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Foote Family Association of America Inc Our Family History
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Source: Article in Footeprints - Summer 1999 Issue - The Foote Family Association Of
America)
As far as can be determined from
available publications and sources the
majority of the Foote families of America
are all descended with few exceptions
from either Nathaniel Foote of
Colchester England, who initially settled
Watertown, Mass, or Pasco Foote who
settled in Salem Mass.
There were two brothers, Richard (the
elder) and William Foote descended out
of Cornwall, England who were
dispatched by their father Nicholas (who
was a London merchant) to Stafford,
King George County, Virginia. Richard
and William are not thought to be
related to Nathaniel or Pasco.
The Footes' Arrival (source: "Foote History and Genealogy"
- Book 1 By Abram Foote,
Accepted data from the period indicates
that only a few colonists arrived in New
England in the years immediately
following the arrival of the Mayflower. As
an example, It is known that in the
spring of 1630, about 1500 people
crossed the Atlantic in one expedition
organized and led by John Winthrop,
first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony.
Soon after Governor Winthrop's 1630
expedition Nathaniel Foote, his family,
and Pasco Foote decided to seek their
fortunes in the New World. According to
tradition, they left their homes in
Colchester and sailed to Plymouth
Massachusetts on the brig, "Fortune".
The Colony of Massachusetts"
(Source: The Foote Family or the
Descendants of Nathaniel Foote,
by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of
Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.)
Some sources say Nathaniel, his wife
Elizabeth, and their six children settled
in Watertown, Massachusetts. Pasco
settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and it
is not known where John (or Caleb)
lived. As far as we know, John had no
children.
Old Wethersfeld On the banks of the Connecticut, twenty miles below its last rapid 's and forty miles above its mouth, at one of those graceful bent which the river makes while winding through meadows which it beautifies and nourishes, stands the ancient town of Wethersfield,the eldest born** of the many sweet villages which adorn this valley.
** This is the tradition, and the Rev. Mr. Mix, of Wethersfield, in his manuscripts, says," Wethersfield is the eldest town on the river." Trumbull's History of Connecticut, Vol I, p. 49.
Note: From the Wethersfield Records it
appears, that there was a body of land
next east to the home lots on the east
side of Broad Street, designated in the
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first conveyances as " Adventurers
Land," and from the proceedings of the
Court of Magistrates held at Watertown,
[Wethersfield) September 1, 1636, and
November 1, of the same year, that
Sergeant Seeley recovered against the
town, on an award, (made by Mr.
Hooker, Mr. Welles and Mr. Webster,)
"one hundred and fifty bushels of corn,"
in the right of William Bascome, "as an
adventurer."
From these items, and from the local
traditions, it would appear, that a portion
of the territory, prior to a distribution of
the town among the settlers in 1636,
had been appropriated to themselves by
a company of men known as
Adventurers, and that the rights of these
men were judicially recognized.
To this spot, then known as Pyquag, the
English colonist first turned his steps in,
or prior to, 1635, attracted doubtless by
its fertile soil, its pure and navigable
waters, and its supposed facilities for
internal trade in furs and other traffic
with the Indians.
And to this spot, one year later, came a
portion of that " goodly company" who
left the jurisdiction of Massachusetts
and their newly acquired homesteads
and farms in Watertown, and other
settlements in the neighborhood of
Boston, in pursuit of territory " further
west," where they might " better
maintain their ministers," "find larger
accommodations for their cattle," and
welcome " more of their friends from
England" who were suffering for the faith
once delivered to the Saints.
Among those who voluntarily placed a
wilderness of one hundred miles
between themselves and the
settlements on the coast, and whose
ashes now repose in the burying ground
on which the shadow of the first meeting
house fell, we find the names of:
Nathaniel Foote, Samuel Boardman, James Boosey, Enoch Buck, Clement Chaplin, Leonard Chester, John Deming, Robert Francis, John Goodrich, William Goodrich, John Hollister, John Nott, John Robbins, John Stoddard, Richard Treat, Thomas Welles, Thomas Wright, and others.
These are names which their
descendants, and all the friends of civil
and religious freedom, should hold in
everlasting remembrance. Some of their
descendants, from generation to
generation, have continued to reside on
their ancestral farms, and in the old
town,* whilst others early left the mother
hive for land "still further west," until
some of the same name and lineage are
to be found in every State between the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Wherever they are to be found, in
prosperous or adverse fortune, their
hearts still fondly turn to this fountain
head of their family on this Continent, all
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proud to trace back their genealogy to
the heroic age of New England, and to
this quiet resting place of their fathers
on the banks of the beautiful
Connecticut.
