Thomas Willett emigrated in 1632 from England to Plymouth Colony.
1 He emigrated with
John Brown, Sr., the Emigrant, and
Dorothy Brown on 17 April 1635 in England to Plymouth Colony on the ship Elizabeth. Also on the ship with the Browns was 19-year-old Thomas Willett, a son of their Leyden, Holland, neighbors and fellow Puritans. Apparently worried that Thomas was turning into a Dutch Reformed lad instead of the solid Separatist they had tried to raise, the Willetts sent him with the Browns to the more denominationally-controlled environment of Plymouth Colony. Thomas later married the Browns' daughter Mary and parlayed his bicultural upbringing into notable wealth and prominence in New England, contributing thirteen children to the Plymouth Colony and becoming the first Mayor of New York.
CAVEAT: John Brown, Sr. may have traveled separately before his wife, children and Thomas Willet.
2 Thomas Willett was the first Mayor of New York between 1665 and 1667.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONWillett, Thomas (1900)
by John Frome Wilkinson
WILLET, THOMAS (1605-1674), first mayor of New York???, fourth son of Andrew Willet [q. v.], was born in August 1605, in the rectory-house of Barley, and was baptised on the 29th of the same month. His father dying when he was only sixteen years of age, he appears to have continued to reside with his widowed mother and maternal grandmother till he came of age. Shortly after he joined the second puritan exodus, going first to Leyden, and then to the new Plymouth plantation. Governor Bradford mentions him as 'an honest young man that came from Leyden,' as 'being discreet, and one whom they could trust.' In 1633, after he had become a successful trader with the Indians, he was admitted to the freedom of the colony, and married a daughter of Major John Brown, a leading citizen. He shortly afterwards became a large shipowner, trading with New Amsterdam. He was elected one of the assistant governors of the Plymouth colony. As a proof of his worth of character and commanding abilities, he was frequently chosen to settle disputes between the rival colonies of England and Holland; he also became captain of a military company. Early in 1660 he left Plymouth, and, establishing himself in Rhode Island, became the founder of the town of Swansey. Accompanying the English commander Nicholls, he greatly contributed to the peaceable surrender of New Amsterdam to the English on 7 Sept. 1664; and when the colony received the name of New York, Captain Willet was appointed the first mayor (in June 1665), with the approval of English and Dutch alike. The next year he was elected alderman, and became mayor a second time in 1667. Shortly after he withdrew to Swansey, and here, after having lost his first wife, he married the widow of a clergyman named John Pruden. He died in 1674, at the age of sixty-nine. He lies buried in an obscure corner of the Little Neck burial-ground at Bullock's Cove, Swansey, Rhode Island. His descendants were numerous, and included Colonel Marinus Willet, the friend of Washington, who himself became mayor of New York [CAVEAT: This was apparently disproved by E. Haviland Hillman.], while the 'Dorothy Q.' of the poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes was Thomas Willet's great-granddaughter, and the great-grandmother of the poet. In his religious views Willet was an independent.
[A full account of Willet, with authorities, by Dr. Charles Parsons, is given in the Magazine of American History, xvii. 233 et seq. See also Governor Bradford's History; Brodhead's History of New York, i. 518 et seq., 524, 743; Mrs. M. J. Lamb's History of New York City, i. 231.].
CAPTAIN THOMAS WILLETT born 1610
Posted to the Web (I neglected to take down the url) by: Linda in Phoenix; Date: November 10, 1999 at 21:02:50 http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~timbaloo/LittleNeck/pages/ThomasTextl.htm
Source:
A Genealogical History Of The Rubel, White, Rockfellow, McNair And Allied Families by Jack P. Rubel, published 1977.
Thomas Willett (Sr.) of Yormouth, Norfolk County, England, was one of the Leydon Congregation of Separatists who had escaped from England and settled in Holland, to find freedom to worship as they pleased. From this group came the “Saints”, who journeyed to the New World in the “Mayflower” in 1620, the first of several ships of that name, and established the colony of Plymouth. These early settlers hoped to prosper and eventually to bring the rest of the Leydon congregation to Plymouth. Many did make the voyage, including Thomas Willett Jr., but there is no record of Thomas Sr. nor any others of the Willett family doing so.
Thomas Willett, the emigrant, was born ca 1610 in Leydon, Holland, and sailed from London in the second “Mayflower” in 1629 with other Puritans, bound for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had been founded at Salem in the previous September. The ship put in at Salem on May 15, 1629, and the passengers bound for Plymouth were taken there by boat. Thomas Willett was listed as one of the “Saints” on board, that is, one of the Leydon congregation. He was described as “an honest yonge man”. (Willison: Saints and Strangers, p.451) These were the original Pilgrims, although the Pilgrims had no name for themselves as a group; for generations they were known to their descendants merely as the Forefathers.
In 1630, Thomas Willett was sent by the Pilgrim leaders to their new trading post on the Penobscot River, on the coast of Maine. Governor Bradford thought that Thomas was discreet and trustworthy, and sent him to keep the manager of the post “within bounds”. However, apparently Thomas was not able to do this, as the manager was dismissed the next year and sent back to England “for trading powder and shote with ye Indeans” and other misdemeanors. (Ibid, pp 289-291). Thomas Willett was then given command of the trading post, but in 1632, while he was in Plymouth on business, a small French ship put into the harbor of the trading post on the Penobscot River, and feeling that the post was an encroachment on their territory, and hearing that the man in charge was away, they robbed it of “everything at hand - blankets, rugs, coats, biscuit and beaver worth five hundred pounds. They even compelled the servants to carry the loot on board and stow it down, before they leisurely sailed away” (Ibid. p.295)
In 1633, Thomas Willett became a freeman, but in 1635 the post on the Penobscot was again attacked by the French, and Thomas and his men were forced to give it up and return to Plymouth in a small boat, with only a few provisions. He was then made agent in charge of the trading post on the Kennebee River, which had been established by the Plymouth Colony several years before. This port was located on the present site of Augusta, Maine, and was a profitable enterprise for the Pilgrims.
On July 6, 1636 Thomas Willett married Mary, daughter of John Browne [Sr.]and his wife Dorothy. (Ibid. p.452; also Charles Henry Pope: Pioneers of Massachusetts, Baltimore 1969, p.73) Thomas and Mary Willett lived in Plymouth and in 1638, lands were confirmed to him. Thomas was a merchant, with many and varied business ventures, and he traded as far as the Dutch settlements inNew Amsterdam. He was also active in civic affairs, and on March 7, 1647/8, was made captain of the military company of Plymouth, succeeding Myles Standish. Thomas was in new Amsterdam in 1650, acting as agent for Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Governor of fNew Netherland. Thomas was in Plymouth again in 1651, when he was elected to the responsible office of assistand Governor of Plymouth Colony, and he held this position until 1665, when he was needed for another task.
At this time, England and Holland were having troubles which extended to the New World. England claimed the entire region of New Netherland, on the basis of John Cabot's explorations. Charles II granted the area to his brother James, Duke of York, and in 1664, four ships of the Royal Navy were sent to America to dispossess the Dutch along the Hudson. Capt. Willett was assigned to accompany the expedition as agent for Plymouth, and to give advice, which his acquaintance with the Dutch from early childhood qualified him to do. It has been suggested that this role was a betrayal of confidence, since he had been "hospitable entertained there", and "honored as on of Governor Peter Stuyvesant's trusted agents". The Dutch were overawed by the English show of force, and New Amsterdam was captured without resistance. Thomas mad a good impression on the English commissioners, and at their request he resigned his office as assistant Governor of Plymouth, in order to help them, and after the English government was established, Capt. Thomas Willett was proclaimed on June 12, 1665, as the first English mayor of New York City. This evidently pleased the Dutch, as it is said that "his conversation was very acceptable to them", and that "such was the confidence of the Dutch in Willett, that they selected him as a referee to settle their controverted boundary wiith New Haven". (Baylies: A Memoir of Plymouth Colony pp.7, 60)
Thomas Willett served as mayor for two years, and in 1667 returned to his home in Swansea, Mass., west of Plymouth. Here he had been active in negotiating with the Indians for their lands, and "soon acquired som influence among them." He was also a Commissioner of the Confederated Colonies. (Ibid, pp.7,8)
Thomas Willett died at Swansea and was buried at the head of Bullock’s Cove, in what is now East Providence, RI. His tombstone gives the date of his death as August 4, 1674 “in the 64th year of his age”. His will dated April 26, 1671 and probated on August 12, 1674, left bequests to his four sons, two daughters, a brother-in-law and the church of Rehoboth. His wife Mary died on January 8, 1699.
