RTree - Person Sheet
NameJohn WINTERS 
Birth1565, London, London, England
Death14 Apr 1662, Watertown, Middlesex, MA
Misc. Notes
DESCENDANT LINE:
John WINTERS (1565 - 1662) & Hannah HARRINGTON (1600 - 1672)
John WINTER (1635 - 1690) & Hannah CUTLER (1638 - 1672)
Hannah WINTER (1665 - 1741) & John HARRINGTON (1651 - 1741)
Mary HARRINGTON (1687 - 1760) & Thomas HAMMOND (1684 - 1762)
Mary HAMMOND (1714 - 1762) & John LAWRENCE (1703 - 1770)
Sarah LAWRENCE (1736 - 1794) & Josiah WHITNEY (1730 - 1800)
Rhoda WHITNEY (1768 - 1817) & Amos SMITH (1762 - )
John SMITH (1802 - 1881) & Hannah Clark MILLER (1807 - 1883)
Ellen SMITH (~1847 - ) & Abner Gardner TEELE Sr. (1837 - <1870)
Gardner Abner TEELE Jr.* (1868 - ) & Emma A (1868 - <1920)
Louis Gardner TEELE Sr. (1889 - 1982) & Grace BOULTON (1890 - 1943)
Louis Gardner TEELE Jr. (1913 - 2004) & Margaret Catherine SLINE (1943 - )
FOLLOWING POSTED ON ANCESTRY.COM, ORIGINAL ORIGIN UNKNOWN:
Our immigrant ancestors were the sort of quietly courageous people who helped establish our national mythology surrounding the pilgrims. They weren’t among the most famous, or powerful, or wealthy, but neither were they hopelessly obscure or unsuccessful. They were people whose decision to move to the New World was based both on religious principle and on a gamble that they could make a better life for their children here than back in a nation where hungry gangs roamed the countryside and political storm clouds were gathering for a civil war and the execution of King Charles I.
Watertown was one of the first six settlements in Massachusetts. The Watertown Covenant of 1630 is considered one of the founding documents of American democracy. We owe much of our genealogical and historical knowledge of the place to the excellent records that were preserved there from the earliest days. The strength of these records attracted the notice of historian Roger Thompson, a professor emeritus from the University of East Anglia, England. His book “Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts 1630-1680” provides an incredible portrait of life in our family’s first American hometown.
Thompson identifies three surges of early Watertown settlement: one in 1630, a second from 1634 to 1636 and a third in 1637. The immigrants were predominantly from Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk in eastern England, the area called East Anglia, so named because it was the kingdom of the East Angles in the Anglo-Saxon era that began about the year 450. Essex is now part of the Greater London area, while Suffolk and Norfolk (homes respectively of the Angle South Folk and North Folk) are just north of London along the coast. All were a hotbed of Puritanism, with much marriage and moving to and fro within the area.
According to some earlier researchers, John Winter was in the second surge of migration to Watertown, perhaps arriving as early as 1633, while other sources give slightly later dates. (The 1633 date is mentioned in “Descendants of Nicholas Cady of Watertown, Mass. 1645-1910,” by Orrin Peer Allen, 1910. The Cadys are shoestring relations of ours.)
(A possibility some researchers have seized upon is that he may have first settled in Scituate on Cape Cod Bay just south of Boston before moving to Watertown, about 36 miles away. This could mean John immigrated from England in 1633 or earlier but didn’t take up residence in Watertown until a few years later. However, this option looks very unlikely to me, as there was another man named John Winter who settled and definitely stayed in Scituate, where he was found murdered in 1651.)
It is certain that our John Winter became one of Watertown’s earliest “proprietors,” a legal classification given to permanent citizens who were members of the church, and therefor eligible for shares in land grants from the township’s original 23,456 acres. Thompson makes a persuasive argument that these land grants were often made on the basis of insider connections, with some families getting far more than others. In a footnote, he says John Winter was among those who habitually appear to have received smaller shares, an observation validated by my examination of early land records. He was in on several land grants, but never very much acreage.
