William Hilton b. Abt 1589 Northwich, Cheshire, England d. 30 Jun 1656 York, York Co., Province of Maine, New England

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Abt 1589 - 1656 (~ 67 years)

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Name	William Hilton [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]
Born	Abt 1589	Northwich, Cheshire, England
Gender	Male
Baptism	Witton Chapel, Northwich, Cheshire, England
Occupation	1616
	Admitted as a Freeman of the Fishmongers Company
Occupation	1621
	Fishmonger residing in London sent to America by Sir Ferdinando Gorges
Occupation	1621
	Founding English colonial settler of New England (freeholder)
Immigration	9 Nov 1621	Arrived at Cape Cod aboard the "Fortune" (55 tons, Master Thomas Barton)
Occupation	11 Nov 1621
	Disembarked at New Plymouth a few weeks after the first Thanksgiving harvest
Occupation	11 Nov 1621
	John Winslow (brother of Edward) was also aboard the "Fortune" (came single and married Mary Chilton at Plymouth)
Occupation	13 Dec 1621
	The "Fortune" left Plymouth, was captured on her return voyage by a French cruiser, then released and arrived in England on 17 February 1622
Occupation	1622
	The first letter by a New England planter which he wrote to his cousin Anthony Hilton in England was published by Captain John Smith
Property	1623
	Granted one acre of land lying "to the sea, eastward"
Property	1623
	His wife and two children granted three acres butting "against the swampe & reed-ponde"
Occupation	1624
	Reverend John Lyford (sent over as a minister by the Merchant Adventurers of London) baptized his daughter Magdalene
Occupation	1624
	The Leyden faction (Puritan Pilgrims) started a quarrel because William Hilton was not joined to the church at Plymouth (as a member)
Residence	1624	Plymouth, Massachusetts, New England
Occupation	1625
	Left Plymouth and founded Dover Colony (New Hampshire) with his brother Edward and Thomas Roberts
Occupation	7 Jul 1631
	One of the witnesses (with Thomas Wiggin) to the livery of the lands embraced in the Squamscott (Hilton) patent granted to his brother Edward
Occupation	1636
	Obtained from Chief Tahanto a deed for 6 miles of land "lying on ye River Pennewnaquigg" and for 2 miles of "best meddow land lying on said river"
Property	4 Dec 1639
	Lots on the other side of the river at Exeter (New Hampshire)
Property	3 Feb 1640
	Marshes in Oyster River (Piscataquis, now Durham), New Hampshire
Occupation	7 Jul 1641
	Sold 88 acres at Dover to Francis Matthews (tract of land between Bear's Creek and Valentine Hill's grant)
Occupation	19 May 1642
	Made freeman and obtained a land grant of 20 acres in Dover that year
Occupation	29 May 1644
	Deputy for Dover to the Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court (first legislative body of New England)
Occupation	14 May 1645
	Deputy for Dover to the Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court (disguised as William Heath)
Occupation	1648
	Removed to Kittery (Maine) residing on the Piscataqua River at Great Cove
Occupation	27 Jun 1648
	Licensed to keep an ordinary (tavern) and operate a ferry in Kittery (Maine)
Occupation	29 Dec 1649
	His son William sold an Indian slave named James to George Carr and the bill of sale is on record
Occupation	11 Mar 1651
	Served on the grand jury (again on 06-28-1655)
Occupation	1652
	Moved to York (Maine) and held the position of alderman
Occupation	1652
	York Selectman until 1654 (the Council had 24 000 acres at its disposal)
Occupation	22 Nov 1652
	Among the 50 residents of York who subjected themselves to the Massachusetts Bay government and took the freeman's oath
Occupation	8 Dec 1652
	Granted the ferry privileges at York by the Township of Stage Island
Occupation	8 Dec 1652
	Required to "attend sd ferry with Cannoes sufficient for the safe transportation, both of Strangers & Townsmen"
Property	4 Jul 1653
	Grant of Land from the town of York
Property	4 Jun 1654
	Grant of 20 acres from the town of York
Occupation	28 Jun 1655
	Served on the committee to divide land
Died	30 Jun 1656	York, York Co., Province of Maine, New England
Buried	Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, New England
Person ID	I5021	Godbout
Last Modified	18 Apr 2017

Father	William Roger Hilton, b. Abt 1550, Biddick, Durham, England , d. 1605, Northwich, Cheshire, England (Age ~ 55 years)
Mother	Ellen Mainwaring, b. Abt 1560, England , d. 27 Mar 1606, Wearmouth, Durham, England (Age ~ 46 years)
Married	Abt 1585	England
Family ID	F1830	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family 1 Ellen Hewitt, b. Abt 1590, Durham, England , d. Bef 1648, Dover, Cochecho, Strafford, New Hampshire, New England (Age ~ 57 years)

