Sackett Database
Thomas Sackett
(Abt 1530-1595)
Joane [--?--]
(-Bef 1593)
Thomas Sackett
(1557-1615)
Martha Strowde
(-Bef 1631)
Simon Sackett
(1595-Between 1635)

 

Family Links

Spouses/Children:
1. Elizabeth Boyman

2. Isabel Pearce

Simon Sackett

  • Born: 1595, Saint Peters, Kent, England, UK
  • Baptized: 23 Nov 1595, Saint Peter the Apostle, Thanet, Kent, England, UK 1
  • Marriage (1): Elizabeth Boyman on 2 Nov 1618 in Saint Peter the Apostle, Thanet, Kent, England, UK
  • Marriage (2): Isabel Pearce on 6 Aug 1627 in St. John, Margate, Kent, England, UK
  • Died: Between 5 and 10 Oct 1635, Newtown (Cambridge), Middlesex Co., MA 2

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bullet  General Notes:

1. SIMON SACKETT (THOMAS2, THOMAS1) He married (2) ISABEL PEARCE 6 Aug 1627 in St. John the Baptist, Margate (Source: Sackett, Marion: Church records, Marriages.).
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Admon: 3 Nov 1635, Administration of Simon's estate granted by the General
Court to his widow, Isabel. (Sources: (1) Paige, Lucius: History of Cambridge, Mass, p651., (2) Anderson, Robert: Great Migration, p1615.)
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Emigration 1: Bet. 1628 - 1632, From Thanet, Kent, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass. (Source: Consensus view based on available data.)
Emigration 2: 1 Dec 1630, From Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng., via Bristol, to Boston, Mass. (Source: Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America, p12, [Note: Weygant's conclusion that Simon's origin was Ely, Cambs. is now known to have been mistaken.].)
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Different dates given for Simon's Immigration to America:
(1) 5 Feb 1630/31, Boston, Mass. (Source: Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America, p12.)
(2) Bet. 1628 - 1629 (Source: Riker, James: Annals of Newtown, NY, p344, "Among the early puritan emigrants to New England, was Mr. Simon Sackett, who, about the year 1628 or '29, came from the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Eng., and located at Cambridge, Mass., where he d. in 1635."See Appendix Riker.)
(3) 1632 (Source: Savage, James: New England Dictionary, p2, "Simon, Cambridge 1632, came with w. Isabel, and, prob. both s. Simon and John, all, perhaps, in the Lion, that brot. in Sept. of that yr. sev. sett. of C."See Appendix Savage..)
(4) 1632 (Source: Anderson, Robert: Great Migration, p1615, Anderson quotes 1632 as the date of Simon's migration but gives no source. He may have based this on the assumed date of the earliest record in Cambridge, Mass [Cambridge Town Records]: ""Symon Sackett" appears in an undated list, but probably from 1632, which includes the earliest settlers of Cambridge [CaTR 2]."See Appendix Anderson.See Appendix Cambridge Town Records.)
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Property granted to Simon:
(1). 5 Aug 1633, Granted half acre for cowyard in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p5, "Lotts Granted for Cowyardes. [listed among others] Symo Sakt 1/2 akr.")
(2). 20 Aug 1635, Granted share of meadow in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p12-13.)
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More About ISABEL PEARCE:
Property:
(1). 10 Oct 1635, "[ ] Sackett" [i.e. Isabel] listed as holding a house & lands in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Proprietors' Records, p33, See Appendix Cambridge Proprietors' Records.)
(2). 8 Feb 1635/36, "Widdow Sackett" listed as having a house in Cambridge (Source: Cambridge Town Records, p16-18.)
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Notes for Simon Sackett:
[by Chris Sackett]

Despite a short life - he had probably not reached forty when he died in 1635 - Simon Sackett, the colonist, enjoys a pivotal position in the history of the Sacketts, being regarded as the progenitor of a major part of the American branch of the family.

Early migrants from England to the New World had various motivations for undertaking the hazardous journey and for facing a new life in a virtually unknown country. Many fled religious persecution, but others removed in hopes of a better, more prosperous future. England had entered on a half-century of chronic trade depression. Propagandists for the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been founded in 1629, were active in the recruitment of settlers. And there was the promise of boundless fertile lands. Some were escapees from threatening plague or famine. Survival in the new land would depend crucially upon the application of essential practical skills; thus, many were farmers or were engaged in allied trades. Well-placed migrants took with them their servants and these, too, were to become founding fathers of America.

Simon's reasons for embarking on his American adventure are not known. Nor do we know his occupation. Given the documentation of the time, it would seem likely that, had Simon emigrated for reasons of religious conviction, there would remain recorded evidence of the fact. But it is dangerous to speculate as to his reasons; it is to be hoped that further information will come to light. It is worth, however, considering Simon's family circumstances at the time.

