The family of Thomas Starr 1615-1658

Last week I wrote about the family of Comfort and Elizabeth (possibly Watt or Watts) Starr.  Comfort is recognized as the immigrant ancestor, head of a family that has grown even more than one would expect, over the ensuing generations.  This week I will continue following our line of Starrs.

Once again, there are some very important missing facts regarding Thomas and his family, particularly the identity of his wife and mother of his children.  Her name was Rachel, and they were supposed to have married about 1638 in Rhode Island.  Her name is often seen as Rachel Harris, but I know of no documentation to back that up.  He is not known to have lived in Rhode Island at all, with his homes at various times being in Duxbury, Scituate, Yarmouth, and finally Charlestown, Massachusetts.  He died on October 26, 1658 at Charlestown, at the early age of 42.  Thomas was a surgeon during the Pequot War and is referred to as "Dr. Starr" so he likely moved from time to time to where his services were most needed.

He did take time out of his schedule to raise a large family with Rachel, as was the custom in this family.  Their children are:

Samuel, born about 1640.  He married Hannah Brewster, granddaughter of William and Mary Brewster of the Mayflower.  Their children were Benjamin, Samuel, Thomas, Comfort, and Jonathan, and I will write more about them in my next blog post.

The next child was another son, Thomas Jr.  He married Ruth Barney and Elizabeth Gilbert.  He married Ruth about 1692 so it is likely that these children belong to Elizabeth, who was the daughter of Thomas and Jane Rossiter Gilbert.  Except, one source indicates that Thomas Gilbert did not have a daughter named Elizabeth, so this whole subject needs more research. Thomas's children were Thomas, Benjamin, Jehosophat, Sarah, and Elizabeth.  Thomas Jr. died in 1704.

Comfort, (undoubtedly named for his grandfather even those these names are not in the order one would expect), was born November 15, 1644 and died October 18, 1693 at Middletown, Connecticut.  He married Marah Weld, daughter of Joseph and Barbara Clapp Weld.  They had 9 known children-Comfort, Joseph, Mary, Hannah, Joseph (again), Benjamin, Rachel, Thomas, and Daniel.  

Their first and, as it turned out, only daughter, Elizabeth was born June 7, 1646. She married John Treadwell (Tredwell), son of Edward and Sarah Howes Treadwell.  They had at least three children-John, Thomas, and Elizabeth.  Elizabeth died March 6, 1681, at the age of 34.  

Son Benjamin was born February 6, 1647/48 and died before April 30, 1676. I have not found a cause of death for him but this was during the time of King Philip's War so it is possible that he died as a result of that conflict.  He had not yet reached the age of thirty.  His wife was Elizabeth Allerton, who was the granddaughter of Isaac Allerton and Fear Brewster.  (Fear was William Brewster's daughter, and Isaac was one of the Mayflower Pilgrims.)  They had one son, Allerton.

Jehosophat Starr was the next born, on January 12, 1649/50.  He is not known to have married, but is credited with three children-Jehoshophat, Elizabeth, and Hannah.  I have found no documentation of his marriage, his children, or his death, which is only noted as after 1671.  More research needs to be done.

Constant was the first of Thomas and Rachel's children to die as a child, but not the last.  He was born in 1652 and died October 5, 1654, in Charlestown.  

William was born next, on March 18, 1654/55, but died December 13, 1659.  The back to back deaths of Constant and William must have been particularly hard, especially since Thomas may have felt that he "should" have been able to save them.  

Josiah Starr, known as "Captain" was born September 1, 1657 and died January 4, 1714/15.  His wife was Rebekah but her maiden name isn't known at this time.  They had at least 8 children together-Benjamin, John, Thomas, Rachel, Josiah, Rebecca, Samuel, and Comfort.  

Their last son was John, born in 1658.  There is very little to be found about him, except that he was alive January 1, 1684/85.  We don't know whether he married, whether he had any children, or anything else about him, for that matter.  There are any number of reasons that someone's death would not have been noted, including being lost at sea, murdered in the back country, kidnapped and taken to Canada, or simply the loss of records wherever he died, but it is sad not to be able to bring his life to an end.

Thomas and Rachel had at least 31 grandchildren, which is not a terribly large number for the time, but it was enough to contribute to keeping the Starr family name going through New England and New York.