Stephen Terry

Born August 25, 1608, in Stockton, Wiltshire, England. 1630: England to America aboard the ship Mary & John. He married March 13, 1633/1634, in Symondsbury, Dorsetshire, England. He died Abt in Hadley, Massachusetts.

A Dorchester Constable

Stephen Terry was born August 25, 1608, in Stockton, Wiltshire, England — named for an older brother who had died at Oxford that same year — and emigrated to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1630, returning briefly to England in 1633 to marry before coming back to America the following year. He served as Dorchester's constable in 1635, then moved to Windsor, Connecticut, around 1636, and later to Hadley, Massachusetts, around 1660 as one of its first settlers, where the town valued his estate at two hundred pounds, making him one of its wealthier residents. Stephen served on Connecticut's grand jury, rode among thirty-seven troopers under Major John Mason, and sat on juries of life and death and committees laying out new highways.

A Hadley Estate

In his September 1668 will, written as he lay dying, Stephen left his wife their Hadley home and land for her lifetime and divided the remainder among his three sons-in-law, Richard Goodman, Philip Russell, and Joseph Kellogg, forgiving as well all debts his son John owed him. Stephen died that September; his estate was appraised at over 614 pounds, including a Hadley home worth more than 200 pounds, half-ownership of a house back in Windsor, and a small library valued at nearly a pound and a half.