Milford lies in New Haven County on Long Island sound and is separated from the township of Stratford on the west by the Housatonic river, and about 10 miles S.W. of New Haven. The town, one of the original six plantations of New Haven Colony, was established in 1639, two years after the Pequot War , by Reverend Peter Prudden (lot 40). First named Wepowage, the Indian name for the river that flowed through the settlement, by indigenous tribes, Milford was puchased 12 Feb 1639 by William FOWLER (lot 41), Edmund TAPP (lot 35), Zachariah WHITMAN (lot 32), Benjamin FENN (lot 3), and Alexander BRYAN (lot 23) from local tribes for "six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, and a dozen small looking-glasses."

Prudden was the minister of the Providence Island Company. In 1637, with fifteen Hertfordshire [England] families - among them Edmund Tapp of Bennington, Hertfordshire, James Prudden, William Fowler, Thomas and Hanah Buckingham, Thomas Welsh, Richard Platt, Henry Stonehill and William East - he left England for Massachusetts and went with John Davenport's group to Connecticut in March of 1638. More on the history of the Colony of New Haven. Additional information at Milford Chamber of Commerce site.

Early Milford

Early Milford Lot Owners 1646
Click map for larger image. Opens in a new browser window	ASTWOOD, J. 1 BAILEY, T. 59 BAKER, Thomas 10 BALDWIN, John 13 BALDWIN, Joseph 52 BALDWIN, Nathaniel 7 BALDWIN, R. 2 BALDWIN, Tim 22 BEARD, Martha 54 BENTON, A. 64 BIRDSEYE, J. 16 BOLT, Frances 14 BOTSFORD, H. 45 BRISCOR, N. 62 BROUKES, W. 60 BROWN, J. 61 BRYAN, Alexander 23 BUCKINGHAM, Thomas 36 BURWELL, J. 44 CAMP, N. 50 CAMPFIELD [CANFIELD], T. 55 CLARK, Jr, George 43	CLARK, Sr., George 65 COLEY, S. 4 DENISON, R. 31 EAST, William 19 FENN, Benjamin 3 FLETCHER, John 12 FORD, T. 56 FOWLER, J. 51 FOWLER, William 41 FREEMAN, John 11 GUNN, J. 24 HARVEY, Edward 17 HATLEY, Ph. 48 HINE, Thomas 25 HUBBARD, G. 66 LAND, John 18 LAWRENCE, T. 42 LAWRENCE, Thomas 20 LYON, Henry 26 PEACOCKE, John 5 PLATT, R. 38 PLUM, R. 37	PRIME, J. 29 PRUDDEN, James 8 PRUDDEN, Peter (Rev.) 40 REED, T. 30 RIGGS, E. 63 ROBERTS, W. 57 ROGERS, J. 47 SANDFORD, Thomas 21 SHERMAN, John 9 SLOUGH, W. 28 SMITH, J. 46 SMITH, J. 58 STONHILL, Henry 6 STREAM, John 27 TAPP, Edmund 35 TAPPING, Thomas 39 TIBBATS, T. 53 [TIBBALS] TOMPKINS, M. 15 TYRRELL, A. 49 [TERRIL] WELCH, T. 33 WHEELER, T. 34 WHITMAN, Zachariah 32

Freemen in Milford, CT, Oct 1669

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut , from April 1636 to October 1776 ... transcribed and published, (in accordance with a resolution of the General assembly). Hartford : Brown & Parsons. 1850-1890. 15 vols.

Vol. 2, Pages 524-525

Benjamin Fenn
Alexander Bryant
Roger Newten
John Clerke [Clark(e)]
Thomas Tappin
Wiliam East
Richard Bryant
Lt. Wiliam Fowler
Ensign John Streame
Georg Clerke senr. [Clark(e)]
Georg Clerke junr. [Clark(e)]
Richard Platt
Thomas Welsh
Thomas Wheeler
Thomas Tibbals
Jasper Gun
John Baldwin
Thomas Samford
John Smith senr.
Samuell Coly
Henory Bochford
Joesph Peck
Thomas Camppbeild [CANFIELD]
Nicolas Camp
Roger Turrall [TERRIL]
Wiliam Brookes
John Bard
Eleazer Rogers
Johama Gun
Daniel Baldwin
Thomas Hine
Samuell Eells
Jonathan Lawe
Benjamin Smith
Richard Holbrooke
Miles Merwin
Henery Allyne
John Smith Junr.
Andrew Samford sen.
Andrew Samford jun.
Thomas Clerke [Clark(e)]
Wiliam Robets
Elnathan Bochford
Samuell Buckinghame
Edward Woster
Daniel Buckinghame

That these are the freemen of the towne & all of them, witneseth [sic] my hand, in the name & with the concent [sic] of the townsmen, Daniel Buckinghame, Con.

Value of Lands [May 1665 – Nov 1677]

The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut , from April 1636 to October 1776 ... transcribed and published, (in accordance with a resolution of the General assembly). Hartford : Brown & Parsons. 1850-1890. 15 vols.

