John Culver

1640-1725 · Dedham MA

Born 1640, Dedham, Massachusetts

Died 1725

Father: Edward Culver

Mother: Ann Ellis

Children include John

John Culver was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, on 15 April 1640, the eldest son of Edward Culver and Ann Ellis. He was baptized there on 19 September 1641, two days after his mother joined the church. He grew up at Dedham and Roxbury, and in 1653, when he was thirteen, the family moved to the new plantation at New London, Connecticut.

In 1663 the town of New London appointed him its drummer. On 7 May "John Culver is chosen for this next yeere, to drumm Saboth days." The drum was beaten to call the town to meeting on the Sabbath. In February 1669 he asked the town for three pounds seventeen shillings' worth of land to pay for a drum and a drum's head.

On 5 November 1664 his father gave him the house and home lot he had bought from Robert Burros. By then he was married to Mercy Clark, a daughter of James Clark of New Haven. On 8 August 1665 John and his wife "Marcye" sold land "given us" by their father Edward. In November 1667 Edward and Ann Culver deeded more land to "our eldest son John."

John was a saddler by trade. By 1676 he was at New Haven, where three of his children were born: Abigail on 13 November 1676, James on 13 June 1679 and Sarah on 17 March 1682. He had a share of 26 acres in the Third Division of New Haven's common land, and on 12 March 1683 he sold it to Thomas Trowbridge as "John Collver of New Haven, Saddler."

He then lived some years at Stonington, where his son John and his daughter Abigail were baptized as adults in 1695. In February 1698 the diarist Manasseh Minor noted that "John Culv's brote his Cattell." By 1699 his marriage had broken down. Mercy left him and went back to New Haven with several of the children, and in 1701 the New Haven selectmen sent her back to him.

He ended his life at Groton, across the river from New London, close to the land of his brothers and his son. In 1698 Major John Pynchon of Springfield gave him thirty acres there, and in 1709 Pynchon's son gave a great meadow to John's son "for care, paines & service of John Culver Sen. of Grotten" to his father. In January 1712 John deeded his dwelling house to his son James. In April 1712, as "John Culver, Sr., yeoman," he gave land to his son John, who was not to have it until "after the desese of his father & mother & if my wife out Liveth me She is to hould the same." In 1715 he was briefly at Lyme. In 1718 the town of Groton laid out 25 acres to him "for Serves don at New London," and that July he gave six acres to his son David.

He died at Groton in 1725. In October of that year his son John sold the New Haven land rights "which my honoured ffather John Culuer Dec" had held there. Mercy outlived him by at least seven years.

Parents

Edward Culver d. 1685 Ann Ellis

Children

John Culver 1670-1760

Sources

T. F. Chambers, The Early Germans of New Jersey: Their History, Churches, and Genealogies (Dover, N.J., 1895), p. 298; archive.org earlygermansofne00cham, leaf n413.

John R. Bolles and Anna B. Williams, The Rogerenes (Boston, 1904), p. 299; archive.org rogerenessomeh00boll.

Donald Lines Jacobus, "Culver and Winthrop", The American Genealogist, vol. 22 (October 1945), pp. 107-110 (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1945-10_22_2), p. 107.

Donald Lines Jacobus, "Culver and Winthrop", The American Genealogist, vol. 22 (October 1945), pp. 107-110 (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1945-10_22_2), p. 109.

W. Herbert Wood and Donald Lines Jacobus, "Additions and Corrections to the Colver-Culver Genealogy", The American Genealogist, vol. 31 (July 1955), pp. 129-144 (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1955-07_31_3), pp. 129-130.

T. F. Chambers, The Early Germans of New Jersey: Their History, Churches, and Genealogies (Dover, N.J., 1895), p. 298 (archive.org earlygermansofne00cham), citing Hinman's Early Settlers of Connecticut; John R. Bolles and Anna B. Williams, The Rogerenes: Some Hitherto Unpublished Annals Belonging to the Colonial History of Connecticut (Boston, 1904), archive.org rogerenessomeh00boll, p. 299. W. Herbert Wood and Donald Lines Jacobus, "Additions and Corrections to the Colver-Culver Genealogy", The American Genealogist, vol. 31 (July 1955), pp. 129-144 (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1955-07_31_3), pp. 130-133; Donald Lines Jacobus, "Culver and Winthrop", The American Genealogist, vol. 22 (October 1945), pp. 107-110 (archive.org sim_american-genealogist_1945-10_22_2); Frances Manwaring Caulkins, History of New London, Connecticut (New London, 1895), archive.org historyofnewlond00caul, pp. 309-310 and the town records quoted there.

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Cite: Heirology, "John Culver (1640-1725)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/john-culver-1640-1725-2db90c.