(1)  William Cheeseborough, born 1594; married by license 15 December 1620, by “the blessed John Cotton,” in St. Botolph’s Church, Boston, Lincolnshire, England, to Ann Stevenson, daughter of Peter Stevenson.  William was the first founder of and first settler of English lineage in the town of Stonington, Connecticut.  His place of birth and parentage have not been established with certainty.  It is probable that he was born in or near Boston, Lincolnshire, England, where he is known to have had his residence some eleven or twelve years prior to his emigration to America in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and where he and his wife were communicants in St. Botolph’s Church.  The home of the Cheeseborough family, (spelled variously Chesebrough, Cheesborough, Cheesbrook), was in the eastern counties of England, and the name ocurs in the public registries of wills in the County of Norfolk, which adjoins Lincolnshire.  Sarah Chesebrough, whose name stands number 78 on the roll of the First Church of Boston, Massachusetts, was doubtless a passenger with William on the ship Arbella, and is thought to have been his mother.  His wife, Anna or Ann, and three surviving children of the eight that had ben born to him -- the youngest, Nathaniel, an infant in arms -- came with them in the same company.  The Arbella, a ship of more than three hundred and fifty tons, set sail from Cowles, Isle of Wight, on Tuesday, 30 March 1630, and was termed the Admiral of the fleet of fourteen vessels with eight hundred forty passengers comprising the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
         The first thirty-six years of William Cheeseborough’s life were closing when he set foot on American soil.  They covered the last nine years of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the entire reign of James I, and the first five years of the reign of the ill-fated Charles I, and they were among the most eventful years in the recent history of England.  Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded only seven years before William’s birth, (ultimately prompting the voyage of the Mayflower in 1620);  and only six years before, occurred the issue of the first English newspaper, and also the destruction of the Spanish Armada.  It was the period in which Edmund Spencer, William Shakespeare and Lord Bacon won their undying fame;  in which the first telescopes were invented, and in which also the authorized version of the Bible was prepared by order of King James.  William was eleven years old at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, thirteen when Jamestown, Virginia was founded, twenty when New Amsterdam, now New York, was settled by the Dutch, and twenty-six when the Pilgrims Founders landed upon Plymouth Rock.
         The immigrants who came to New England with the illustrious Winthrop organized their churches on the simple polity of a self-governing brotherhood.  Such an organization was effected in their new settlement which they named Charlestown, on 30 July 1630, with Rev. John Wilson as teacher, but in the course of three months it was transferred to the south side of the Charles River to Boston, which the majority preferred on account of healthiness, as the place for a permanent settlement.  The names William and Anna Chesebrough appear as numbers 44 and 45 on the roll of the original members of this, the First Church of Boston.  When Rev. John Cotton, their former minister at St. Botolph’s, England, came over three years later, he took the place of Rev. Wilson as teacher of the church, and Wilson was chosen as pastor.
        The government of the new colony was administered under a charter granted by Charles I to “The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England,” bearing date 4 March 1629.  On the emigration to America of the leading members of this Corporation, the Corporation itself with all its powers and privileges was transferred to them and the other freemen of the company who should inhabit the new plantation.  Thus the administrative officers of the company became “The General Court of Massachusetts,” which took charge of the civil government, and John Winthrop was chosen governor.  Under this government, William Cheeseborough was made a freeman in May 1631.  It soon became necessary to put in order the several towns which had been organized by the colonists, and to chose for each two deputies to appear at the Court for levying taxes for the support of the government.  William Colburn, who was deacon of the church, and William Cheeseborough, were appointed as the first deputies or representatives of Boston.  This was the entering wedge to the yearly representation of the towns in the legislative body.  William Cheeseborough was also chosen constable and subsequently an assessor of rates, and again one of a committee to allot to “the able bodied men and youth” grounds for planting.
       For the purposes of obtaining more arable land and pasture than was assigned to them within the limits of Boston, William, with many others, removed their residences a few miles southward near to a promontory called Mount Wollaston in 1637 or 1638.  A church was organized for the growing community 17 September 1639 to which he and his wife brought letters of dismission and recommendations from the Boston church on the 6th of the ensuing February.  This Mount Wollaston section was set off the same year as a distinct town and named Braintree, and William, with Stephen Kinsley, was chosen to represent the new municipality in the General Court.  He was appointed commissioner or local judge to try certain classes of cases which came up for adjudication, and held other responsible positions.  The grounds he occupied are those which have constituted for more than three and a half centuries the old homestead of the Adams family, and are now included within the limits of the city of Quincy.  The late Ex-President, John Quincy Adams, had in his possession the deed of transfer given by William Cheeseborough to his ancestor.
        In the course of two or three years, William joined a company which settled at “Seekonk” in the vicinity of Plymouth Colony.  Early in July 1644 he, with twenty-nine others of the resident planters there, entered into a civil compact, agreeing to be governed by nine persons, “according to law and equity, until we shall subject ourselves jointly to some other government.”  It appears that this compact and agreement was drawn up and carried through by William Cheeseborough’s efforts, for on the 12th of July following at a public meeting his efficient services in setting up the new government were gratefully acknowledged by the enactment of a provision, “that he should have division in all lands of Seekonk, for one hundred and fifty-three pounds, besides what he is to have for his own portion, and that in the way of consideration for the pains and charges he hath been at in setting off the plantation.”
 
