Person Page - 44

Johan Sackett, daughter of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 7 June 1582.¹ She was probably the "Johan Wright widowe of St Lawrence" who was buried at St Peter in Thanet^G on 8 July 1622.³ She married at St Peter in Thanet^G on 29 November 1599, Hugh Wright.²
     Johan was named as a beneficiary in her father's will made at Birchington^G on 23 June 1615.⁴ She was left a sum of £5, to be paid a year after the expiry of the lease on her father's house and land at Birchington.

John Sackett, fisherman of St Peter in Thanet, Kent, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet^G on 9 January 1585/86.¹ He died aged about 48 and was buried there on 2 December 1634.⁴ He married there on 4 November 1611, Elizabeth Kitchen.^2,3 After John's death, Elizabeth married second at St Peter in Thanet^G on 4 April 1635 Thomas Wilkins.⁵
     John would have been the godson John Sackett who was left £1 in the will of his grandfather Thomas Sackett the elder made at St Peter in Thanet on 30 March 1594.⁶ John would also have been one of the unnamed sons each left £10 in their father's will made at Birchington on 23 June 1615.
     John made his will at St Peter in Thanet on 1 April 1628. It was proved in January 1634/35 by his widow Elizabeth, to whom he left all his estate after bequests of six pence to each of his siblings.⁷
     The will identifies a brother Simon. The only Simon Sackett known in this period was Simon the colonist. According to the family legend, it would have been this John Sackett who accompanied Simon to the New World, and this John Sackett's son, also a John Sackett, who was later identified living in New Haven, Connecticut.
     The will reads:
     The will, while not directly disproving the legend, provides no evidence to support it.
     It would appear from his will that John Sackett the fisherman did not have children. He would not, therefore, have been the father of John Sackett of New Haven.
     John the fisherman died in his native St Peter in Thanet, not in America. As he died in late 1634 and Simon's migration was probably in late 1630/early 1631 and certainly before 1632, it would be possible for John to have accompanied him to America and then to have returned to England. There are, however, no records of this John Sackett in New England (but see commentary on the inventory of 1684 of the estate of John Sackett of New Haven).
     At the date of the will, April 1628, Simon owed his brother John a sum of money, and it was John's request that repayment not be sought. Although assigning a reason for the loan is pure conjecture, it is tempting to hypothesise that John may have set aside funds for the costs of the voyage—is it possible that they were planning to emigrate at this early date? And was this the reason for John's making his will?
     The 6d to be paid to each of his brothers and sisters was a very small sum, more token than bequest. With no other apparent heir, his wife Elizabeth would have assumed ownership of his goods and chattels regardless of a will. The possibility suggests itself therefore that the main purpose of the will may have been to clarify the status of the loan to his brother Simon.
     John was appointed executor of his sister Sara Mockett's will made in Birchington^G on 22 March 1633. He was to distribute her estate equally to her children and was charged with bringing up and educating her three youngest children. A witness to the will, Elizabeth Sackett, would have been John's wife.

Martha Sackett, daughter of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 21 April 1588.¹ She married there on 26 November 1610, Thomas Napleton.²
     Martha would have been one of the unnamed daughters each left £5 in their father's will made at Birchington on 23 June 1615.

Sara Sackett, daughter of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 13 May 1591.¹ She died aged about 43 and was buried at Birchington, Kent^G, on 3 June 1634.⁴ She married at Birchington^G on 6 February 1614/15, Richard Mockett.^2,3 He was buried at St Nicholas at Wade, Kent^G, on 2 January 1627.⁵
     Sara would have been one of the unnamed daughters each left £5 in their father's will made at Birchington on 23 June 1615.
     Richard Mockett made his will at St Nicholas at Wade^G on 30 December 1626. He left £10 to each of his sons, Valentine, John, and Richard, when they reached 21, and £10 to each of his daughters, Anne and Sara, when they reached 18. Daughter Anne was a daughter of Richard's first marriage to Catharine Coop. Richard's wife Sara was to have the use of the money for the children's education, as well as receiving the residue of the estate. The will was proved on 24 January 1627.
     Sara made her will in Birchington^G on 22 March 1633. She appointed her brother John as executor and left her estate to him in trust to bring up her three youngest children, and to distribute her estate equally to all her children as they came of age. A witness to the will, Elizabeth Sackett, was probably John's wife. The will was proved on 12 June 1634. John died later the same year, presumably leaving Sara's children to the care of other family members.