Nathaniel Foote (Source: The Foote Family or the Descendants of Nathaniel Foote, by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.)
Nathaniel foote, one of the first settlers of Wethersfield, Connecticut, belongs, not to that class of men who fill a large place in the world's history, because called by some great emergency into positions of power and influence, but to that more meritorious class of pious and excellent persons, who, born to the great inheritance of labor, walk meekly along the paths of common life, perform every duty, public or private, love and help their fellow men, and act always as if in their Great Task Master's eye.
It is to such men that society owes at once, its peace, stability and progress,-and yet history takes no note of such, and hence "The world knows nothing of its greatest men."
His business in life was that of
agriculture, necessarily the leading
pursuit of New England in its early
history, when the forests were to be
felled, the soil broken up, the seeds of
all the grains, and plants and fruits
which constitute the food of men
and beasts to be sown, and its great
staples of commercial exchange
supplied.
And in every period of society the
agricultural population has proved of the
highest importance to the wealth, dignity
and strength of a State.
It is from this class of the population that
the city and the village, that commerce
and the arts, are ever drawing the bone
and muscle of their laborers, and much
of the energy of their directing force.
In no other of the leading pursuits of
Society are there the same facilities for
cultivating bodily energy, and the force
and vigor of mind consequent upon a
vigorous constitution.
The pure air, the rough exposure, the
healthful toil, the constant call for
thought and reflection, the walking with
God in the open field, the study of his
laws as unfolded in the circuit of the
seasons, and in the growth of the seed
and ripening of the harvest, the better
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domestic training under which children
can be reared in the country, all these
things are favorable for converting the
agricultural population into an element
of conservatism, much needed to give
stability to the ever restless desire of
change which animates a young
community, and to uphold society in
moments of danger and trial.
It is the boast of Connecticut, and
of Wethersfield in particular, to
have had from the beginning a large
proportion of intelligent, industrious and
pious farmers in her population, and that
the ranks of her merchants, her
mechanics, her seamen, and her
professional men have.
The first mention of Nathaniel's name is
in the Records of the Colony of
Massachusetts Bay in 1633 when he
took the oath of Freeman. In the records
of the Grants and Possession of the
Lands in Watertown, where he first
located, the following entry is made:
"Nathaniel Foote" "An home stall of sixteen acres by estimation, bounded ye north and northwest with ye highway, the south and southwest with Jeremiah Norcross, granted to him." "Two acres of marsh by estimation, bounded ye south with ye river, the north with Henry Curtis. The east with John Firmin, and the west with John
Smith, granted to him."
A few years later (about the year 1635) the General Court decided that they would allow people of Watertown to move "to any place they shall think meet to make choice, provided they continue still under this Government".
(Note: Here again sources differ. Some sources say that it was in 1633 the court gave its approval.) Consequently several adventurers including Nathaniel, his wife Elizabeth, and their six children ranging in age from sixteen year old Elizabeth to baby Sarah, and others decided to leave from the Watertown Bay Colony. They felt conditions around the Boston area had become to crowded. The group of adventurer's, led by John Oldham, started a new settlement in the Connecticut wilderness. The new settlement was first called Pyquag. Later the name was changed to Wethersfield.
Early maps of Wethersfield (1634-44), (dubbed "the most ancient town for the valley" and the oldest permanent settlement in Connecticut,) show the homesteads of both the Smith and Foote families. Early colonists raised several crops such as corn and rye and grazed cattle on the green pasture lands. The first records describing the distribution of land include Nathaniel's name.
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According to the records of "The Original Distribution of Lands around Wethersfield" recorded in 1640:
1. A short time after arriving in
Wethersfield in 1633-35 Nathaniel
received a ten acre house lot on the
east side of Broad Street. This land was
near the south end of the street.
2. Additionally, he became the owner
of several other tracts laying in part in
the great meadow east of his house and
containing more than 500 acres of land.
(see the Nathaniel Foote link on our
website for more information on his
holdings).
It is thought that Nathaniel may have
taken part in the first public election held
by American people held in Wethersfield
on April 11, 1640. Remember the
general court had stated they must
"continue still under this Government."
For the Adventurers to hold public
elections was a direct defiance of the
Royal Courts of the Crown." This
election took place 135 years before the
Declaration of Independence in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."
Life in the Early Settlements (Source: The Foote Family or the
Descendants of Nathaniel Foote,
by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of
Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.)
Ever since the English first arrived in the
new land, they enjoyed a favorable
interaction with the Mohegan Indians.
