John White

Born about 1597/about 1600 in Windsor, Connecticut. June 22, 1632: Departed from England on the Lyon sailed by Captain Prence. He married December 26, 1622, in Messing, Essex, England. He died January 23, 1683[1684] in Hartford, Connecticut.

From Cambridge to the Connecticut River

John White was born around 1597–1600 in England and married in Messing, Essex, on December 26, 1622. In June 1632 he sailed from England aboard the Lyon with his family, arriving in Boston that September after first landing at Cape Ann. He settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was granted land for a home on Cowyard Row — near what is now the site of Harvard University's library — and was admitted a freeman in 1633, serving soon after as surveyor of highways and as one of the town's first seven selectmen.

Hartford and Hadley

In June 1636, John followed the Reverend Thomas Hooker's congregation from Cambridge to found Hartford, Connecticut, traveling with roughly a hundred fellow settlers who drove 160 head of cattle along with them for the journey. He built a substantial landholding in Hartford — sixteen separate parcels by 1640 — and served for decades as a juror, selectman, and, from 1664, as Hadley's deputy to the Massachusetts Bay General Court. He was known simply as “Elder John White.” Church politics divided the Hartford congregation after Hooker's death in 1647; John sided with Elder Goodwin's faction, and when that dispute produced a further split in 1670 and the South Church of Hartford was formed, John was elected an elder of the new congregation.

A Puritan Elder's Final Accounting

John wrote his will in December 1683, dividing land and money among his sons Nathaniel, Daniel, and Jacob, providing for his daughter Hixton's care at his executor's discretion, and leaving five pounds to the Reverend John Whiting. He named his son Nathaniel executor and, that same winter, both father and son were called to help the church in Windsor, Connecticut, through a period of difficulty. John died on January 23, 1684, in Hartford; his estate was inventoried at just over 190 pounds, including 24 shillings' worth of books.