There were three tanners in Watertown’s founding generation, of which John Winter’s operation was the smallest. Our ancestor, like most settlers, undoubtedly was also a small-time farmer. Tanners were in general regarded as important parts of the colonial economy, producing an essential commodity. Thompson notes that “Tanners in England were often associated with religious and political dissent,” perhaps partly explaining John’s decision to migrate. “It is unusual,” Thompson writes, “to be able to recover individual motives for emigration. We know from English church records that some Watertown settlers had been involved in religious protests prior to embarkation.”
Playing a large part in the decision to leave England was membership in “an intricate web of kinship, confraternity, and familiarity that not only connected those who traveled together in the same surge but also linked one surge to the next in a classic pattern of chain migration,” writes Thompson. This chain migration continued as we made our way west in America. This pattern also suggests that our Winter family was a part of the “puritan axis” that stretched from Norfolk down to London. But so far it hasn’t been possible to determine for certain where we originate within that area.
From a genealogical perspective, London is an unsatisfyingly large place to be from, and I hope to eventually pin down a specific parish, when I have the time and/or money to do so. An on-line genealogy — for which I have been unable to find a source — claims our John was christened 23 Sept. 1565 in Attleborough, Norfolk. This certainly is at least plausible, as Attleborough and nearby Norwich were a primary source of early pilgrim migrants. (Attleboro, Mass., was named in honor of the Norfolk town.) It’s entirely possible our family may have originated in Attleborough but moved to London in the earlier 1500s. (But it equally likely this hometown could be wishful thinking; an earlier researcher may have found a John Winter born in the 1560s in a key Puritan community and leapt to the conclusion that he is ours. Without something more to go on, we may never know for sure.)
He is first mentioned in a July 1636 document listing the townsmen of Watertown, called Pigsguesset by the Indians, at which time he was granted 20 acres in what would much later become part of greater Boston. It is interesting to note that many Massachusetts Indian tribes were devastated by disease in the years immediately before our family’s arrival, probably from European germs brought over by cod fishermen or French explorers. In places, settlers found deserted fields ready for crops.
“Watertown,” one observer wrote, “is situated upon one of the branches of the Charles River, a fruitful plot, and of large extent, watered by many springs and rivulets running like veins throughout her body; which hath caused her inhabitants to scatter in such a manner, that their Sunday assemblies prove very thin.”
The great 1855 genealogical history of Watertown by Philadelphia doctor Henry Bond includes this reference:
John Winter died at Watertown 14 or 21 April 1662, age about 90. His will, dated 4 March 1661-2, proved June 1662, mentions no wife but refers to sons Richard and Thomas, late of London; daughter Alice Lachman of London, and son John, of Watertown, named his executor, and to whom he gave his lands and other goods in Watertown. The inventory of the estate, dated 13 May 1662, totaled pounds £104. 4. 6.
By the standards of the time, an estate of £104 was a modest amount. Some first-generation migrants managed to amass more than £600. But it appears likely that John’s fortune had perhaps been diminished by early-day “estate planning,” being transferred during his life to his son John, who died in 1690 with a decent-sized fortune of nearly £360.
It is discouraging that John Winter Sr. made no reference to his wife or wives in his will or elsewhere. It has been said by some genealogists that his presumably second wife was Hannah Harrington, born about 1600 in the county of Somerset, England. There were Harringtons among the first generation in the Boston area, but I personally haven’t come across any firm marriage record or other official link to the Winter family.
Our immigrant ancestor’s life must have been an amazing adventure. Thompson’s Watertown book and other writings by him and others make it clear that the first generation was a much more complicated and interesting group than we were taught in grade school. Though they could be quite rigid in some of their beliefs, they also had strong traditions of charity and forgiveness. Judging by surviving records, John led a quiet and law-abiding life, setting the stage for our lives today.
