Holbrook line: William Filley, Immigrant

William Filley's birth date and location, and death date and location, are unknown.  We can make some reasonable guesses, that he may have been born in about 1617, probably somewhere in Devonshire since that seems to be the only place where this surname is found, and he probably died in Windsor, Connecticut because he lived there for the great majority of his life in America.  I have seen documents, which I can't decipher, which others have said give his parents as "Godfridus Bailey and Mary Filley Harris, but I am not at all convinced that this is our William.  The location is wrong, for one thing, and for another, this would make William "illegitimate".  I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm just saying that at this point, I'm not buying the story.

There are also varying stories as to when he arrived in America.  One story says he arrived with Major Holmes in 1633, when a trading post was established at what became Windsor, and testimony in 1654 states that William had lived at Windsor "these twenty years".  Most say he arrived in 1638 with the group led by Reverend Ephraim Huit or Hewett. I don't know whether the two stories are mutually exclusive, or whether William might have come early and then returned to England, before coming for the final time in 1639, If he was with the early group, then he may have been there for the Pequod War, whether or not he returned to England.  (If he came with Rev. Huit's group, he apparently was not as much of a Puritan as the majority of those sailing were, since he didn't formally join the church until 1673.)

Pretty much everyone agrees that he was in Windsor by 1640, and that he married Margaret there in 1642.  One might reasonably ask whom this Margaret was, but the silence in the records so far is complete.  Nevertheless, we do know more about William Filley once he is married and settled down.  He and Margaret had at least nine children: Samuel, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, Margaret, Abigail, Deborah, and William, born between 1643 and 1665.  William acquired various tracts of land, "trading up", and in 1686 he and Margaret were shown to have had a house with six acres, another tract of 18 acres of farmland, a horse, two oxen, and one swine.  This showed a relatively prosperous household for this time and place. 

As far as his civic duties go, he was a constable for one term beginning in 1662, responsible for enforcement of the local laws and ordinances.  It is likely that his name appears on town petitions but I haven't found them yet.  We don't know when William, or for that matatere, Margaret, died, although it must have been after they were listed in the 1686 record mentioned above.  Their children stayed mostly in the Windsor area for generations, and we may very well still have cousins there. 

Every generation has been part of what makes America great, but he was one of the very earliest pioneers.  My hat is off to him, and to Margaret!

Here's our line of descent:

William Filley-Margaret
Elizabeth Filley-David Winchell
Elizabeth Winchell-John Trumbull
Hannah Trumbull-Medad Pomeroy
Medad Pomeroy-Eunice Southwell
Eunice Pomeroy-Libbeus Stanard
Libbeus Stanard-Luceba Fay
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants