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George, his wife Mary, their daughter Mary (then nine years old) and three-year old son John are believed to have lived in Glastonbury, England. They left England in 1633 when George was 39 years old. They were only one of many families leaving. By 1629 there were approximately three hundred Englishmen in New England. By 1633 there were thousands and in 1635 more than forty ships went to New England from England. It is estimated that by 1640 14,000 people lived in New England. We believe George and his family went first to Watertown, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. This wasn't the first colony in the New World. Other colonies had preceded this one. Roanoke Island was settled in 1587, Jamestown, Virginia in 1609, Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, and New Hampshire in 1622. In 1628 the Massachusetts Colony near Boston had the largest population.
When they first arrived, George left his young son John with his friends the Merriams. These former neighbors from England had already settled in Concord. George, along with his wife and daughter continued on to Watertown where they lived while he looked for land. Unable to obtain land there, they went west towards the Connecticut River with a group of other residents from Watertown who were seeking new territory.
It is interesting to note that they had to obtain permission from the General Court of Massachusetts Bay to leave Watertown. The papers giving them permission said they would still be under the governance of that body, and they said in their application that they wanted to leave because all towns in the Bay "began to be much straitened by their own nearness to one another, and their cattle being so much increased..." By the summer of 1635 some of these explorers settled where Wethersfield eventually came to be. On 15 October 1635 approximately sixty men, women, and children went by land with their cows, horses, and swine, and finally arrived safely after a long and tedious journey.
The winter that followed was bitterly cold and their houses were poorly constructed. To make it even worse, their provisions and furniture, which had been sent by ship, failed to arrive when the ship became frozen in the Connecticut River. They subsisted that first winter on acorns, malt, and grain. Several of the group died and some turned back to Watertown or left for the mouth of the river where the ships were expected.
In the spring and summer of 1636 George helped two other men survey the land along the Connecticut River to lay out plots for the rest of the families. Ultimately they purchased the land for Wethersfield from the Indian chief Sowheag of the Mattabsestts, Wongunks or Blackhills Indians. George's deposition confirms the title for this purchase and was signed by him on 16 June 1665 in Guilford, Connecticut. The eastern portion of this tract was called Naubuc Farms (now part of Glastonbury, Connecticut). In 1639 it was surveyed by George, who was referred to as a "prominent surveyor."
George bought lot number 14 in North Glastonbury. For about three years George lived here at Wethersfield on the east side of the river. Then he and several of his neighbors settled the town of Milford, Connecticut. The date was 20 Nov 1639. George's name was one of the original 44 names (each representing a family) appearing on page 1, book one of the Milford records. George got the ten-acre tract on Milford Island (which the Indians called Paquahaug). George farmed this land until 1650. On 15 January 1644 George was admitted to the church of Milford. In 1648 he purchased or obtained land in Guilford. In 1650 he sold Milford Island and moved with his son-in-law, John Fowler, to Guilford, Connecticut. John's parents already lived in Milford. On 6 October 1650 George was admitted to either the local (Congregational or Episcopal) church.
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