William Beardsley
Encyclopedia
William Beardsley was one of the first settlers of Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....

 (abt. 1635).

Biography

He was born 1605 in Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

; England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in 1631 he married Mary Harvie in St. Mary's church, as written in "Beardsley Genealogy - The Family of William Beardsley - One of the first settlers and founder of Stratford, Connecticut" (Nellie Beardsley Holt, 1951). In 1633, their first son John was baptized there.

In 1635, Beardsley and his wife and three children boarded the ship "Planter" with 116 other passengers and sailed to Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. In December 1636, Beardsley took the oath of office in Massachusetts and was made a freeman.

In 1639, Beardsley and his wife left Boston to became one of the first settler families in the Pequonnock Plantation, which later became known as Stratford, Connecticut. Beardsley was active in the affairs of the settlement
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 and served as Deputy to the General Court at Hartford from 1645 to 1659,Judge, as well as being one of the founders of the First Congregational Church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 of Stratford.

After arriving in America, from 1636-1646 Beardsley and his wife had six additional children.

Beardsley died in Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....

in 1661 and is buried in Union Cemetery with his wife.

See also

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