Richard's will Sara's will

Thomas Sackett, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 5 August 1593.¹ He died aged 25 and was buried there on 16 April 1619.²
     Thomas was named as a beneficiary in his father's will made at Birchington^G on 23 June 1615.³ He was appointed joint executor with his mother Martha and was left a sum of £10 to be paid a year after the expiry of the lease on his father's house and land at Birchington.

Simon Sackett's legacy
Undoubtedly the most significant migration in the history of the Sackett family was that of Simon Sackett who, with his wife Isabel and their infant son Simon, emigrated from St Peter in Thanet, Kent, England, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America.
     Despite a short life—he had probably not reached forty when he died in 1635—Simon Sackett the colonist enjoys a pivotal position in the history of the Sacketts, becoming the progenitor of the major part of the American branch of the family.

Simon Sackett, of St Peter in Thanet, Kent, and Newtown (later Cambridge), Massachusetts Bay Colony, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet^G on 23 November 1595.¹ He died in Newtown^G between 5 and 10 Oct 1635.² He married first at St Peter in Thanet^G on 2 November 1618, Elizabeth Boyman.^3,4 She died after only seven years' marriage and was buried at St John in Thanet^G on 27 February 1625/26.⁷ He married second at St John in Thanet^G on 6 August 1627, Isabel Pearce.^5,6 After Simon's death, Isabel married after June 1636 and before 1639, probably in Hartford, Connecticut^G, William Bloomfield.⁸ Isabel died after 1 April 1682 (date of will made at Newtown, Long Island, New York.)⁹
     Simon would have been one of the unnamed sons each left £10 in their father's will made at Birchington, Kent^G, on 23 June 1615.
Simon and Isabel's emigration
Simon and Isabel emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony at about the time of the Winthrop fleet of 1630. Their names have not been found on passenger lists reconstructed by researchers of the early immigrants to New England. However, there is good evidence that they had settled in Newtown probably in 1631 and certainly by 1632.
     Charles Weygant, in The Sacketts of America stated that they made the journey on the Lyon, leaving Bristol, England, on 1 December 1630 and arriving at Nantasket Roads, off Boston, on 5 February 1631, after an unusually severe voyage. He further stated that among the heads of families on the Lyon were Roger Williams, Simon Sackett, John Sackett (who would be Simon's brother), John Throkmorton, and Nicholas Bailey.
     Weygant does not explain his conclusion that Simon came on this ship. It is a reasonable hypothesis, but supporting evidence has not been found. The Lyon's arrival date (February 1631) is a good match with the first record (1631 or 1632) of Simon in New England. And the presence of Williams and Throkmorton on this voyage is confirmed by Winthrop's Journal, Winthrop also recording the names of Perkins and Ong (but not Bailey or Sackett), "and others, with their wives and children, about twenty passengers".
     Other ships on which Simon may have travelled are possible. A fleet of six ships, carrying a group of some 350 settlers led by the Puritan minster Francis Higginson sailed from Gravesend in April and May 1629 for Salem. Numbers of the passengers on these ships settled in Boston, Charlestown, and other Bay Colony places as well as in Salem.
     Gravesend, in the Thames estuary on the north coast of Kent, and only 60 miles from Thanet, commends itself as a starting point for Simon's voyage, and is perhaps more likely than the Lyon's departure port of Bristol in the west of England.
     The possibility of Simon's migrating in Spring 1629 rather than in Winter 1630–31 would also fit better with the fact of his brother John's making his will in April 1628.
     It is possible, too, that Simon went with the main Winthrop fleet of eleven ships. The first five of these sailed from Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, in April and May 1630, arriving at Salem in June and July, but, perhaps of more interest, are ships setting out from Gravesend or London. The Thomas and William sailed from Gravesend in May, and the Handmaid from London in August.