 

       The question of jurisdiction was settled by the plantation submitting itself to the government of the Plymouth Colony, rather than that of Massachusetts Bay, and it was incorporated by the biblical name of Rehoboth.  This decision was arrived at contrary to Cheeseborough’s wishes and judgment, and the Plymouth authorities took his opposition as an affront, and treated him harshly.  Feeling deeply the prejudice awakening against him, he mounted his horse, and in company with one of his sons, turned his face westward with a view of finding a place of settlement where he could escape unjust treatment and live in peace.  On this tour of about seventy miles along the coast, he carefully noted the different localities on the route until he reached Pequot, now New London.  John Winthrop, Jr., an old acquiantance, under commission of the General Court of Massachusetts, had charge of a new settlement at Peqout, and he was strongly urged to make this place his permanent abode.  But the location did not suit him, although a town-lot was offered him as an inducement.  After successive exlorations he chose the head of Wequetequock Cove, in what is now called Pawcatuck, on the border lands of which he found arable lands for planting, with an abundance of pasture ground for stock raising, to which he had largely turned his attention.  To this place, after having built a dwelling house on the west side of the cove, he removed with his wife and four sons, assisted by his friend, Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, in the summer of 1649.  At this time he was fifty-five years old, his wife fifty-one, his son Samuel twenty-two, Nathaniel nineteen, John seventeen, and Elisha twelve.  John died from a wound by a scythe in 1650, at the age of eighteen, and was the first white person whose remains were buried in Stonington.
 
 

