Goodyear Family History
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GOODYEAR FAMILY HISTORY First Generation ————————————————————————————————————————————— 1. Zachary Goodyear1, 6496. Zachary died in Jul 1613 in London, England.2 Buried on 23 Jul 1613 in London, England.2 Parish Church of St. Gregory. Zachary and Susanna of London.1 Henry F. Waters‟s abstract of will: “Zacharye Goodyeare, citizen and vintner of London, 18 July 1613, proved 31 July 1613. To be buried in the parish church of St. Gregory near Paul‟s in London. To my loving mother ten pounds. To my cousin Mary Storye five pounds. The residue to my son Stephen Goodyere whom I make executor. I make, nominate and ordain my brothers John Partridge, scrivener, and Ralph Bowlton, merchant tailor, citizens of London, overseers.”2 Susanna Baxter was second wife.2 On 5 Jul 1596 Zachary married Susanna/Suzanne Baxter2,1, 6497, daughter of William Baxter & Margaret Butler, in London, England.2 For more on Baxter‟s family, see Beers.2 They had the following children: 2 i. Stephen (ca1598-1658) 3 ii. John (ca1599-) Second Generation ————————————————————————————————————————————— Family of Zachary Goodyear (1) & Susanna/Suzanne Baxter 2. Stephen Goodyear (Zachary1)3, 3248. Born ca 1598. Stephen died in London, England, in 1658; he was 60.4 1614: “citizen and vintner of London, was bound apprentice to Ralph Bowlton of Paternoster Row for seven years, and was freed 12 Nov. 1621; indicating that he was born in 1600. The will of Ralph Bowlton, citizen and merchant tailor of London, dated 3 Mar. 1648/9, state: „I forgive my kinsman Stephen Goodyear his debt of £100.‟”5 He “was probably a London merchant; here chosen assistant, and, in 1641, dep. gov., in which office he served until he went home; his wife embarked 1645 in Lamberton‟s ship for London, was lost with all of many passengers. He married Lamberton‟s widow, went home 1656 or 1657, and died soon in London...”6 A map showing the “half-mile square” of central New Haven shows Stephen Goodyear, “leading merchant and deputy governor of the colony,” living on the Chapel St. side of the green near College St. Thomas Gregson lived nearby [CT Nutmegger v. 21 p. 57]. New Haven, CT, 1638, Assistant to “Dep‟ Gov”3 “Mr. Goodyear was licensed 26 Jan. 1640 to carry 250 passengers to New England in the St. John of London. “Mr. Stephen Goodyear was an original proprietor of New Haven, and an early, but not original, subscriber to the Fundamental Agreement of 4 June 1639. He was chosen a deputy, May 1641, and was one of the two Magistrates of the Town chosen (with Mr. Eaton) 27 Oct. 1641 and 26 Oct. 1642. On 6 Apr. 1643 he was appointed member of an advisory committee to consult with the New Haven Commissioners of the United Colonies. In 1641 he was listed with nine heads in his household, and an estate of £1000. “He was chosen Deputy-Governor of New Haven Colony, 26 Oct. 1643, and held that office continuously until his death, being last elected 27 May 1657. He was Commissioner for the United Colonies, 1645 to 1647, and 1650 to 1651. “He was chosen a Town Auditor, 22 Oct. 1645. He was given liberty, 1 Feb. 1647, to brew beer for the Town. He was one of the six commissioners appointed for New Haven, 17 June 1650, to set the bounds between that town and Milford. “He was a merchant and ship-owner; on 18 May 1641 he bought Shelter Island of Mr. Farrett, and sold it 9 June 1651 for £1600 of merchantable sugar; in 1647 he attempted to buy the Zwoll from the authorities at Fort Amsterdam; and in 1651 was owner, with Edward Stanton, of five-eighths of the Swallow. On 10 Mar. 1651 he was appointed member of a committee on the settlement at Delaware Bay, and in 1655 he expressed his willingness to adventure his life and estate if a company could be induced to settle there. Between 1655 and 1657 he had an interest in the Iron Works at Stony River.”5 married 2nd wife Widow Lamberton3 “Dep. Gov. of New Haven Colony and Commissioner for United Colonies.”1 1645: GOODYEAR FAMILY HISTORY “In 1645 four men built or purchased a large vessel identified in the records simply as the „Great Shippe.