John HAWKS 10th Gr. Grandfather - The Great Migration Begins

John Hawks came from England to Lynn, Massachusetts in 1630 and was made a freeman there 3 Sept 1634 (but see below for a dissenting view). He may have been a carpenter. He moved before 1640 to Windsor, Connecticut, where his 12 children were born (2 children not listed died young). John moved to Hadley, Mass. abt 1659 as one of the early settlers. He is not the son of Adam Hawks of Lynn as some claim. They may have been brothers.


From "The Great Migration Begins" Newsletter 11 July 2003 by New England Historic Genealogical Society.

John HAWKS

ORIGIN: Unknown.
MIGRATION: 1634 (based on date of freemanship).
FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester.
REMOVES: Windsor 1635, Hadley by 1660.
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 3 September 1634 implied by freemanship.
John Hawkes or his wife (and probably both) had apparently been admitted to Windsor church by 13 August 1643, if that be the date of baptism of their son John. On 18 January 1659/60, "John Hakes" was listed among those who had been placed in the long seats in Windsor meetinghouse [Windsor Hist 1:178, citing "Book of Rates"].
FREEMAN: 3 September 1634 (third in a sequence of three Dorchester men) [MBCR 1:369].
OFFICES: Connecticut petit jury, 1 March 1648/9 [CCCR 1:176]. Tax collector, 6 February 1649/50 [CCCR 1:204].
ESTATE: In the Windsor land inventory on 4 February 1640[/1], "John Hawkes hath granted from the plantation" four parcels: "an homelot with the addition eight acres" (annotated "sold to Joseph Gylitt"); "in the Great Meadow two acres" (annotated "sold to Nathan[ie]ll Winchel"); "over the Great River ten rod in breadth, more or less, the length from the river back to the east three miles" (annotated "sold to John Osband"); and "also at Paquanick, on the north side of the river, in meadow four acres, besides allowance for swamp, & adjoining to it twenty acres of upland" (annotated "sold to David Williams [16]62 October 13") [WiLR 1:107r, 1A:99].
On 31 March 1663, "John Hawkes of Hadley dying intestate the inventory of his estate was presented to this Court & is in [illegible], and in reference to settlement of the said estate the Court ordered with the advice of friends & the widow's free consent & desire that her son John shall when he comes to the age of 22 years have a third part of her homelot, her housing only excepted & a third part of all her lands in Hadley & a young horse, and that her daughter Elizabeth shall have the sum of twenty pounds at her day of marriage in such pay as the estate will afford, and that her son Elezur shall have twenty pounds when he attains the age of one & twenty years in such pay as the estate will afford, and that her son Gerson shall have the sum of twenty pounds at the age of one & twenty years in such pay as the estate will afford, and that the next four daughters shall have the sum of fifteen pounds apiece to be paid to each of them as they shall attain the age of one & twenty years, and power of administration is granted to said widow Hawkes in reference to the said estate" [HamCCR 1:25].
On 28 September 1669, "John Hawkes late of Hadley deceased, dying intestate, there was an order of the Court at Northampton in March 1663 settling the estate in respect of the widow Hawkes & portions for the children, but there being no security ordered for payment of the children's portions, this Court ordereth upon the desire of Robert Hensdall & his wife the mother of the said children that the housing & lands at Hadley which were the estate of John Hawkes shall stand as security for the children's portions excepting those lands that young John Hawkes hath received as his portion by the former Court order" [HamCCR 1:113].
On 27 September 1681, "the widow Elizabeth Hindsdall administratrix to the estate of her former husband John Hawks, as by the Court act March 31: 63 appears presenting a petition to this Court wherein she shews how she would dispose of her remaining estate by her former husband Hawks in Hadley which by God's Providence she is again come to live upon, that is to say that her sons Eliezur & Gershom Hawks who are yet unmarried & have their portions to receive should have the said portions paid them out of some of her husband Hawks lands, she declaring that the other children's portions are paid them according to the Court's settlement, and signifying that she with her two sons Eliezer and Gershom Hawks have come to this agreement, that they shall improve the whole remainder of estate or lands as abovesaid in Hadly together with their own shares for the yearly maintenance of their mother while she shall live & so have conditioned mutually that the said Eliezer & Gershom shall have the whole betwixt them at her decease, as by writings drawn & signed & sealed between them appears, and the widow mother signifying her desires that the said lands may be confirmed to them as aforesaid by this Court they performing the agreement to her this Court likes well of the petition and appoint the lands to her said sons after her decease" [HamCCR 1:127].
BIRTH: By 1613 (based on date of freemanship).
DEATH: Buried Hadley 30 June 1662 [Pynchon VR 237].
MARRIAGE: By 1643 Elizabeth [BROWN]. She married (2) ROBERT HINSDALE [GM 2:2:345-47]. She died at Windsor on 29 September 1685 [WiLR Barbour 71, citing "1:43"].
CHILDREN:
i JOHN HAWKES, b. (or bp.) Windsor 13 August 1643 [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; m. (1) Hadley 26 December 1667 Martha Baldwin [Pynchon VR 223]; m. (2) Deerfield 20 November 1696 Alice Allis.

