1580 - 1640

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• Birth	4 Dec 1580	Great Leighs,Essex,England
  Christened	4 Dec 1580	Great Leighs, Essex, England
  Gender	Male
  Buried	1640	Center Church, Hartford, Hartford, Conneticut
  Died	Abt Sep 1640	Hartford, Hartford, Conneticut
  Person ID	I102217	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	29 Jul 2005 00:00:00
  Father	James OLMSTED, b. 4 Dec 1550, Great Waltham,Essex,Eng
  Mother	Jane BRISTOW, b. 1554, Great Leighs,England
  Family ID	F42418	Group Sheet
  Family	Joyce CORNISH, b. Abt 1584, Probably Great Leighs,Essex,England
  Married	26 Oct 1605	Great Leighs, Essex Co., England
  Children	1. Faith OLMSTED, c. 7 Jan 1606, Great Leighs, Essex, England   2. Frances OLMSTED, c. 14 Feb 1609, Fairsted, Essex, England   3. Mabel OLMSTED, c. 30 Sep 1610, Fairsted, Essex, England > 4. Nicholas OLMSTED, b. 15 Feb 1612, Fairstead,Essex,En   5. James OLMSTED, c. 22 Jan 1615, Fairsted, Essex, England   6. Nehemiah OLMSTED, c. 10 Nov 1618, Fairsted, Essex, England   7. Mary OLMSTED, c. 18 Apr 1621, Fairsted, Essex, England
  Family ID	F42426	Group Sheet

