The Genealogy of one Vermonter, Darrell A. Martin

His affiliation with the ministry of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, which had been based, in England, on Chelmsford, Essex, makes it likely that he came from that area. The surname White is common there, but this John has not been identified in the records there. He sailed on the ship Lyon 22 June 1632, and arrived in Boston 16 September. He, his wife, and at least two children had been eight weeks at sea and twelve aboard ship. About a month before his arrival, Rev. Hooker's company had moved from Braintree, MA to Newtown (now Cambridge) MA. He settled with them there, was admitted a freeman of Massachusetts Bay Colony 4 March 1632/3, and became a member of the first Cambridge board of selectmen February 1634/5. He was probably the first English owner of the land occupied by "Gore Hall", the Harvard University Library. Rev. Hooker's followers were uncomfortable in Cambridge, however, and decided to move to the "Quinetacquet" River valley where more land was available and their religious ideas could be put into full effect. When Rev. Shepard's company arrived in Newtown in 1635, they agreed to purchase, in effect, the whole town from the Hooker group. In October 1635 John White sold his house; he probably went with Rev. Hooker to Hartford, CT in June 1636. According to the historian Trumbull, about a hundred men, women, and children, with 160 cattle, took two weeks to travel "more than a hundred miles through a hideous and trackless wilderness . . . This adventure was the more remarkable, as many of this company were persons of figure, who had lived, in England, in honor, affluence, and delicacy, and were entire strangers to fatigue and danger." He was an original proprietor of Hartford, and was chosen selectman four times from 1642 to 1656. He was frequently called upon to settle disputes. The company appears to have been more than a bit disputatious; when Rev. Hooker died in 1647, dissension sprang up. Elder Goodwin and his followers, including John White, apparently opposed relaxing requirements for church membership. The solution, again, was to move. In 1659 John was among the group of 60 from Hartford and Wethersfield who chose to move to Hadley, MA, which was then only an idea. He was one of five men who laid out home lots before the settlers arrived. He was a Hadley selectman in 1662, 1663, and 1665; and a deputy to the General Court (Massachusetts colonial legislature) in 1664 and 1669. He returned to Hartford about 1670, and became an elder in the South Church there. It is likely that he was called from Hadley for that specific purpose, as there had been another split in the church, over the same principles. In his last years he gave good service as an arbitrator, referee, and counselor. John was born in Essex, England, circa 1597.¹ He was the son of Robert White and Brydgette Allgar. He married Mary Levitt in Messing, Essex, England, on 26 December 1622.¹ John died in January 1684/85 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut.