William Peck

1601-1694 · London, England

Born 1601, London, England

Died 1694

Children include Rev.

William Peck was born in the city of London, or near it, in 1601, and married there about 1622. His wife was Elizabeth. Their son Jeremiah was their only child when they left England.

They came over probably in the company of Theophilus Eaton and the Reverend John Davenport, on the ship Hector, which reached Boston from London on 26 June 1637. That company was mostly from London, where Davenport had been a celebrated minister. It was made up of wealthy merchants and of farmers from Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and Kent. They had suffered under Archbishop Laud, and they came for the free practice of their religion. In the spring of 1638 they founded the New Haven Colony.

William was one of the original proprietors of New Haven. His signature is on the Fundamental Agreement of 4 June 1639, the colony's founding constitution. He was admitted a freeman on 20 October 1640. He was a merchant. He was a trustee, the treasurer and the business agent of the Colony Collegiate School, founded on the Hopkins fund, where his son Jeremiah taught. The records usually give him the title "Mr.", a mark of respect, and from 1659 until his death he was a deacon of the New Haven church.

Elizabeth died on 5 December 1683. William then married Sarah, the widow of William Holt. He died on 14 October 1694, aged ninety-three. That is the date cut on his gravestone; the Peck genealogy of 1877 gives 4 October. His will, made on 9 March 1689, names his four children, Jeremiah, John, Joseph and Elizabeth, and his second wife. His house lot of about an acre, with his dwelling house and shop, fronted Church Street on the southeast side. He was buried in the old ground on the New Haven green, under what became Center Church, and his gravestone was moved to the Grove Street cemetery in 1821.

Children

Rev. Jeremiah Peck 1623-1699

Sources

Darius Peck, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants in the Male Line of William Peck (Hudson, New York, 1877), archive.org genealogicalacco00inpeck, p. 8.

Darius Peck, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants in the Male Line of William Peck (Hudson, New York, 1877), archive.org genealogicalacco00inpeck, p. 9.

The gravestone of Deacon William Peck, who died in 1694, at the Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven; photograph of the stone.

Darius Peck, A Genealogical Account of the Descendants in the Male Line of William Peck (Hudson, New York, 1877), archive.org genealogicalacco00inpeck, pp. 7-9, entry 1. Find a Grave memorial 5121931.

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Cite: Heirology, "William Peck (1601-1694)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/william-peck-1601-1694-b0b6d9.