Holbrook line: George Langton, Immigrant

George Langton (also spelled Langdon, and perhaps Landon and Lanckton) is a Holbrook ancestor twice, since we descend through two of his daughters.  It would be nice to know more about his story, but so far we have been told by one secondary source or another that he was from Cornwall, or Herefordshire, or was a French Huguenot.  If Landon and his family was French, and if they were Huguenots, his parents were likely not Jaques and Mademoiselle Le Duc, as their birth dates were too early to make it possible for them to be George's parents.  Since we don't know for sure when George was born, that makes it harder yet to identify his parents.  I've seen birth dates of from about 1598 to about 1605.  DNA results reported on George's Wiki Tree page seem to show that he most likely came from the area around Langton by Malton, Yorkshire, England.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that records survive from our period of interest.  

We don't know much of anything about George until, at the age of somewhere between 30 and 40, he is found in Wethersfield, Connecticut about 1636.  He is believed to have married in England, about 1629, a woman named Sarah, and four children were born to them in England, with possibly others born in Wethersfield.  Sarah died in Wethersfield and George and family moved on to Springfield, Massachusetts Bay Colony, where George married Hannah Lambe, the widow of Edmund Haynes.  George and Hannah had one child, Esther or Hester. 

In Springfield, George was a town officer for at least one term.  He and Hannah both testified in a witchcraft trial against Hugh Parsons, in 1652, and sometime between 1653 and 1656 moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where he spent the remainder of his life.  (Hugh and his wife Mary were each found guilty of witchcraft.  Mary is believed to have died in prison, before she could be executed.  Hugh's sentence was rescinded and we don't know what became of him, but likely he didn't stay around Springfield, either.) 

He may have been a master carpenter who helped build the Springfield church.  He contributed several acres for the upkeep of a pastor in Northampton, and also two bushels of wheat for Harvard College, so he also grew crops, as did most of the families in these small villages.  George died December 29, 1676.  He was certainly old enough to have died a natural death, but this was also the time of King Philip's war.  It is possible that the stress of that conflict led to an early death. (He is not listed as having been buried at the Old Burying Ground, so perhaps death occurred elsewhere, with a family member.) 

Life was never easy for our immigrant ancestors. 

One line of descent is:

George Langton-Sarah
Hannah Langton-William Pritchard
Esther Pritchard-John Hanchett
John Hanchett-Lydia Hayward
Hannah Hanchett-John Stannard
Libbeus Stannard-Eunice Pomeroy
Libbeus Stannard-Luceba Fay
Hiram Stanard-Susan Eddy
Louis Stanard-Mary Alice Hetrick
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants

The second line is

George Langton-Sarah
Deliverance Langton-Thomas Hanchett
John Hanchett-Esther Pritchard      

So yes, John Hanchett and Esther Pritchard were first cousins.  It wasn't unusual in small villages on the frontier.