George STEELE 11th Gr. Grandfather - The Great Migration Begins

GEORGE STEELE ORIGIN: Fairstead, Essex MIGRATION: 1633 FIRST RESIDENCE: Cambridge REMOVES: Hartford 1636 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Cambridge church prior to 14 May 1634 implied by freemanship. FREEMAN: 14 May 1634 [MBCR 1:369]. EDUCATION: Signed his will. His inventory included "one great Bible" valued at 16s. and "one of Mr. Shipard's books" valued at 11s. OFFICES: With William Spencer, ordered on 22 August 1635 to measure and divide meadow in Cambridge [CaTR 12]; ordered to provide a gate and three rods of pales for the burying ground, 4 January 1635/6 [CaTR 15]. Jury, 1 June 1643, 24 April 1649, 7 March 1649/50, Summer 1656 [RPCC 20, 62, 77, 169; CCCR 1:87, 180]. Committee to regulate slaughtering of cattle, 24 September 1642 [CCCR 1:75]. ESTATE: On 5 August 1633 granted one-half acre for a cowyard in Cambridge [CaTR 5]; granted two acres planting ground in the neck of land, 2 February 1633/4 [CaTR 7]; granted a proportional share of one in undivided meadow ground, 20 August 1635 [CaTR 13]; in 8 February 1635/6 list of houses in town, George Steele had one [CaTR 18]. In 5 October 1635 inventory of Cambridge lands, George Steele held six parcels: one house with backside in town, about half a rood; half an acre in cowyard row; half an acre in Old Field; two acres in Wigwam Neck; five acres and a half in the neck of land; one acre and one rood in Long Marsh; and five acres in Great Marsh [CaBOP 22]; the houselot and some of the other parcels soon appear in the hands of Edward Goffe [CaBOP 45-46]. In the Hartford land inventory in February 1639/40 George Steele held fourteen parcels (some of them acquired after the date of the inventory): six acres "on which his dwelling house now standeth with other outhouses, yards & gardens"; five acres "lying in the Twenty Acres"; two roods "abutting upon the highway leading from his house to the great swamp"; eleven acres "abutting on the highway leading from his house to the great swamp"; three acres in the South Meadow; four acres and two roods "lying in the forty acres"; two roods in the Little Meadow; two acres on the east side of the Great River (acquired by exchange); four acres on the east side of the Great River; two acres of swamp on the east side of the Great River "which did sometime belong to Richard Steele lately deceased & now belongeth to George Steele his father"; three acres "called swamp now mowing land which he bought of Mr. John Hayns Esq."; two acres and two roods "called swamp now mowing land which he bought of Mr. John Hayns Esq."; thirty-five acres of woodland "which parcel of land he bought of Mr. Thomas Welles"; and thirty-five acres of woodland in the great swamp [HaBOP 355-57]. In his will, dated 24 May 1663 and proved 2 March 1664/5, George Steele of Hartford bequeathed to "my dear and loving brother John Steele," 50s.; to "my daughter Elizabeth Wates," "my old mill" and several household objects; to "my grandchild Martha Hanison," best chamber pot; to "Moses and Micah Mudg," 10s. apiece; to "my grandchildren James and Mary Steele," one chest apiece; and to "my dear and loving son James Steele" the residue, he to be executor [Hartford PD Case #5180; Manwaring 1:239]. The inventory of the estate of George Steele was taken on 21 December 1664 by Thomas Bunce and Samuel Steele, and totalled £136 6s. 10d., including £58 in real estate: "six acres of land in the south meadow," £30; "thirty acres of woodland," £20; and "five acres of upland," £8 [Hartford PD Case #5180; Manwaring 1:239]. BIRTH: By about 1583 based on date of marriage. DEATH: Hartford between 24 May 1663 (date of will) and 21 December 1664 (date of inventory). MARRIAGE: Fairstead, Essex, 12 October 1608 Margery Sorrell; she died before 24 May 1663 (date of husband's will). CHILDREN: [Rebecca STEELE ELSON MUDGE GREENSMITH] i RICHARD, b. say 1610; d. Hartford by about 1640 [HaBOP 356]. ii MARGERY, bp. Fairstead, Essex, 24 September 1612; no further record. iii JOHN, bp. Fairstead 29 September 1615; d. soon. iv JOHN, bp. Fairstead 20 September 1618; no further record. v MARY, bp. Fairstead 7 May 1620; no further record. vi JAMES, bp. Fairstead 30 November 1622; m. (1) (possibly at Guilford on 18 October 1651) Bethia Bishop, daughter of John Bishop [TAG 36:188-89]; m. (2) by 1685 Bethia (Hopkins) Stocking, widow of Samuel Stocking [TAG 36:188]. vii ELIZABETH, bp. Fairstead 4 May 1628; m. Hartford 1 May 1645 Thomas Watts [HaVR 606; TAG 22:161]. viii SARAH, bur. Fairstead 10 November 1629. ASSOCIATIONS: Brother of JOHN STEELE of Cambridge, Hartford and Farmington. COMMENTS: In 1960 Donald Lines Jacobus discussed this family in great detail [TAG 36:186-90]. He concluded that "my grandchild Martha Hanison" named in the will of George Steele was not born a "Hanison," but was the wife of John Henderson (or Hannison or Henryson); Jacobus did not determine who Martha's parents were. Jacobus further concluded that Jarvis Mudge or his wife (who had previously been the wife of Abraham Elsen) "was quite likely related to George Steele, but she is not indicated as his daughter" [TAG 36:187]. From the will of Elizabeth (Steele) Watts, it is clear that Martha was not her daughter or the daughter of her brother, James Steele [TAG 36:187-88, citing Manwaring 1:377]. Martha must, then, be a daughter of one of the other children of George Steele. Since the land owned by Richard Steele reverted to his father George Steele, it would seem that Richard died unmarried and without children. Any remaining solutions, therefore, require that Martha be a daughter of one of George Steele's daughters other than Elizabeth, but who this daughter might have married remains unknown. George Steele sued John Carrington in 1644 [RPCC 26; CCCR 1:107] and twice sued Will Corbit on 2 December 1647 [RPCC 49; CCCR 1:159]. BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: A comprehensive but somewhat antiquated account of both George and John Steele was published by Daniel Steele Durrie in 1862 [Steele Family. A Genealogical History of John and George Steele ... (Albany 1862)]. This includes the incorrect conclusion that a daughter of George Steele married a Henderson.

The Great Migration Begins Sketches PRESERVED PURITAN Ancestral chain: George STEELE Immigrant b.1583, Rebecca STEELE Immigrant b.1590, Sarah ELSON Immigrant b.1611, David ENSIGN b.1644, David ENSIGN Jr. b.1688, Datus (Datis) ENSIGN b.1729, Isaac ENSIGN Rev.WarVet. b.1756, Horace Datus ENSIGN b.1797, Martin Luther ENSIGN b.1831, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR