Weymouth New England Genealogy

In 1674, in a deposition, Ozias Goodwin calls himself aged 78 years. r21:277-278

Passenger List: Lyon 1632 LYON, William Peirce, Master, sailed from London June 22, 1632 and arrived September 16, 1632 at Boston. 'He brought one hundred and twenty three passengers, whereof fifty children, all, in health. They had been twelve weeks aboard and eight weeks from Land's End.'

Ozias Goodwin, of Bocking, County Essex,Cambridge, his wife and son William were passengers on this ship. Nathaniel m1. Elizabeth PRATT.Sarah COLES b. ~1647 and d. 8 May 1676.

The Memorial History of Hartford County, Connecticut

Ozias GOODWIN was born ~1596 (he testified that his age was 78 in 1674); A brother of Elder William GOODWIN; he m. Mary, dau.of Robert WOODWARD, of Braintree, County Essex, England and very probably came from that region himself. He was one of the proprietors [of Hartford] "by courtesie of the town," and his home-lot was on the west side of the highway leading from Seth GRANT's to Centinel Hill, now Trumbull St., containing four acres. He signed the agreement to remove to Hadley in 1659, but did not go. A home-lot of eight acres was assigned to him at Hadley, and 9 Dec 1661, the grant was renewed, provided that he take up residence the middle of May; "and Mr. Goodwin (Wm.) engages for his brother." He d. prior to April 1683. Inv. 3 April, Pounds 129.4.

Children:
i. William (see record 146-4).
ii. Nathaniel, b. ~1637; freeman, Oct. 1662; m1. Sarah, dau. of John and Hannah COWLES, of Hatfield, MA, afterwards of Farmington; she d. 8 May 1676, aged 29; he m2. Elizabeth, dau.of Daniel PRATT. Chosen townsman 1670, 1677,1682, 1695, 1706; his will is dated 21 Aug 1712; inv. 29 Jan1713/4.
iii. Hannah, b. ~1639; m.~1660/1 William PITKIN of Hartford; d. 12 Feb 1723/4, in her eighty-fifth year.

Ozias GOODWIN has a numerous posterity, and his descendants have been prominent among our best citizens. The late Judge Nathaniel GOODWIN, the distinguished antiquarian and genealogist, was a great-grandson of Nathaniel above. In the line of Nathaniel, by his second wife, were his great-grandson, George GOODWIN, of the firm Hudson & Goodwin, for many years publisher of the"Connecticut Courant", and also the late Major James Goodwin.

OZIAS GOODWIN

Materials for a sketch of the life of Ozias Goodwin, brother of Elder William Goodwin, are very scanty. He was born in 1596, as appears by some proceedings in court in September, 1674, when he testified that he was seventy-eight years old, and it has been assumed that he was younger than his brother. He married, in England, Mary the daughter of Robert Woodward, of Braintree in the county of Essex. This is shown by the will of said Woodward, made May 27, 1640, in which is the following: "Item I give & bequeath unto my daughter Mary Goodwin the wife of Ozias Goodwin now in New England tenne shillings."

It is not known when Ozias Goodwin came to New England. His name is not found among the passengers in the ship Lion, which arrived at Boston September 16, 1632, and brought Elder William and several others, who established themselves first at Newtown, now Cambridge in Massachusetts, and subsequently at Newtown, now Hartford in Connecticut. Governor Winthrop tells us that the Lion brought one hundred and twenty-three passengers, whereof fifty were children; of the seventy-three adults we have the names of thirty-three, all males. It is hard to believe that the forty others were all females, or that even one half of the adult passengers were of that sex, considering the newness of the plantations. Whether he immigrated in that ship or not, no trace of him has been found at Cambridge, or elsewhere in Massachusetts.

His first appearance in Hartford is as a landholder among "such inhabitants as were granted lots to have only at the town's courtesie, with liberty to fetch wood and keep swine or cows by proportion on the common." And there was recorded to him, February, 1639/40:

1. One parcel on which his dwelling-house now standeth, with yards or gardens therein being, containing by estimation four acres more or less; abutting upon the highway leading from Seth Grant's to the Centinal [Hill] on the east, and the highway leading from the cow-pasture to Mr. Allen's land on the west, and on Tho. Burchwood's land and on Rich. Lord's land on the south, and on Tho. Hale's land on the north.

2. One parcel of swamp on the east side of the great river, containing by estimation four acres more or less, abutting upon the great river on the west, and on the land now common on the east, and on Nich. Disborowe's land on the south, and on John Bydle's land on the north.

The home lot, or first parcel above described, was on what is now Trumbull Street, near Church Street. It does not seem to have been in his possession at the time of his death, or in 1668. Between 1640 and 1655 there was recorded to him: --

One parcel on which a tenement now standeth, which he bought of widow Ketcherell, containing by estimation two roods, be it more or less, and was her dwelling-house; abutting on the highway leading from the mill to the old ox-pasture on the southwest, and on the burying-place on the east, and on Jeremy Adams his land on the northwest.

It may be conjectured that he removed his dwelling to the lot last named, partly from what is said above as to his former home lot having passed out of his possession, and partly because at a town meeting, February 15, 1655/66, it was voted, that Jasper Gunn and Ozias Goodwin should have liberty to make and maintain a stile in the burying lot, for their use to go the next way to meeting. The meeting-house was situated on the old State-house square, and it would be much more convenient for him to go to it from the Trumbull Street lot through what is now Pearl Street, then the road from the meeting-house to the mill, than it would be to go through the burying lot.

To this lot he bought a small addition, December 13, 1661. Some other small parcels of land were from time to time recorded to him, which it does not seem necessary to specify here.

Ozias Goodwin was one of the company from Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield, who on the 18th of April, 1659, signed an agreement to remove to Hadley in Massachusetts, "therein to inhabit and dwell, by the 29th of September come twelve months, which will be in the year 1660." That he sympathized with his brother and others who removed on account of the troubles in the church in Hartford is quite likely, but that he did not go to Hadley to dwell is evident from the following vote on the records of that town, under the date of December 19, 1661: "The towne have renewed Ozias Goodwin's former grant, provided he be here as a resident by the middle of May next, discharging all just dues and demands, else liable to forfeit his allotments with all expense to the toune," to which is added this significant clause, "Mr. Goodwin ingages the conditions in the premises for his brother."

So far as appears by the records, Ozias Goodwin never held any town office in Hartford, nor took part in public affairs. His name appears on the list of freemen of the Colony of Connecticut dwelling on the north side of the river at in Hartford, which list was made October 13, 1669.

Except in her father's will, no reference has been found to the wife of Ozias Goodwin. It is quite evident that she died before her husband.

An Inventory of the Estate of Ozias Goodwin late of Hartford deceased, taken the 3d day of April 1683.

£ s. d.
Impr. a cloth cloak 1-16 a pennystone wascoat 8" 02 04 00
a Kersy coat 15*., a payre of lyued trowsers 10* 01 05 00
2 old coates 4*. to gray coates 15* 2 pare shoes & hose 14". 01 13 00
1 old coat & old wascoat 4* 2 old hatts 61 1 rug 15* 01 05 00
2 blancketts 1-14 1 flock bed & boulster & pillow 1 - 18 03 07 00
1 feather pillow 5" 1 payre of new sheets 1-7 01 12 00
1 payre old sheets 5* old lining in bands &c. 10* 00 15 00
2 table cloathes & pillow beer 3* 6d 2 shirts 1 . 2 01 05 06
1 warming pan 6- 1 kettle 1.7.6 1 kettle 3 . 6* 01 17 00
3 pewter dishes 11* 4 pewter potts 11* 01 02 00
5 wooden dishes 2* 2 payre cards 1" pothook trammel & slice 7» 00 10 00
3 chairs 12*. winding wheele & blades 3» table boxes & hamper 6a. 00 15 00
4 tubs 00 06 00
The homelot & Ozias Goodwins houseing on it 48 00 00
The pine feild lott 3 acres at 40s pr acre 06 00 00
Three acres more of wood land at 30s p' acre 04 10 00
Fower acres of swamp land on the east side great river at 10£ r/ acre 40 00 00
A Bill due to the estate 10 00 00
A book debt due to the estate 02 17 00
129 04 00
Nath. Willett
Thomas Butler
Townsmen.

We the subscribers have mutually agreed if the wor-pl court see cause to rattify it upon the following distribution of the estate of or honoured father Osias Goodwin deceased, viz. :

That William Goodwin shall have the bill of £10 due from Caleb Stanley £10 00 00
The house & homestead in Hartford invd 48 00 00
The half of the land in the swamp the south side 2 acres 20 00 00
The three acres in pine feild 06 00 00
84 00 00

Out of which Wm Goodwin is to pay as followeth
To Nath. Goodwin £10 00 00
To William Pitkin 10 00 00
Also all the funeral charges esteemed at 03 10 00
23 10 00

So that Wm Goodwins clear portion will be 60 10 00
That Nathaniel Goodwin shall have the other halfe of
the swamp lott, being the north halfe of it at 20 00 00
Three acres of wood land on the west side the great river 04 10 00
The halfe of the movable estate amounting as per inventory 10 14 00
From Wm Goodwin to have 10 00 00
45 04 00

Out of which he is to pay Wm Pitkin for his wife 05 00 00
40 04 00

That Wm Pitkin in right of his wife shall have the halfe
of the movable estate as per inventory excepting 7s.
amounting to 10 00 00
From Wm Goodwin to have paid him 10 00 00
" Nath1 Goodwin to have paid him 05 07 00
So that the whole of Wm Pitkins wives portion is 25 07 00

And this to be a finall settlement of the estate of our father left wthout any future or further claime by will, debt, or in any of our wives right, or any other demande whatsoever, by any of us, or of wives or children each from other, than what is above sayd obligeing ourselves respectively to fullfil the same as above- said, includeing or heirs, executors administrators and assigns. In witness whereof we have subscribed hereunto this 6th day of Aprill 1683.

Wm. Goodwin Senr.
Nathaniel Goodwin.
Wm. Pitkin.

The inventory was exhibited at the adjourned county court at Hartford, April 4, 1683, and the agreement for distribution approved, and both ordered to be recorded.

Although Mr. Goodwin was never a wealthy man, the meagerness of the inventory of his personal belongings may perhaps be explained in this way. He was an old man, about eighty-seven at the time of his death, and had been a widower for we know not how long. He may have divided his household effects among his children during his lifetime, reserving only what was necessary for his personal use; and it is not unlikely that one of his sons lived with and cared for him.

Of the number of his children we know nothing but what the agreement for the division of his estate reveals to us; that is, that three survived him. The eldest son, William, was born about 1629, for in 1674 he testified that he was about forty-five years old; Nathaniel is supposed to have been born about 1637; Hannah is thought to have been born about 1639, and in 1661 married to William Pitkin, Esq., who had come to Hartford from England about two years previously; and by him she became the ancestress of many who have attained distinction. She survived her husband about thirty years.

Charles J. Hoadly
Hartford, Conn., April, 1890.