John WINTERS (1565 - 1662) & Hannah HARRINGTON (1600 - 1672)
John WINTER (1635 - 1690) & Hannah CUTLER (1638 - 1672)
Hannah WINTER (1665 - 1741) & John HARRINGTON (1651 - 1741)
Mary HARRINGTON (1687 - 1760) & Thomas HAMMOND (1684 - 1762)
Mary HAMMOND (1714 - 1762) & John LAWRENCE (1703 - 1770)
Sarah LAWRENCE (1736 - 1794) & Josiah WHITNEY (1730 - 1800)
Rhoda WHITNEY (1768 - 1817) & Amos SMITH (1762 - )
John SMITH (1802 - 1881) & Hannah Clark MILLER (1807 - 1883)
Ellen SMITH (~1847 - ) & Abner Gardner TEELE Sr. (1837 - <1870)
Gardner Abner TEELE Jr.* (1868 - ) & Emma A (1868 - <1920)
Louis Gardner TEELE Sr. (1889 - 1982) & Grace BOULTON (1890 - 1943)
Louis Gardner TEELE Jr. (1913 - 2004) & Margaret Catherine SLINE (1943 - )
FOLLOWING POSTED ON ANCESTRY.COM, ORIGINAL ORIGIN UNKNOWN:
Our immigrant ancestors were the sort of quietly courageous people who helped establish our national mythology surrounding the pilgrims. They weren’t among the most famous, or powerful, or wealthy, but neither were they hopelessly obscure or unsuccessful. They were people whose decision to move to the New World was based both on religious principle and on a gamble that they could make a better life for their children here than back in a nation where hungry gangs roamed the countryside and political storm clouds were gathering for a civil war and the execution of King Charles I.
Watertown was one of the first six settlements in Massachusetts. The Watertown Covenant of 1630 is considered one of the founding documents of American democracy. We owe much of our genealogical and historical knowledge of the place to the excellent records that were preserved there from the earliest days. The strength of these records attracted the notice of historian Roger Thompson, a professor emeritus from the University of East Anglia, England. His book “Divided We Stand: Watertown, Massachusetts 1630-1680” provides an incredible portrait of life in our family’s first American hometown.
Thompson identifies three surges of early Watertown settlement: one in 1630, a second from 1634 to 1636 and a third in 1637. The immigrants were predominantly from Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk in eastern England, the area called East Anglia, so named because it was the kingdom of the East Angles in the Anglo-Saxon era that began about the year 450. Essex is now part of the Greater London area, while Suffolk and Norfolk (homes respectively of the Angle South Folk and North Folk) are just north of London along the coast. All were a hotbed of Puritanism, with much marriage and moving to and fro within the area.
According to some earlier researchers, John Winter was in the second surge of migration to Watertown, perhaps arriving as early as 1633, while other sources give slightly later dates. (The 1633 date is mentioned in “Descendants of Nicholas Cady of Watertown, Mass. 1645-1910,” by Orrin Peer Allen, 1910. The Cadys are shoestring relations of ours.)
(A possibility some researchers have seized upon is that he may have first settled in Scituate on Cape Cod Bay just south of Boston before moving to Watertown, about 36 miles away. This could mean John immigrated from England in 1633 or earlier but didn’t take up residence in Watertown until a few years later. However, this option looks very unlikely to me, as there was another man named John Winter who settled and definitely stayed in Scituate, where he was found murdered in 1651.)
It is certain that our John Winter became one of Watertown’s earliest “proprietors,” a legal classification given to permanent citizens who were members of the church, and therefor eligible for shares in land grants from the township’s original 23,456 acres. Thompson makes a persuasive argument that these land grants were often made on the basis of insider connections, with some families getting far more than others. In a footnote, he says John Winter was among those who habitually appear to have received smaller shares, an observation validated by my examination of early land records. He was in on several land grants, but never very much acreage.
