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Foote Family Association of America Inc Our Family History See our Website at: Http://www.footefamily.org/ Source: Article in Footeprints - Summer 1999 fortunes in the New World. According to Issue - The Foote Family Association Of tradition, they left their homes in America) As far as can be determined from Colchester and sailed to Plymouth available publications and sources the Massachusetts on the brig, "Fortune". Page | 1 majority of the Foote families of America are all descended with few exceptions The Colony of Massachusetts" from either Nathaniel Foote of (Source: The Foote Family or the Colchester England, who initially settled Descendants of Nathaniel Foote, Watertown, Mass, or Pasco Foote who by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of settled in Salem Mass. Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.) There were two brothers, Richard (the Some sources say Nathaniel, his wife elder) and William Foote descended out Elizabeth, and their six children settled of Cornwall, England who were in Watertown, Massachusetts. Pasco dispatched by their father Nicholas (who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, and it was a London merchant) to Stafford, is not known where John (or Caleb) King George County, Virginia. Richard lived. As far as we know, John had no and William are not thought to be children. related to Nathaniel or Pasco. Old Wethersfeld On the banks of the Connecticut, twenty The Footes' Arrival miles below its last rapid 's and forty (source: "Foote History and Genealogy" miles above its mouth, at one of those - Book 1 By Abram Foote, graceful bent which the river makes Accepted data from the period indicates while winding through meadows which it that only a few colonists arrived in New beautifies and nourishes, stands the England in the years immediately ancient town of Wethersfield,the eldest following the arrival of the Mayflower. As born** of the many sweet villages which an example, It is known that in the adorn this valley. spring of 1630, about 1500 people ** This is the tradition, and the Rev. Mr. crossed the Atlantic in one expedition Mix, of Wethersfield, in his manuscripts, organized and led by John Winthrop, says," Wethersfield is the eldest town on first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay the river." Trumbull's History of Colony. Connecticut, Vol I, p. 49. Note: From the Wethersfield Records it Soon after Governor Winthrop's 1630 appears, that there was a body of land expedition Nathaniel Foote, his family, next east to the home lots on the east and Pasco Foote decided to seek their side of Broad Street, designated in the Page | 1 | Foote Family Association of America Inc Our Family History See our Website at: Http://www.footefamily.org/ first conveyances as " Adventurers accommodations for their cattle," and Land," and from the proceedings of the welcome " more of their friends from Court of Magistrates held at Watertown, England" who were suffering for the faith [Wethersfield) September 1, 1636, and once delivered to the Saints. Page | 2 November 1, of the same year, that Sergeant Seeley recovered against the Among those who voluntarily placed a town, on an award, (made by Mr. wilderness of one hundred miles Hooker, Mr. Welles and Mr. Webster,) between themselves and the "one hundred and fifty bushels of corn," settlements on the coast, and whose in the right of William Bascome, "as an ashes now repose in the burying ground adventurer." on which the shadow of the first meeting house fell, we find the names of: From these items, and from the local traditions, it would appear, that a portion Nathaniel Foote, Samuel Boardman, of the territory, prior to a distribution of James Boosey, Enoch Buck, Clement the town among the settlers in 1636, Chaplin, Leonard Chester, John had been appropriated to themselves by Deming, Robert Francis, John Goodrich, William Goodrich, John Hollister, John a company of men known as Nott, John Robbins, John Stoddard, Adventurers, and that the rights of these Richard Treat, Thomas Welles, Thomas men were judicially recognized. Wright, and others. To this spot, then known as Pyquag, the These are names which their English colonist first turned his steps in, descendants, and all the friends of civil or prior to, 1635, attracted doubtless by and religious freedom, should hold in its fertile soil, its pure and navigable everlasting remembrance. Some of their waters, and its supposed facilities for descendants, from generation to internal trade in furs and other traffic generation, have continued to reside on with the Indians. their ancestral farms, and in the old town,* whilst others early left the mother And to this spot, one year later, came a hive for land "still further west," until portion of that " goodly company" who some of the same name and lineage are left the jurisdiction of Massachusetts to be found in every State between the and their newly acquired homesteads Atlantic and Pacific oceans. and farms in Watertown, and other settlements in the neighborhood of Wherever they are to be found, in Boston, in pursuit of territory " further prosperous or adverse fortune, their west," where they might " better hearts still fondly turn to this fountain maintain their ministers," "find larger head of their family on this Continent, all Page | 2 | Foote Family Association of America Inc Our Family History See our Website at: Http://www.footefamily.org/ proud to trace back their genealogy to His business in life was that of the heroic age of New England, and to agriculture, necessarily the leading this quiet resting place of their fathers pursuit of New England in its early on the banks of the beautiful history, when the forests were to be Page | 3 Connecticut. 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 Nathaniel Foote and strength of a State. (Source: The Foote Family or the Descendants of Nathaniel Foote, by Nathaniel Goodwin, Hartford Press of It is from this class of the population that Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.) the city and the village, that commerce Nathaniel foote, one of the first settlers and the arts, are ever drawing the bone of Wethersfield, Connecticut, belongs, and muscle of their laborers, and much not to that class of men who fill a large of the energy of their directing force. place in the world's history, because called by some great emergency into In no other of the leading pursuits of positions of power and influence, but to Society are there the same facilities for that more meritorious class of pious and excellent persons, who, born to the cultivating bodily energy, and the force great inheritance of labor, walk meekly and vigor of mind consequent upon a along the paths of common life, perform vigorous constitution. every duty, public or private, love and help their fellow men, and act always as The pure air, the rough exposure, the if in their Great Task Master's eye. healthful toil, the constant call for thought and reflection, the walking with It is to such men that society owes at God in the open field, the study of his once, its peace, stability and progress,- laws as unfolded in the circuit of the and yet history takes no note of such, seasons, and in the growth of the seed and hence "The world knows nothing of and ripening of the harvest, the better its greatest men." Page | 3 | Foote Family Association of America Inc Our Family History See our Website at: Http://www.footefamily.org/ domestic training under which children Smith, granted to him." can be reared in the country, all these things are favorable for converting the A few years later (about the year 1635) the General Court decided that they would Page | 4 agricultural population into an element allow people of Watertown to move "to of conservatism, much needed to give any place they shall think meet to make stability to the ever restless desire of choice, provided they continue still under change which animates a young this Government". community, and to uphold society in moments of danger and trial. (Note: Here again sources differ. Some sources say that it was in 1633 the court gave its approval.) It is the boast of Connecticut, and of Wethersfield in particular, to Consequently several adventurers including Nathaniel, his wife Elizabeth, have had from the beginning a large and their six children ranging in age proportion of intelligent, industrious and from sixteen year old Elizabeth to baby pious farmers in her population, and that Sarah, and others decided to leave from the ranks of her merchants, her the Watertown Bay Colony. mechanics, her seamen, and her They felt conditions around the Boston professional men have. area had become to crowded. The group of adventurer's, led by John The first mention of Nathaniel's name is Oldham, started a new settlement in the in the Records of the Colony of Connecticut wilderness. The new Massachusetts Bay in 1633 when he settlement was first called Pyquag. Later took the oath of Freeman. In the records the name was changed to Wethersfield. of the Grants and Possession of the Lands in Watertown, where he first located, the following entry is made: Early maps of Wethersfield (1634-44), (dubbed "the most ancient town for the valley" and the oldest "Nathaniel Foote" "An home stall of permanent settlement in Connecticut,) sixteen acres by estimation, bounded ye show the homesteads of both the Smith north and northwest with ye highway, and Foote families.

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