The Descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 1909
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ThedescendantsofRev.ThomasHooker,Hartford,Connecticut,1586-1908 The D escendants of Rev. T homas Hooker Hartford, C onnecticut 1586-1908 By E dward Hooker Commander, U .S. N. BEINGN A ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS KNOWN OF REV. THOMAS HOOKER* S FAMILY IN ENGLAND. AND MORE PARTICULARLY CONCERNING HIMSELF AND HIS INFLU ENCE UPON THE EARLY HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY ALSO ALL ITEMS OF INTEREST WHICH IT HAS BEEN POSSIBLE TO GATHER CONCERNING THE EARLY GENERATIONS OF HOOKERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS IN AMERICA Editedy b Margaret Huntington Hooker and printed for her at Rochester, N. Y. 1909 Copyrighted MARGARET H UNTINGTON HOOKER 1909 E.. R ANDREWS PRINTING COMPANY. ROCHESTER. N. Y '-» EDITORS N OTE i ^ T he many warm friends in all parts of the Country to *i w hom Commander Edward Hooker had endeared himself will O b e happy in having this result of his twenty-five years of earnest, p ainstaking labor at last available, and while he is not here to receive the thanks of his grateful kinsmen, nevertheless all descendants of Rev. Thomas Hooker surely unite in grati tude to him who gave time, money, and health so liberally in this permanent service to his family. In p reparing for the printer the work which blindness obliged him to leave incomplete, I have endeavored to follow his example of accuracy and honesty; in spite of this many errors and omissions may have unavoidably occurred and I shall be grateful to anyone who will call my attention to them, that they may be rectified in another edition. The u sual plan is followed in this Genealogy, of having the descendants numbered consecutively, the star (*) prefixed to the number indicating that the record of this person is carried forward another generation and will be found in the next gen eration under the same number, but in larger type and this time as head of a family. A w ord regarding the Coat of Arms, the omission of which may cause comment, — Until the English ancestry of Thomas Hooker has been established, the Coat of Arms of the family cannot be given with authority. It may not be amiss, how ever, to give the one which has been most generally in use with different branches of the family — and which is also the arms of the Devonshire Hookers. He b eareth Or, a fesse Vaire, between two Lions passant gardant Sable. Crest a Hind statant Or, carrying in her mouth a branch of roses Argent, leaved and stalked Vert. MARGARET H UNTINGTON HOOKER. Rochester, N. Y. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Concerning R ev. Thomas Hooker. Commander E dward Hooker, in compiling the Hooker Genealogy, hoped that before its completion researches would be made in England establishing beyond doubt Thomas Hooker's birthplace and parentage. It has seemed best not to delay the publication of the book until that indefinite time when this may be possible. The following introduction is prepared from Mr. Hooker's notes with the hope that it may prove an incentive to those interested to pursue the search and let the family have the benefit of their discoveries. Cotton M ather, writing some fifty years after Mr. Hooker's death, says that Mr. Hooker was born at Marfield, England, and this is the sole authority for supposing that he was born there. The most exhaustive search of professional genealo gists in England having utterly failed to find any corroborative evidence supporting Mr. Mather's assertion, the conclusion was reached many years ago, that Mr. Mather must have been mistaken, and now it appears that the family of Hooker of Marfield became extinct about the middle of the 17th century. Many y ears ago Mr. H. G. Somerby, then official searcher in England for the New England Historical and Genealogical Society, was employed by members of the Hooker family to investigate the story that Rev. Thomas Hooker was born at Marfield, Parish of Tilton, Leicestershire. He met with no success among the records of Tilton Parish. Going to the city of Leicester, with the help of the clerks in the Record of Wills office, he failed to find any Hooker data in that vicinity, and Til INTRODUCTION reported t hat the story was very improbable, adding that if Mr. Hooker was born there, the family was only sojourning there as the name of Hooker was not found in that part of England. After a l ong and careful searching of the records of the Archdeaconry Court of Leicestershire the British Record Society published an index of wills. From a careful exami nation of this publication we find that from 1400 to 1650, a period covering the whole of Rev. Thomas Hooker's life and several generations of his progenitors, only one Hooker will was recorded in the Archdeaconry Court of Leicestershire and during the same period administration was granted upon the estate of one Hooker, who proves to have been a non-resident. This seems very strongly suggestive that Leicestershire was not a residential home of Hooker, and is supports the asser tion of Mr. Somerby, that the name was not found in that part of England. The one will was that of John Hooker of Wal- tham, containing nothing of interest to New England Hookers. The one administration granted was upon the estate of Thomas Hooker of Marfield, Parish of Tilton, gentleman, who died in 1634 and administration was granted to his son, John Hooker, apparently the only son — who inherited from his father, be came John Hooker of Marfield, gentleman. The Manor of Marfield was for a very long time a Royal Domain and there fore never had a Manor House or Manorial dwelling upon it. The e state of Thomas Hooker of Marfield was less than £6, thus showing plainly that he was a non-resident, having no residence in the Parish of Tilton. The son, John, resided at or near London where he died in 1655, his will made in 1654 having been proved and recorded in the London Court in 1655. In this will he names six cousins and one sister but makes no reference to any brother or brother's family. Among the cousins in the will he names John and Samuel Hooker, INTRODUCTION i x sonsf o Rev. Thomas Hooker, and thus this will shows posi tively that there was kinship between Rev. Thomas Hooker and John Hooker of Marfield. John H ooker was not married so had no direct heir and the Marfield Estate went to the nearest of kin, his cousin, William Jennings, and all further connection of Hookers with the Manor of Marfield ceased. Among t he papers of the Harleian Society there are no tices of Hookers in various places, most of them marriage licenses, but none of Hookers in Leicestershire, thus adding a slight corroboration to Mr. Somerby's assertion. While t he Marfield story is swept away no evidence has as yet been brought to light which gives any positive informa tion as to the region from which Mr. Hooker came or the family to which he belonged, and in the absence of all positive information regarding this matter the only course to pursue is to collate such suggestive data as can be found and present it in as concise form as possible, and trust that at some future time some one may be able to trace the English branch of the family. From a p eriod antedating the reign of King Henry VIII, and to a long time after the "Restoration," there was in the South of England a noted family of Hookers. They were possessed of wealth, rank and social position, and they inter married with England's proud old families. They were scholars, disputants, and authors whose books, written 300 years ago, are to-day found as valued books of reference in the larger libraries. From t hese books we learn, that while they were loyal to their King and undoubtedly recognized the Divine authority of the kingly office, they gave careful thought to sociological matters and entertained what may be considered as at that time advanced sociological ideas, — as — that the people were the INTRODUCTION proper s ource of power, that society was constituted for the greatest good to the greatest number, that all men were equal before the law. Here, t hen, we have a noted family of Hookers, possess ing the same characteristics for which the Rev. Thomas Hooker was noted, entertaining the same sociological ideas which he entertained and to which he gave force in the Colony of Connecticut and around this family of Hookers we find towns, villages and parishes bearing names which are familiar to us as names of Connecticut towns, and here too are found families having names which we find in Mr. Hook er's company and among the founders of Connecticut. In t his family of Hookers we find the stock names were John, Thomas, Richard, Roger, Dorothy, Joanna, Mary, — the very names we find in Thomas Hooker's family. There i s little question that Rev. Thomas Hooker's father was named Thomas, and in that family of Hookers we find a Thomas born about the middle of the 16th Century and who was probably between 30 or 40 years of age when Rev. Thomas Hooker was born. The R awson family in seeking their pedigree find as one of their ancestors, John Hooker, a brother of the father of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and in this South of England family of Hookers we find a son John, brother of the Thomas above men tioned.