Established in 1983

How did the Founders List come to be?

The first Founders List was literally carved in stone when the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims, erected the impressive Founders Monument on the site of the first meeting house on Palisado Green on May 30, 1930, the three-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the Mary and John in the waters off Nantasket. That congregation formed the nucleus of the collection of several groups who settled in Windsor before the end of 1641. That day in 1930 marked the 300th Anniversary of the organization of the First Church in Windsor on the dock in Plymouth just before the Mary and John set sail. Many turned out for the church celebration that day

How accurate is the Founders List?

In their enthusiasm, the organizers of the monument put on the names of many settlers who arrived well after the pioneer years, including Elder John Strong and Sgt. Josias Ellsworth, names that must be recalled in any remembrance of early Windsor families, without specifying just how early. Other names were left off — any who came with the Holmes party from Plymouth in 1633 and many of the servants who came with the Stiles and other families. Virtually all the wives were left off. Another list of early Windsor settlers was apparently developed for the town’s Tercentennial in 1933. That September, the Hartford Times published a list of founders of Windsor which still circulates. That list suffers from the same inclusion of families arriving much later than 1635 and the same exclusions.

In 1983, the Windsor 350th Anniversary arrived. Working on behalf of the Windsor 350 the Anniversary Committee, Stephen Simon and Kent Avery developed a list which included all those in Windsor before1650, the cutoff date based on a map in Stiles’ first volume. To develop their list, they combed the Barbour Collection of Connecticut Vital Records for Windsor and the listing of householders in Stiles’ first volume. That list was published in the 350th Anniversary Committee booklet, The Settlement of Windsor, Connecticut.

When DFAW was organized in the summer of 1983, a Founder was defined as anyone in Windsor by the end of 1640, a cutoff point intended to coincide with the date established by the Society of the Descendants of the Founders of Hartford based on the final land distributions there and by the closing of the Great Migration after the Puritans came to power in England. Additions to the Founders List were made in our earliest years on a case-by-case basis, usually by petition of someone whose ancestors had been overlooked in earlier compilations. As time went on, the late Donna Siemiatkoski and Carolyn Porter-Fraher discovered that in Windsor the grants from the plantation did not stop in 1640 but continued to be made through the summer of 1641. Based on this information, DFAW altered the definition of a Founder to include all those individuals found on records pertaining to Windsor before the close of 1641, thus tying the Founders Era to the recording of the grants from the plantation (the original proprietors). However, we include anyone who is on record in Windsor at that time whether landowners or not.

Founders List

At its November 30, 2020 meeting, the DFAW Board, based on recommendations from the History Committee, voted to remove John Osborn from and to return Richard Osborn to the DFAW Founders List and to remove Thomas Marshall from and retain Thomas Marshfield on the Founders List.  The rationale behind those decisions is outlined in the Winter 2021 issue of the DFAW Newsletter. 

Download a PDF of the latest version of the Founders List here.

 

George Abbott
Benedictus Alford
Samuel Allen
Matthew Allyn
Thomas Barber
John Bartlett
Margaret (Barrett)
(Huntington)
Stoughton
Thomas Bascomb
Thomas Bassett
John Bennett
Richard Birge
Capt. John Bissell
Elder John Branker
Jonathan Brewster
Thomas Buckland
William Buell
Joshua Carter
George Chappel
Daniel Clarke
Dea. Henry Clarke
Joseph Clarke
Capt. Aaron Cooke
Thomas Cooper
Nicholas Denslow
Thomas Dewey
Thomas Dibble
John Drake
John Dumbleton
John Dyer
John Eels
Bygod Eggleston
William Filley
Thomas Ford
Henry Foulkes

Lt. Walter Fyler
Dea. William Gaylord
Francis Gibbs
Giles Gibbs
William Gilbert
Jeremiah Gillett
Jonathan Gillett
Nathan Gillett
Matthew Grant
Thomas Gridley
Edward Griswold
Matthew Griswold
Thomas Gunn
William Hannum
John Hawkes
Anthony Hawkins
William Hayden
Gov. John Haynes
William Hill
John Hillier
Thomas Holcombe
Lt. William Holmes
Mary Holt
Elder William Hosford
John Hoskins
Simon Hoyte
Samuel Hubbard
Rev. Ephraim Huit
William Hulbert
George Hull
John Hurd
Humphrey Hydes
Joseph Loomis
Roger Ludlow
Henry Lush
Thomas Marshfield

Ann Marshall
Thomas Marshfield
Major John Mason
Mary (Merwin)
(Tinker) Collins
Miles Merwin
Simon Mills
Dea. John Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Newberry
Thomas Nowell
Richard Oldage
Thomas Orton
Richard Osborn
Sgt. Nicholas Palmer
Elias Parkman
Thomas Parsons
Edward Pattison
George Phelps
William Phelps
George Phillips
Humphrey Pinney
Eltweed Pomeroy
Samuel Pond
John Porter
Edward Preston
Matthew Rainend
Philip Randall
Jasper Rawlins
John Reeves
John Rockwell
Dea. William Rockwell
Dr. Bray Rossiter
John St. Nicholas
Robert Saltonstall
Richard Samo

Matthias Sension
(St. John)
Nicholas Sension
Richard Sexton
Sgt. Thomas Staires
Aaron Starke
Francis Stiles
Henry Stiles
John Stiles
Thomas Stiles
Ens. Thomas Stoughton
George Stuckey
John Talcott Taylor
John Taylor
Stephen Terry
Thomas Thornton
William Thrall
John Tilley
Peter Tilton
Michael Try
Frances (Unknown)
(Clark) (Dewey)
Phelps
Richard Vore
Rev. John Warham
Richard Weller
Richard Whitehead
Arthur Williams
John Williams
Roger Williams
Lt. David Wilton
Robert Winchell
Elder John Witchfield
Henry Wolcott
John Young