Thomas Stafford
Born in 1605 in Warwickshire, and a miller by trade. He is said to have been at Plymouth in Massachusetts as early as 1626, and it is claimed for him that he built the first mill in the country for grinding corn by water. His name is on the list of inhabitants admitted to Newport after 20 May 1638, and he soon had a grant of seventeen acres there, being spoken of at that date as in the employ of Nicholas Easton. In March 1647 he witnessed the will of John Walker of Portsmouth.
In 1652 he moved to Warwick, and the town council recorded the transaction in a single sentence that says exactly how a man became a townsman there: "that whereas Thomas Stafford hath bought a house of Christopher Unthank, which was formerly given to Mr. Walter Todd, by the town, and hath subscribed, the town hath likewise received him into vote, and so he is become a townsman." He bought the house and its lot outright from Unthank the next March, with a six acre lot besides. He was a freeman in 1655, bought another Warwick house from Thomas Lawton of Portsmouth in 1657, had lots in the divisions of Potowomut and Toskeunk in 1663, and was deputy in 1673. In 1657 James Greene and Randall Holden brought an action of trespass against him, and in the next generation his son Joseph married Holden's daughter.
He made his will on 4 November 1677 and it was proved on 27 April 1678. He named no executor.
Children
Joseph Stafford (b. 1648)
Sources
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Cite: Heirology, "Thomas Stafford (b. 1605)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/thomas-stafford-1605-494de3.