Allen line: John Church 1636-1691

Well, John's birth date is not known for certain, but I'm going with "about May 9, 1636."  The date is sort of important, as is the place, because it's possible that he was the first babe born in Hartford, Connecticut.  His father, Richard Church, is listed as one of the founders of Hartford, and by implication, his mother, Ann probably Marsh, would have been a founding mother.  We find Richard's name attached to lot 35 on the Hartford map of 1640, meaning that he was there early.  So probably John was born either in Hartford or on the trip there.  John was one of at least four children, and he was the youngest of them.

We don't know much about John's childhood but we know he must have attended the First Church there in Hartford, and he would have learned to read and probably write, whether that was at home or in a school setting.  The first record I've found for him was of his marriage on October 27, 1657, when he was just 21, to Sarah Beckley, the daughter of Richard and Ann Daniel Beckley.  Then there is a bit of a mystery.  The couple had ten children, but there doesn't seem to be a record of their births.  There has been a suggestion that perhaps the young couple went to Hadley, Massachusetts Bay Colony for a few years, but records are not found there, either.

We know they were in Hartford by 1670, if indeed they had ever left.  There is a long and complicated church history, but what eventually happened was that a second church was started in Hartford.  Apparently this second church had less stringent rules for membership, because John was able to state that he "owned the covenant", which was usually a precursor to church membership, and also to having your children baptized.  Sometimes this was called the "Halfway Covenant".  So John attended church (every resident in Hartford was expected to attend regular church services) and agreed with church beliefs, but apparently didn't follow all the steps necessary for full church membership.  Sarah was admitted to full membership on June 23, 1678.

John was willed his father's house in Hartford, and also his lands within the bounds of Hartford, which may be one reason they either came back or stayed in Hartford.  This is essentially what I know of John, up until his death.  I don't know his occupation, or to what extent he may have served in the militia, particularly in King Philip's war.  I don't know what town offices he may have held.  And I don't know how he died.  The reason this is of interest to me is that he died October 16, 1691 in Wethersfield, and Sarah is reported to have died just 11 days later.  They were 55 and 51 years old, respectfully, and John died without a will.  This leads me to suspect it was some kind of an illness, perhaps a flu or respiratory disease, that killed them.  That is purely speculation on my part, but clearly something was going on.

His children soon approached the court and asked for guidance as to how to dispose of the estate.  An inventory was taken, establishing the value at about 510 pounds, and it was then divided up between the 10 children, with each child receiving 20 pounds (could possibly be 28, I'm not sure), or goods worth that amount, except for son Richard, who received 40 pounds.  I don't know whether or not John was considered to be financially well off, but his inventory is larger than that of many of our ancestors who died about the same time.  There were two spinning wheels and quite a bit of cloth in the inventory, plus a lot of furniture for the time, especially chests.  There was also 'gunn, sworde, and ammunition", several pieces of real estate, and some farm tools.  I didn't follow what became of the real estate, but it seems that it may have been dealt with separately.

So we know some things about John, and some we don't know.  Yet, there is he in our family lineage, and without him, there would not have been us.

The line of descent is

John Church-Sarah Beckley
Richard Church-Elizabeth Noble
Jonathan Church-Ruth Hitchcock
Ruth Church-Stephen Noble
Ruth Noble-Martin Root
Ruth Root-Samuel Falley
Clarissa Falley-John Havens Starr
Harriet Starr-John Wilson Knott
Edith Knott-Edward Allen
Richard Allen-Gladys Holbrook
Their descendants