Married Abt 1615 England

Children

	1. Elizabeth Hilton, b. 27 Jun 1616, Northwich, Cheshire, England , d. 1 Aug 1616, Northwich, Cheshire, England (Age 0 years)
	2. William Hilton, b. 22 Jun 1617, Northwich, Cheshire, England , d. 7 Sep 1675, Charlestown, Suffolk, Massachusetts, New England (Age 58 years)
	3. Mary Hilton, b. 11 May 1619, Northwich, Cheshire, England
	4. John Hilton, b. 1621, Northwich, Cheshire, England , d. Bef 1656 (Age 34 years)
	5. Magdalene Hilton, b. 1624, Plymouth, Massachusetts, New England
	6. Mainwaring Hilton, b. 1627, Dover, Cochecho, Strafford, New Hampshire, New England , d. 1671, York, York Co., Province of Maine, New England (Age 44 years)

Last Modified 18 Apr 2017

Family ID F2558 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Family 2 Frances Waldron, b. Abt 1618, Exeter (Devon), England , d. Aft 27 Feb 1688, Kittery, York County, Maine, New England (Age ~ 70 years)

Married Abt 1640 York, York Co., Province of Maine, New England

Children

1. Agnes Hilton, b. 1644, Dover, Cochecho, Strafford, New Hampshire, New England

, d. 1715 (Age 71 years)