ii NATHANIEL HAWKES, b. (or bp.) Windsor 16 February 1644[/5] [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; no further record.

iii ELIZABETH HAWKES, b. (or bp.) Windsor 10 January 1646[/7] [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; m. (1) Hadley 24 November 1663 Joseph Gillett [Pynchon VR 223]; m. (2) Hatfield 16 December 1680 Nathaniel Dickinson [NEHGR 152:170-71].

iv ANNA HAWKES, b. (or bp.) Windsor 1 October 1648 [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; m. Hadley 10 November 1672 Thomas Hastings [Pynchon VR 224], son of THOMAS HASTINGS [GM 2:3:235-40].

v ISAAC HAWKES, b. Windsor 11 August 1650 [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; "drowned in the Great River June 22d 1659 by voluntarily going in to swim, and on the day following was found (by an Indian) driven far down, and was brought up and buried" [Loomis Rec 45].

vi MARY HAWKES, b. Windsor 23 May 1652 [Grant 46; CTVR 36]; m. (1) Hadley 10 October 1672 Experience Hinsdale [Pynchon VR 224], son of ROBERT HINSDALE ; m. (2) Hatfield [blank] July 1677 John Evans [HadVR 105].

vii JOANNA HAWKES, b. Windsor 8 February 1653[/4] [Grant 46 (annotated "dead"); CTVR 40, 45]; m. Hatfield 21 November 1677 William Arms [HadVR 105].

viii ELEAZER HAWKES, b. Windsor 20 December 1655 [Grant 46; CTVR 45]; m. Deerfield 30 April 1689 Judith Smead.

ix SARAH HAWKES, b. Windsor 29 September 1657 [Grant 46; CTVR 44]; m. (1) Springfield 10 September 1677 Philip Mattoon [Pynchon VR 59]; m. (2) in 1704 or later Daniel Belden [John Hawks Gen 20].

x GERSHOM HAWKES, b. Windsor 12 April 1659 [Grant 46]; m. by 1691 Elizabeth Pratt, daughter of Richard Pratt (in his will of 8 May 1691, "Richard Pratt Senior of Malden" included a bequest to "my daughter Elizabeth the wife of Gershom Hawkes" [MPR Case #17925]).

xi Child HAWKES, b. Windsor on an unknown date [Grant 92]; no further record.

COMMENTS: Imogene Hawks Lane claimed that John Hawkes came to New England in 1630, based on an entry in the Winthrop Papers [John Hawks Gen 1, citing WP 2:276], but this is only a guess, and misreads the record.
No record of John Hawkes has been found between his freemanship in 1634 and his record of landholding in Windsor in 1640. He would have been at least twenty-one years old in 1634, but did not marry until about late 1642, when he would have been nearly thirty. These circumstances raise the question whether the John Hawkes of Dorchester in 1634 was the same as the Windsor man.
If John Hawkes was one of the early migrants from Dorchester to Windsor in 1635, we would have an explanation for the lack of further records in Massachusetts Bay, and the records for Windsor in the later 1630s are few. We then need only to assume that he married about five years later than average for men of his time. Some doubt remains, but we assume here that all these records pertain to one man named John Hawkes.
In his 17 August 1677 list of "what children has been born in Windsor from our beginning," Matthew Grant included "John Haks," crediting him with eleven children [Grant 92]. Only ten of these children are accounted for in other records. Grant states that the daughter Joanna was dead, but a daughter of that name married not long after Grant compiled his record, so there may have been two daughters of this name. The correct chronological placement of a second daughter Joanna is not clear.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1989 Imogene Hawks Lane published a comprehensive account of this immigrant and his agnate descendants [John Hawks, A Founder of Hadley, Massachusetts, After a Sojourn of Twenty-Four Years at Windsor, Connecticut: Thirteen Generations in America] (cited above as John Hawks Gen).

Ancestry Chain: [10th gr. grandfather] Sgt. John HAWKS Immigrant b.1618, Elizabeth Hawks/ HAWKES, Joseph GILLETT b.1664, Elizabeth GILLETT b.1688, Esther MARSH b.1714, Esther SAWYER "GUNN"-3695 b.1739, Esther REMINGTON b.1772, Mary BRONSON b.1806, Martin Luther ENSIGN b.1831, Harriett Camilla ENSIGN b.1859, George Ensign SMITH b.1898, Camilla SMITH b.1926, Lark, JR.