Known issue of Thomas and Mary:
1. Martha Willett, married John Saffin, a merchant of Boston and had eight sons; four of them were mentioned in Thomas Willett’s will.
2. Esther Willett, b. July 6, 1647
3. Hezekiah Willett, born and died in 1651
4. Rebecca Willett died April 2, 1652
5. James Willett, mentioned in will
6.Hezekiah Willett, mentioned in his father’s will, killed by Indians at the Willett plantation in Swansea.
7. Andrew Willett, mentioned in will
8. Samuel Willett, mentioned in will
9. Thomas Willett
10. Mary Willett, married Samuel Hooker (our seventh great-grandparents)
Linda in Phoenix.
Thomas Willett Birth: 1610, England
Death: Aug. 3, 1674, Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts
Colonial, Mayor. First Mayor of New York City. Arriving in 1632 on "The Lion" (with a religious separatist movement that called themselves "The Saints", that fled England to Leydon, Holland then went back to England to follow the Mayflower voyage), Thomas Willett was a merchant that traded from Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. He succeeded Captain Miles Standish as head of the Colonial Militia and negotiated what is now known as the "Rehoboth North Purchase" which acquired land (now known as Attleboro and North Attleboro, Massachusetts) from Wampanoag leader Sachem Wamsutta who was the son of famed chief Massasoit. He later conducted sea trade from the Colonies and was a navigator from 1651 to 1654. When the charter of "New Amsterdam" was changed to British possession, Governor Richard Nicholls granted the city charter on June 12, 1665 and the city, population 1,500 at the time, got Thomas Willett as its English representative/mayor, making him the first mayor of "New York". He served two concurrent one-year terms from 1665 to 1667. His property in that colony was confiscated when the Dutch reclaimed the area, and he settled in the locale of Barrington, Rhode Island (while some accounts have his retirement in Sewansea or Seekoknk, Massachusetts, these towns are all close and at the time the town lines that currently exist were not the same.) He was married to Mary Brown and together they had fourteen children. There is a large memorial marker placed for him, and near it is the original weathered stone which, now unreadable is documented as having the following inscription "1674 Here lyeth the body of the worthy Thomas Willett, Esq. who dies August 4 in the 64th year of his age, and who was the first mayor of New York and twice did sustain the place." (bio by: R. Digati)
Family links:
Spouses:
Mary Brown Willett (1637 - ____)
Joanna Boyse Prudden Willett
Joanna Boyse Prudden Willett*
Children:
Mary Willett Hooker (1637 - ____)*
Sarah Willett Eliot (1643 - ____)*
EstherWillett Flynt (1647 - 1737)*
Burial:
Ancient Little Neck Cemetery, East Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by:
R. DigatiRecord added: Jun 08, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 8890542.
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Thomas John Willett, Captain (c.1610 - 1674)
Source: www.geni.com
Birthdate: circa 1610
Birthplace: Barley, Hertfordshire, , England
Death: Died August 4, 1674 in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts
Occupation: 1st Mayor of New York (New Amsterdam), Captain of Plymouth Company 1647
Managed by: Floyd Russak
Last Updated: September 21, 2011
Immediate Family
Mary Brown wife
Mary Hooker (Willet) daughter
Martha Willett daughter
John Willett son
Sarah Willett daughter
Rebecca Willett daughter
Col. Thomas Willet son
Esther Willett daughter
James Willet son
Hezekiah Willett son
David Willett son
Capt. Andrew Willet son
About Thomas John Willett, Captain
Wikipedia Biographical Summary:
"...Thomas Willett (1611-1674) was a British merchant, Plymouth Colony trader and sea-captain, Commissioner of New Netherlands, a magistrate of Plymouth Colony, and Captain of Plymouth Colony. He was appointed Mayor of New York on June 12, 1665, by Governor Richard Nicolls, and as a commissioner of admiralty on August 23. He was a member of the governor's executive council from 1665 to 1672 under Richard Lovelace. He retired in 1673.
His son Thomas Willett was a major in the militia of Queens County and a councilor under Governors Sir Edmund Andros and Henry Sloughter.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Willett
Immigration:
Thomas Willet; Captain; 1st Mayor of New York; Merchant; Immigrated in 1632 on the LION.
SOURCE: Adam and Ann Mott Ancestry; Thomas C. Cornell, page 251; FHL book# 929.273 M8579C. FHL US/CAN Film 1018871 Item 10.
Resources:
http://www.famousamericans.net/thomaswillett/
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/pdfs/willett_thomas.pdf
Biographical Summary #2:
“...As a boy in Holland, Thomas learned both the Dutch and the English language and although there seems to be no record of his having attended the university, his later life shows he received more than the ordinary education” (Smith, page 42).
“In Leyden, young Willett was reared in the congregation of Reverend John Robinson, the beloved pastor of the Pilgrims in Holland. Mr. Robinson had been graduated from Cambridge University in 1599, where he received his Master’s Degree, and removed to Holland in 1608. His son, Isaac Robinson, who was born the following year, became one of Willett’s fast friends, and both boys sailed to New England on the same ship” (Smith, page 42).
The return trip referred to above [???] was the 1632 trip in the “Lion” that Thomas Willett made after testifying at the trial of Isaac Allerton in London.
It was in 1620, that the small ship, Mayflower, crammed with 102 saints and strangers, sighted southern New England just before the onset of winter. “Of the passengers aboard the original Mayflower, only about 40 or so called themselves saints (religious dissidents who had cut all the ties to the Church of England which they regarded as hopelessly corrupt). The rest were strangers, as the saints called them; humble folk recruited to fill out the list. The strangers simply hoped to better their lot in the new world. Later generations, influenced by seventeenth century romanticists, would lump them all together as Pilgrims” (Cooke, page 48).
The story of the Pilgrims is a separate story from that of our Thomas Willett. The Pilgrim era was closing in March, 1629, when Thomas Willett, sailed from Gravesend, England, on the Mayflower with Captain William Pierce in command. This was not, however, the Mayflower of 1620 which took the original Pilgrims to Plymouth. In 1620, there were approximately 120 ships of English registry, and 20 of these were named Mayflower.
On board this second Mayflower were 35 passenger [sic] from Leyden, Holland, a portion of the Green Gate Congregation that included Isaac, Mercy, and Fear Robinson (Planters of the Commonwealth, page 35). What reason prompted young Thomas Willett to leave his family, parents and sisters, to settle in a “new world” is unknown. He most likely was encouraged by his father to start a new life away from the life of the exile in Holland.
Shortly after Thomas Willett’s arrival, the Colony's government sent him north to take charge of their trading post near the mouth of the Kennebec River in what is now Maine. A little later, a new trading post was established on the Penoscot [sic] River, about 50 miles up the Maine Coast from the Pilgrim trading post at Kennebec. There was a royal proclamation against trading weapons to the Indians. However, another agent, Edward Ashley, was illegally furnishing the Indians with weapons in defiance of King Charles I proclamation of November 24, 1630. Ashley was arrested and sent to England for trial before the Privy Council. Young Thomas Willett had actually seen Ashley sell contraband and was a star witness. However, this required that Willett return to England. He and Isaac Allerton returned to England on Allerton's ship, White Angel. On September 6, 1631, Willett gave his testimony. Ashley was found guilty. This was only one of the problems and conflicts which faced the Pilgrim community.
