Sgt. George Darrow was born circa 1652 at Scotland; dob is speculation of Dean Hagen, pob is from Krug's book (see source).
1,2 Sgt. George Darrow was living in 1675 at New London, New London, Connecticut, USA;
History of Reedsburg - "The immigrant ancestor, George Darrow, a native of Scotland, whence he moved with his people to Lancashire, England, was pressed on board a British man-o-war, which, on its way to New England, sailed by way of Cuba. In Cuba, George Darrow, then a young man, escaped and got aboard an American vessel, where he sequestered himself for three days. When the Americans discovered him, they allowed him to work his way to the mainland. He landed in New London, Conn., 1675...."
History of Montville, CT - "Sergeant George Darrow, as he is styled, makes his first appearance in New London between the years 1675 and 1680, and marries Mary, relict of George Sharswood, whose death occurred previous to 1678...."
History of Montville, CT - "Many of the descendants of the first George Darrow have been noted ministers of the gospel in the Baptist denomination. Nearly every generation has furnished one or more of the name who have adorned the profession."
History of New London - Under a heading "New inhabitants that appear between 1670 and 1700" the name "George Darrow; between 1675 and 1680.
H. Andrew Brown - Sgt. George Darrow, ca 1664, arrived in Connecticut aboard a British Man of War from Cuba. In 1663, a Christopher Darrow (a father or brother) had been granted land by King George II in Connecticut. George Darrow may have claimed this land as an inheritance.
3,4,5,6 Sgt. George Darrow married
Mary Charlett in 1678; History of New London, page 347 - Only gives the name of Mary and her first married name of Sharswood.
History of Reedsburg, page 478 - States that Sgt George married Mary Sharswood, a young widow, in 1676.
Dar. Fam in US - Gives Mary the maiden name of Charlett with no source confirmation. She states: "George's (Darrow) wife, Mary (Sharswood), was the daughter of Nicholas and Catherine Charlett, and the widow of George Sharswood. ..." She gives 9 different sources for this fact but I have not researched it to see if any of those sources refer specifically to the name of Charlett.
H. Andrew Brown is the first source that uses the fact that Mary Charlett is married to George Darrow. He also lists her first husband as George Sharswood. In Linda Reuter's book, "The Darrow Family in the United States", H. Andrew Brown writes a comment on page 2 in reference as to whether Richard Darrow is a son of Sgt. George and Mary Darrow or a nephew of Sgt. George:
"I still see Richard Darrow (1682-1775) as the son of George and Mary Darrow, with them naming him after Mary Charlett's step-father: Richard Haughton, just as she named one son, Nicholas, after her birth father: Nicholas Charlett."
1,7,8,6 Sgt. George Darrow married
Elizabeth Marshall on 10 August 1702; Note from Dean Hagen - (Some sources state that it was George Darrow b. 17 Oct 1680, son of Sgt. George Darrow, that married Elizabeth Marshall. After reading and studying History of Montville, page 102 and History of New London, page347 I believe that those sources are wrong and I agree with Baker and Caulkins.).
4,9,7 Sgt. George Darrow died in 1704 at New London, New London, Connecticut.
7,4,10 His estate was probated in 1706 at New London, New London, Connecticut; The American Genealogists, Vol 9-10. Lists under Probate Records, New London, CT, pg 169 that Elizabeth Darrow and Dan Stebbins were bonded as administerix's and an inventory was conducted by Christopher Darrow and Joshua Hempstead in 1706.
11 Database: Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers
Volume 2
page 10
Darrow, or Darrah, George, New London 1676, by w. Mary had Mary, bapt. Dec. 1678; George, Oct. 1680; Nicholas, May 1683; Jane, Apr. 1692, beside Richard; was a serj. d. a. 1704.
12 Note by Dean Hagen -- The following two paragraphs were found in research and seem appropiate to place them here in a discussion of Sgt George.
This is a portion of the obituary of Henry A. Darrow and was published in the Reedsburg Free Press, Reedsburg, Sauk, WI.
Obit of Henry Darrow -"The name Darrow is not of recent origin. It is traceable to the North of Scotland, thence to England, thence to America. The ancestors were large, strong and healthy -- quite noted for their size. Several of the men were said to have been about seven feet high and to have weighed nearly three hundred pounds."