The English eventually become close
allies to the Mohegans who were then
under the leadership of Uncas
The family of Nathaniel Foote, as will be
seen from the following well
authenticated narratives, shared largely
in the perils and sufferings experienced
so generally by the early settlers in the
valley of the Connecticut, at the hands
of the Indians. In no part of New-
England were the Indians so numerous
in proportion to the territory as in this
valley, and traditions of the horrors
In no part of New-England were the
Indians so numerous in proportion to the
territory as in this valley, and traditions
of the horrors of the Indian wars are
linked almost with every village
throughout its whole extent.
For ninety years after the first
settlement, there was scarcely an hour
in which the inhabitants, especially of
the frontier towns, could travel in the
forests, work in the fields, worship God
in their churches, or lie down in their
beds at night, without apprehension of
attack from their stealthy and
remorseless foe.
The fact that the attack of the Indians
were preceded by no note of
preparation, gave a sense of insecurity
to the members of the family at home, or
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the heads of the family abroad, which
made the real danger, great as it was,
more formidable.
The blow fell when and where it was
least expected. When the Indian
seemed most intent on his avocation of
hunting or fishing, or in planning some
distant expedition,--then the farmer in
the field would be surprised by an
ambuscade, or on his return home find
his house in ashes, his wife or children
butchered or hurried away into captivity ;
or the quiet of his slumbers would be
broken by the warhoop, and the
darkness of midnight be illumined by the
glare of the village on fire. Those were
trials of which the present generation
can know nothing.
From the Indians who resided in the
immediate neighborhood, it does not
appear that the infant colony at
Wethersfield suffered any wrong.
Neither Sowheag,-who resided at
Mattabesick, and whose jurisdiction
extended from below Middletown to
Hartford, nor Sequin, the Sagamore of
the pleasant meadows of Wethersfield,
then called Pyquag, were hostile to the
whites.
On the other hand, they seemed to have
regarded their presence as a protection
against the exactions and predatory
excursions both of the Mohawks and the
Pequods, both of which tribes seemed
to have exercised the rights of conquest
over the Indians of this portion of the
valley.
Prelude to the Pequot War (Source: The Foote Family or the
Descendants of Nathaniel Foote,
by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of
Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.)
The Pequot, the seat of whose power
was on the banks of the Mystic, seemed
early to have imbibed a bitter hostility to
the whites, as if foreseeing that two
distinct races of men, with such varying
character and habits, could not together
continue to occupy the same territory.
As early as 1634, they began the work
of murder and pillage, and in 1636,
conceived a plan to extirpate, or drive all
the English from New-England.
On the 23d of April, 1637, Wethersfield
was the scene of one of those Indian
tragedies which finally led to the
declaration of war against the Pequods
and to their utter extinction as a people.
A party of this tribe, under the command
of Nepaupuck, (who was also called
Meaaatunck,) a subordinate chieftin,
surprised the people as they were going
into the meadow, killing six men and
three women, and taking two young girls
prisoner, besides killing twenty cows
and doing much other damage.
The Indians concealed themselves in
the bushes on the bank of the River
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while the laborers were at home at
dinner, and awaited their return, On their
arrival at the spot before mentioned,
they sprang from their ambuscade, and
seized eleven, (the others, escaping by
flight,) nine of whom were immediately
dispatched by the tomahawk. Among
the slain were two men by the name of
Finch, Abraham and John, who were
near neighbors of Nathaniel Foote.
The names of the others are unknown.
The young girls, one the daughter of
William Swaine, were carried captives to
Mystic, where they were spared from
death at the earnest intercession of the
wife of Mononotto, who, though a
savage, was, also, a mother, and felt a
mother's love. She interceded in their
behalf,' and finally prevailed on her
husband to permit her to adopt them as
her own children.
This well authenticated act of generosity
and maternal love, remarks the author
of Hope Leslie, is precious to all those
who would accumulate proof, that the
image of God is never quite effaced
from the mule of his creatures, and that
in their darkest ignorance and deepest
degradation, there are still to be found
traits of mercy and benevolence.
Every effort was immediately made by
their parents and the colony to recover
the girls. The only medium of
negotiation with the Pequods, was
through the Dutch, who were in
possession of Manhadoes. The Dutch
governor, receiving intelligence of the
circumstance of the two English maids,
sent a sloop to Pequod to redeem them
by what means soever, though it were
with breach of their peace with the
Pequods.
The sloop offered largely for their
ransom ; but nothing would be
accepted. The Dutch, having many
Pequods aboard, stayed six of them,
(the rest leaped overboard,) and with
them redeemed the two maids, who had
been well used by the Pequods, and no
violence offered them.