     John Winthrop's wife and children made the voyage the following year, 1631, sailing from London in August on the Lyon and arriving at Nantasket on 2 November. Charles Banks, in The Planters of the Commonwealth, identified a number of residents of Newtown who he thought probably came in this ship. These residents first appear in Newtown records on 7 January 1632/33. Simon could have been a passenger on this ship, although it is clear from the town records that Simon was in Newtown at an earlier date than these other residents, and probably by July 1631. The conclusion by the Cambridge Historical Commission that Simon Sackett and others had settled there by 26 July 1631 is discussed below.
Simon in Newtown
Simon and Isabel were among the first settlers of Newtown, arriving in 1631 or 1632, and remaining there until Simon's death just a few years later in 1635.
     Newtown had been identified by Governor Winthrop and the "Assistants" of the company as a suitable site for a fortified town and he and Deputy Governor Dudley and Secretary Bradstreet as well as other senior men had committed to build houses there in the Spring of 1631 and to settle there before the following winter. (Winthrop did indeed have a house erected there but later took it down and re-erected it at Boston.)
     At the front of The Towne Book of Newtowne (later The Records of the Town of Cambridge (formerly Newtowne), Massachusetts, 1630–1703), Simon's name appears in an undated list, but either 1631 or 1632, of the first eight settlers of Newtown: "The Towne, Newtowne, Inhabitants then, Tho = Dudly Esqr, mr Symon Bradstreet, mr Edmond Lockwood, mr Daniell Patrike, John Poole, William Spencer, John Kirman, Symon Sackett."¹⁰
     The Cambridge Historical Commission have placed a historical notice in Winthrop Square stating that these men had completed and occupied houses in Newtown by 26 July 1631. This precise date would appear to refer to an order made at a meeting of the Court of Assistants held in Boston on that day that "eu'y first Friday in eu'y moneth there shalbe a gen'all traineing of the remaindr of them who inhabitt att Charlton, Misticke, & the new towne, att a convenient place aboute the Indian wigwams, the traininge to begin att one of the clocke in the afternoone."
     It would seem unlikely that an order for a general training would have been made for a smaller number of men than the eight named in the undated list. It is therefore likely that the list refers to those resident by July 1631. The Towne Book was started in 1632 and there is missing data from the first two pages. The words "Inhabitants then" introducing the list clearly relate to an earlier date, now missing or illegible in the original. (The transcription "Inhabitants then" appears in the transcription made by the Cambridge City Council in 1901. Lucius Paige's transcription in his 1877 History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877 reads "Inhabitants there".)
     The settlement grew rapidly with the arrival of the Braintree company in the summer of 1632, and it was decided to secure with fencing a substantial area of common land. By a decision of a town meeting on 7 January 1632/33, these "common pales", of a length of some 580 rods, were divided among the then 42 landholders. Simon was allotted 6 rods (equal to 33 yards). On 5 August 1633, he was granted half an acre for a cowyard in Cambridge.¹¹ On 20 August 1635, he was granted a one-acre share of land at Fresh Pond meadow.¹²
     Subsequent land records relate to Simon's widow Isabel. An inventory of land taken on 10 October 1635 (within days of Simon's death) and recorded in The Register Book of the Lands and Houses in the "New Towne" listed several lots in the name of Sackett: a house in the town at Long Street with about half a rood (i.e. one-eighth of an acre), half an acre at Cowyard Row, five and a half acres at Small Lott Hill, one acre and a rood at Long Marsh, and five acres in the Great Marsh.¹³
     Administration of Simon's estate was granted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Company to his widow Isabel on 3 November 1635.^14,15
     "Widdow Sackett" was listed in the Cambridge Town Records on 8 February 1635/36 as a householder. She owned one of the 76 houses in the town.
Isabel's removal to Hartford and remarriage
