This is the last couple to be covered in this series whose name isn’t Woodruff, as their daughter, Hannah Newton, married John Woodruff the Younger.

Thomas Newton and Joan Smith married on 31 March 1648, possibly in Newtown, New York or in Rhode island.

While Joan’s family origins are well documented, there are no such proofs for Thomas Newton’s origins.

Unverified data found in online trees gives a name for his father, which won’t be perpetuated here since it appears to be a name plucked out of thin air.

Volume 1, page 47 of East Hampton, New York town records provides a deposition given by Thomas newton on 18 October 1653 in which he states that he is 41 years old, giving a birth year of c1612.

It is thought that Thomas Newton arrived in the colonies about 1639.

Thomas Newton was a bit of a colorful character. He is called the “widower of Dorothea Newton” in O’Callaghan’s History of New Netherlands, 2:222, where a footnote gives this tidbit of information:

We find it recorded that he was married in April 1648, at Flushing, to Joan Smith by Wm. Hark, then Sheriff of that place, against the consent of the woman’s parents, and without being legally authorized so to do by the Supreme Authority.

Reportedly, the sheriff was fined 600 carolus guilders, and `the indecent marriage’ was declared null and void. The bride and groom were fined 300 guilders and ordered to post public banns the required three times before marrying again, which they did.

Further: Thomas was accused of having fathered a child, Benoni Newton, with Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson in 1650, in Fairfield, Connecticut and he then fled to New Netherlands, where the Dutch allowed him to settle.

Thomas Newton is, indeed, found in the records of Fairfield. In fact, he was one of the first five proprietors of the town.

Now, Benoni Newton is an important clue tying together Thomas Newton and his reputed daughter, Hannah Newton.

Early colonial records identify four children for Thomas Newton and Joan Smith, if only by name. No vital records are extant and the birth order is uncertain.

Thomas Newton died before 28 May 1683, as stated by his son in a Fairfield County, Connecticut land deed. Joan died before 1664, the date her father wrote his will and left a bequest to the children of “my deceased daughter Joan Newton.”

1. Thomas, possibly the eldest son, so born c1649, probably in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He is said to have been a mariner, had at least one son, Smith, but the name of his wife is unknown. His death date is also unknown, but said to have been by 1683.
2. Israel, born c1651, probably New Netherlands; will proved 9 June 1720, leaving all to his brother. He apparently never married.
3. Hannah, born c1654, New York; reportedly died by 1703, but no proof found; married John Woodruff the Younger, c1675. He was born c1650, probably Southampton, New York.
4. James, born c1655; died 9 February 1739, Colchester, New London, Connecticut; married (1) Mary Hubbell, c1680 (2) Mrs. Mary Barnard, widow, 1 January 1734, Wallingford, New Haven, Connecticut
5. Abigail, born c1661, probably New Netherlands; reportedly died 1745; married Lodowick Updike. He was born in 1646; Abigail was said to be 17 years younger than her husband.

The names of Thomas’s four children – Thomas Jr., Israel, James and Abigail – appear in a number of printed works, some created 1125 years ago. There is no new evidence to doubt their names, but much is still not known about this family.

Notably, Hannah does not appear as a child of Thomas and Joan Newton, but that is where Benoni Newton becomes an important figure.

Since Benoni’s mother, Elizabeth Johnson, was not married to Thomas Newton and Thomas had children by his wife, Joan, that means that any of Thomas’s and Joan’s children were half-siblings to Benoni Newton.

The Woodruffs of New Jersey Who Came from Fordwich, Kent, England, by Way of Lynn, Massachusetts and Southampton, Long Island by Francis Eben Woodruff, published in 1909, includes this fact:

Dongan’s Patent referred to land in East Hampton, Suffolk, New York. I haven’t yet figured out “So. Red Book of Deeds, folios 77, 78” and haven’t found an image of the deed in Suffolk County, New York deeds.

However, in this deed, Benoni Newton called John Woodruff (the Younger) his “brother.” since Benoni Newton didn’t marry a Woodruff wife, then the relationship has been presumed to be through Hannah Newton, who would be Benoni’s half sister.

In the many intervening decades, no new records have come to light to cast doubt on the relationship of Benoni Newton to Hannah Newton, wife of John Woodruff the Younger.

Just as aside – Benoni wasn’t a terribly common given name at any time in U.S. colonial history, but when it was given, it frequently indicated that the baby’s mother died during childbirth. It is known that his mother was Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, but nothing more is found after Benoni’s birth and there is a strange comment in Woodruff books that Thomas Newton’s jail keeper raised the baby. The primary source of that detail is not known.

Today’s researchers may make of it what they will, but it’s still the only evidence connecting John Woodruff’s wife, Hannah, with Thomas Newton and his wife, Joan Smith.

After a few days break, we’ll take a look at family sketches for multiple generations of the Woodruff family.