There were three tanners in Watertown’s founding generation, of which John Winter’s operation was the smallest. Our ancestor, like most settlers, undoubtedly was also a small-time farmer. Tanners were in general regarded as important parts of the colonial economy, producing an essential commodity. Thompson notes that “Tanners in England were often associated with religious and political dissent,” perhaps partly explaining John’s decision to migrate. “It is unusual,” Thompson writes, “to be able to recover individual motives for emigration. We know from English church records that some Watertown settlers had been involved in religious protests prior to embarkation.”
Playing a large part in the decision to leave England was membership in “an intricate web of kinship, confraternity, and familiarity that not only connected those who traveled together in the same surge but also linked one surge to the next in a classic pattern of chain migration,” writes Thompson. This chain migration continued as we made our way west in America. This pattern also suggests that our Winter family was a part of the “puritan axis” that stretched from Norfolk down to London. But so far it hasn’t been possible to determine for certain where we originate within that area.
From a genealogical perspective, London is an unsatisfyingly large place to be from, and I hope to eventually pin down a specific parish, when I have the time and/or money to do so. An on-line genealogy — for which I have been unable to find a source — claims our John was christened 23 Sept. 1565 in Attleborough, Norfolk. This certainly is at least plausible, as Attleborough and nearby Norwich were a primary source of early pilgrim migrants. (Attleboro, Mass., was named in honor of the Norfolk town.) It’s entirely possible our family may have originated in Attleborough but moved to London in the earlier 1500s. (But it equally likely this hometown could be wishful thinking; an earlier researcher may have found a John Winter born in the 1560s in a key Puritan community and leapt to the conclusion that he is ours. Without something more to go on, we may never know for sure.)
He is first mentioned in a July 1636 document listing the townsmen of Watertown, called Pigsguesset by the Indians, at which time he was granted 20 acres in what would much later become part of greater Boston. It is interesting to note that many Massachusetts Indian tribes were devastated by disease in the years immediately before our family’s arrival, probably from European germs brought over by cod fishermen or French explorers. In places, settlers found deserted fields ready for crops.
“Watertown,” one observer wrote, “is situated upon one of the branches of the Charles River, a fruitful plot, and of large extent, watered by many springs and rivulets running like veins throughout her body; which hath caused her inhabitants to scatter in such a manner, that their Sunday assemblies prove very thin.”
The great 1855 genealogical history of Watertown by Philadelphia doctor Henry Bond includes this reference:
John Winter died at Watertown 14 or 21 April 1662, age about 90. His will, dated 4 March 1661-2, proved June 1662, mentions no wife but refers to sons Richard and Thomas, late of London; daughter Alice Lachman of London, and son John, of Watertown, named his executor, and to whom he gave his lands and other goods in Watertown. The inventory of the estate, dated 13 May 1662, totaled pounds £104. 4. 6.
By the standards of the time, an estate of £104 was a modest amount. Some first-generation migrants managed to amass more than £600. But it appears likely that John’s fortune had perhaps been diminished by early-day “estate planning,” being transferred during his life to his son John, who died in 1690 with a decent-sized fortune of nearly £360.
It is discouraging that John Winter Sr. made no reference to his wife or wives in his will or elsewhere. It has been said by some genealogists that his presumably second wife was Hannah Harrington, born about 1600 in the county of Somerset, England. There were Harringtons among the first generation in the Boston area, but I personally haven’t come across any firm marriage record or other official link to the Winter family.
Our immigrant ancestor’s life must have been an amazing adventure. Thompson’s Watertown book and other writings by him and others make it clear that the first generation was a much more complicated and interesting group than we were taught in grade school. Though they could be quite rigid in some of their beliefs, they also had strong traditions of charity and forgiveness. Judging by surviving records, John led a quiet and law-abiding life, setting the stage for our lives today.