Vol. 2., Page 295 [May 1665 – Nov 1677]

Milford house lotts, the best at 25 s . per acre, the worst at 20 s. p r acre; the rest, fourth part of their impropriated [ improved? ] lands at 20 s. p r acre, the other three parts at 12 s . p r acre; other perticular [sic] impropriated lands at 12 d. as Stonington .

Seven Pillars and the Early Religious History of Milford

Milford was settled in 1639 by a group of English Puritans, followers of the Rev. Peter Prudden.  They are often referred to, in the history of the New Haven Colony, as the "Hertfordshire Group."

The Puritans were not the homogeneous group that we often think them to be.  They were Calvinist in theology and were pleased that Henry VIII had broken with Rome and had abolished the monasteries.  But they felt that the English Church still had farther to go to return to the primitive, much simpler, church of the early days of Christianity. Thus, all the "corruptions" of the medieval Roman church. or "popery," should be swept away: including bishops, statuary, stained glass, vestments and the elaborate rituals of the mass, and even the Book of Common Prayer. Read more in this exclusive article on the Early Religious History of Milford by Richard N. Platt, Jr., Milford Historian.

Milford History

• The bridge on the Wepawaug by Morris W. Abbott
  Milford, Connecticut : [s.n.], 1972, [30] p. : ill.
  Family History Library Link
• Historical sketches of the town of Milford compiled and edited by George Hare Ford
  New Haven, Conn. : Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, c1914. 80 p., [7] leaves of plates : ill.
  Full Text - This Site
• History of Milford, Connecticut 1639-1939 compiled and written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Projects [i.e. Progress] Administration for the state of Connecticut. Bridgeport, Conn. : Press of Braunworth & Co., 1939. xii, 204 p., [28] leaves of plates (1 folded) : ill., maps. Bibliography: p. 193-196. Includes index.
  Family History Library Link
• Miles Merwin (1623-1697) Association [booklets] /  Merwin, Miles W, English ancestry of Miles and Elizabeth (Powell) Merwin, Washington [District of Columbia] : The Association, 1960- . v. : ill., facsims., maps, ports. Irregular, published only in 1960, 1963, 1975, 1982, 1989 and 1997.
  Family History Library Link
  
  In August 1903, Miles T. Merwin held a reunion in Durham, Connecticut, and formed the Merwin Association, which was defunct before 1909. The Miles Merwin (1623-1697) Association was organized in later in 1957, at New Haven, Connecticut, by their founder/president Miles Merwin of St. Croix (Virgin Islands). It was incorporated in the state of Connecticut in March 1963. Its headquarters is in Milford, Connecticut, although there are regional branches throughout the United States, Canada, Virgin Islands, and elsewhere.
• The shore of Milford by Ernest L. Nettleton. [New York? : s.n., 1902?]. (New York : C.R. Trumball). [7] p., [27] p. of plates. : ill.
  Family History Library Link
• Sixty years' recollections of Milford : and its chronology from 1637 up to and including 1916 by Nathan Stowe ; the whole edited and revised by Newton Harrison. Milford, Connecticut : [s.n.], 1917. 95 p., [2] folded leaves of plates : maps, port.
  Family History Library Link
• The story of the memorial in honor of the founders of the town of Milford : erected by their descendants and the citizens of Milford, dedicated August 28th, 1889, the town's 250th anniversary by Nathan G. Pond (Nathan Gillett), 1832-1894 [Milford, Conn.? : s.n.], 1889. 20 p., [1] leaf of plates : ill.
  Family History Library Link
• The Peter Pond Society
  Milford, Connecticut, native son, Peter Pond who made his fortune as a Canadian fur trader and returned to Milford for his final days.
• Milford Historic District Virtual Tour
  

Milford Genealogy

• Families of early Milford, Connecticut  compiled by Susan Woodruff Abbott ; edited and prepared for publication by Jacquelyn L. Ricker. Baltimore [Maryland] : Genealogical Pub. Co., c1979, 875 p.
  Family History Library Link
  
• Milford families by Nathan G. Pond (Nathan Gillett), 1832-1894. Microfilm of typescript at the New Haven Colony Historical Society in New Haven, Connecticut.
  Family History Library Link

Rev. Peter PRUDDEN

The Rev. Peter Prudden is credited with the founding of Milford, Connecticut, and the First Church of Milford . His lineage indicates that he was born Dec. 1601. Merchant Taylors' School, London, 1616-7; Emmanuel College, Cambridge 1620; m. Jane Thomas, dau. of William Thomas, gent., of Abergavenny, County Monmouth, Wales, before 1633. Preached Herefordshire, England. At Boston, Mass., June 26, 1637; New Haven and Wethersfield, Conn., 1638; m. secondly in New England, Joanna Boyse, of Roxbury, Mass., dau. of Rev. John Boyse, of Halifax, County York, England. Pastor of Milford, Conn., Church 1640-1656. Died July 1656. For further particulars, and an account of his nine children by his second wife, see the book, Peter Prudden; New England Register, vol. 84, pp. 62-68 ; and Families of Old Fairfield, vol. 1, pp. 494-495."

Joseph Baldwin

The Baldwins were prominent in Early Milford, Connecticut. Read an interesting letter about the Baldwin Family. [If you put this letter on the Internet, please contact Roberta.]