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- William Sutton 1641-1718
Massachusetts, New Jersey
William Sutton, like his father, was a Quaker. His only reference in the Scituate, Massachusetts church records show him on trial on 6-5-1666 for "stealing the Bible from the Meeting House." The trial was held in Eastham, across the bay from Scituate, Massachusetts. William was neither a resident or landowner of Eastham at the time. The Bible he was accused of taking was probably his own property, and he was probably desirous of taking it with him to New Jersey. He was convicted and fined one pound for the crime and ten shillings for telling a lie about it! Puritans held very little respect for Quakers, and the latter were not equably dealt with. Therefore, the punishment may or may not have been fair. This possibly was the reason for him moving to Eastham, Massachusetts, where his name appears 7-11-1666 in the marriage records. William lived with his wife, Damaris Bishop, in Eastham, from 1666-1671.
Eastham was orginally called Nausett, after the local Indian tribe. By 1666, it was a settlement of four to five dozen brave souls, and was considered a tiny English outpost in the narrow neck of land between the bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
About this time, word was spreading about a new Colony in the Southwest, between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers, where the Indians were friendly and new settlers were welcome. The soil and climate was supposed to be good and religious freedom was guaranteed. When William's parents fled to North Carolina, in order to flee religious persecution, he did not join them. Instead, William decided to move with his wife, Damaris, and their children, to the afore mentioned settlement in Piscataway, Middlesex County, New Jersey, in 1672-1673. His wife's father, Richard Bishop, sold his land in Duxbury, Massachusetts and went along to live with his only daughter, and William, in New Jersey. William was constable, in 1673, in Piscatawy, NJ.
The first record of the William Sutton family in New Jersey occurred on Jan. 30, 1677, when there were surveyed to him one hundred and twenty acres. This is recorded in the Elizabethtown bill-in-chancery. There were several subsequent surveys made in his name.
William and his family settled on or near the Raritan River, not far from the present town of New Brunswick. In 1682, Piscataway had a population of about 400, and William owned 249 acres of land, burdened only by nominal quit-rent of one-half penny per acre, annually.
Although there had been few Quakers in Eastham, Massachusetts, William became very influential in the NJ community. He was a pillar in the the Quaker congregation that met in the neighboring town of Woodbridge. He was a chosen a freeholder, a constable, a town clerk, and he served on the boards of church discipline and inquiry, at different times.
Records show that William contributed a "year old steer" toward the building of a new Friends' Meeting House at Woodvridge, NJ. Unfortunately, for two years the finance committee was unable to convert the animal to cash and had to pay exorbitant boarding fees of six t eight and one half shillings per winter.
There was another grant to William Sutton, March 25, 1687, of one hundred and twenty five accres, tewnty five of which was due his second wife, Jane, as "Headland," thereby proving that Jane Barnes was the immigrant or the first of her family in New Jersey. She was probably the "Widow Jane Barnes, of London," who was given deed to one twenty-fourth share in the East Jersey Company. William Sutton, constable of Piscataway, returned Thomas Fitz Randolph elected as representative, August 28, 1695.
Friends' Meeeting House records of 2-18-1706 of Woodbridge, NJ show that William Sutton and his wife, Jane, intended to move from Piscataway to Burlington, NJ. The certificate of approval was signed by Nathaniel Fitz Randolph and others.
The last record of him, in 1713, mention he was an aged man. He left no will.
References include:
New England Historic Genealogical Register, Vol 91, Jan. 1937
Sutton Searchers Newsletter #2 July 1991
Outlaw Genealogy, Albert Timothy Outlaw & Arnie Henry Outlaw
Colonial Dames of XVII Century, 1896-(1968)
Family Data Collection - Individual Records about William Sutton
Name: William Sutton
Spouse: Damaris Bishop
Parents: George Sutton, Sarah Tilden
Birth Place: Scituate, MA
Birth Date: 25 May 1641
Marriage Date: 11 Jul 1666
Death Place: Piscataway, Middlesex County, NJ
Death Date: 28 Apr 1718
Source Citation: Birth year: 1641; Birth city: Scituate; Birth state: MA.
Source Information:
Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. [1, 2]
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