2713.Rev. Thomas Hooker. Born ca 1586 in England.16 Thomas died in Hartford, CT on 7 Jul 1647.25 Buried in Old North Cemetery, Hartford. Occupation: Pastor, First Church, Hartford. Education: Cambridge 1608 BA, 1611 MA.
Thomas “was bred at Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he took his degree 1608, and 11, and was chosen one of the Fellows, first exercised his faculties as a lecturer, when 40 yrs. old, at Chelmsford, in Essex; but after four years his unflinching aversion to some ceremony compelled him to withdraw from the pulpit, and he opened a school at Little Baddow, about 5 miles from Chelmsford where famous John Eliot was his assistant; but being still troubled for his puritanism, he went within two years over to Holland, served in the gospel two years at Delft, and went thence to assist William Ames at Rotterdam, thinking however to come over to us. One of our earliest settlers George Alcock had married his sister and of course he felt the attraction. Privately he got passage in the Griffin, with Rev. Samuel Stone, and our great John Cotton, arrived at Boston 3 Sept. 1633, next month sett. at Cambridge, freeman 14 May 1634, and in June 1636 went to Hartford with a majority of parishioners, d. 7 July 1647, in his 61st year though in the verses, when Mather at the end of his Life, III. 68, transcribes from Elijah Corlet, the glorious school-master, he is made 75, a preposterous exaggeration that must have delighted the author of the Magn. Stranger confusion of time is seen in an article of Geneal. Reg. VI. 281, making Eliot, the apostle, follow Hooker to our wilderness, when he preceded him by near two years.
“The valuation of his estate was large; of his library, honorable. Both will and inventory are printed in Trumbull, Coll. Rec. I. 498-502. A clause of the testament though it did not forbid his eldest son from seeking and taking a wife in England did forbid from marrying and ‘tarrying there.’ John not only did marry and live in England, but worse than that, in the opinion of his father’s friends, became a parish priest, after the Restoration, at Marsworth, Co. Bucks, a short distance from Aylesbury.”25
Check out Thomas Hooker, 1586-1647, Father of American Democracy, by Deryck Collingwood, 1995.
Will: According to "A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records (Hartford District, 1635-1700)" edited by Charles W. Manwaring, 1902:
Hooker, Thomas, Hartford. Invt. L1136-15-00. Taken 21st April, 1644, by Nathaniel Ward & Edward Stebbing. Will dated 7 July, 1647. I, Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, uppon Connecticutt, in New England, being weakened in my body through the tender visitation of the Lord, but of sound & prfect memory, doe dispose of that outward estate I have been betrusted withall by him, in maner following: I doe give unto my sonne Jno. Hooker, my housing and Lands in Hartford aforesaid, both that wch is on the west and also that wch is on the east syde of ye River, to be injoyed by him and his heires for ever, after the death of my wife Susannah Hooker, provided he be then att. the age of one & twenty yeares. It being my will that my sayd deare wiefe shall injoy and possess my sayd Howsing & Lande during her naturall life, and yf she dy before my sonne Jno come to the aforsaid age of one & twenty yeares, that the same bee improved by the overseers of this my will for the maintenence and education of my children not (_____) disposed of, according to their best discretion, I doe also give unto my sonne Jno my Library of printed books and manuscripts, under the limittations and provisoes hereafter expressed. It is my will that my sonne Jno. deliver to my sonne Samuel Soe many of my books as shall be valued by the overseers of this my will to be worth fifty pounds sterling, of that he pay him the summe of fifty pounds Sterling to buy such books as may be useful to him in thee way of his studdyes, att such tyme as the overseers of this my will shall Judge meett. But if my sonne Jno. doe not goe on to the prfecting of his Studdyes, or shall not give up himselfe to the service of the Lord in the worke of the ministry, my will is that my Sonne Samuel enjoy and possesse the whole Library and manuscripts to his proper use forever; onely, it is my will that whatever manuscripts shall be Judged meett to be printed, the disposall thereof and advantage that may come thereby I leave wholy to my executrix; and in the case she depart this life before the same be Judged of and Settled, then to my overseers to be improved by them in their best discretion, for the good of myne, according to the trust reposed in them. And however I doe not forbid my sonne Jno from seeking and takeing a wife in England, yett I doe forbid him from marrying and tarying there. I doe give unto my sonne Samuel, in case the