        Ironically enough, the family had hardly become domiciled in their new home, when a trouble similar to that from which they had fled came upon them.  Connecticut was about as jealous of Massachusetts as was Plymouth, and unfriendly persons belonging to Plymouth took advantage of this fact to awaken the suspicions of the Connecticut authorities against William.  The trumped-up charge was that he had taken up his present residence with a view of carrying on an unlawful trade with the Indians, furnishing them with and repairing their firearms.  The General Court of Connecticut thereupon issued a warrant to the constable of Peqout to require him to give an account of himself in answer to the charge.  Supposing that he was in the jursidiction of Massachusetts, he refused for more than a year to pay any attention to the order of the Court;  but afterwards on the advice of Mr. Winthrop and his friends at Pequot, he voluntarily presented himself at Hartford and refuted the slanderous charge, in support of which not a particle of evidence was presented.  Ostensibly as a measure of precaution, he was required to give a bond not to engage in any trade with the Indians forbidden by the Laws of the Colony, and before the succeeding winter to furnish the court with the names of such persons as he could persuade to settle in his neighborhood.  On these conditions permission was given him to remain unmolested where he was.  This action of the Court was largely prompted by jealousy of all settlers in that section who were supposed to be favorable to the Massachusetts claims, lest that Colony should get the control of the Pawcatuck territory.  It now became a burning question to which Colony this territory belonged -- whether to Connecticut or Massachusetts.  Connecticut attempted to take control of the territory by a public act making the Pawcatuck River the eastern boundary of Pequot, so that Cheeseborough’s place of settlement came within the boundaries of that town.  On this basis the town not only voted him a house-lot within the Pequot settlement itself, but also confirmed his title to three hundred acres of land at Wequetequock, which were subsequently increased to twenty-three hundred and sixty-two acres.
       The first man who joined William Cheeseborough in the new plantation was Thomas Stanton, the famous Indian interpreter, who built in 1650 a trading-house on the west side of Pawcatuck River, though he did not remove his family there until 1657.  In the year 1653, Walter Palmer, one of the settlers at Rehoboth, dissatisfied for some reasons with his residence within the Colony of Plymouth, located himself near to his old friend and neighbor Cheeseborough, erecting his dwelling-house on the east side of Wequetequock Cove.  Thomas Minor moved into the heighborhood in 1654, and built his house at Mistuxet, now Quiambaug.  These four men, Cheeseborough, Stanton, Palmer and Minor, were the founders of Stonington, in honor of whom the monument in the ancient cemetery at Wequetequock was erected in 1899, that being the 250th year from the first settlement by William Cheeseborough.
        The action of the General Court of Connecticut in pushing its claims eastward to the Pawcatuck River, was by no means acquiesced in by Massachusetts, and the seriously controverted question of jurisdiction was referred to the Commissioners of the United Colonies for decision.  Meanwhile, or until the matter could be resolved amicably, the planters were advised “to carry themselves & order their affaires peaceably, and by comon agreement.”  Acting on this advice, the original settlers and a few others who had joined them, met together on 30 June 1658 and organized a local government with what may be termed a constitution, entitled “The Asolation of Poquatuck peple,” which was signed by eleven persons, viz.:  William Cheeseborough and his three sons, Samuel, Nathaniel and Elisha, Thomas Stanton and his son Thomas, Walter Palmer and his two sons Elihu and Moses, George Denison, and Thomas Shaw.  This compact is in the handwriting of William Cheeseborough and pledged the signers “to maintain and deffend the peac of the plac & to aid and asist one another acoarding to law & rules of righteousness, till such other provisions be maide ffor us as may atain our end above written.”  After affixing their names to the document, the signers chose Capt. George Denison and William Cheeseborough to be “comytioners” to carry out the provisions of the contract.  Three months later, the Commissioners of the United Colonies decided that the territory in dispute belonged to Massachusetts, and the General Court of that Colony named it Southerntown and annexed it to the County of Suffolk.  Southerntown remained a township of Massachusetts until the issue of the Charter of Connecticut by King Charles II, dated 25 April 1662 which fixed the eastern boundary of Connecticut at Pawcatuck River, thereupon this territory, which for three and a half years had been subject to the control of Massachusetts, reverted back to the sister colony.  Through this period, William Cheeseborough held the office of selectman.
        During the time in which the plantation was included in the town of Peqout, William had been elected its deputy to the General Court of Connecticut at Hartford in 1653, 1654, 1655, and 1656;  he held also the offices of assessor and commissioner.  On its reversion to Connecticut under the charter, some of the planters manifested an almost defiant unwillingness to acknowledge the jurisdiction of this colony, at which the authorites at Hartford took offense.  In 1664, however, they united in choosing William Cheeseborough as their first representative to the General Court.  With much effort and considerable delay, he was successful in adjusting the disturbed relations between them and the court.  In 1665, the name of Southerntown was changed to that of Mystic, and in the year following was changed to Stonington.  During that last three years of his life, which closed Sunday 9 June 1667, he being then 73 years old, William Cheeseborough was selectman of that town.  His wife Anna Cheeseborough died on 24 August 1673, at he age of 75.  Their remains rest side by side in the old cemetery, a short distant from their dwelling house.
 
