WELCOME:
ABOUT SMFSD
A BRIEF HISTORY
OF MIDDLETOWN
FIRST SETTLER
BIO SKETCHES
MEMBERSHIP
RESEARCH LINKS
SMFSD NEWS
CONTACT SMFSD
— • —
MEMBER AREA:
Local History
In-Depth
First Settler Profiles
Genealogy
Resources
The Middler:
Newsletter
Archive
SMFSD Events
— • —

All pages
Copyright © 2007
SMFSD
All rights reserved.

— • —

"Possibly one of
the incidental
functions of
genealogical study
is to chasten
family pride,
and to make us
more conscious of
the essential unity
of the great
human family."

- Donald Lines Jacobus

Brief Biographical Sketch:


Daniel Harris (1653) / Mary (Weld) Harris

Name: Daniel Harris (Capt.)

Birth: About 1626, near Hatherup, Gloucestershire, England (GMB)

Emigration: From Bristol, England on the ship "Lion" of the Winthrop fleet to Boston, Mass. 1630. He came with both parents, four brothers, and one sister. Removed to Salem, Mass., then Rowley, Mass. by 1643.(Ancestry of Bethia Harris/Davis, 1934) To Middletown before 1653.(FFS)

Death: November 30, 1701, Middletown, Conn. (Ancestry of Bethia Harris/Davis, 1934)

Occupation & Public Service: Wheelwright, innkeeper (Ancestry of Bethia Harris/Davis, 1934). "In 1659 he was appointed to keep an ordinary. He was one of the persons who had charge of the town stock of powder and arms. In 1664 he was chosen Lieutenant of the train band and in 1677, Captain. He was four times a deputy to the General Court."(FFS)

Marriage: m. Mary Weld about 1648, Rowley, Mass. (b. about 1627, England; d. September 5, 1711, Middletown, Conn.) She was the daughter of Joseph Weld & Elizabeth (Shatswell) Weld of Sudbury, Suffolk, England, and Roxbury, Mass. (SAV)(Ancestry of Bethia Harris/Davis, 1934)(TAG)

Children: 10 children between 1651-1669.(MVR, BCVR) (See in-depth profile in Member Area for details.)


See abbreviation code for sources. And then verify, verify, verify, verify.
For more biographical information see the In-Depth Profile in the Member Area.


The First Meeting House, Middletown, Conn. The engraving below by W.C. Butler was a fanciful illustration for David Field's Centennial Address published in 1853. In 1939 the image was used on the title page of The Log Cabin Myth by Harold R. Shurtleff. Surrounding the engraving are signatures of some of the first settlers as found on wills and deeds by Charles C. Adams in preparation of Middletown Upper Houses (1908).