THE ENGLISH ORIGIN OF THOMAS¹ GILBERT
OF BRAINTREE, MASS., AND WETHERSFIELD, CONN.

With a Note on Lydia Gilbert,
Executed for Witchcraft in 1654

By Douglas Richardson, M.A..
"The American Genealogist" #267, vol. 67, July 1992, pp. 161–166

Thomas¹ Gilbert, the immigrant, settled at Braintree, Mass., before 24 Feb. 1639/40, when he was granted 28 acres (with seven heads in his household). He does not appear on any surviving passenger list for this time period, but he doubtless arrived in New England shortly before this date. In May 1646, a petition prepared by fourteen Braintree men was addressed to the Massachusetts Bay General Court "for the persuading or forcing Thomas Gilbert either to forbeare feeding yt iland or upland with certaine medowes or their environs, or else to lett it on reasonable termes to the petitioners." As early as 1651, three of Gilbert's sons, Jonathan, John and Josiah, leased a farm belonging to Lt. John Hollister of Nayaug. This farm was then in Wethersfield, Conn., but now is in Glastonbury, Conn. At some unknown date, Thomas Gilbert moved from Braintree to Wethersfield and assumed operation of the Hollister farm. He was clearly in Wethersfield by 17 Aug. 1658, for on that date a petition signed by Thomas Gilbert and others was presented to the Governor and Magistrates of the Connecticut Colony in support of Gilbert's landlord, Lt. Hollister. Thomas Gilbert died in Wethersfield before 5 Sept. 1659, when the inventory of his estate was taken. His wife, whose name does not appear in colonial records, apparently died at nearly the same time, since the estate inventory includes funeral charges for both Thomas Gilbert and his wife. On 6 Feb. 1663/4, his estate was distributed to his heirs: his six sons, Jonathan, Thomas, Ezekiel, Josiah, Obadiah and John Gilbert, and his daughter, Sarah Jenkins. (See Homer W. Brainard, Harold S. Gilbert, and Clarence A. Torrey, The Gilbert Family. Descendants of Thomas Gilbert, 1582(?)–1659 of Mt. Wollaston (Braintree), Windsor, and Wethersfield), ed. Donald Lines Jacobus [New Haven 1953, hereafter Gilbert Fam., pp. 9–24.)

The English origin of Thomas¹ Gilbert has not been previously discovered. Since all his children were born before he emigrated, it should be possible to find him in an English parish—if the parish register survives. Here the CD-ROM version of the LDS International Genealogical Index [IGI] is invaluable since it permits a large-scale search of all English counties. Hence I ran a search for any entries that showed a Thomas Gilbert as a parent in England in the 1600s. Because the surname is very common, I found many children born to men named Thomas Gilbert in this period. However, since the immigrant had sons named Ezekiel, Josiah and Obadiah, I searched specifically for them. I was able to locate a Thomas Gilbert who had three such children baptized at Yardley, co. Worcester, in the proper time period. I then made a full search for all Gilbert entries up to 1650 on a microfilm of the Yardley parish register (Family History Library [FHL] film #1,520,013). The entries are abstracted below:

The Gilbert records in Yardley, co. Worcester, are consistent with our knowledge of the New England family. They show that Thomas¹ Gilbert was baptized there in 1589, a son of Richard^A and Margery (Morken) Gilbert. He was married at Yardley in 1610 to Elizabeth Bennett. Baptisms for six of their seven known children were found in the Yardley parish register, as well as the burial of a previously unknown infant child.