After Simon's death, Isabel removed with her young sons Simon and John to Hartford, Connecticut, travelling in the Spring of 1636 with the hundred-strong Hooker congregation, including William Bloomfield who had immigrated from England and settled at Cambridge in 1634. Isabel's sons Simon and John, about six and four respectively, accompanied her, and William's three-year-old daughter Sarah Bloomfield also made the journey. Isabel and William Bloomfield were married sometime after 8 February 1635/36 when Isabel was listed as a widow and householder in Cambridge and before about 1639 when William and Isabel's first son Daniel was born, presumably in Hartford. William and Isabel had two more sons, both born in Hartford, John in 1645 and Samuel in 1647.
     William and Isabel removed to Newtown, Long Island, in 1662. William died there in 1667 or 1668. Isabel survived him. She made her will at Newtown on 1 April 1682, leaving her share of the "housings and lands" left to her by her husband William to their son Daniel Bloomfield.
     Isabel's son Simon Sackett married his stepsister Sarah Bloomfield in Springfield, Massachusetts, in about 1652.
Simon's reasons for emigrating
Early migrants from England to the New World had various motivations for seeking a new life in a virtually unknown country and for undertaking the hazardous journey. Many fled religious persecution, but others removed in hopes of a better, more prosperous future. England had entered on a half-century of chronic trade depression. Propagandists for the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been founded in 1629, were active in the recruitment of settlers. And there was the promise of boundless fertile lands. Some were escapees from threatening plague or famine. Survival in the new land would depend crucially upon the application of essential practical skills; thus, many were farmers or were engaged in allied trades. Well-placed migrants took with them their servants and these, too, were to become founding fathers of America.
     Simon's reasons for embarking on his American adventure are not known. Nor do we know his occupation. Given the documentation of the time, it would seem likely that, had Simon emigrated for reasons of religious conviction, there would remain recorded evidence of the fact. But it is dangerous to speculate as to his reasons; it is to be hoped that further information will come to light. It is worth, however, considering Simon's family circumstances at the time.
     Simon Sackett was born, probably in November 1595 (he was baptized on 23 November 1595), in the small rural parish of St Peter in the Isle of Thanet on the north-east coast of Kent. He was the sixth of nine children, and third of five sons, born to Thomas and Martha Sackett. Simon's father, Thomas, who had died when Simon was 20, was a yeoman farmer in Birchington, a parish some five miles west of St Peter. Thomas had evidently established a farm at Birchington some time after the birth of his youngest child, Elizabeth, in 1604.
     The description of Thomas, in his will made in 1615, as a "yeoman" implies that he owned at least some of his land. However, the term does not necessarily imply significant wealth and it is clear from his will that his house and land at St Peter's were mortgaged and that his house and land at Birchington were rented. His will directed that the St Peter's property be sold to pay his debts and legacies. Thomas had inherited lands and a tenement at St Peter's from his father, also Thomas. Thomas the elder, although possessed of property, described himself in his will as a "labourer"; again, that will does not suggest significant wealth.
     Simon was about 35 years old when he made his fateful decision to emigrate. Two of his brothers had died, older brother Thomas some eleven years earlier, and younger brother William about fifteen years earlier. Although there is no direct confirmatory evidence, it is possible that they were victims of plague or other epidemic which occurred frequently in Birchington in the early part of the 17th century¹⁶. His eldest brother John, later identified by his will as John Sackett the fisherman, survived. There is no evidence that John or Simon were possessed of lands.
     Simon had been married twice; first in 1618 to Elizabeth Boyman, and following her death in 1625/26, second to Isabel Pearce in 1627. Elizabeth had borne him three daughters, Christianna in 1620, Elizabeth in 1623, and Martha in 1625. Of these, only Christianna is known to have survived to adulthood, marrying Thomas Tanner in 1641. No death or burial records for Elizabeth or Martha have been found but it is reasonable to assume that they died in infancy or childhood, perhaps the victims of plague. In any event, when he emigrated, Simon left at least one young, motherless, daughter behind, presumably in the care of one of his brothers or sisters.