The Dutch delivered the young women
at Saybrook, just before Capt. Mason
and his party arrived there, who were
bound from Hadford to the Pequot
county,-the General Court having, on
the first day of May, 1637, declared war
against the Pequode as will appear by
the following order :
. The first day of May 1637. Gewalt Corte art Harteford. " Prosenttr-Mr. LUDLOW/, Mr. WILLS, Mr. SWAINS, Mr. STIILF, Mr. Psis, Mr. WARD/. " Comities* : Mr. Whytinge, Mr. Webster, Mr. Whims, Mr. Hull, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Talcott, Mr. Hozfbrd, Mr. Mychell, Mr. Sherman. "It is ordered that there steal be an offensive warn agt the Pequoitt."
Having declared war, the Court next
resolved to raise an army and supplies
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for its immediate prosecution. It was
ordered that ninety men should be
levied out of the three plantations, in the
following proportions, Hartford, 42 ;
Windsor, 30 ; Wethersfield, 18. Every
soldier was directed to carry with him
one pound of powder, four pounds of
shot, twenty bullets and a light musket.
They were directed to take a barrel of
powder from the fort at Saybrook.
The supplies, like the men, were
apportioned among the plan-tations,
according to their supposed ability to
furnish them.
Windsor was ordered to provide sixty
bushels of corp, fifty pieces of pork,
thirty pounds of rice and four cheeses.
Hartford was ordered to furnish eighty-
four bushels of corn, three firkins of salt,
two firkins of butter, four
bushels of oatmeal, two bushels of
peas, five hundred pounds of fish and
two bushels of salt.
The proportion of Wethersfield was
thirty-six bushels of corn and one bushel
of Indian beans, corn ground, and one
half baked in biscuit.
It was, also, further ordered by the
General Court-' that there should be
furnished one good hogshead of beer
for the Captain, minister and sick men ;
and if there be only three or four gallons
of strong water, two gallons of sack.'
And at the same General Court at
Hartford, May 1, 1837,-" It is ordered
there shalbe 1 hogg provided att
Wythersfeild for the designs in hande,
wich is conceived to be Nathaniell
Footes."
Thus equipped and furnished, the troops
rendezvoused at Hartford, on the 10th of
May,-when a pink, a pinnace and a
shallop were in oreadiness to transport
them down the River.
Here they were joined by Uncas and
about seventy Mohegan and River
Indians, who had agreed to accompany
them.
The command of the whole force was
given to Capt. John Mason,* of Windsor.
Lieut. Robert Seeley, of Wethersfield,
was second in command, and Uncas
leader of the Indians,-subject, however,
to the order of the Commander in Chief.
The Rev. Samuel Stone, of Hartford,
was appointed to accompany the little
army, as chaplain, and Doct. Thomas
Pell, surgeon of the Garrison at
Saybrook, in that capacity.
The result of this war, which was in fact
the life struggle of the colonists, and
especially of those who had made their
lodgments on the River, was the total
extirpation of the Pequod nation, the
most sagacious, brave and dreaded
tribe among the Indians of New-
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England.
With all our sympathy for the sufferings
of the early settlers which provoked this
conflict, and with all our appreciation of
the untold blessings which have
followed to us their descendants and to
the world, from their signal triumph in
this war, we cannot but feel a throb of
pity at the fate of this nation.
The Pequot Indians:War As it is refreshing amid the heart rending
scenes which fill the record of the
doings of the Indians, to turn to the
generous pity of the wife of Mononotto
towards the young captives, as before
de-scribed, so it is good to remember
that the whites in their burning thirst for
blood, provoked by the barbarities of
their Savage foe, did not forget to treat
this noble woman with every respect
when she and her children fell prisoners
into their hands.
Her. modesty, humanity and good sense
are duly commemorated, and * Capt.
Mason removed from Windsor to
Saybrook, and from Saybrook to
Norwich with Rev Mr. James Fitch and
others, and there continued to reside
until his death.
The title of Captain was considered so
appropriately to belong to John Mason,
that in speaking of him on occasion, he
is designated on the Records of
Windsor, as "The Captain." The lives of
her children were spared, and she was
commended to the special care of
Governor Winthrop, at Boston, to whom
she was sent by the victors.
The Pequod captain, Nepaupuck,
whose cold blooded attrocities at
Wethersfield, hastened on the
declaration of war ,against his Tribe,
was tried, found guilty and executed at
New-Haven, as will appear from the
following extracts from the Records of
the Court.
The Record begins October 26, 1639,
the day after the first election of civil
officers.
As you an see from the accounts above
the Pequot Indians war in Connecticut
was largely caused by the differences
between the Dutch and English settlers.