 

        Although he died prior to the organization of the First Church of Stonington, the tradition is that prior to the establishment of religious worship in his neighborhood, he was accustomed, in all suitable weather, to attend Sunday services at Pequot, starting a little after midnight that he might in good time accomplish the fifteen miles of travel over rough roads and the crossing of two rivers.  There can be no doubt that he took an active part in the measures which were initiated in 1657 for establishing regular religious services within the limits of the plantation, and which issued, after the employment of several preachers for short seasons, an invitation to Rev. James Noyes to serve the people as their permanent pastor.  Mr. Noyes entered upon his labors here in 1664, about three years before William’s death,  but he was not ordained, nor was the church organized until 1674.  In his last will and testament, William Cheeseborough speaks of Rev. James Noyes and Mr. Amos Richardson, as “my truly and well-beloved friends.”

Children -- Only three of the children lived to be married:  Samuel, Nathaniel, Elisha.  Jonathan died on the passage over to New England.

1. Marie, baptized 2 May 1622, buried 9 June 1622, England
2. Martha, baptized 18 September 1623, buried 26 September 1623, England
3. David, baptized 9 September 1624, buried 23 October 1624, England
4. Jonathan, baptized 9 September 1624, buried
5. Samuel, baptized 1 April 1627, mentioned below
6. Andronicus, baptised 6 February 1629, buried 8 February 1629, buried  England
7. Junia, baptized 6 February 1629, died 6 February 1629, stillborn, buried  England
8. Nathaniel, baptised 25 January 1630
9. John, baptized 2 September 1632, in Boston, Mass., died in Stonington,  Connecticut; the first white person buried in Stonington.
10. Jabez, baptized 3 May 1635, in Boston, Mass., died young
11. Elisha, baptized 4 june 1637, in Boston, Mass., died 1 September 1670 in Stonington, Conn.
12.  Joseph, baptized 18 July 1640, in Braintree, died young

        (2)  Samuel Cheeseborough, baptized 1 April 1627, Boston, England, buried 31 July 1673, Stonington, Connecticut.  “Was made a freeman of Connecticut in 1657;  signed the Pawcatuck Articles of Association in 1658, and was elected Constable;  Selectman in 1660;  Deputy to the General Court in 1665, ‘66, ‘70, ‘71, ‘72 and ‘73,” according to Thomas Miner’s diary.  He resided in Boston, Braintree (Quincy), Rehoboth, Mass.;  married 30 November 1655, Abigail Ingraham.  After Samuel died, Abigail married second 15 June 1675, Joshua Holmes, (son of Robert Holmes of Stonington, Connecticut, in 1670 a landholder and taxpayer, and served in the Colonial Indian Wars).  After their marriage, he moved to Westerly, Rhode Island;  he served in King Philip’s War and died 14 April 1694.  When Joshua died, Abigail married 4 July 1698, Capt. James Avery of New London, who died 18 April 1700, the father of her son-in-law, John Avery, leaving her again a widow.

        Children of Samuel and Abigail Cheeseborough -- the records of the First Church of New London indicate that on 23 June 1672 Rev. Simon Bradtstreet baptized “Samuel, William, Elisha, Abigail, Sarah and Elizabeth, children of Samuel Cheesbrook.  Rehoboth”:

1. Abigail, born 30 September 1656;  married John Avery
2. Marie, born 28 February 1658, died 25 September 1669
3. Samuel, born 20 November 1660, died 27 October 1735;  married Marie Ingraham
4. William, born 8 April 1662, died 2 January 1739-40, age 78 years
5. Sarah, born 24 December 1663, died 9 September 1729;  married John Bolton
6. Elisha, born 4 April 1667, died 1 September 1727;  married (1) Marie Miner, (2) Rebecca Mason
7. Elizabeth, born 6 January 1669;  married William Ingraham, Jr., of Bristol

1. Mary, died 1751;  married Isaac Thompson of Westerly, Rhode Island
2. Joshua, born 20 August 1678;  married Fear Sturges

 

© Mark A. Wentling, 2000

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