And even greater fraud had been continuously perpetuated [sic] on the unsuspecting Pilgrims by Willett’s fellow traveller, Isaac Allerton. Allerton had been acting as the Pilgrim’s agent in London who dealt with the backers of Plymouth Plantation. Allerton had succeeded in running up the Pilgrim’s [sic] debt, from £400 (about $20,000) to £4,770 (about $238,500) in less than four years. Allerton was eventually dismissed from his position, but he continually plagued the Pilgrim fathers for years afterward.
The [1632] return trip to New England was arranged. Thomas had the company of another old family friend from Leyden on the outbound trip. This was his father’s friend, John Browne, along with his daughter, Mary Browne, and other members of that family who were emigrating to the new world. They left England on June 22, 1632, on board the Lion, which was a fairly large ship for the day. The return trip took twelve weeks; they arrived in Boston on September 16 [1632]. Thomas Willett and Mary Brown must have seen a lot of each other during that voyage. An enduring romance must have had its inception on board the Lion.
On July 6, 1636, he married Mary, the daughter of Worshipful John Brown (b 1584 in England; d April 10, 1662, at Swansea, Massachusetts), the son of Thomas Browne. Peter Browne, the uncle of John Browne had come over on the original Mayflower, and he and the elder Thomas Browne were sons of Thomas Browne, Senior. The Browns were from Swansea, England, and his wife Dorothy (nee Beauchamp) had emigrated from Cambridge, England, to Holland, and then followed the Puritans to Massachusetts. Governor Winthrop performed the ceremony. The Browns had been one of the last of the Green Gate Pilgrims to leave Holland for the new world. They were old friends of the Willett family.
“By this marriage, Willett allied himself with one of the most influential families of the Plymouth Colony. Mr. Brown had become one of plymouth’s [sic] most prominent figures and had been given a patent on the Kennebec. For twelve years he was a commissioner of the United Colonies of New England, and for eighteen years he was a governor’s assistant.
The Dutch were suspicious of the English, particularly the English settlements in Long Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. This is where Willett, born in England, raised in Holland, was at his best, as an intermediator between the Dutch and the English. He acquired a remarkable degree the confidence of the Dutch, and also the Indians, as well as the English. When Governor Stuyvesant first arrived in New Amsterdam, in 1647, to succeed Governor Kieft, a spirit of intercolonial courtesy induced Governor Bradford, of Plymouth to write to Stuyvesant, under the date of April 3d, 1647, congratulating him on his safe arrival, and in the letter commending to the Dutch Governor, Thomas Willett and William Paddie as men who [sic] he could trust. Stuyvesant accepted the recommendation, finding it in accord with the sentiment of New Amsterdam; and soon after appointed Captain Willett to represent the Dutch in a boundary commission between New Netherlands and Hartford.
On March 7, 1647/48 Thomas Willett was made Captain of the Plymouth Company of Militia. He succeeded Captain Miles Standish, that “little stovepipe” who had died.
On June 6, 1649, he was made a surveyor of the highways. From 1651 until 1664, he was a magistrate of the Plymouth Colony.
Captain Willett kept a residence in New Amsterdam. In 1655, he was one of the 320 taxpayers. He owned several ships, and perhaps one or all of them were ocean-going vessels. In 1651, he purchased the frigate Palomne; he was bondsman for Edmond Scarborough, late of Accomack County, Colony of Virginia, for £5,000 in 1655; and about the same time purchased the ship Abraham’s Sacrifice; he also owned the New Netherlands. [p. 8] In 1660, Thomas Willett founded the town of Swansea, Rhode Island, and here were [sic] Massachusetts and Rhode Island join, made his home. It must have been a nice home. Willett was well-to-do, if not down-right rich. His son John was living in New Amsterdam, perhaps as overseer to the Willett ventures there. His son Hezekiah lived at Swansea, probably with his father.
In the summer of 1664, Governor Stuyvesant, and the Burgomasters and the Dutch people had known that an English invasion was threatened.
