Simon Hoyt

Male 1593 - 1657


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  • Name  Simon Hoyt  [1
    Born  1593  probably, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender  Male 
    Immigration  25 Apr 1629  New England Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 3
    • He came with his family in 1629, aboard the Lyon's Whelp and settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts.

      The Lyon's Whelp, John Gibbs, Master, saile from Gravesend, 25 April 1629. This ship did not sail from a West Country port, but Banks says it carried about forty planters out of Dorset and Somerset. Also, she brought six fishermen from Dorchester, Dorset.
    Died  01 Sep 1657  Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Notes 
    • ORIGIN: West Hatch, Somersetshire
      MIGRATION: 1629; "Lyon's Whelp"
      FIRST RESIDENCE: Charlestown
      REMOVES: Dorchester by 1633, Scituate 1635, Windsor by 1639, Fairfield by 1649, Stamford 1657
      CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: On 19 April 1635 "Symeon Hayte and Bernard Lumbard and their wives' joined the church at Scituate [NEHGR 9:2791.
      FREEMAN: 18 May 1631 (MBCR 1:366].
      OFFICES: Dorchester fenceviewer, 8 October 1633, 24 May 1634 [DTR 3, 6].
      ESTATE: On 3 April 1633 "Symon Hoite" was responsible for building forty feet of fence at Dorchester, based on ownership of two cows [DTR 2]. On 6 January 1633/4 it is "ordered that the marsh and swamp before Goodman Hosford and Davy Wil[ton] shall be divided among themselves and Symon Hoyte' [DTR 5]. On 2 June 1634 it is 'ordered that Goodman Witchfeild and Goodman Hoyte shall have to be divided between them the marsh that lies in the north side of the neck towards Boston over against Mr. Rainsford's house in Boston, being for 8 acres by estimation' [DTR 6]. On 10 February 1634/5 'Simon Hoyte' was ordered to keep one of the bulls in the neck of land [DTR 10]. On 17 April 1635 it is 'ordered that the lot of meadow which was Symon Hoyte's next to Boston side joining to John Witchfeild shall be divided betwixt Mr. Rodger Williams and Gyles Gibbes" [ DTR 11].

      In his accounting of houses built at Scituate, Rev. John Lothrop included 'Goodman Haite's" as the sixteenth, about midway in the section of those built between September 1634 and October 1636, and with the annotation 'which Mr. Bower hath bought" [NEHGR 10:42].

      In the Windsor land inventory on 28 February 1640[/41] "Symon Hoyte' had granted from the plantation for meadow and upland "four- score acres,' also 'on the northside of the rivulet fourscore acres, thirty [of?] which is given his son Walter Hoyte from the town' [WiLR 1:88].

      Five of the children of Simon Hoyt gave in receipts for their portions of his estate: Samuel Firman 'to my mother Hoyt for all demands from my father's estate," 25 March 1662; 'Moses Hoyte of Westchester, discharge to Joshua Hoyt of Stamford," 2 April 1666; "Samuell Hoyte, receipt for portion from father Simon Hoyte,' April 1665; 'Samuel Finch, receipt for wife's portion from father Simon Hoyte," April 1665; and "Benjamin Hoyte, receipt to brother Joshua Hoyte for portion from father's estate," 27 January [blank] [TAG 1 1:34; Gillespie Anc 289].

      On 1 February 1674 Moses Hoyt, Joshua Hoyt, Samuel Hoyt, Benjamin Hoyt, Thomas Lyon, Samuel Finch and Samuel Firman came to an agreement "concerning the distribution of the estate of our deceased mother Susanna Bates" [Gillespie Anc 289-90, citing Stamford LR A:61].

      ASSOCIATIONS: In the list of houses built at Scituate, the twenty first, built probably just a few months after that of Simon Hoyt, was the Smiths Goodman Hait's brother' [NEHGR 10:42]. Who this might be has not been learned. This may, however, be the basis for the identification of Hoyt's second wife as Susanna Smith, on the assumption that "The Smiths" intends a surname. But it more likely was meant for the occupation, as a blacksmith was an essential element of each of these new towns, and one frequently finds grants made specifically for the smith or the miller, without stating the name of the person employed in that calling.

      COMMENTS: In 1903 Emily Warren Roebling included in The Journal of the Reverend Silas Constant a number of birth, marriage and death records said to pertain to the family of Simon Hoyt, and to be from the parish register of Upway, Dorsetshire. Donald Lines Jacobus and John Insley Coddington questioned these records, because parish registers provide us with baptismal and burial dates rather than birth and death dates, and also because some of the dates were incomplete, lacking the day of the event; despite this, Paul Prindle argued in 1976 for their authenticity [Gillespie Anc 287].

      More recently the IGI has led to several entries in the parish register of West Hatch, Somersetshire, which are more appropriate for this family, and which are in direct contradiction with the data published by Roebling. As a result, we reject here all the Upway dates, and also the identification of the first wife of Simon Hoyt.