‟ „Theophilus Eaton, Stephen Goodyear, Thomas Gregson, and Richard Malbon, acting together as the Company of Merchants of New Haven, then chartered it for a transatlantic voyage. “George Lamberton, New Haven‟s most distinguished mariner, was appointed captain. Thomas Gregson, a veteran merchant, was made agent to sell the goods in England and to arrange for regular future trade. Captain Nathaniel Turner was put in general charge of the party, which was to number some 70 people. During the winter the ship was loaded with about 5,000 pounds worth of hides, lumber, peas, wheat, and other valuables. “Enthusiasm ran high, and nobody was willing to delay departure until the clement weather came. In January 1646, a 3-mile channel was cut through the frozen harbor, and the „Great Shippe‟ moved out to sea, carrying the hopes of New Haven and a good part of its leadership and its remaining wealth. The „Great Shippe‟ was never heard from again.”7 1653: Elizabeth Godman filed a complaint again Goodyear and his wife that they were accusing her of witchcraft.8 “In the same year [1655], Elizabeth Goodman of New Haven was brought to trial. For two years this woman, a member of the Stephen Goodyear household, had behaved oddly, charging various persons with thinking her a witch. The evidence was held insufficient and she was released to live in the home of Thomas Johnson where she died in 1660.”9 The story of Mrs. Godman is told in greater detail by Diane Rapaport in New England Ancestors Magazine (v. 7.3, p. 51). “Mrs. Godman lived with Deputy Governor Stephen Goodyear and his family in a large house overlooking the central town green. Perhaps she was a friend or relative, and probably a woman of high social rank, judging from her own substantial estate and the „Mrs.‟ before her name. Single women and widows, however, no matter how prosperous, could not live along in seventeenth-century New England--the law required „family governance‟--so Mrs. Godman put her financial holdings into Stephen Goodyear‟s hands, and he granted her a room at the top of the stairs.” She was “outspoken and opinionated,” and the townspeople associated her with strange happenings, such as illnesses and knowing things she shouldn‟t know. She new she would be summoned to defend herself, and she “decided to file her own preemptive complaint. She sued several New Haven residents for defamation--even Deputy Governor Goodyear and his wife--and declared that she would „trounce them‟ all.” Governor Eaton called for hearings in 1653. Many people offered “circumstantial evidence against Mrs. Godman, but it was testimony by Stephen Goodyear‟s adolescent daughters that proved most damning. The girls slept in a second-floor bedroom just below Mrs. Godman‟s chamber, and they maintained intense curiosity about their boarder‟s activities. Often they heard Mrs. Godman talking in her room, and once they tiptoed up the stairs to listen outside Mrs. Godman‟s door. They clearly heard words like „will you goe‟ and „will you fetch me some beare,‟ as if Mrs. Godman entertained a visitor in her bedchamber. Then, one hot day when Mrs. Godman returned home from a walk and retired to her room, the girls decided to spy on her. They climbed up to the attic, to a spot directly above Mrs. Godman‟s room, where they could peer through the floorboards. There they saw Mrs. Godman in bed, partially clothed, behaving as if someone (the Devil?) might be under the covers with her....Two days later, one of the girls „heard a hedious noise,‟ felt someone pinching her, and fell into a „dreadfull fitt‟ and fever.” Needless to day, Mrs. Godman did not win her case (one of the judges was Stephen Goodyear). The judges told her they would keep an eye on her. She continued to live with Stephen Goodyear, and two years later she was back in court accused of witchcraft. In addition to the usual stories of dying farm animals and spoiled beer, the Goodyear daughters once again offered “the most dramatic testimony. One night, the girls were „awakened wth a great fumbling at the chamber dore.‟ Something came into their room. „[I]t came nearer the bed and Hanah was afraid and called father, but he heard not, wch made her more affraide.‟ Then the intruder pulled at the bedcovers; the girls held on, and a tug-of-war ensued, which „frighted them so that Hanah Goodyeare called her father so loude as...might be heard to the meetinghouse.‟ The mysterious prowler had disappeared by the time Stephen Goodyear arrived on the scene, but Mrs. Godman, of course, was the prime suspect.” The judges did not think the charges were sufficient to take her life, but the Goodyears evicted her. She found another New Haven home with the Thomas Johnson family, where she lived out her life, dying in 1660. “On 26 January 1640 Stephan Goodyear merchant tailor, owner of messuages and tenements near Paul‟s Cathedral in London, was licensed to carry two hundred and fifty passengers to New England in the „St John of London;‟ by 1642 with others he owned portions of the Long Island Shore opposite New Haven, including what later was named Shelter Island; as early as 1644 he was associated with others in New Haven in an attempt to build ocean-going vessels.