WHO WAS LYDIA GILBERT, EXECUTED FOR WITCHCRAFT IN 1654? Although past researchers have not been positive about the name of Thomas¹ Gilbert's wife, some thought that he might have spent some time in Windsor, Conn., and that this wife was the Lydia Gilbert condemned for witchcraft in 1654 at Windsor. The case both for and against this identification is made in The Gilbert Family. As I shall show below, it was Thomas Gilbert Jr., not Sr., who lived at Windsor. And from the Yardley parish register, we now know that Thomas¹ Gilbert's wife was Elizabeth Bennett; if she was his unnamed wife who died at about the same time he did, he could not have married Lydia. Who then was Lydia Gilbert? Recent research indicates that the immigrant's eldest son, Thomas Gilbert Jr., did not accompany the rest of the family to New England about 1640. Rather, it appears that he married first on 17 Sept. 1639 in All Saints parish, West Bromwich, co. Stafford, England, to Mary James (FHL film #873,647). West Bromwich is some eight miles from Yardley. Following their marriage, they had a daughter, Mary, baptized at Yardley in 1641. Shortly before 24 Jan. 1644/5, Thomas Gilbert Jr. immigrated to New England, for on that date, he bought a five-acre houselot in Windsor, Conn., from Francis Stiles (Gilbert Fam. p. 14). The Windsor man has been identified as Thomas Gilbert Sr., but since Thomas Sr. was still living in Braintree, Mass., as late as May 1646, he could not have been the Windsor resident. Windsor records show that sometime prior to 1652, Thomas Gilbert [Jr.] conveyed his houselot in Windsor to John Drake Sr. and, in turn, acquired an 113/4 acre houselot from Josiah Hull (Gilbert Fam. p. 14). Afterwards, he sold this second Windsor houselot to Thomas Bissell and in 1655 left Windsor for Springfield, Mass. (Gilbert Fam. pp. 14, 50–52). While still "of Windsor," he entered into a marriage contract on 23 May 1655 with Katherine (Chapin) Bliss, the widow of Nathaniel Bliss of Springfield (Joseph H. Smith, ed., Colonial Justice in Western Massachusetts (1639–1702): The Pynchon Court Record [Cambridge, Mass., 1961], hereafter Pynchon Court Rec., p. 233). He thereafter lived in Springfield where he died in 1662 (Gilbert Fam. pp. 50–52). It is apparent that Thomas Gilbert Jr. was widowed before 23 May 1655, when he signed the marriage contract with widow Bliss. Lydia Gilbert of Windsor was condemned to death for witchcraft at a court session which began on 28 Nov. 1654 (Records of the Particular Court of Connecticut, 1639– [Hartford 1928] p. 131): [Indictment] Lydea GiIburt thou art heere indited by that name of Lydea Gilburt that not hauing the feare of god before thy Eyes thou hast of late years or still dust giue Entertainement to Bather [sic] the greate Enemy of god and mankinde and by his helpe hast killed the Body of Henry Styles besides other witchcrafts for which according to the law of god and the Estableshed law of this Comon wealth thou deservest to Dye[.] [Verdict] ye Party aboue mentioned is found guilty of witchcraft by ye Jury[.] The court record does not identify Lydia Gilbert, but she almost certainly was Thomas Gilbert Jr.'s wife. We can be reasonably sure of this, for Lydia Gilbert was accused of using witchcraft to kill Henry Stiles of Windsor, who had been Thomas Gilbert Jr.'s former employer (Gilbert Fam. pp. 14–19). If this conclusion is correct, Thomas Gilbert Jr. had at least three wives: Mary James, whom he married in 1639 in England; Lydia _____, who was executed for witchcraft in 1654; and Katherine (Chapin) Bliss of Springfield, Mass., whom he married in 1655. In addition to Thomas Gilbert Jr.'s known issue by his marriage to widow Bliss, he had surviving children by an earlier marriage who have never been identified, for in his will, dated 3 May 1662 and probated 20 Sept. 1662, be specifically left a sum of money to "my sons and daughters which are in the first family" (Gilbert Fam. p. 51). My own efforts to identify them have not gone beyond finding that Clarence Almon Torrey lists no stray Gilberts who married prior to 1700 in the Connecticut River Valley (New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [Baltimore 1985]). Note: Jonathan "Gilburt" was bound over to the Hampshire Co., Mass., court on 28 March 1676, " for that he being one Yea a Cheife Actor in that Riotious Assembly at Hadley being then Present with them and haveing his Cudgell, Sideing with them in their Publique affronteing of Authority" (Pynchon Court Rec. p. 285). This Jonathan Gilbert was probably Jonathan³ (Jonathan², Thomas¹) of Hartford and Middletown, who, about 1674, had admitted to "youthful vanities" (Gilbert Fam. p. 72).

1   RICHARD^A GILBERT was born say 1550. He married at Yardley, co. Worcester, England, on 25 June 1575 MARGERY MORKEN, whose parentage is unknown. There are no other Morken entries in the Yardley parish registers, none in the Worcester probate index and none in the 1603 subsidy rolls for northern Worcestershire (John Amphlett, Lay Subsidy Roll A.D. 1603 for the County of Worcester [Oxford 1901]). Further search for Margery should center on nearby parishes across the border in Warwickshire or Staffordshire. Following their marriage, Richard and Margery (Morken) Gilbert lived in Yardley, where a Richard Gilbert was buried on 8 April 1626. There is no burial in Yardley for Margery under the Gilbert surname, nor have probate records in the Consistory Court of Worcester or the Prerogative Court of Canterbury been found for either of them.

Children (GILBERT) of Richard^A and Margery (Morken), bp. Yardley, co. Worcester:

2   THOMAS¹ GILBERT was baptized in Yardley, co. Worcester, on 25 April 1589. He died in Wethersfield, Conn., before 5 Sept. 1659, when his inventory was taken. He married in Yardley on 29 Aug. 1610 ELIZABETH BENNETT, whose parentage is unknown. Her baptism was not recorded at Yardley, so presumably she came from a nearby parish. She may have been related to Edmond "Benettes" who married in 1552 Alice Pretty in the adjacent parish of King's Norton, co. Worcester. Elizabeth (Bennett) Gilbert may be Thomas Gilbert's unnamed wife who died in Wethersfield, Conn., at about the same time that he did.

Children (GILBERT) of Thomas¹ and Elizabeth (Bennett) (English recs. above; Gilbert Fam. pp. 9–71, and sources as cited).

Mr. Richardson is a commercial real estate appraiser. His address is 4791 Red Wolf Dr., Tucson AZ 85741