whole Library come not to him, as is before expressed, the summe of Seventy pounds, to be payd unto him by my Executrix att such tyme and in such maner as shall be judged meetest by the overseers of my will. I doe also give unto my daughter Sarah Hooker, the summe of one hundred pounds Sterling, to be payd unto her by my Executrix when she shall marry of come to the age of one and twenty years, wch shall first happen; the disposall and further education of her and the rest, I leave to my wife, advising them to attend her counsell in the feare of the Lord. I doe give unto the two children of my daughter Joanna Sheperd, deceased, and the child of my daughter Mary Newton, to each of them the summe of tenn pounds, to payd unto them by my son John within one year after he shall come to the possession and injoyment of my Houseing & Lands in Hartford, or my Som Samuell, if by the decease of Jno he come to injoy the same. I doe make my beloved wiefe Susannah Hooker, Executrix of this my Lat will and Testament, and (my just debts being payd) doe give and bequeath unto her all my estate and goodes, moveable and immoveable, not formerly bequeathed by this my last will. And I desire my beloved friends, Mr. Edward Hopkins and Mr. William Goodwin, to affoard their best assistence to my wife, and doe constitute and appoint them the overseers of this my will. And itt haveing pleased the Lord now to visitt my wife with a sickness, and know not how itt may please his Matie to dispose of her, my mind & will is, that in case she depart this life before she dispose of the estate bequeathed her, my aforesaid beloved friends, Mr. Edward Hopkins and Mr. William Goodwyn, shall take charge both of the education and dispose of my children (to whose love and faithfullness I comend them) and of the estate left & bequeathed to my wiefe, and doe comitt itt to their best judgement and discretion to manage the sayd estate for ye best good of mine, and to bestow itt uppon any or all of them in such a proportion as shall be most suitable to their owne apprehensions. Being willing onely to intimate my desire that they wch deserve best may have most, but nott to Lymett them, but leave them to the full scope and bredth of their owne Judgement; in the dispose whereof, they may have respect of ye forementioned children of my two daughters, if they see meete. It being my full will that what trust I have comitted to my wife, either in matter of estate of such manuscript as shall be judged fitt to be printed, in case she live not to order the same herselfe, be wholly transferred and past over from her to them for ye ende before specifyed. And for mortality sake I doe putt power into the hands of the forementioned Beloved friends to constitute and appoint such other faithfull men as they shall judge meett (in case they be deprived of life or libberty to attend the same in their owne persons), to manage, dispose, and performe the estate and trust comitted to them in as full maner as I have comitted it to them for the smae ende. Thos. Hooker This was declared to be the last will and testament of Mr. Thomas Hooker, the seventh day of July, 1647, in the presence of Henry Smith, Sam. Stone, John White.
On 3 Apr 1621 Thomas married Susanna Garbrand, daughter of Richard Garbrand (ca 1550-23 Jan 1601) & Anna Farrar (ca 1555/1557-13 Oct 1609), in Amersham St Mary, Buckingham. Susanna died in Farmington, CT on 17 May 1676.
2714.Amy Hooker. Born ca 1594. Amy was baptized in Birstall, Leicestershire, on 17 Nov 1594.
2715.Elizabeth Hooker. Born ca 1597. Elizabeth was baptized in Birstall, Leicestershire, 18 Feb 1597/98.
2716.Frances Hooker. Born ca 1602. Frances was baptized in Birstall, Leicestershire, on 23 Jan 1602.
2717.John Hooker. Born ca 1586 in Marefield, Leicestershire.
2718.Dorothy Hooker. Born ca 1589 in Marefield, Tilton, Leicestershire.14 Dorothy died bef 27 May 1662.14 (date of inventory).
On 1 Jun 1609 Dorothy first married John Chester, son of William Chester, in Birstall, Leicestershire.14 John died in Leicester, Leicestershire in Jul 1628. Buried on 30 Jul 1628 in St Margaret’s, Leicester.14
Check out Robert Edmond Chester-Waters’ book Genealogical Notes of the Families of Chester of Blaby, Leicestershire, and Chester of Wehtersfield, Conn., New England, 1886.
2719.William Hooker. William died ca Apr 1616. Buried on 3 Apr 1616 in Birstall, Leicestershire.
2720.Anne Hooker. Born ca 1586 in Marefield, Leicestershire. Anne died 1630/1.16
Bef 1626 Anne married George Alcock, son of [____] Alcock. Born ca 1605.16 George died in Roxbury, MA in Dec 1640. Buried on 30 Dec 1640 in Roxbury, MA.78 Occupation: butcher.
George was admitted freeman 18 May 1631. According to Anderson,16 “ Most secondary sources state that George Alcock was a physician, but no primary source has been found to support this.”