The English were responsible for
bringing back the Indians (the Mohegan)
whom the Peugeot tribe had previously
driven away. As a result, the tribe
launched several devastating raids on
English settlements. See a complete
Peqeot Indian History at
http://www.dickshovel.com/peq.html
In 1637, the Peugeot tribe attacked the
settlement of Wethersfield. Shortly after
an attack force along with of 18 men
from Wethersfied commanded by Major
John Mason, was joined by some 70
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Mohegan warriors for a raid against the
Peugeot village at Mystic. Uncas
provided his knowledge of Peugeot
territory toward that campaign. It is
thought that 17-year-old Nathaniel, Jr.
may have been part of the attack force.
The village of Sassacus was
surrounded, which was the home of the
dreaded Peugeot chief.
In the first attack Mason and his men set
the village on fire. By the time the attack
was over more than 600 Indians (men,
women, and children) were either shot
or burned to death.
As a result of this campaign and the fact
that the Peugeot tribe was vanquished,
The bond between Uncas and the
English was sealed. Years after the war,
Uncas granted large tracts of land to
Major Mason and many of his other
English allies from the Peugeot conflict
Elizabeth (Deming) Foote (Source: Article in Footeprints - Spring 1999
The Foote Family Association Of America
Elizabeth Deming was born in England
in the last part of the 16th Century.
About 1615 she married Nathaniel
Foote who had a crocer business in
Colchester, England. After the birth of
their six children, Nathaniel decided to
sell his grocer business and
emigrate to the new world.
By some he is considered to be
the first settler of Wethersfield. We
do know he was one of the first
ten men who settled along the
bank of the Connecticut River and
eventually named their settlement
Wethersfield (see above). They
are now known as the Ten
Adventurers.
Nathaniel Foote was one of those named in the charter of patentees of Wethersfield. Between 1641 and 1644, he served as a Deputy to the General Assembly, as well as a member of the colony Grand Jury. The Foote family became one of the leading families of the little Connecticut Colony. He became a magistrate, a leading land owner, eventually owning more than 500 acres of land in Wethersfield, some of the great meadow, and his home on the south end of the green, next to the present Broad Street. The family was saddened by Nathaniel's death at age 61. Elizabeth was so respected that she was allowed to be executor of his estate. Elizabeth was left a
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wealthy widow, but did not remain in that status for long. In 1646 she married Thomas Wells who was a widower with several children from his first marriage. Thomas Wells served as Governor of Connecticut Colony for two terms, 1655-1658. When he was not serving as governor he was a Deputy Governor. He died during his last years of being deputy governor, 14 January 1659/1660. Elizabeth was again a widow, having two families instead of one. She was in control of a large estate from both husbands. Elizabeth Welles was a tenacious and feisty old woman. She had not only survived a perilous voyage from England but while tending to six exuberant children and a husband, she had made a new life for herself and her family in a world they knew nothing about. This world was inhabited by Indians who were not always friendly with those pale face people. The rigors of life and managing a household did not daunt her. Things went quite well through the intervening years since arriving on shores of the newly discovered
continent, until she reached old age. In 1676 as she approached the age of 80 years, she ran into trouble with one of her step-grand children.
This was Robert Welles, a favorite of grandfather, Governor Thomas Welles when the governor was alive. Robert had arrived at the Governor's home, there to be taken care of and educated.
But now his grandfather was dead and Robert and his step-grandmother disagreed. Maybe she did not think him old enough to be married at age 24. Never-the-less it was 1676 when Elizabeth brought Robert Welles to court, because he "...hath dammyfield her Barne by Parting with the other part of the Barne that did adjoin to it." Exactly what he did to her barn is not clear. The court's decision was clear. He was ordered to repair the barn and also to pay his step-grandmother rent for it. Elizabeth made sure the barn incident was not here last word.
Two years later, in 1678, she made sure all of the Welles were taken care of when she made her
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will. She left them nothing. She stated someone outside the family would be executor of her will. Everything she had she left to her own family. That is the family she and Nathaniel has raised and nurtured. The Welles family got nothing. Elizabeth died in 1683, at the age of 88. The estate was divided among the Footes. One of the documents in the Probates Court was that of the final disposition, that during that same year Robert
Welles won a lawsuit against his step-grandmother's will that he would have to be paid by those who had been named in the will. John Deming, the brother of Nathaniel's wife Elizabeth, was also one of the first settlers in Wethersfield, Connecticut. He was one of the patentees in its charter and for many years was one of the magistrates of the Colony of Connecticut.
Current Nathaniel Foote Monument