On the 8th of September, 1664, Governor Stuyvesant surrendered in the face of overwhelming force. Against the fleet of Col. Nichols, he could have only brought to bear 100 men, 25 guns, and barely enough ammunition to fight for one day. All Dutch rights were to be respected. The Dutch council then in session would rule until the usual change in council members was made the next spring. But the Dutch form of government was not customary in the King's dominions, so Governor Nicolls [sic] decided to give the city a new charter and government when June, 1665, came around. Who would be the first English Mayor?
Captain Thomas Willett was chosen by Colonel Nichols to be the first English Mayor of the renamed New York City. It was a natural choice made by a Colonel who had avoiced bloodshed through negotiation. And Captain Thomas Willett was one of the chief negotiators. Not only was he respected by the English, but also by the Dutch. He spoke fluent Dutch and had a home in the city, along with business interests. On June 12, 1665, Willett assumed his seat at the head of the council. Of five aldermen on the council, three were Dutchmen who had previously served. New York was then a small town of a few narrow streets, south of Wall Street, lined with small thatched cottages and some big handsome Dutch buildings.
On January 8, 1669, Thomas Willet's wife, Mary Brown, died at their home in the Plymouth Colony. She was buried at Swansea.
Captain Willett married a second time, on September 19, 1671, he married Mrs. Joyce Pruden.
Thomas Willett died at Swansea and was buried at the head of Bullock’s Cove, in what is now East Providence, RI. His tombstone gives the date of his death as August 4, 1674 “in the 64th year of his . His will dated April 26, 1671 and probated on August 12, 1674, left bequests to his four sons, two daughters, a brother-in-law and the church of Rehoboth. His wife Mary died on January 8, 1699.
Known issue of Thomas and Mary:
Martha Willett, married John Saffin, a merchant of Boston and had eight sons; four of them were mentioned in Thomas Willett’s will.
Esther Willett, b. July 6, 1647
Hezekiah Willett, born and died in 1651
Rebecca Willett died April 2, 1652
James Willett, mentioned in will
Hezekiah Willett, mentioned in his father’s will, killed by Indians at the Willett plantation in Swansea.
Andrew Willett, mentioned in will
Samuel Willett, mentioned in will
Thomas Willett
Mary Willett, married Samuel Hooker
SOURCE:
The Willett Families of North America; compiled by Albert James Willett, Jr., A Willett; House Publication
There are very detailed, scholarly analyses of the genealogy of Thomas Willet published in Volume 80 of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (1949.)
Colonial Mayor. First Mayor of New York City. Arriving in 1632 on "The Lion" (with a religious separatist movement that called themselves "The Saints", that fled England to Leydon, Holland, then went back to England to follow the Mayflower voyage). Thomas Willett was a merchant that traded from Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. He succeeded Captain Miles Standish as head of the Colonial Militia and negotiated what is now known as the "Rehoboth North Purchase" which acquired land (now known as Attleboro and North Attleboro, Massachusetts) from Wampanoag leader Sachem Wamsutta who was
the son of famed chief Massasoit.
He later conducted sea trade from the Colonies and was a navigator from 1651 to 1654. When the charter of "New Amsterdam" was changed to British possession, Governor Richard Nicholls granted the city charter on June 12, 1665, and the city, population 1,500 at the time, got Thomas Willett as its English representative/mayor, making him the first mayor of "New York". He served two concurrent one-year terms from 1665 to 1667. His property in that colony was confiscated when the Dutch reclaimed the area, and he settled in the locale of Barrington, Rhode Island (while some accounts have his retirement in Sewansea or Seekoknk, Massachusetts, these towns are all close and at the time the town lines that currently exist were not the same.)
He was married to Mary Brown and together they had fourteen children. There is a large memorial marker placed for him, and near it is the original weathered stone which, now unreadable is documented as having the following inscription "1674 Here lyeth the body of the worthy Thomas Willett, Esq. who dies August 4 in the 64th year of his age, and who was the first mayor of New York and twice did sustain the place." [Bio by: R. Digat].
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