Holbrook line: John Whitmore 1590ish -1648

I've been writing about several John Whittemores in this blog, and here is another one.  Fortunately, he is easily distinguishable from the rest because he went to Connecticut, and because he spelled his name differently.  It seems that his family did come from the Whittemores of Hitchin, , Hertfordshore, England, but that his parents, Thomas and Mary Meade Whittemore (or Whitmore) had moved to Staffordshire.  We don't know why his parents moved, but there was a good deal of industry there and perhaps that influenced their decision.

I've not found a definite date of birth for John, but he was likely born in the 1580's to about 1590.  We don't know what John did in his home town of Newcastle-Under-Lyme, but he must have had a trade of some sort.  Perhaps he worked in a local industry, or perhaps he was a tenant farmer.  Sometime about 1611, he married an unknown wife, who was the mother of his five children and who is believed to have died in England.  We don't have firm birth dates for his children, so it's hard to know if we have the right man or not, but there was a John Whitmore who married Margerie Periam in 1617. 

John and his family were in Wethersfield, Connecticut prior to 1639, because he sold land there in 1639.  He seems to have followed a pastor (Cambridge-educated, so likely a Puritan) from Wethersfield to Stamford.  One source says he was in the colony by 1633 but I am not sure I'm convinced of that.  His name is not included in The Great Migration series.  

"By 1641", John married Hanna or Johanna Kerrich Jessup, who was a widow with six children of her own.   Some of their children were old enough to be on their own, but not all of them were.  

In Stamford, John was a freeman, a selectman, and a deputy, although we aren't sure which court he would have been a deputy to.  His name is not on the first list of men who received home lots, but he was in Stamford within months of the founding, and took part in the town government.  Because the immigrants from Wethersfield followed Reverend Richard Denton over some church controversy, we can believe that he attended church regularly.  

John Whitmore came to a sad end, and this is why we need to remember him.  He had gone out to check on his cattle on the commons, and was attacked and murdered by one or more native Americans.  There are various theories as to who committed the murder, but by the time his body was located, roughly three months later, it was difficult to determine the facts or do any real detective work.  It is easy to feel the fear that his family must have felt for those three months, not knowing what had happened to him but knowing he was not at home where he should have been.  The best guess that I could find was that the killing was random, by a native, not local, who had come to the area specifically to kill a white man.  

We are fortunate to have John's inventory, which was quite extensive for the time.  A Bible and two testaments were listed twice, which may or may not be an error.  I didn't see any mention of guns or ammunition, but it is possible that those were in his possession, and subsequently stolen, when he was killed.  He had a good number of farm animals, valued at more than 80 pounds, whereas his house and land were valued at just 50 pounds.  

In reflecting on John's life, or rather death, it brings home to me how lightly we throw around the words "lived on the frontier in dangerous times".  The people who lost their lives left behind grieving families who had to go on with the business of living, on the frontier in dangerous times.  Johanna lived until at least 1652 under these circumstances.  The courage of the survivors is amazing.

The line of descent is

John Whitmore-first wife

Ann Whitmore-Samuel Allen

Sarah Allen-Josiah Standish

Josiah Standish-Sarah possibly Cary

Hannah Standish-Nathan Foster

Nathan Foster-Elizabeth Lansford

Jude Foster-Lydia M

Betsy Foster-Josiah Whittemore (probably very distant cousins)

Mary Elizabeth Whittemore-Joseph Holbrook

Fremont Holbrook-Phoebe Brown

Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard

Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen

Their descendants