, possibly in Bradford Abbas, and that the joiner and Mary came to America after the birth of the two elder

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children, to agree with the statement quoted from the certification of Jeremiah French, grand son of Jonathan and great-grandson of Samuel and Mary, an enlightening family tradition, given in 1879 by Mary (French) Cadoret, in writing to Rev. William Glenney French, elder brother of Rev. Louis French, affirms that her grandfather was Andrew French and that her sister, Catherine (French) Hibbard, had written that Andrew's grandfather, (who was certainly Samuel French, the joiner), came from England when Andrew's father (Samuel the 3rd, born about 1710) was four years old. From this record Samuel, the joiner, with his wife, Mary (Price) French, and his sons, Samuel and Jeremiah, arrived in America about 1714. This information was incorrectly applied by William Glenney French in the chart in his record, "Lineage of the French Family," as referring to Samuel French, the joiner, whose date of birth he there gives as 1685 instead 1687. This would, adding the four years for the child, which statement appears in the chart, make their arrival in America in 1689, but allowing for a long voyage, he assumed the dat 1688 as the year of departure from England.

Comparing the above American records that have been preserved by descendants of Jonatha n French, the biographical account of Rev. Jeremiah French by Calamy, and the will of Rev. Jeremiah, previously quoted, without doubt all three records relate to the French family of Bradford Abbas, County Dorset, England, and to their descendants in Stratford, Connecticut. We may conclude that Samuel, senior, and his wife, Susannah, did not come to Stratford, Conn.; and that the ambiguous records preserved in America relate to Samuel, the joiner, his wife, Mary (Price) French and their two elder sons, Samuel 3rd and Jeremiah, as having come to America about 1714.

(Map)

Bradford Abbas & Vicinity, Dorset, England