Jacques “James” Eno

Born Baptized: August 21, 1625, at Threadneedle Street Church, in London, England. 1648: England to North America. He married August 18, 1648, in Windsor, Connecticut and worked as constable. He died June 11, 1682, in Windsor, Connecticut.

A Huguenot Barber in Windsor

Jacques “James” Eno was baptized August 21, 1625, at the Threadneedle Street Church in London — a congregation of French Protestant Huguenot refugees — and emigrated to Windsor, Connecticut, in 1648, buying a house on Silver Street that stayed in his family for over two centuries. He served Windsor as constable, juryman, way warden, and fence-viewer over the following decades, and by 1663 had also set up as a barber. In April 1666, James and a neighbor purchased 28,000 acres from Nassahegan, sachem of the Poquonnock, on behalf of the town of Windsor, and in return the town granted him a tract of marshland near the Simsbury mountains.

A Dissenting Church Founder

James helped organize Windsor's Second Church around 1669, and in 1673 he and his sons James and John petitioned the Connecticut General Court in protest of their minister's preaching — an early instance of the doctrinal disputes that would periodically split New England's Puritan congregations. James died in Windsor on June 11, 1682, having married three times over his life; his island property in the Simsbury River passed to his sons James and John.