George & Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett of Guilford, Connecticut

By Gary Bartlett

My immigrant Bartlett surname ancestors were George & Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett, who were among the founders of Guilford, Connecticut, settled in 1639 by the Whitfield Congregation of English Puritans. The original settlers at Guilford hailed primarily from the area at the junction of the English counties of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. There is a considerable amount of misinformation on the internet to be found on George & Mary, and the intent here is to clear up some of the misconceptions.

The exact English origins of George Bartlett are as yet unknown. The earliest known record of George on this side of the Atlantic is in the first court record from "Guilford Plantation", dated 14 August 1645, wherein he is listed as a witness in the court proceedings, per Genealogies of Connecticut Families, from the New England Historical & Genealogical Register, selected and introduced by Gary Boyd Roberts, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1983, p 102. Many internet sites give a birth year for George of 1630, but for George to have been a witness in the Guilford court in 1645, he must first have already attained the age of majority – 21 years under English Common Law. This means that the latest possible birth year for George would be 1624 or before. It is known that several young men who were either attached to existing households in some capacity or who were not yet of legal age, were among the original settlers at Guilford, although not signers of the Guilford Plantation Covenant, which heads of households signed aboard ship in route to America during the summer of 1639. (In many New England Puritan communities, stray bachelors and maidens were prohibited from living alone, and were assigned to live under the discipline of existing households). George Bartlett may very likely have fit into this category, as he did not marry until 11 years after the founding of the settlement,   and since he gradually passed through positions of increasing responsibility in local government. One would presume George Bartlett to have been one of the Guilford founders, owing to the central location of his homelot. His name was tenth in the Guilford "Book of Terriers" (i.e. a survey of landed property), with a homelot of 4 ½ acres (GCF p 102).  The site was situated on the southwest corner of Guilford Green. It is logical to assume that during the first decade or so of the settlement, all those individuals having homelots in the center of the village were members of the original 1639 group, with the community expanding outward from the geographic core as later settlers arrived or children of the original settlers grew to adulthood. Frankly, if George Bartlett were not part of the original 1639 Guilford group – for instance, if he came to Guilford directly from England or from elsewhere in New England at a later date as some researchers suggest – it is impossible to believe that he would have been assigned a homelot with frontage on Guilford Green, as that land would already have been taken by the first settlers,  and would not have been available to late arrivals. Moreover, Puritan immigration into New England virtually stopped after 1640 due to the English Civil War, so it is doubtful that George Bartlett arrived after that.

Moreover if the supposition is correct that George Bartlett was part of the 1639 group and he was allotted his homelot in the first division of land at Guilford Plantation, which would appear to be the case, it argues for an even earlier birth year for George than 1624. Once again, for George Bartlett to own land, he would have been required to attain the age of majority of 21 years. The records of the first allotments of land are no longer existent, and may have been destroyed in a house fire, per the History of Guilford & Madison, Connecticut, by Bernard Christian Steiner, reissued by The Guilford Free Library, Guilford, CT, 1975, p 31. The Whitfield Congregation arrived first in New Haven, where they remained temporarily until the land for what became Guilford village could be purchased from the local Native Americans.  The final land transaction was finalized in 02 February of 1641-2, per HGM p 33. Assuming that George Bartlett was at least 21 years old by that time, it pushes his birth year back to – maybe – 1620. From a tactical standpoint therefore, as far as genealogical research into George Bartlett’s English origins is concerned, it would make sense to look for his birth record in an English parish in Kent, Sussex, or Surrey in a range of – say – 1618-1624.

Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett’s English origins, on the other hand, have been documented. Mary was the daughter of Abraham Cruttenden, one of the Guilford founders who was a signer of the Guilford Plantation Covenant.  Prior to his immigration into Connecticut, Abraham Cruttenden was for several years a resident of Hawkhurst in Kent. Both Abraham Cruttenden and William Chittenden, two of the founders of Guilford, attended the Parish Church of St. Laurence With All Saints in Hawkhurst, (still in operation today). Baptismal entries for six children of Abraham Cruttenden were recorded in the Hawkhurst Parish Register, cited as follows: Thomas on 22 February 1624 (obvious proof that Abraham Cruttenden was not born in 1610 as various researchers claim), Abraham Jr. on 24 December 1626, Isaack on 01 November 1629, Mary on 29 April 1632, Elizabeth on 30 November 1634, and Hannah on 25 January 1637. These same six children of Abraham Cruttenden be placed in Guilford - plus Deborah, who was presumably born following the family's arrival in New England (GCF p 502). Although the name is sometimes rendered as Crittenden, it was recorded as Cruttenden in the Hawkhurst Parish Register.

Most genealogical works identify Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett's mother as Mary Hinkson. The Hawkhurst Parish Register does not support this, however. The mother's name is not given for the first four Cruttenden children baptized in Hawkhurst, and in the case of the last two, the mother is identified as Elizabeth. GCF, p. 502 states concerning Abraham Cruttenden the immigrant, “It is said that he came from the county of Kent in England and had been a neighbor of William Chittenden, whose widow he afterwards married”. The proof of this contention is found in the Hawkhurst Parish Register, on the first page encompassing the period 25 March 1636 through 25 March 1637. On that page are entries for Thomas baptized 20 November 1636, son of William Chittenden & Joana his wife, and for Hannah baptized 25 January 1637, daughter of Abraham Cruttenden & Elizabeth his wife. Abraham Cruttenden married the widow Joanna Chittenden on 31 May 1665 in Guilford, per GCF p 502.

Martha A. Lynes published an article in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 160, No. 639 July 2006 "The Ancestry of William Chittenden of Guilford, Connecticut" in which she identifies the wife of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford, Connecticut, as Elizabeth.  At that time she was unable to determine Elizabeth's maiden surname. (Joan Sheafe Chittenden was the second wife of Abraham Cruttenden, hence the connection to the Chittenden article.) That Elizabeth was the given name of Abraham's first wife was determined by the baptism records of his children in Hawkhurst, Kent, England. (It is fitting to mention that this information had already been uncovered by a professional genealogist in England, John Dagger, who I had hired some twenty years earlier. I received his report in November of 1986, and have shared it with Cruttenden researchers ever since).

In the January 2011 (Vol. 165, No. 657) issue of the NEHGR, an article by Leslie Mahler entitled "The English Ancestry of Elizabeth Usborne, First Wife of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford, Connecticut", pp. 15-26, identifies Elizabeth's surname as Usborne. An extensive search in local wills yielded the essential information to develop Elizabeth's ancestry. She was baptized (christened) on 13 Jan 1597/1598 in Staplehurst, Kent, England.  Her parents were Thomas Usborne and Ann Bridgeland. She was married to Abraham Cruttenden by 1623. Elizabeth’s connection to Abraham Cruttenden is proven by the will of her brother Peter Usborne of Staplehurst "dated 2 November 1632, proved 26 Nov. 1632, naming 'Thomas Abraham Isaack and Mary as the children of 'Elizabeth Crittenden my sister." These were the four oldest children of Abraham Cruttenden baptized in Hawkhurst. Mahler goes on to trace Elizabeth Usborne's family back several generations to Osbert Usborne b. abt. 1425 in Staplehurst.

These two articles are a must read for any descendants of Abraham Cruttenden of Guilford.

Moreover, the 22 February 1624 baptismal date for Thomas Cruttenden, the eldest child born to Abraham Cruttenden & Elizabeth Usborne, renders the 1610 birth year shown for Abraham Cruttenden in many sources quite impossible. Abraham's wife Elizabeth Usborne was baptized 13 Jan 1597/8 in the parish of Staplehurst, Kent. Abraham Cruttenden was probably the Abraham son of Thomas Cruttenden, baptized in the parish Etchingham, Sussex 30 Sep 1599. Hawkhurst and Cranbrook by the way, are located in between Staplehurst and Etchingham on the A229. Another possible candidate might be the Abraham Cruttenden who was the third son of William Cruttenden of Burwash in East Sussex, 8 miles west of Hawkhurst in Kent. The will of William Cruttenden, on file in the East Sussex Archives in Lewes, was prepared in 1638. Son Abraham Cruttenden was left £30, which opens a window for further research.

The internet is a wonderful tool for genealogists, enabling us to pool the research of many individuals on both sides of the Atlantic, but once misinformation gets posted to it, the erroneous info takes on a life of its own, and becomes difficult to correct. Hopefully this short article will clear away some of the fog concerning George & Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett of Guilford, Connecticut.