BORN: abt 1593, England or Wales MARRIED 1: abt 1619, England
MARRIED 2: aft 1654, Fairfield, Fairfield Cty, CN DIED: 1664/1665, Fairfield, CN
BURIED:Ancient Cemetery, Fairfield, CN SPOUSE 1:Sarah _____, b abt 1620, England
SPOUSE 2: Susanna (Hollingsworth?) b abt 1605, d aft 1688
FATHER: unknown
MOTHER: unknown
PERSONAL DATA:
During the same year that the Bulkeley family sailed to New England, Deacon John Jones and his family also sailed to Boston, arriving 3 October 1635. The New England careers of these two Reverends were to become inextricably intertwined. John became Minister of the Concord Church, while Peter Bulkeley became the Teacher, two positions required by Boston for new churches. One of Peter's sons married one of Jones' daughters and later moved with Jones when he left Concord for Fairfield, CN.
John was born about 1593, in England or Wales in 1608 and at the age of 15 he matriculated at Queens College, Cambridge. He received his BA in 1612-13, and MA in 1616. He was ordained Deacon at Peterborough in 1613 and became Rector at Abbots Ripton, Huntingdonshire from 1619-1630. In about 1619 he married Sarah, last name unknown and seven years his junior. Their first child, Sarah, was born the next year.
Over the next 15 years they had six surviving children and at least four more who died young, all born in Abbots Ripton. They had their seventh and last child in 1641 in Concord. John was 'deprived' in 1630, meaning that he lost his remuneration and the ability to preach in a Church of England.
John and his family sailed to Boston and joined forces with fellow Reverend Peter Bulkeley. Bulkeley and Jones led an expedition of about 100 families some 15 miles west through the wilderness to establish a new church and settlement in the Musquetaquid area renamed Concord, MA. In 1637 Jones was elected as Minister of the new Concord Church.
But Concord grew slowly and could not support both a Minister and a Teacher. Accordingly, Reverend Jones, with nearly a seventh of the people, led a group from Concord overland to Fairfield, CN in the summer of 1644. Included in the group was his daughter Sarah and her husband Thomas Bulkeley.
The influx of Jones' group of 20 families nearly doubled the population of Fairfield. Reverend Jones was the first Minister the town had been able to attract. The residence of Reverend Jones was just below the Green, and across the street were the Bulkeley lots, as well as the parsonage lot. He died in 1665 and is buried in Fairfield's ancient cemetery.
Jones daughter Sarah, and her husband Thomas Bulkeley had five children. The oldest, also named Sarah married Eleazer Brown of New Haven, CN abt 1662 and moved there. They had seven children and their daughter Elizabeth married Michael Todd abt 1689 in New Haven. It was their daughter Elizabeth who married Isaac Dayton in 1708 and in this fashion entered the Dayton line. Elizabeth and Isaac Dayton are both buried in North Haven where they lived.
REFERENCES:
1. Chapter 13 of the author's book Fathers and Mothers, 2002, 328 pp is about both the Bulkeley and Jones lines and is available from the author at 6695 Terry Court, Arvada, CO 80007 and email: [email protected]
2. For information on the settlement of Concord see website references for Bulkeley. For information on early Uncoway and Fairfield see T J Farnham, 1988, Fairfield, the Biography of a Community, 1639-1989.
3. See D L Jacobus, 1930-32, History and Genealogy of the Families
of Old Fairfield.
4. For more about Jones see W A Beers, 1882, "Rev. John Jones, First Minister of the Old Town of Fairfield, Conn." from a paper available at the Fairfield Historical Society.