Simon Sackett was born, probably in November 1595 [he was baptised on 23 November 1595], in the small rural parish of St Peter in the Isle of Thanet on the north-east coast of Kent. He was the sixth of nine children, and third of five sons, born to Thomas Sackett and his wife, Martha [nee Strowde]. Simon's father, Thomas, who had died when Simon was 20, was a yeoman farmer in Birchington, a parish some five miles west of St Peter. Thomas had evidently established a farm at Birchington some time after the birth of his youngest child, Elizabeth, in 1604.

The description of Thomas, in his Will made in 1615, as a 'yeoman' implies that he owned at least some of his land. However, the term does not necessarily imply significant wealth and it is clear from his Will that his house and land at St Peter's were mortgaged and that his house and land at Birchington were rented. His Will directed that the St Peter's property be sold to pay his debts and legacies. Thomas had inherited lands and a tenement at St Peter's from his father, also Thomas. Thomas the elder, although possessed of property, described himself in his Will as a 'labourer'; again, that Will does not suggest significant wealth.

Simon was about 35 years old when he made his fateful decision to emigrate. Two of his brothers had died, older brother Thomas some eleven years earlier, and younger brother William about fifteen years earlier. Although there is no direct confirmatory evidence, it is possible that they were victims of plague or other epidemic which occurred frequently in Birchington in the early part of the 17th century [see Appendix Quested, p47-8]. His eldest brother John and youngest brother Henry survived and, although it had not been specified in their father's Will, it would seem possible that John continued to farm the family lands in Birchington.

Simon had by then been married twice; first in 1618 to Elizabeth Boyman, and following her death in 1625/26, secondly to Isabel Pearce in 1627. Elizabeth had borne him three daughters, Christianna in 1620, Elizabeth in 1623, and Martha in 1625. Of these, only Christianna is known to have survived to adulthood, marrying Thomas Tanner in 1641. No death or burial records for Elizabeth or Martha have been found but it is a reasonable hypothesis that they died in infancy or childhood, perhaps the victims of a plague. In any event, when he emigrated, Simon left at least one young, motherless, daughter behind, presumably in the care of one of his brothers or sisters.

Although Weygant gives specific details of the dates and method of Simon's journey to Boston, Mass., on the ship Lyon from Bristol on England's west coast, it has not yet proved possible to verify from primary sources that he was a passenger on this particular voyage. Weygant's version is probable but is known to be inaccurate in the important particular of Simon's origin, Weygant stating this to be the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire instead of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Other writers have proposed various dates for Simon's migration [Riker, "about the year 1628 or '29"; Savage and Anderson, 1632]. The earlier dates would seem less likely as there were relatively few settlers before the sailing of the Winthrop fleet of eleven ships in 1630. If Simon was indeed on this Lyon voyage then he would certainly have met John Winthrop as the latter boarded the ship on 8 February as it rode at anchor off Long Island.

Weygant records Simon as being engaged, with others, in building dwellings in Newtown, Mass., in 1631 but, again, we have been unable to confirm this date. The first record of Simon found in Newtown (Cambridge) is in the undated list (almost certainly of 1632) in the Cambridge Town Records.

Weygant relates the 'family tradition' as told to him by his father-in-law, Samuel Bailey Sackett, that Simon with his brother, John, travelled on the Lyon in company with Roger Williams. The existence of this brother has since been challenged (by Anderson) and our further researches have revealed that Weygant's primary evidence in support of the family tradition, that John Sackett, Simon's alleged brother, filed an inventory of his own son's estate (in 1684) was mistaken. With the removal of Simon's brother, John, the question is opened of the relationship between Simon and John of New Haven (claimed by Weygant to have been the son of Simon's brother) - and, indeed, the migration of this John Sackett.

References:
Appendices:
Anderson, Robert: Great Migration
Cambridge Proprietors' Records
Cambridge Town Records
Collingwood, Deryck: Thomas Hooker
Cutter, William: Family History of Connecticut
Lyon
Paige, Lucius: History of Cambridge, Mass
Quested, R K I: Thanet Farming Community
Riker, James: Annals of Newtown, NY
Savage, James: New England Dictionary
Weygant, Charles: Family Record 1897
Weygant, Charles: Sackett Colonists
Weygant, Charles: Sacketts of America
Winthrop Journal.1
Winthrop Journal.2
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Baptism Record. St Peter the Apostle, Thanet.
"23 Nov 1595 bap Symon s. Thomas SACKETT."
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Charles Weygant's account of Simon's migration is as follows:

pp3-4
"About ten years after the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Simon and John Sackett, brothers, came from England to Massachusetts, in company with Roger Williams. John Sackett followed Mr. Williams to Rhode Island and finally settled at New Haven, becoming the founder of the New Haven branch of the family. Simon Sackett remained in Massachusetts, was one of the founders of the City of Cambridge, and is the progenitor of the Massachusetts and Long Island, N.Y., branches."

pp12-13
"On December 1, 1630 the ship Lyon, laden with provisions consigned to colonists who had the preceding year accompanied or followed Lord John Winthrop to New England, sailed from the seaport city of Bristol. The passenger list of the Lyon on this particular voyage contained 26 names, a little band of well-to-do Puritan colonists who had voluntarily left comfortable homes in the land of their birth, where liberty to worship God in accordance with the dictates of conscience was by law denied them, and seeking new places of abode, with such fortune as might await them on the rugged shores and in the primeval forests of the New World. Among the heads of families of this pioneer band were Roger Williams, Simon Sackett, John Sackett, John Throkmorton and Nicholas Bailey. The family of Simon Sackett included his wife Isabel, and their infant son, Simon Sackett Jr.

