Ancestors

Capt. John Spaffard

Capt. John Spaffard was born on 12 June 1678, a son of John Spofford and Sarah Wheeler. Jeremiah Spofford's family genealogy of 1888 is the source for him, and it spells his name Spaffard.

On 15 February 1700 he married Dorcas Hopkinson, the daughter of John Hopkinson of Rowley. They "settled on the 'old farm,' and both died there." The farm was at Rowley, in the part that is now Georgetown, Massachusetts.

The next year his widowed mother married again, to Caleb Hopkinson of Bradford.

In 1702 the young couple joined the church at Bradford. Its record reads: "11th 3d month, 1702. John Spofford and his wife, Dorcas, were accepted as children of the church, and had their son baptized, named Francis." In the calendar then in use the year began in March, so the third month was May. To be accepted as children of the church was to be taken in as baptized members, which let them bring their own child to baptism.

Their children were Francis, born in 1702; John, born on 19 March 1704; Abner, 1705; Sarah, 1707; Dorcas; and Mary. Francis married Priscilla Walcott in 1722 and settled at Windham, Connecticut, where he was the first of the name. Abner stayed in Georgetown as a husbandman and millwright, became a deacon of the First Church, and was killed by a fall in his mill in 1777. John built a house on "the hill" in Georgetown in 1727 and later went north to the frontier settlement of No. 4 on the Connecticut River.

The genealogy gives him the title of captain without saying where he held it. His death is not dated there.

If Capt. John Spaffard is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Capt. John Spaffard (b. 1678)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/capt-john-spaffard-1678-889ed6.