      Without the evidence for the identity of the first wife we might wonder whether Simon Hoyt had more than one wife. The range of years over which Simon Hoyt had children (nearly thirty) and the agreement over the estate of his widow, Susannah ( ) (Hoyt) Bates, which did not include the four older surviving sons, are sufficient evidence that Simon Hoyt was married twice.

      Without the Upway dates we have no evidence for daughters Ruth and Deborah, and the sons need to be rearranged. Walter would appear to be the eldest son, for two reasons at least. First, in the Windsor grants of land to his father, there is also a grant to him, at a time when he would recently have come of age. If John were older, we would expect to find him in these land records as well. Second, from the records of Matthew Grant we know that both Walter and Nicholas had married before Simon Hoyt moved to Fairfield, but there is no indication from Windsor records that John had married this early. There is also no evidence for a son Thomas. Prindle lists some records for such a person, but they actually pertain to Thomas Hyatt of Stamford [Gillespie Anc 290; FOOF 1:318]. To add to the confusion, probate documents for Simon Hoyt and Thomas Hyatt are mixed together on the same pages of the Stamford records [TAG 11:34].

      The seven children of the second wife must all have been born in the 1630s and 1640s, from about 1632 to about 1647. These records are internally consistent, but do raise a small problem when compared with what little we learn from the records of Scituate and Windsor, the two towns in which Simon Hoyt lived from 1635 to about 1646. Hoyt and his wife were admitted to Scituate church in 1635, but had no children baptized there, and Matthew Grant tells us that Simon Hoyt had two children born during his residence at Windsor [Grant 93]. The two eldest children of this marriage, Mary and Moses, were probably born in Dorchester. The next two, Joshua and Miriam, seem firmly placed as born in the years when the family lived in Windsor. The birth of Benjamin is recorded at Windsor on 2 February 1644[/5], but the dates for Samuel and Sarah are less certain, and seem to cluster around the period from 1645 to 1647, very close to the birth of Benjamin. If Grant is right, then these three must have been born in Fairfield; the solution may be that each of these is a little younger than our estimate, or that the Hoyt family moved to Fairfield as early as 1644. Either Grant is in error as to the number of children born in Windsor, or Benjamin wasn't really born in Windsor, but had his birth recorded there perhaps because he had elder brothers still living in that town.

      Simon Hoyt settled at Charlestown in 1629 [ChTR 2]. On 7 May 1640 "Symon Hoyette and his family are to be freed from watch & ward until there be further order taken by the court" [RPCC 11; CCCR 1:49].
    Person ID  I25494  Bryant
    Last Modified  20 Dec 2003 

    Family 1  Jane Stoodlie,   b. England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Abt 1625, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married  04 Nov 1617  Marshwood, Dorset, England Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Children 
     1. Walter Hoyt,   d. 10 Jan 1698, Norwalk, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     2. Nicholas Hoyt,   d. 07 Jul 1655, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     3. Alexander Hoyt
     4. John Hoyt,   b. 1625, Somerset, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1684, Rye, Westchester Co, New York Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Agnes Hoyt
    Family ID  F2055  Group Sheet

    Family 2  Susanna,   b. Abt 1612, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1664, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Married  Abt 1632  probably, Plymouth Colony Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • On April 19, 1635, "Symeon Hayte and Bernard Lumbard and their wives" joined the church at Scituate.[NEHGR 9:279]
    Children 
     1. Mary Hoyt,   b. 1632, probably, Dorchester, Suffolk Co, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location
     2. Moses Hoyt,   b. 1634, probably, Dorchester, Suffolk Co, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Abt 1712, Eastchester, Dutchess Co, New York Find all individuals with events at this location
     3. Joshua Hoyt,   b. 1639, probably, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1690, Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     4. Miriam Hoyt,   b. 1641, probably, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Samuel Hoyt,   b. 1643, probably, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 07 Apr 1720, Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     6. Benjamin Hoyt,   b. 02 Feb 1645, Windsor, Hartford Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 26 Jan 1736, Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
     7. Sarah Hoyt,   b. 1647, probably, Fairfield, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Mar 1713, Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID  F2057  Group Sheet

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 1593 - probably, Somerset, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - 04 Nov 1617 - Marshwood, Dorset, England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsImmigration - 25 Apr 1629 - New England Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - Abt 1632 - probably, Plymouth Colony Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsDied - 01 Sep 1657 - Stamford, Fairfield Co, Connecticut Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Maps 
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    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  • Sources 
    1. [S260] GMB, Anderson, Robert Charles, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1995).

    2. [S260] GMB, Anderson, Robert Charles, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1995), p.1028.

    3. [S191] Search for Passengers M & J:20, Burton W. Spear, (The Mary & John Clearing House, Toledo, OH, 1993), p. 19.

    4. [S32] TAG, The American Genealogist, 10:44,45.

    5. [S82] Search for Passengers M & J:25, Spear, Burton W., (The Mary & John Clearinghouse, Toledo, OH, 1996), p.42.


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