Last Modified 18 Apr 2017

Family ID F2615 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Sources

[S658] The original lists of persons of quality; who went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700, John Camden Hotten, (Chatto and Windus, London, England, 1874, reprinted: Empire State Book Co., New York), Introduction, pp. xxviii-xxx.
[S109] History of York Maine, Charles Edward Banks, (Peter E. Randall, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1990, originally printed in Boston, 1931), Volume 1, p. 140 & Vol. 2, pp. 47-50, 288-289.
Also: History of Penobscot County, Maine (multiple compilers), Williams, Chase & Co., Cleveland, Ohio, 1882 (3 January), p. 73.
[S202] Piscataqua Pioneers, 1623-1775: Register of Members & Ancestors, John Scales, (Higginson Book Company, Press of Charles F. Whitehouse, Dover, N.H., May 1919), 111-116.
[S619] Winthrop's journal: "History of New England", 1630-1649, John Winthrop; Edited by James Kendall Hosmer, (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908), Volume I, p. 96 & Vol. II, p. 38.
Edward and William Hilton founded in 1623 the settlement at Dover.
[S757] Yarmouth, Nova Scotia: A sequel to Campbell's History, George Stanley Brown and John Roy Campbell, (Rand Avery Company, Boston, 1888), 112, Appendix J, p. 449 & Appendix V, p. 507.
Gov. Winthrop's diary, from which some literal extracts will be presently given, mentions Edward and William Hilton as among the first settlers of Portsmouth, N.H., in 1632. 'David Thompson, Edward and William Hilton and others, commenced a settlement on the west side of the Piscataqua River, the beginning of the present town of Portsmouth, in 1623.' (Also: the letter written from New Plymouth in 1621 to his cousin in England).
[S101] The History of New Hampshire, edited by John Farmer, Jeremy Belknap, (S. C. Stevens and Ela & Wadleigh, Dover, N.H., 8 February 1831; George Wadleigh, 1862), Corrections; 4-5, 30-31 & 54.
[S663] History of Plymouth Plantation. Now first printed from the original manuscript, William Bradford, the second Governor of the Colony, (Massachusetts Historical Society, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1856), none., First Thanksgiving harvest at Plymouth in 1621 (page 105):.
They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports. (Followed by a note making reference to William Hilton, the Fortune and his letter published in New England's Trials).
[S662] Mourt's Relation or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth, Edward Winslow, William Bradford with an introduction and notes by Henry Martyn Dexter, (John Kimball Wiggin, Boston, 1865), 131-142.
(Arrival of the 'Fortune' at Cape Cod on 9 November 1621, Edward Winslow's letter dated Tuesday 11 December 1621): 'Our supply of men from you came the ninth of November 1621, putting in at Cape Cod, some eight or ten leagues from us, the Indians that dwell thereabout were they who were owners of the corn which we found in caves, for which we have given them full content, and are in great league with them, they sent us word that there was a ship near unto them, but thought it to be a French man, and indeed for ourselves, we expected not a friend so soon. But when we perceived that she made for our Bay, the Governor commanded a great piece to be shot off, to call home such as were abroad at work; whereupon every man, yea, boy that could handle a Gun were ready, with full resolution, that if she were an Enemy, we would stand in our just defence, not fearing them, but God provided better for us than we supposed; these came all in health unto us, not any being sick by the way (otherwise then by Sea sickness) and so continue at this time, by the blessing of God, the good-wife Ford was delivered of a son the first night she landed, and both of them are very well.' The first republication of Mourt's Relation (entirely forgotten until a copy of the original pamphlet was discovered in Philadelphia in 1820) appeared in 1841 in Rev. Alexander Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers (Young added a footnote to the 1621 Thanksgiving event, stating: 'This was the first Thanksgiving, the harvest festival of New England.'). Description written by Edward Winslow and published in Mourt's Relation (1622), an account of the first year of Plymouth Colony: 'Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.'
[S196] NEHGR: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, (New England Historical and Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts), Vol. 4 (1850), pp. 105-107; Vol. 31 (1877), pp. 179-194 & Vol. 36 (1882), 40-46.
John Carver: 'His last sickness was of short duration, he being seized with that species of apoplexy which, in advanced life, is superinduced by great bodily fatigue and mental exertion. This happened on the fifth day of April, 1621, while he was in the field with the pilgrims who were employed in the domestic labor of planting, and he died in a few days, probably debilitated by his late sickness, and much oppressed and fatigued by his great anxiety and care in attending his sick and dying companions, nearly one half of whom had gone to their long homes before him.' William Hilton's letter that was published in Captain John Smith's 1622 edition of 'New England's Trials': Loving cousin, at our arivall at New Plimmoth in New England, we found all our friends and planters in good health, though they were left sicke and weake, with very small meanes, the Indians round about us peaceable and friendly, the country very pleasant and temperate, yeelding naturally of it self great store of fruites, as vines of divers sorts in great abundance; there is likewise walnuts, chesnuts, small nuts and plums, with much varietie of flowers, rootes, and herbs, no lesse pleasant then wholsome and profitable: no place hath more goose-berries and straw-berries, nor better, Timber of all sorts you have in England, doth cover the Land, that affoords beasts of divers sorts, and great flocks of Turkies, Quailes Pigeons and Patriges: many great lakes abounding with fish, fowle, Bevers and Otters. The sea affoords us as great plenty of all excellent sorts of sea-fish, as the rivers and Iles doth varietie of wilde fowle of most usefull sorts. Mines we find to our thinking, but neither the goodnesse nor qualitie we know. Better grain cannot be then the Indian corne, if we will plant it upon as good ground as a man need desire. We are all free-holders, the rent day doth not trouble us, and all those good blessings we have, of which and what we list in their seasons for taking. Our companie are for most part very religious honest people; the word of God sincerely taught us every Sabbath: so that I know not any thing a contented mind can here want. I desire your friendly care to send my wife and children to me, where I wish all the friends I have in England, and so I rest. Your loving kinsman William Hilton.
[S659] History of the town of Durham, New Hampshire (Oyster River Plantation) with genealogical notes, Everett S. Stackpole, Col. Lucien Thompson and Winthrop Smith Meserve, (Published by the vote of the town, Durham, New Hampshire, 1913), Volume 1, pp. 2, 4, 7, 67-69 & 249.
Thomas Roberts came to Hilton's Point with Edward and William Hilton from London in 1623. Slavery was not profitable in the northern states, and most of the slaves were house servants. In 1767 there were in Portsmouth one hundred and twenty-four male and sixty-three female slaves, probably more than in any other part of New Hampshire. As early as 1649, William Hilton (son) sold to George Carr an Indian slave named James, and the bill of sale is on record.
[S180] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Robert Charles Anderson, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 1995, 2000), 947-957.
[S608] History of York County, Maine, W. Woodford Clayton, (Everts & Peck, Philadelphia, 1880), 15.
[S25] The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin Davis, (Southworth-Anthoensen Press, 1928-1939, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1972), 331 & 334-335.
[S661] Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth, from 1602 to 1625, Alexander Young, (Charles C. Little and James Brown, Boston, 1841), 234-238, 249-251 & 351-353.
William Hilton's letter dated November 1621 sent to his cousin Anthony Hilton in England (who wrote a letter to his mother from the Virginia settlement of Isle of Wight on 4 May 1623, later named Governor of the Caribbean islands of Nevis and St. Kitts in 1628).
[S615] Capt. John Mason, the founder of New Hampshire, John Ward Dean, A.M., (The Prince Society, Boston, 1887), 18-19.
Also The Mayflower, Kate Caffrey, Stein & Day, New York, 1974, p. 356, description of the settlers from the Mayflower when the Fortune arrived: They were in low condition, many were ragged in apparel and some little better than half naked, though some that were well stored before were well enough in this regard. But for food, they were all alike, save some that had got a few peas of the ship that was last here. The best dish they could present their friends with was a lobster or a piece of fish without bread or anything else but a cup of fair spring water. And the long continuance of this diet and their labors abroad, had something abated the freshness of their former complexion.
[S740] Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, Volume 1, Preserved in the Public Record Office. Edited by W. Noël Sainsbury, Esq., (Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, London, 1860), 28, 32, 124, 392-393, 401 & 405.