Holbrook line: Deacon John Hanchett 1649-1744

Proprietor. Selectman.  Deacon. Sergeant.  These are just a few of the labels that can be applied to our ancestor John Hanchett.  He was respected in his town and was probably an educated man, based on the fact that he was a selectman for many years, a deacon in the church, and was active in supporting the school, finding a pastor, processioning boundaries, and fulfilling other civic duties.  His inventory lists only two books, his Great Bible and his book of Psalms, but the man was 95 years old.  It's possible that his eyesight had failed and other books were given away.  (There was, however, no mention of spectacles in the inventory).

John Hanchett was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut on September 1, 1649, to Thomas and Deliverance Langton Hanchett.   He moved often as a child and youth, as his father moved to New London in 1651, to Northampton, Massachusetts by 1660, to Westfield, Massachusetts and then finally to Suffield in 1671.  Perhaps his father had a trade that was needed as new towns were formed.  John married Ester Pritchard (Prittchet in some records) on September 6, 1677.  She was from Westfield and records of the marriage are in both Westfield and Suffield records, so I'm not sure which town had the honor.  

(I find it interesting that we have these Holbrook ancestors in Westfield, at the same time that we had many Allen ancestors there. Our ancestors were neighbors but never could have foreseen that in 280 years, their descendants would find each other and marry!)  

John and Esther had 9 children together, in their roughly 34 years of marriage.  John apparently liked married life because he married three more times during his life, to Mrs. Mary Harmon, then to Mrs. Sarah Tayler, and finally to Mrs. Mary Southwell, who survived him.  He had step children but I've not determined how many, or whether he helped raise any of them.  

Other than the references to "sergeant" Hanchett, I've been unable to find anything that shows that John was a soldier in King Philip's War.  However, Westfield was a source of soldiers for the war, and John was living there then.  If he didn't leave the area to fight, he would have been guarding the town, unless he left the area during this time, which doesn't seem likely but is possible.  

His inventory doesn't give us much idea of what he had been doing as far as occupation, but his will gives all his land and commons rights, including his "now house" to son John, excepting only what his wife needs during her widowhood.  So it's not an easy matter to figure his estate value, but selectmen were generally at least comfortable in their finances so we can assume that was true in this case, until additional information comes to light.  

I look forward to learning more about this man, but I'm delighted to have this much information.  He is another example of a good man who helped build this country.

The line of descent is:

John Hanchett-Ester Pritchard

John Hanchett-Lydia Hayward

Hannah Hanchett-John Stannard

Libbeus Stannard-Eunice Pomeroy

Libbeus Stanard-Luceba Fay

Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy

Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick

Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants