Individual Summary - Dec 1 1997 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Name: Captain James Avery Sr Sex: Male Father: Christopher Avery Jr (1590-Mar 12 1679) Mother: Margery Stephens (1590-1643) Individual Facts Birth 1620 in Cornwall, Eng Immigration 1630 in aboard ship to Cape Ann, MA (age 10) Elected Selectman (frm 1660 to 1680) (age 40) Death Apr 18 1700 in New London, New London, CT (age 80) Residence New London, Connecticut Occupation Captain, New London Troop AFN 1SSZ-WS Marriages/Children 1. Joanna Greenslade Marriage Nov 10 1643 in Boston, Suffolk, MA (age 23) Children Hannah Avery (Oct 11 1644-) James Avery Jr (Dec 15 1646-Aug 22 1728) Mary Avery (Feb 29 1647/48-) Thomas Avery (May 6 1651-Jan 5 1737) John Avery (Feb 10 1653/54-) Rebecca Avery (Oct 6 1656-) Jonathan Avery (Jan 5 1658-bef Sep 15 1681) Christopher Avery (Apr 30 1661-Dec 8 1683) Samuel Avery (Aug 14 1664-May 1 1723) Joanna Avery (1669-) 2. Sarah Miner Marriage She is probably an error 3. Abigail Ingraham Marriage Jul 4 1698 in Groton/Stonington, New London, CT (age 78) Married first Samuel Chesebrough Nov 30 1655 Married second Joshua Holmes Jun 5 1675 Notes Birth1,2,3: Immigration4: Elected5: Death6,7: Allyn (P. 256) & Hurd (P. 456 & 474) have year of death as 1694, at Pequonnock. General8,9,10,11,12,13,14: Born in England, about 1620, the Captain, which seems to be his title in all of the history books, emigrated to Gloucester at the age of ten with his father. Their origin is in doubt and much has been written concerning this. James married Joanna Greenslade in Boston, her hometown, on November 10, 1643. The Captain and his wife lived in Gloucester but relocated to New London. They had ten children, including James, Jr. Most of the settlers of New London came from Gloucester because Reverend Blinman, of Gloucester, was hired to be the minister of the Pequot Indian Plantation. A party of his local friends proposed to move with him. They made a preliminary trip to New London in October 1650, James included, when the records indicate that a James Averye received a land grant of 100 acres. The party then returned to Gloucester, where James sold his possessions to his father, and early in 1651 returned to New London. In March of 1651 the main body of settlers arrived. New London was initially settled in 1646 by a group of Puritans from Gloucester, north of Boston, the original travellers describing the land journey through the "wilderness" to get there. The original settlement was called the Pequot Settlement, after the local Indian tribe. The settlement was also called the Cape Ann colony, the original Avery home was located on Cape Ann Lane, the names referring to the Cape Ann area of Gloucester that the settlers came from. This settlement was on the west side of the mouth of the Thames River, which is in the middle of Connecticut on Long Island Sound. In 1656 the Captain bought extensive real estate several miles east of the river on the broad plains of Pequonoc. The original name for the homestead was Birch Plains and he lived there until his death, in 1694. The Captain was prominent in local affairs. He was a charter member of the first church, a magistrate on the bench, a member of the State Legislature for 14 years and also held most of the principal offices in the town of New London. Specifically he was a selectman in New London from 1660 to 1680. He was a judge in New London during most of the same period. He was commissioned an Ensign (Oct. 1662), Lieutenant (May 1665) and Captain (Aug. 1673) in the New London County Troop, and in the war against an American Indian Chief called Metacom, or the King Philip War (1675-1676) he was fifth in command. He was twice granted 100 acres of land by the government, 1668 and 1675. He received another 100 acres Oct. 19, 1650. He served as a representative on the General Court from 1655 to 1680 and as an assistant Judge of the Prerogative Court. He was commander of Pequot allies in the Narragansett War, an Indian operation in 1675. He was an Indian Overseer and a member of the New London Committee on Indians. Groton was not incorporated until 1705, before then it was part of New London town. The whole area is now called New London County, and many historical references refer to the area as just New London. This causes some confusion in trying to differentiate between the two towns and the un-incorporated areas of the county. New London is a fine port, and starting in 1784, it became home to about 75 whaling ships. The industry went into decline in the 1840s as the whale population was decimated and other products were found as cheaper substitutes for whale oil. New London was Nathan Hale's home, he was executed as a spy in 1776. It is the current home of the US Coast Guard Academy. New London's fine harbor stays relatively ice-free during the winter when such ports as New York freeze up. The first settlements were located on the Thames River. These first settlers were obviously proud of being from the London area. Groton, which became the Captain's home, has a fine harbor of its own, and currently has a large private deep-sea fishing industry, a US Navy submarine base, and is the home of General Dynamic's electric boat division, the countries largest submarine producer. The Indian trouble started almost as soon as settlers arrived, in 1636, although the major operations occurred during King Philips War (June 20, 1675 to Aug. 12, 1676). On May 26, 1637, 600 Pequot Indians were killed at the Indian Fort at Groton. Almost thirty years later, Metacom had a well trained and well led force of 800 and by the end of 1675 he had the Eastern border towns of Connecticut so worried of attack that the General Assembly ordered every county to raise sixty dragoons, "well mounted, equipped and provisioned, to be ready when called to aid in the defense of the colony." Captain Avery was placed at the head of forty Englishmen from New London, Stonington and Lyme, "with as many Pequots as he should deem necessary to protect that part of the country, and to annoy the enemy at his discretion(sic)." His operation lasted through the rest of 1675 and into 1676. Metacom was the chief of the Wampanoags, one of five tribes that made up the Five Nations, a group of Indian tribes covering most of New England. The origin of the "war" is uncertain, but appears to have resulted because of the general incompatibilities of the colonization process to the local Indians. Missionaries had been successful in pacifying other local tribes. Metacom was finally tracked down by soldiers and killed in August of 1676, leaving New England at peace after more than a year of torture and betrayal on both sides. There were 10,000 Indians in the area but missionaries were never able to convert more than a quarter of them to Christianity. About the same time that British jurist Sir Edward Coke was delivering the eminently quotable line concerning " a man's home is his castle," the Captain bought large tracts of land at Groton and built his own castle, the "Hive of the Avery's" in 1656. The Hive was located in the town of Groton, across the river from New London, on the east side of the river. The Avery mansion survived over 250 years and was illustrative of the times. The house grew bit by bit. Ten years before his death, in 1684, the Captain was too feeble to leave the house for church services, so for �6 he purchased his old church on the west side of the river. This was the same church Reverend Blinman preached in for thirty years. James had it dismantled and rebuilt onto his own house, and used it for church services until his death. The center of life for the American colonist was not the church or the parlor, but the kitchen, with its huge stone fireplace. In the other rooms the rafters were bare beams and the floors raw boards, but in the kitchen, there was room near the hearth for children to play and watch their mother cook in large iron pots. In these kettles were hasty pudding and cornmeal porridge, while corn dumplings were baked on the side of the hearth. If the colonialist travels, he takes with him no-cake or Indian corn, which is corn parched in ashes and carried in a leather bag. The dwelling houses of higher class people in those days always consisted of at least two stories, but the Hive also had two chimneys and for years the house was called the "two chimney house" because it was the only one in town with two chimneys. Building in those days consisted of exposed beams, second stories overhanging the first and walls of clay with wooden siding on both sides, called clap-boards ever since. House paint was never used in those early days, and did not come into general use until about 1730. The Avery house was never painted until a century later. Bread was made from rye and Indian corn and only the very rich could afford wheat flour. The use of coffee was unheard of until about 1770, until then people drank water and roasted rye. Wallpaper came into use about 1783 and carpeted floors much later. The professions of the early Avery's are never stated in the history books but we can assume they were mostly farmers, probably everyone in these early settlements farmed, it was the only way to survive. Ebenezer Avery, the Captain's grand-son born at The Hive, who married Dorothy Parke, greatly extended the Avery property, on which they lived. By the time of Ebenezer's death in 1732, the grounds went from Dunbar's Mill (which was still standing in 1892) north of the Stonington turnpike to Eastern Point, and from the Great River to the Thames River. Dorothy and Ebenezer had six children including Ebenezer Jr., who is our direct ancestor, and Parke Avery, who became the owner of the mansion. Parke continued the practice of holding church services in the mansion, often preaching himself, without collecting tithes. Parke Avery was wounded at Fort Griswold during the attack by Benedict Arnold, and nine other Avery's were killed in the same battle. Ironically Parke was one of a committee of six who contracted to build Fort Griswold in 1775, when the War of Independence threatened. Many Averys were also wounded, but more on that fight later. The family mansion remained occupied until it burned down on July 21, 1894, when a spark from a passing train ignited its well seasoned timbers. Nothing remained but its chimneys. A few years later the chimneys were taken down, the lot graded and a monument erected by Avery descendants. The Avery Monument was dedicated on July 20, 1900. Avery descendant John D. Rockefeller helped fund the construction of the monument. Today it is called the "Avery Memorial" and is located on US route #1 in Groton. Sources 1. Hurd, D. Hamilton. The Complete History of New London County, Connecticut. Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Company, 1882. P. 454 has born in England 1620. 2. Roberts, Gary Boyd. Genealogies of Connecticut Families, from the New England Historical & Genealogical Register, volume 1. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company INC., 1983. P. 65. 3. Virkus, Fredrick. The Compendium Of American Genealogy. Baltimore, Genealogy Publishing Company, INC., 1987. P. 752. 4. Hurd, D. Hamilton. The Complete History of New London County, Connecticut. Philadelphia, J. W. Lewis & Company, 1882. P. 454. 5. Virkus, Fredrick. The Compendium Of American Genealogy. Baltimore, Genealogy Publishing Company, INC., 1987. P. 752. 6. Avery, Elroy McKendree. The Groton Avery Clan, 2 volumes. Cleveland, E.K. & C.H.T. Avery, 1912, Microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971. P. 78. 7. Virkus, Fredrick. The Compendium Of American Genealogy. Baltimore, Genealogy Publishing Company, INC., 1987. P. 752 year of death 1700. 8. Jacobus, Donald Lines. List of Officials, Civil and Military, of the Connecticut Colony. New Haven, Connecticut Society of the Founders and Patriots of America, 1935. 2 contains date of birth and ranks and positions held;. 9. Hollister, G. H.. The History of Connecticut, Two volumes, volume one. Hartford, L. Stebbins & Co., 1858. 274-5,282,358 describes his role in the Indian War;. 10. Containing Life Sketches of Leading Citizens of New London, Connecticut, vol XXVI. Boston, Biografical Review Publishing Co., 1898. 453-6,474-6 detail the family history and the mansion;. 11. Genealogies of Connecticut Families, from the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983. 65 describes his history and that of his son. 12. Allyn, Charles. The Battle of Groton Heights: A Collection of Narratives, Official Reports, Records, Etc. of the Storming of Fort Griswold, the Massacre of it's Garrison, and the Burning of New London by British Troops Under the Command of Brig.-Gen. Benedick Arnold. New London, The Riverside Press, 1882. 251-256 gives bio and battle details involving descendants. 13. Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior To 1700. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Company, 1985. 26 DATE OF MARRIAGE: Nov 10 1643. 14. Avery, Elroy McKendree. The Groton Avery Clan, 2 volumes. Cleveland, E.K. & C.H.T. Avery, 1912, Microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1971. P. 78 details birth dates, places for 9 of 10 children. 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