By Lester Warren Fish
73 JOHN3 FISH (Alice2, John1, colonist. surveyor, school teacher, colonial soldier. According to the late John Dean10 Fish, genealogist and historian, who was a descendant of this John3, and spent considerable time in England studying the origins of the Fish Family and the early life of Fish immigrants who settled in America, there were two John Fishes who came to America. In an article in the New York Genealog. and Biog. Record, Vol. LIII, 1928, pp. 53-58, he states that there was a John Fish of Mystic in 1654. He believes this John was a brother of Thomas3 Fish who was granted land at Portsmouth, R.I. in 1643. He does not state when this John landed in America, or where, and there is no record of an immigrant John Fish ever having been in any of the Rhose Island Colonies. (The first white man to climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire was Darby Field of the Plymouth Colony in 1642, accompanied by two Indian guides. It was not named until 1784.) There was however a John3 Fish, brother of Nathaniel and Jonathan, who landed at Lynn, Mass., previous to 1637, and moved to Sandwich, Mass., on Cape Cod, about 1637. These three brothers were first cousins of Thomas3 of Portsmouth and his brother John. Jonathan3 removed to Newtown, L.I., in 1659, while Nathaniel remained at Sandwich and reared a family, and there is a history of John and his family at Sandwich, as evidenced by an inventory of Nov. 18, 1663. But there is a definite historical record of a John Fish who between 1654 and 1686 owned land in the towns of Stratford, New London, Mystic, Stonington and Groton, all towns about the Thames River on the Long Island Coast of Connecticut. The Rev. Frederic9 Denison, between 1859 and 1874, wrote us a very full and accurate genealogy of the descendants of this John3 Fish, which was brought up to date in 1935 by John Dean10 Fish. The Rev. Mr. Denison located John3 first in 1655 at Mystic and at Groton, Conn., and stated that John Fish who landed at Lynn, previous to 1637 settled with his wife and three children at Groton, in 1655. Frances M. Caulkins, in her "History of New London," locates John Fish at that place in 1655, and she states that he landed at Lynn in 1637, but gives no further account of him until 1655. Aaron Starke and John Fish were of Mystic in 1654. She states that a John Fish was living at Stratford, a town farther to the west, prior to 1655, but how long he made his abode there is not
THE FISH FAMILY IN AMERICA 253
stated. He sold his home lot and six acres of land there, Sept.
25, 1655, to John willcockson, the same year that Caulkins says
he appeared at New London, with wife and three children, John,
Samuel and Jonathan, but she was doubtless mistaken in saying that
Samuel came with them, as according to the epitaph on his
gravestone he was b. at New London, in 1656. How long the
family lived at New London is not known, but records show that
John had lived at Stonington long enough in 1668 to become a
resident, which required two years in those days.
The following biographical record, prepared by John Dean10
Fish, is authentic:
In 1654, and probably for several years previously, John3 Fish had lived at
Stratford, Conn. [He does not state whence he came.] He was young and immpulsive.
His house and lot where he lived was at the northerly end of the
present village, and bounded on the west by Main st., and on the north and
east by Ferry Road, and on the south by land of Daniel Tetterson. It is marked
on the map drawn by Rev. Benjamin L. Swan and printed in the Hawley Record
on page 432, where it is marked as belonging to John Willcockson. In
the autumn of 1654, a controversy began between him and some men in the
town growing out of some unwarranted accusations which he made against
them. This trouble was carried into the courts and very probably was the
cause of his selling all his property at Stratford a year later to John Willcockson,
and leaving the town. There are no records of births to John Fish and wife
at Stratford. Samuel4 was born after he left there. The records of the Stonington
Congregational Church show the baptism of Samuel, John and Mary,
children of John Fish, all in adult life, on Mar 13, 1680. In 1668, he was one of
forty-three inhabitants of Stotington. Al home lot was layed out to each of
these upon condition that they build upon it within six months and inhabit it.
A twleve acre home lot was granted to John Fish, being allotment No. 5, and
was retained by him through life. His son Samuel, under date of dec 26, 1710,
conveyed this lot to James Dean, who on Nov 8, 1711, conveyed it to Ebenezer
searles as shown bby the Stonington Land Records. On Aug 6, 1764, he acted
as Town clerk at a town meeting.
During the Narragansett War, or the Expedition against the
Indians under King Philip, in 1675-76, the Connecticut Colony
sent about 300 volunteers from among her settlers, and a number
of friendly Pequot Indians. Both John3 and his son Samuel were
among these volunteers, and about 1700, when the town of Voluntown
was set apart to be alloted to the Indian War Volunteers,
there were grants of land made for each of them, and as John3
Fish had died Samuel was allotted his father's acreage. In his
will, dated Aug 7, 1730, Samuel bequeathed his own grant to
his son Samuel5, and divided his father's grant between his sons
Moses5 and Aaron5. Two grandsons of Samuel4 settled on these
lands at Voluntown, and their descendants are still owners thereof.
On Aug 22, 1679, John3 was unanimously chosen school master
of Stonington, to instruct the children in reading, writing, arithmatic
254 THE FISH FAMILY and grammar, such as shall be inclined. On Dec 5, 1680, he was admitted a member of the Congregational Church. On aug 25, 1681, he m. Hannah (Palmer) (Hewitt) Steery. It ssems that he had no children that survived except by his first wife, who was supposed to have been a Miss Eland of an ancient and knightly family of Yorkshire, Eng. (In another place John Dean10 Fish names Mary Ireland as his first wife. The discrepancy may be in the spelling.) His secnd wife was Martha Stark, who proved unfaithful and absconded with Samuel Culver, in 1674. John obtained a divorce in 1680, the first mentioned in Fish genealogy, and in 1681 was again married. He was a land surveyor, and laid out many of the public lands, as the Stonington records bear witness. His brother-in-law Gershom Palmer was associated with him in 1680 and 1681. By grant and purchase he became the proprietor of considerable land at Stonington and at Groton, and in other towns nearby, considerably over one thousand acres. Mr. M.E. Tracy of Los Angeles, in searching the records of Sandwich, Mass., found that the inventory of the estate of John Fish of Sandwich was made Nov 18, 1663, and exhibited at Plymouth Court May 3, 1664, mentioning the widow, Cecilia Fish, Inventory taken by Nathaniel Fish. Now this would appear to be the John3 of the three brothers, Jonathan, Nathaniel and John, who settled there from Lynn. His death must have occurred a short time before Nov 18, which would have made him possibly 51 years old, assuming he was born bout [sic] 1612. He was baptized at East Farndon, England, June 20, 1619, with his brother Nathaniel who was b. in 1618, son of Thomas2 and Mary (Sprigge) Fish. Tracy also found in "The Pioneers of Massachusetts," by Pope, that there was a son Nathaniel4, born to John and Ceclia Fish, Nov 27, 1648, and a son Caleb4, born and died in 1649. In the Sandwich records was also found a son John4, born to John and Cecilia Fish, who d. before Oct. 28, 1669. After studying these finding and the extensive work of John Dean10 Fish, it is the opinion of the author that the John Fish was one of the three brothers that landed at Lynn, that he reamined at Sandwich with his brother Nathaniel3, and contrary to the opinion of the other historians and genealogists mentioned above, that the John Fish who d. at Stonington, Conn., was the John3 who was brother of Thomas3 of Portsmouth, R.I., as John3 of Sandwich d. about 1663, while John3 of Stonington d. about 1687, or 1689. Of John3 of Connecticut it was written, "He lived in the days when men were famous according as they lifted up axes upon
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the thick trees and bravely did battle with the wild beasts of the
wilderness." His lands were obtained from "goodman robert
Burrows," lying along the eastern part of Fort Hill on the north,
along the northern slope of Pequot Hill extending to the Mystic,
and embracing about one thousand acres. He was the second
son of (68) Robert and (12) Alice2 (Fysh) Fyshe, and was bapt.
at Great Bowden, England, Jan 21, 1620/21. He d. at Stonington,
Conn., at about 70, probably in 1689. John3 m. three times:
first Mary Ireland of the famous family of that name of England;
(2) Martha Stark, who deserted him and ran off with another
man; and (3) Hannah (Palmer) (Hewitt) Steery. It would
appear that his three sons and one daughter were born to his
first wife.
SAMUEL IRELAND OF GROTON
On Apr 15, 1635, there appeared at London, with the purpose
of finding transportation to New England, Samuel Ireland, a
carpenter aged 32, his wife Marie, aged 30, and a daughter aged
one and one-half. after taking an oath of allegiance to the King,
and having been made comformable to the government and to
the Church of England, whereof they brought testimony in a
certificate from the Justice and ministers where their abode
had lately been, they embarqued in the "Increase," of which
Robert Lea was the master.
In due time they reached their destination, and established a
new home at Wethersfield, Conn. Here Samuel Ireland d., May
30, 1639, leaving an estate appraised by the Probate Court at
Seventy Pounds. The widow Ireland m., previous to Mar 5,
1645, Robert Burrows, and on that date the Court apportioned
one-third of the Ireland estate to Mrs. Burrows, "the other two
parts to be for the Ireland children." In 1651, Robert Burrows
obtained a large grant of land on the west bank of Mystic River,
at the present town of Groton, and there his family made their
home. In making this move, Mr. Burrows made his new estate
chargeable with the shares in thier father's estate of his Ireland
step-children, who were yet minors.
John3 Fish of Stonington, Conn., was the second son of Robert2
and Alice2, (Fish) Fish of Market Harborough. He was bapt. in
infancy (1620/21), and doubtless received an education in the
school at his hime village of Market Harborough, which had a
wide reputation as a preparatory school for the Universities. After
his father's death he and his older brother Thomas came to new
England, and perhaps his younger brother Joseph. Thomas became
an owner of land, was married and was the father of a family,