M. (1) 4 May 1617 in Beaminster, Dorset, England
Wife: Joanna Kreech
M. (2) 7 May 1627 in Crewkerne, England
Wife: Margery Rockett
M. (3) 30 Nov 1664 in Windsor, Connecticut
Wife: Lydia Brown
D. March 1673 in Northampton, Massachusetts
The Puritan colonies of New England succeeded partly because of its many artisan settlers. One of them was named Eltweed Pomeroy who, using skills he learned in England, helped establish communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Eltweed’s exact origins are sketchy. He was born in 1585 to Richard Pomeroy and an unknown mother in Beaminster, England, which is in Dorset, and was baptized there on July 4th of that year. It’s believed that he had at least two brothers. Beyond these facts, nothing about his parents is proven and probably never will be.
Eltweed's birth record in Beaminster.
On May 4, 1617, Eltweed married Joanna Keech in Beaminster. Sadly, by 1620, Joanna died along with their two infant daughters. Eltweed married a second wife, Margery Rockett, on May 7, 1627 in Crewkerne, England, which is in Somerset. Between about 1631 and 1652, they had eight children.
Eltweed was a fuller and was said to have a successful business in Beaminster. A fuller is someone who cleans raw wool, removing natural oils, in order to prepare it for spinning and weaving into cloth. Typically this involved heavy machinery powered by a mill, but the process could also be done with muscle power. It’s known that Eltweed also worked as a blacksmith for much of his life, and this may have been related to the physical work of a fuller.
It's not known exactly when Eltweed and Margery moved to America. At some point, they became followers of Reverend John White, a Puritan minister in Plymouth, England, and they were both in attendance at one of his meetings there in February of 1630. A record in Beaminster showed that Eltweed testified on behalf of some tenant farmers on April 5, 1631, and on March 4, 1633, he was made a freeman in Dorchester, Massachusetts, so their migration was between those two dates.
Reverend John White
Sometime during the 1630s, Eltweed moved his family to the new settlement of Windsor, Connecticut. He received a land grant of 1,000 acres, and owned a house on the Palisado (the town’s main road). In an act of generosity, in 1641, Eltweed built a house for the widow of the town minister, along with some other men who helped him. The house was said to be “adjoining to the end of his dwelling house to use for her own during her life.”
War broke out with the Pequot tribe in Connecticut in 1637, and in one of their raids, Indians stole a mare belonging to Eltweed. Rather than return the horse after the war, they killed it. This was a big loss for Eltweed to absorb, and in 1639, he petitioned the General Court for £40 in compensation. The case dragged on for years, and it took until 1669 before he was fully paid for it.
When Eltweed settled in Windsor, he continued working as a blacksmith. One of his jobs was to repair the plows of other farmers, a vital role to the community. Later, he would pass on knowledge of his trade to his son Medad and another young man named Matthew Tahan. It’s not known to what degree he continued to work as a fuller, but in 1658, he was one of four men in Connecticut who were appointed to "determine the price or rate that any weaver in the said town shall receive by the yard.”
Margery died in July 1655 and Eltweed married a third time to a widow, Lydia (Brown) Parsons, on November 30, 1664 in Windsor. She left him widowed again in 1671, so Medad brought his elderly and now blind father to Northampton, Massachusetts. Eltweed died at his son’s house in March 1673, at the age of 78.
Famous descendants of Eltweed include Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harriet Beecher Stowe, J.P. Morgan, Bess Truman, Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper.
Children by Joanna Keech:
1. Dinah Pomeroy — B. before 6 Aug 1617, (probably) Beaminster, England; D. young
2. Elizabeth Pomeroy — B. before 28 Nov 1619, (probably) Beaminster, England; D. before 28 Nov 1619, (probably) Beaminster, England
Children by Margery Rockett:
1. Eldad Pomeroy — B. Feb 1630, Plymouth, England; D. 22 May 1662, Northampton, Massachusetts
2. Mary Pomeroy — B. about 1633, Dorchester, Massachusetts; D. 19 Dec 1640, Windsor, Connecticut
3. John Pomeroy — B. about 1634, Dorchester, Massachusetts; D. 1647, Windsor, Connecticut
4. Medad Pomeroy — B. before 19 Aug 1638, Windsor, Connecticut; D. 30 Dec 1716, Northampton, Massachusetts; M. (1) Experience Woodward (1643-1686), 21 Nov 1661, Northampton, Massachusetts; (2) Abigail Strong (~1645-1704), 14 Sep 1686, Northampton, Massachusetts; (3) Hannah Warriner (1643-?), 24 Jan 1705, Northampton, Massachusetts
5. Caleb Pomeroy — B. before 6 Mar 1641, Windsor, Connecticut; D. 18 Nov 1691, Northampton, Massachusetts; M. Hepzibah Baker (1646-1711), 8 Mar 1665, Windsor, Connecticut
6. Mercy Pomeroy — B. before 21 Apr 1644, Windsor, Connecticut; D. 21 Apr 1657, Windsor, Connecticut
7. Joshua Pomeroy — B. before 22 Nov 1646, Windsor, Connecticut; D. 16 Oct 1689, Deerfield, Connecticut; M. (1) Elizabeth Lyman (?-1676), 22 Aug 1672, Northampton, Massachusetts; (2) Abigail Cooke (1659-1708), 9 Jun 1678, Northampton, Massachusetts
8. Joseph Pomeroy — B. before 20 Jun 1652, Windsor, Connecticut; D. 22 Sep 1734, Boston, Massachusetts; M. Hannah Lyman (1660-1736), 20 Jun 1677, Westfield, Massachusetts
Sources:
History and genealogy of the Pomeroy family, Albert Alonzo Pomeroy, 1922
New England marriages prior to 1700, Clarence Almon Torrey and Elizabeth Petty Bentley, 1985
New England families, genealogical and memorial, Vol. 4, William Richard Cutter, 1913
The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to NewEngland, 1620-1633, Vol. 1-3, Robert Charles Anderson, 1995
