Thomas Morehouse

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 6517

Notes:

According to "Families of old Fairfield" Thomas died 1658, wife's name unknown. He had three children including our Samuel who married Rebecca Odell.

This is quote from a website which is quite interesting, and is mostly, although not completely confirmed:
(http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nancyelder/Morehouse.htm)
Thomas Morehouse, recognized as the emigrant ancestor of most of the American Morehouse families, was in Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1635; at Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1640; at
Stamford, Connecticut, in 1641, where he was one of the original settlers who purchased the
townsite from the Indians for one hundred bushels of corn. He came from Yorkshire, England,
with the migration of Puritans conducted by Sir Richard Saltonstall. He settled permanently at
Fairfield, Connecticut, prior to 1653 and became prominent in its development--owning the
tide-water mill and being sent as a member to the General Court (Legislature) at Hartford. He left
four sons--Samuel, Thomas, Jonathan and John--who at an early date became the heads of the
numerous branches and descendants which settled in New York, New Jersey, Ohio and the West.
Thomas Morehouse, the first, died at Fairfield in 1658, leaving a will. It is estimated that over two hundred of his descendants served in the Revolutionary war.

Partial confirmation of the above story includes NEHGR Vol98, P75, Vol49 P475 and Vol113 P301. And "The Early Settlement of Stamford, Conn 1641-1700" 1990 by Jeanne Majdalany.
The corn story is a little misleading; The New Haven Colony had earlier purchased the land from the Indians for 100 bushels of corn and then later sold the same land to the group of Puritans who would first settle there.

This entry from "The History of Fairfield" by Elizabeth Hubbell Schenck 1889 discusses his will, although I do not have a transcript of the will:
Thomas Morehouse was at Wethersfield, says Savage, in 1640. He was among the first to receive a grant of seven acres in Stamford. He is found at Fairfield before 1653, where he had purchased the house & home-lot of John Barlow on the Ludlow Square. He was granted land by the town on the west side of the Uncoway River & present Black Rock Bridge, where he ran a grist mill on the creek which empties into the river between Seely's Neck & the Old Mill hill He m Isabella d of Ralph Keeler of Norwalk. His will is dated 8 Aug 1658 in which he leaves 1/3 of his estate to his wife Isabell; a double portion to his eldest son Samuel, homestead, mill & mill-lot, which he was not to sell without the consent of the town; & further distributes his estate among his sons Thomas, John, Jonathan & ds Mary & Ann He mentions daughter Hannah, to whom he had aIready given a full portion

The marriage to Isabel Keeler is an apparent error as his son Thomas married Isabel Keeler, the daughter of Ralph Keeler.

Jacobus, in History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Volume 1, identifies Thomas Sr'.s wife as Isabel Unk. Widow Isabel in his 1658 will.

And son Thomas Jr.'s first wife as ___, eldest daughter of Ralph Keeler. (cited also in TAG: 80: 2005: p. 186)

Family/Spouse: Isabel Unknown. Isabel was born before 1620 in England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Hannah Morehouse was born after 1635.
2. Jonathon Morehouse was born after 1635.
3. John Morehouse was born after 1635.
4. Mary Morehouse was born after 1635.
5. Thomas Morehouse was born after 1635; died in 1725.
6. Samuel Morehouse was born between 1637 and 1642; died in 1687 in Fairfield, Connecticut, USA.