• Notes

  !Info taken from "The Olmsted Family In America" by Henry King Olmsted - 1912. Page 12. !For a complete history on James see Page 5 through 10. Includesa copy of his will and life history. His name appears on a monument erected in 1835 of the first settlers of Hartford. Came over on the ship Lion in 1632. Like most of the passengers of thistrip, they moved shortly after arrival to Newtown (Cambridge). JamesOlmstead's lot was on the north side of Harvard Street and became thesecond piece of propety purchased by Harvard College. James was made aFreeman November 6, 1632, and was chosen as the first constable November3, 1634. On February 3, 1634 at a town meeting, seven men were chosen toconduct the business of the town, and James Olmstead as well as JohnTalcott, William Wadsworth and John White were included. In 1634, thesettlers found they were in need of more land and twelve men, includingJames Olmstead, were dispatched to look at lands on the ConnecticutRiver. The group returned with a good report of the new site they hadfound and on October 15, 1635, sixty men, women and children went by landwith their cattle, horses and swine and arrived at the new site two weekslater. Their furniture and provision had been sent by ship on theConnecticut River and because of the onset of a harsh winter, their shipwas frozen at the mouth of the River. Although a few in the group choseto stay at the new site, many of the sixty people returned to Newtown, ingreat hardship. In May of 1636, when the weather changed, one hundredpeople including their minister Reverend Thomas Hooker, set out again toestablish the settlement now known as Hartford. They arrived after a twoweek trip accross the land. James Olmstead had a home lot of about twoacres adjoining Reverend Hooker's lot, and many other plots of landincluding a seventy acre tract in 1639. He was one of the first membersof the First Church of Hartford. James was probably one of the first tobe buried in the Ancient Burying Ground which is back of the CenterChurch and where the mounument to the original proprietors of Hartfordnow stands. Death Date Imported:Bef 23 1640 Sep 1 BIRT 2 DATE 1580 Notes: JAMES OLMSTEAD Notes: ORIGIN: Fairstead, Essex MIGRATION: 1632 on Lyon [ Hotten 150] FIRST RESIDENCE: Cambridge REMOVES: Hartford 1636 CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to church membership prior to 6 November1632 implied by freemanship, presumably to Watertown, since Cambridgechurch was not yet organized. Probably joined the church at Cambridgewhen it was formed in 1633, and remained with this church when it went toHartford. FREEMAN: 6 November 1632 [ MBCR 1:367]. EDUCATION: In his inventory were "3 bibles & 3 other books" (Ð2 5s.) and"15 quire of paper" (6s. 3d.). OFFICES: Cambridge constable to pay "James Omsted" 10s. for making thehighway by William Butler's pales, 2 June 1634 [ CaTR 8]; "James Olmsted"chosen constable of Cambridge for year following 3 November 1634 [ CaTR10]; elected selectman 3 February 1634/5 [ CaTR 11]; committee to surveytown lands, 3 February 1634/5 [ CaTR 12]. ESTATE: On 5 August 1633 granted one acre cowyard at Cambridge [ CaTR 5];assigned proportional share of five in division of meadows (one of thelargest in town), 20 August 1635 [ CaTR 13]; granted five acres (as"James Homsted"), 8 February 1635/6 [ CaTR 17]; in list of those withhouses, 8 February 1635/6 [ CaTR 18]. In the Cambridge land inventory, under date of 4 June 1635, "JamesOlmsteade" was credited with eight parcels of land: half a rood in townwith one house and backside; "one house and about one acre" in CowyardRow; four acres in the Old Field; one acre in Wigwam Neck; twenty-twoacres and a half in the Neck; two acres in the Ox Marsh; five acres and ahalf in the Long Marsh; and nineteen acres in the Great Marsh [ CaBOP 8].Although there is no record of the transaction, most of James Olmsted'sland in Cambridge came into the possession of Edward Goffe, and thehouselot and cowyard row lot are now part of Harvard Yard [ Morison ,maps facing pp. 188, 192]. In the Hartford land inventory of February 1639[/40] James Olmsteadheld thirteen parcels of land in Hartford: two acres with dwelling house,outhouses, yards and gardens; one acre, three roods and thirty perches inthe Little Meadow; five acres and twenty-four perches of meadow and swampin the North Meadow; thirty-two acres, three roods and nine perches ofmeadow and swamp in the North Meadow; four acres and thirty-two percheson the east side of the Great River; twenty-six acres in the OldOxpasture; two acres, three roods and eight perches in the Venturers'Field; sixteen acres, three roods and eight perches in the Cowpasture;eight acres and two roods of meadow and swamp in the South Meadow; twoacres, three roods and thirty-one perches of meadow and swamp atHockanum; four acres, two roods and thirty-three perches in the Neck ofLand; seven acres, three roods and sixteen perches in the Neck of Land;twenty acres, two roods and twenty-four perches in the Cowpasture [ HaBOP314-17]. In an undated will (attested 28 September 1640) James Olmstead ofHartford divided his estate equally between his two sons Nicholas andNehemiah (dependent upon a settlement to be made on Nicholas by hisfather-in-law Joseph Loomis), with small legacies to "my cousin RebeccaOlmstead that now dwelleth with me," and to servant Will[iam] Corby. In alater agreement between the executors and the two sons of James, kinsmenRichard and John Olmstead were given Ð5 apiece, and the Hartford churchÐ20 [ Manwaring 1:28-29; CCCR 1:446-47]. The inventory, taken 28 September 1640, totalled Ð397 19s. 2d., andincluded "2 acres of English corn of the ground" and "13 acres of groundbroke up," but this certainly did not include all his land [ CCCR1:448-49]. BIRTH: Baptized at Great Leighs, Essex, 4 December 1580, son of James andJane (Bristow) Olmstead. DEATH: Hartford before 28 September 1640 (date of inventory). MARRIAGE: Great Leighs, Essex, 26 October 1605 Joyce Cornish; buriedFairstead, Essex, 21 April 1621. CHILDREN (all but first baptized Fairstead, Essex): i FAITH, bp. Great Leighs 7 January 1606[/7]; bur. Fairstead 3 March1627/8. Notes: ii FRANCES, bur. Fairstead 14 February 1609/10. (This event ispublished at one point as a burial and at another as a baptism [OlmstedGen xi, 5], but the transcript has it as a burial.) Notes: iii MABEL, bp. 30 September 1610; bur. Fairstead 18 February1621/2. Notes: iv NICHOLAS, bp. 15 February 1612/3; m. by about 1645 SarahLoomis, daughter of Joseph Loomis (eldest known child d. 1646 and nextchild b. 20 November 1646 [ Grant 81; HaVR Barbour 237]; among the"children of Mr. Joseph Loomis" who received a distribution on 2 December1658 was "Nicholas Olmsted" [ Manwaring 1:135-36]). Notes: v JAMES, bp. 22 January 1615/6; no further record. Notes: vi NEHEMIAH, bp. 10 November 1618; m. by about 1655 ElizabethBurr, daughter of JEHU BURR , as the first of her three husbands. Notes: vii MARY, bp. 18 April 1621; bur. Fairstead 24 April 1621. Notes: ASSOCIATIONS: Three children of Richard Olmstead, nephew of James,came to New England: Richard (bp. 1612), John (bp. 1617) and Rebecca (b.say 1620) [Olmsted Gen 5]. It has been claimed that they came to NewEngland in 1632 with their greatuncle, but there is no evidence to provethis, and they may well have come later. Notes: BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The standard genealogy for the Olmstead familyis Henry King Olmsted and Geo. K. Ware, Genealogy of the Olmsted Familyin America Embracing the Descendants of James and Richard Olmsted andCovering a Period of Nearly Three Centuries, 1632-1912 (New York 1912)[cited above as Olmsted Gen]. This presents the records obtained as aresult of research in England (supervised by Frederick Law Olmsted!),including speculations on earlier generations [x-xv]. The parish registerentries above are taken from this work, augmented by examination of atranscript of the register at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.

• Sources

  [S2170] GEDCom File from Cassandra Olmstead [CassandraO@msn.com], with information from"Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in Americ, 10 Jun 2002. [S712] Passengers on the "Lion" from England to Boston, 1632, Sandra Sutphin Olney, (1992 Heritage Books Inc. Two volume set). [S77] Ancestral File (R), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998 Repository: Family History Library 35 N West Temple Street Sal).