"This mid-winter voyage of the ship Lyon was unusually severe. She did not reach Nantasket roads, off Boston town, the port of her destination until February 5, 1631. About a month previous to her arrival, Governor Winthrop, Deputy Governor Dudley, and the "Assistants," to whom, and their successors, King Charles had committed the charter government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, had formally selected, a few miles from Boston, on the Charles river, a site for a new town, which it was their avowed purpose to fortify and make the permanent seat of government. It was understood and agreed that the Governor, Deputy Governor, and six of the eight assistants, should each erect on the site selected a permanent house, suitable for the accommodation of his family, in time to spend the following winter there. But shortly thereafter several of the assistants became deeply interested in private business projects at Boston and other settlements and neglected to carry out their part of the agreement. The undertaking was not, however, abandoned or long delayed, for in the spring of 1631, Winthrop, Dudley and Bradstreet together with six other "principal gentlemen", including Simon Sackett, "commenced the execution of the plan" by erecting substantial dwellings. The house built and occupied by Simon Sackett and his family stood on the north side of what is now Winthrop Street, in the centre of the block, between Brighton and Dunster Streets.

"From the commencement of the settlement records were made of the "agreements of its inhabitants" touching matters of mutual interest, as well as of the public acts of town officials - all of which have been preserved to the present day. Wood, in his "New England's Prospects", written in the latter part of 1633, gives the following description of the place, which at that time was called Newtown, but three years later was re-christened Cambridge:

""This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns in New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The inhabitants, most of them, are very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many hundred acres of land poled in with general fence, which is about a mile and a half long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts."

"Newtown did not, however, become the permanent seat of government of Massachusetts Bay Colony, but it did become, is to-day, and will undoubtedly long remain the seat of America's most famous university.

"In the founding and laying out of this embryo "city in the wilderness", Simon Sackett was a potent factor, but the exposure and privations of his mid-winter voyage on the ship Lyon had undermined his health, which continued to decline until October 1635, when he died. On the third day of November following, widow Isabel Sackett was granted, by the court, authority to administer on his estate. At same session of court, the memorable decree was entered which banished Roger Williams from the colony. Mrs. Williams had come to Newtown with her husband on that occasion, "he being in feeble health", and it is altogether probable they were entertained at the home of their bereaved friend and fellow passenger on their voyage from England, whose dwelling was convenient to the public building where the court was held.

"Widow Sackett's name appears on the Newtown records for the last time under date of February 8, 1636. In June of that year the Rev. Hooker's congregation, having either sold or leased their dwellings, removed to Connecticut - widow Sackett and her boys forming part of the migrating company. Dr. Trumble gives the following account of their journey:

""About the beginning of June 1636, Mr Hooker and about 100 men, women and children took their departure from Newtown and traveled more than a hundred miles through a hideous wilderness to Hartford. They made their journey over mountains, through swamps, thickets and rivers, which were not passable but with great difficulty. They had no cover but the heavens, nor any lodgings but those that simple nature offered them. They drove with them 160 head of cattle and carried their packs and some utensils. This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of the company were persons of figure, who had lived in England in honor, affluence and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger."

"After Mr. Hooker's migrating company had become established at Hartford, widow Isabel Sackett became the second wife of William Bloomfield."

================ End of Notes by Chris Sackett ===============


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Simon married Elizabeth Boyman on 2 Nov 1618 in Saint Peter the Apostle, Thanet, Kent, England, UK. (Elizabeth Boyman died in Feb 1625-Feb 1626 and was buried on 27 Feb 1625-27 Feb 1626 in St. John The Baptist, Margate, Kent, England, UK 3.)


bullet  Marriage Notes:

Marriage Record. St John the Baptist, Margate.
"6 Aug 1627 Matrimonius est solemnizatum inter Simone SACKET et Isabella PEARCE."

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Simon next married Isabel Pearce on 6 Aug 1627 in St. John, Margate, Kent, England, UK. (Isabel Pearce was born in England and died after 1 Apr 1682 in Newtowne, Long Island, Queens Co., NY.)


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Sources


1 Sackett, Marion, Church Records, Baptisms.

2 Anderson, Robert: The Great Migration Begins, [TAG 63:179].

3 Sackett, Marion, Church Records, Burials.


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