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Wadsworth Genealogy
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The Wadsworth Lineage
William1, the ancestor, accompanied Mr. Daniel Gookin
to the Virginia Plantation in 1621, arriving in the "Flying Haste" Nov. 22nd of
that year. In Hotten's List of Emigrants to America, 1600-1700, William
Wadsworth is associated with Daniel Gookin and stands first on the list said to
have come in the "Flying Harte." With Gookin, he took up his settlement at
Newport News. Four months after his arrival, March 22nd, 1622, came the sudden
attack by the Indians upon the plantation in which three hundred and forty-nine
of the colonists were massacred. Gookin, along with his followers, some
thirty-five in all, would not obey the order of the council to abandon the
outlying posts, but "thought himself sufficient against what could happen, and
so did to his great credit and the content of his adventures."** William appears
to have returned with Gookin to England in the "Sea Flower" in July, 1622. In
1632, William again started for the new world, this time in the ship "Lion,"
which reached Boston on Sept. 16, 1632. He settled in Cambridge with the Rev.
Thomas Hooker's company, and on Nov. 6th, took the oath of a freeman. He was one
of the first selectmen of Cambridge, and in 1636 was one of Hooker's company of
one hundred, of both sexes and all ages, who traveled over a hundred miles
through a trackless wilderness to found the city of Hartford. They carried no
guide but the compass. According to Trumbull they drove with them one hundred
and sixty head of cattle and by the way subsisted on the milk of their cows.
Making their way through swamps, over hills, and through dense woods, they were
nearly a fortnight upon the journey. William's age was about forty-one years at
this time, he having been born in 1695. Little is known of his first wife, but
it is probable that he married in England, as he possessed a house and home soon
after he settled at Cambridge. By her, he had four children. He married (2)
Elizabeth, clan of Rev. Samuel Stone of Hartford, in 1644. By her, he had six
children, including Capt. Joseph. His wife Elizabeth, according to an old
record, died in 1659. William' resided in Hartford till his death in 1675 when
eighty years old. Savage* says of him, "He seems to have lived in the highest
esteem; no man more often chosen representative, for between Oct., 1656, and
May, 1675, hardly a year misses his services." It was his son, Capt. Joseph, who
saved the liberties of Connecticut by carrying away and concealing in the hollow
of an oak the Connecticut charter. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, the distinguished
division commander who was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness, was a
descendant in the sixth generation from William.
Mary', daughter of William' and first wife, was born about 1632. She married
Thomas Stoughton, about 1656.
Continuation, - Stoughton Lineage
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Sources:
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Smith's History of Virginia, vol. II, p. 76.
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Hist. of Conn., vol. I, pp. 64, 65.
Wadsworth Genealogy Resources