     The will of Simon's brother John, made in 1628, reveals that Simon owed his brother a sum of money. It would be stretching the evidence to conclude that this would have been a loan to help finance Simon's voyage (emigration may not even have been under consideration at this early date), but it does indicate that Simon was not a man of means. As a second son, probably without land, his prospects in Thanet may have seemed limited. In the absence of evidence of a religious motive, it is probable that Simon was attracted by the promise of a more prosperous future in New England. Or, he may have been motivated by both religious and economic factors.
Simon and Isabel's voyage
Although Weygant gives specific details of the dates and method of Simon's journey to Boston, Massachusetts, on the Lyon from Bristol on England's west coast, it has not yet proved possible to verify from primary sources that he was a passenger on that particular voyage.^17,18 Weygant's version is probable but it is known to be inaccurate in the important particular of Simon's origin, Weygant stating this to be the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, instead of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Other writers have proposed various dates for Simon's migration (Riker, "about the year 1628 or '29"; Savage and Anderson, 1632). The earlier dates would seem less likely as there were relatively few settlers before the sailing of the Winthrop fleet of eleven ships in 1630. If Simon was indeed on this Lyon voyage then he would certainly have met John Winthrop as the latter boarded the ship on 8 February 1631 as it rode at anchor off Long Island.¹⁹
     Weygant records Simon as being engaged, with others, in building dwellings in Newtown, Mass., in 1631. Confirmation of this date would be of help in determining Simon's date of migration. Although it is likely that Simon was there in 1631, it has not been possible to confirm this. The first record of Simon found in Newtown (Cambridge) is in the undated list (almost certainly of 1632) in the Cambridge Town Records.
     The Cambridge Historical Commission have placed a plaque in Winthrop Park stating that Dudley, Bradstreet, Lockwood, Poole, Patrick, Spencer, Kirman, and Sackett had completed and occupied houses in Newtown by 26 July 1631. However, study of the Commission's source (Lucius Paige's History of Cambridge) suggests that this rather stretches the evidence. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Dudley and Bradstreet had built houses in Newtown by 1631 and it is likely that the others had also done so.²⁰
The family tradition
Weygant relates the family tradition as told to him by his father-in-law, Samuel Bailey Sackett, that Simon with his brother, John, travelled on the Lyon in company with Roger Williams. The existence of this brother has since been challenged (by Anderson) and our further researches have revealed that Weygant's primary evidence in support of the family tradition, that John Sackett, Simon's alleged brother, filed an inventory of his own son's estate (in 1684), was mistaken. With the removal of Simon's brother, John, the question is opened of the relationship between Simon and John of New Haven (claimed by Weygant to have been the son of Simon's brother)—and, indeed, the migration of this John Sackett.
DNA test results
An early objective of the Sackett DNA project was to see if there was a genetic link between the lines of Simon Sackett the colonist and John Sackett of New Haven. Given the family tradition, it was fully expected that a match would be found. However, test results for a significant number of present-day descendants in each line suggest that Simon and John were not related.

William Sackett, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 19 February 1597/98.¹ He died aged about 18 and was buried at Birchington, Kent^G, on 15 September 1615.²

Henry Sackett, son of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 1 February 1600/1.¹

Elizabeth Sackett, daughter of Thomas Sackett the younger and Martha Strowde, was baptized at St Peter in Thanet, Kent^G, on 29 January 1603/4.¹ She died aged about 69 and was buried at St Lawrence in Thanet^G on 22 December 1672.³ She married at St Lawrence in Thanet^G on 18 July 1625, Nicholas Stephens.²
     Elizabeth would have been one of the unnamed daughters each left £5 in their father's will made at Birchington on 23 June 1615.