H. Andrew Brown - 'Darrow' is a corruption of the Scottish 'Darragh' and was often spelled 'Darro', 'Darrah', etc. Mary Smith (one of Brown's sources) also felt that George Darrow Sr. was born in Tyledesley parish of Leith, Lancanshire or Lancaster, England. She also said that 'Darrow' came from the Irish 'Dar' for tree and 'Ragh-rah-row-sough-rell' for Oak and thus 'oaktree'. The Irish dirivatives also are used by some to indicate that there was a Persian influence on the Irish because 'Dar' is also a Persian word for 'tree'.
13,14 Note by Dean Hagen - Throughout the various histories, George Darrow, was listed as Sergeant George Darrow. I have never found out where this title comes from. Source #67 states that George Darrow was a Sgt. in the English Army prior to coming to America. I believe that information came from Source 68. I do not have much confidence in Source 68. Henry A. Darrow in Source 66 states that George Darrow was pressed into service aboard a British man-of-war as a young man. However, I have no solid confirmation of this statement.
In the report from GenServ - dayter1 -- He states that Sgt. George Darrow's father was named George Darrow and his mother was Unkown Mather.
When I questioned dayter1 about this he stated that research on the Darrow family was done by his deceased grandmother and that much of the source material had been lost. He is attempting to find the source for this information and other information in the report.
15,16 History on Darrow Name and research data on George Darrow.
Thank you for sending that information about the DARROW's. I have
been talking with Andrew Brown and Linda Reuter and have most of what
they have. I have nothing new except some updated data from Linda and
my line of the Darrows, which is called by everyone as the New Jersey
line. This is from where I descend and have the most up-to-date
information on that. I am also talking with a few other people who
are descendents of Christopher and Elizabeth's sons Ebenezer and
Jedediah. I will let you know what I find out.
As I mentioned, I am trying to see what I can find while I am here in
Manchester, England, in the way of the Darrow line. It is quite
difficult as it was so long ago and the sources are quite scarce. I am
perticularly interested in what you copied from those other sources -
particularly the "History of Reedsburg and the upper Baraboo valley".
This might be able to point me in a direction here. If you know of
anything else which might help me, please forward it along and I will
email you any results I find. I can tell you these few things right
now: (1) Andrew Brown's source you mentioned, "Mary Smith also felt
that George Darrow Sr. was born in Tyledesley parish of Leith,
Lancanshire or Lancaster, England". In this sentence, it is Leigh,
and not Leith. It is also Lancashire and not Lancaster or whatever
else. Leigh was found in the county of Lancashire before the 1974
reorganizations of counties which occured here in Britain. After this
reorganization, Leigh is now found in the county of Greater Manchester
- the same one I live in. I have taken a bus there and found the city
quite nice, but has no sources to help us. I have been directed to
the British Library in London to find a few things.
(2) I can find no reference to any Darrow's who live in the entire
area. I have found Darwell's, but they seem no relation and cannot
tie them in at all.
I have FamilyTree Maker 3.02, so I am going to try to export my Darrow
line to you by attached email in GEDCOM format. I have never done
this before, so please let me know how it turns out. I am going to
try it in two different ways. Let me know what turns out in each.
For the file named darrow1.ged', I selected only the Darrow people
from a created report. It is in GEDCOM format. For the file named
darrow2.ftw', I selected all the Darrow people from an outline. This
is in FTM format, version 3.02 in case you are able to read it. I am
not sure this will give you all the good information. If things
don't work out well, I can just send you my whole FTM file in GEDCOM
format and you can pick out what you are interested in and discard the
rest. This is not a perfect file and I am going to wait for a little
while for my mother to fix the typographical errors in it (she is in
the process) and then I can forward a better version to you. My Mom
and I have this nice little system worked out on genealogy - I
research and find the information; she interpretes it and enters it
into the computer. So, please let me know how everything turns out
after you read it.
One more thing, Linda Reuter has just found a whole bunch more
information on the Darrow's from someone in Idaho and is in the
process of going through it. I don't know yet where it all fits in,
but she will pass it along when she gets through it. She is also able
to be reached by email now. Her address is:
[email protected] if you
would like to write her.
I look forward to hearing from you very soon.
Cheers, Mark Wooton
[email protected].
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