vital records sources

John may have been the man of that name who was in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 1639. After three of his children were born, perhaps several at Duxbury, next two have baptisms recorded at New Haven Colony (1646 and 1648). The first certain record of John is when he was admitted "a member of the court" at the New Haven General Court session on 24 February 1644/5,1 Elsewhere in the court minutes show that this described men who became freemen of the Colony. He is mentioned at a court session held on 2 March 1646/7, at which "it was ordred that the proportions of John Meggs, John Gregory and Robert Preston be setled vpon them severally, they buying the proportions of 300' from Mr. Evance."2 A record of the General Court dated 25 May 1646 says that John and another man "doe looke that noe hydes come out of the tanners hands but those that are well tanned, & that they seale them if they doe allowe them, & that they have 4 d[pence] p[er] hyde for vieweing & sealing of them."3 This is a description of the town office of leather sealer. He and his wife are on a list of those seated in the New Haven meetinghouse, dated 10 March 1646/7. By 1 January 1648/9, John is among the absent landowners identified as not tending their fences or paying taxes. John is described as being from Stratford in depositions in his father's court case in 1647, and he appears in the town's land records, having had two lots bought from him by 1653. The enumeration of children born in Norwalk mentioned earlier says only one of John's children was born there. He had three known children very likely born after 1649, suggesting several were born in Stratford. Son Thomas was baptized in New Haven in March 1649, showing the family were still members there, but perhaps fluid in their residency.
     John was involved in a court case similar to his father's, but the wording is obtuse. It concerned a complaint against his duties as leather sealer and his trade as a tanner.4 On 6 June 1654 the General Court gave permission for Thomas Wheeler to buy John Gregory's house and six acres, with provisions.5 This probably shows the property must have been abandoned, otherwise there would be no need for the court to be involved. During an account of Wheeler's estate, a deed to this property (in the "Yorkshire Quarter") was presented, dated 24 November 1654.6
     John is in the first account of landowners in the Norwalk town records, called the "estate of lands," in 1655. He was a deputy to the General Assembly of Connecticut at its meeting on 11 May 1665,7 and again on 14 October 1669.8 He and his son John are on a list of Norwalk freeman dated 11 October 1669.9 John, Sr., is also listed as a selectman. He and three others were appointed to mark the boundaries of land between the Norwalk and Saugatuck Rivers, and "Indians" were to be compensated with "6 cotes at the town's charge."10 There was a court case in 1670 regarding a claim that John held Cockanoe Island in Norwalk Harbor "from the rights of James the Indian,"11 and several years later it was ordered that the island be for common use as were the others. The estates of lands of Norwalk dated about 1670 gives the value of John's land as £250, 10 shillings.12 John was designated one of three men to be seated on the "round" seat in the new Norwalk meeting house on 24 December 1686/7. The accounting of estates of commonage in 1687 lists John Gregory, Sr.'s, land value at £243.13

John's will:

Know all men by these [presents] yt I John Gregry of ye Town of Norwalk in ye County of Fairfield in ye Colony of Conecticut upon right consideration moveing me therunto; de freely give unto my beloved wife Sarah Gregry all my moveable goods hos houlds; cattle; chattels, and all moveables in house and shop.
I do by this my act and do pass over to ye sd Sarah my wife to be actually posesed of [ym?] moveable estate and to be hers to despose of after my deseace according to her owne will and descretion amongst the children
I [do?] also give to my beloved Sarah my book of acct and all debts therein and what bills of debt are oweing me I pass them over by deed of gift to my sd wife provided ye sd Sarah shall see yt what I owe to any upon these account be duly paid wch is not equevalen to wt is [due?] to me
I do also give to my sd wife Sarah all my lands not desposed of by deeds of gifte only shee shall after my deseace either despose ye sd landsor ye prize ans monyes of them amongst my two daughters by an equall proportion to each making ye devition so as by judisius descretion Jams Bennidick my son in law may have so much as to answer ye worth at [?] as may of that medow given to John Bennidick in consideration of this deed only cautioning my beloved wife to rember the grand children in her diposall of the goods given her
I have set to my hand and seele this fifteenth of Agust in ye yeer of our Lord 1689

John Gregory
his X mark

Sined and seeled & [witnessed?] by us

Thomas Hanford
Thomas Bennidick

John Gregory Senr appeareth before me ye 21 Agust 1689 and acknowlidged ye above deed [?] and fully & and freely to be his act and deed

Thomas Fitch, [Commissioner?]

A testator making an offical acknowledment of their will after they wrote it was extremely unusual. Normally it was up to the witnesses to depose about the authenticy of a will when it went to probate. No further papers exist for his estate, probably because Sarah died so soon after. She was given nearly everything in the will, so her inventory serves as his as well. Sarah was the name of John's widow, but it isn't certain she was the mother of all his children. No distribution of Sarah's estate was found.

Children of John Gregory and perhaps Sarah (baptisms from the New Haven church):

John, b. ca1640
Judah, b. ca1642
Jachin, b. abt. 1644
Joseph, bap. 26 July 1646
Thomas, bap. 19 March 1648/9
Phebe, b. abt. 1652
Sarah, b. ca1655

vital records sources: He brought his will to be confirmed by the Norwalk town clerk on 21 Aug. Sarah's will, as his widow, was written on 9 Oct. 1689.

1. Charles J. Hoadley, Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven (hereafter RCNH) (Hartford: 1857), 154.
2. RCNH, 300.
3. RCNH, 239.
3. RCNH, 384.
4. Ancient Town Records, vol. 1, New Haven Town Records 1649-1662 (New Haven: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1917), 215.
5. New Haven Town Records 1649-1662, 293.
6. The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (hereafter PRCC), vol. 2 (Hartford: 1850), 14.
7. PRCC, 116.
8. PRCC, 522.
9. Edwin Hall, The Ancient Historical Records of the Town of Norwalk (hereafter ARTN)(Norwalk: 1847), 58.
10. ARTN.
11. ARTN, 61.
12. ARTN.
13. ARTN, 3 Jan 1687.
14. This undoubtedly refers to John Jr., who succeeded to the suffix "Sr." when his father died and to distinguish him from his nephew John, son of Jachin Gregory, b. abt. 1666.