Individual Notes
Note for: Walter Campbell, 29 JUN 1870 - 5 JUN 1950 Index
Individual Note: 25 Bryant St, Dedham, MA
Electrician with Edison, Co.
place of birth listed Canada/England
parents place of birth listed:
Father: Ireland
Mother: Canada/England
Individual Notes
Note for: Mary ANGELL Miller , Abt 1623 - Index
Individual Note: widow of John Miller who died 1642 in Stamford CT
Individual Notes
Note for: Obadiah Seely, Chr. 1 MAY 1629 - 25 AUG 1657 Index
Christening:
Date: 1 MAY 1629
Place: St Stephens, London, England
Individual Notes
Note for: Robert Seely, Chr. 4 JUL 1602 - 19 OCT 1666 Index
Christening:
Date: 4 JUL 1602
Place: St John's, Huntingdon, England
Individual Note: Robert Seely, son of William Seely county Huntingdon apprenticed to Cordovan dated 10 March 1623. (Cordovan - one who works with cordovan leather, shoemaker.)
Married 15 Dec 1626 in the Coleman Street St Stephen's Church, Mary (maiden name unknown) twice widowed, She married first William Heath by whom she bore seven children he died in 1620. She married second Walter Mason in 1621, they had atleast three children. By the time of her marriage in 1626 to Robert Seely she had buried two husbands and atleast ten children. She had no surviving children at the time of this marriage. From the numerous burials recorded in the church records during this time it is obvious the plague was destroying many families.
Robert & Mary's first child, Nathaniel, was baptized 16 September 1627 at St Stephen's. Their second child, Obediah is presumed to be born on the voyage to America in 1630 as their is no record on either side of hte Atlantic, and this is about the time he would have been born.
Robert was a trusted agent of Sir Mathew Craddock, an English capitalist who financed the fleet of Puritans consisting of eleven vessels and known as the Wintrop fleet. Robert Seely and his family sailed onboard the "ARBELLA" from London, England Monday 29 March 1630 and from the Isle of Wight 8 April 1630 arriving in Salem Massachusetts Colony 12 June 1630.
Robert and his family went with a group led by Richard Saltenstall, four miles up the Charles River to found the town of Watertown. Where Robert's land holdings consisted of 160 acres, one of the largest grants alloted, the average being five to six acres. Robert was one of the forty-one to organize the First Church of Watertown, the second oldest church in New England, (the first being Salem). In November of 1630 Robert Seely and Abram Browne were appointed to survey and lay out the roads and lots of Watertown. His home lot was part of what is now Walnut and Grove Streets. In 1635 he sold his lands to Simon Eire and joined a small group to settle Wethersfield, Connecticutt.
note: insert photo of Wethersfield Historical Society Plaque
In May 1637 he was appointed a Leiutenant, second in command under Captain John Mason in the expedition against the Pequot Indians on hte Mystic and Pequot (Thames) Rivers. He was one of hte first to enter the fort in the desperate "Fort Fight" on Friday 26 May 1637 and was severely wounded in the eyebrow by an Indian Arrow. Captain Mason in his report: " Lt. Seely was a valiant soldier. I, myself, pulled the arrow out of his eyebrow." Robert wore a scar on his brow for the remainder of his life. Pequot Hill, where this fight took place is about eight miles northeast of New London.
In June 1637 the General Court gave Lt Seely command of thirty men to preserve the peace. For his service he was paid 30 Shillings a week and 150 bushels of corn by the inhabitants of Wethersfield, CT.
Robert sold his house and lot in Wethersfield to Mathew Mitchell and in the fall of 1638 joined the Quinpiac or New Haven Colony. This colony included the pastor and many of the parishioners from the Coleman Street St Stephen's Church of London, the church he had belonged to while living in London and where he and his wife were married and their first child was Christened. The Puritans in England were being forced to return to the Episcopalian ways of the Church of England or face persecution.
In June 1639 the church members of the New Haven Colony met to sign a Fundamental Agreement, which declared that only church members could choose public magistrates and officers and that all new planters to the Colony must sign the Agreement. Robert Seely's name is listed twenty-sixth amoung the original signees and his name appears fourteenth in the original list of Freemen of New Haven Colony.
On Oct 25, 1639 Robert appears as a member of the General Court of New Haven. He was appointed Marshall of the Colony at this session and reappionted to this office the following years: 1640, 1641 and 1642.
In 1653 Robert was appointed Captain to the New Haven forces under Major Sedgewick and Captain Leverett, English officers, against the New Netherlands, and in 1654 was put in p;ace at "Dutch Point" in Hartford.
After his wifes death Robert returned to England and reamined for some time. In 1662 at a town meeting in Huntinton, Long Island it was ordered a boat be sent to Connecticutt to bring Captain Robert Seely to the town at the first opportunity. "Captain Seely being returned from England, a motion made on his behalf for some encouragement for his settling amoung us." In October 1662 the General Court awarded him 15 Pounds and the use of a house in Saybrook where he took charge of the Fort and ammunition. In 1663 Seely was appointed Commisioner and Chief Military Officer for the town of Huntington to exercise and train soldiers.
In 1665 Robert Seely and John Ogden, with others, settled the town of Elizabeth New Jersey.
Robert Seely died October 1667. He must have been remarried, for at the time of his death his widow applied for letters of administration which were granted to her October 19, 1667. She refers to Captian John Manning as her brother.