*Note: John Nutting was my 8th Great-Grandfather
In his book, "Nutting Genealogy: A record of some of the descendants of John Nutting, of Groton, Mass.," Rev. John Keep Nutting made several references to possible locations in England that our Founder came from. "There was a rumor that our Founder was from Nottinghamshire. That was soon disposed of." He continued to write, "Then Yorkshire. And some one suggested Kent. No one mentioned Oxfordshire. But I have lately come upon what seems good evidence that as long ago at the middle of the 16th century (say as early as 1570 or thereabout), there was in Oxfordshire a Sir Godfrey Nutting, Baronet; and that in 1594, his son, Sir Robert Nutting of the Inner Temple, London, was granted a coat of arms. And I seem to have farther proof that at this early date there were Nuttings in Ireland, near Dublin, and also in Suffolk, England, the families being closely related. The only promising clue I have come upon, I found in Life and Letters of Governor John Winthrop, by his descendant, Hon. R.C. Winthrop of Boston. The home of the Winthrops in England was at Groton Manor, Suffolk, of which John Winthrop was lord before he came to America."
I was stationed in England with my family between 1999-2002. During those three years, I had the opportunity to research in a few county historical centers. Early on, I discovered a large group of Nuttings in Chislet, Kent County, not far from the village Biddenden where Sarah Eggleston was from. I then turned my attention to several Nutting families who lived just west of Suffolk county in Hertfordshire between 1500-1600s. In fact, there was a John Nutting from this area and time frame that I focused on for awhile. Keeping in mind that many of the folks from Kent and Hertfordshire left for Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet, these are still two possible leads to our Nutting connection. I do believe, however, there is more convincing evidence to the Groton-Winthrop-Nutton connection, just as Rev. Nutting suggested.
I visited the Bury St. Edmond's History Center in Suffolk County on numerous occasions, often spending several days at a time in order to research the old records they had in their collection. One of my first goals was to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling/Rawlings. According to a footnote in "Winthrop Papers, Volume I," John Nutton was the son of William, baptised at Edwardstone, February 2, 1575-76, and married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rawling. Many researchers have indicated that their marriage took place in Erwarton in 1618, but there is no date associated with this footnote other than the journal entries on the same page for the year 1603. So I spent the day looking for a record as early as 1590-1630. I searched in the records for Erwarton, Suffolk County which is located about 28 miles east of Edwardstone and closer to the coast, but I found no such record, nor did I find any mention of Nutton/Nuton/Nutting or Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) families living there. I changed direction and focused on the small villages closer to Groton in the Babergh District. There I found numerous records for Nutton/Nuton & Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) in Groton, Edwardstone, Kersey, Milden, Hadleigh, Lindsey and Boxford. While going through the records, I found a 30 January 1591 marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges that took place in Kersey. With further research, I managed to find eight children born to this couple: John, Mary, Edward (who died young), Edward, Susan, Thomas, Elizabeth and Robert. I wasn't able to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling; however, I did locate a marriage record for Edward Nutton & Mary Rauling on 27 April 1627 in Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk County, England. It is likely this Edward belongs to the same family line as John Nutton (1575-1626) and could possibly even be John's son.
Many researchers have assumed that John Nutting's father was John. It is a fact that John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges had a son named John who was born in 1592. He married Elizabeth Cooke in 1616 and they had a son named John Knutton who was christened in Hadleigh on 23 November 1617. Since I was not able to find a death date for this John, I assumed that he lived into adulthood. As a researcher who sometimes isn't satisfied with my own findings, I continued to look for another possible parentage for our Founder. Edward, who was the second oldest son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges, had a son named John whose christening date was 31 December 1626. This theory, of course, could only be proven if the actual birth date predates his grandfather's death of 24 September 1626. I learned that most christenings during that time period were done within days of the birth, so it would seem unlikely that Edward's son John was our Founder.
During one of my first visits to Groton, I stopped with my family to see St. Bartholomew's Church. This church is situated in the center of the village next to the Groton Manor. While we were there, an older gentleman walked in and introduced himself as Martin Wood. I told him that I was researching my Nutting family and how they were connected to John Winthrop. As the town historian, he said he worked with the descending Winthrop families, many of whom live in America, in order to help them with their family history. I have kept in touch with him ever since. He helped me transcribe John Nutton's will, both the old English document and the Latin document. He also found records about this family and pointed me in the right direction when I hit a brick wall. With all the family trees that I have looked at relating to the Erwarton-Rawlings connection, I asked him what his thoughts were. He stated that histories that are passed down from generation to generation often lose factual aspects of the story. Incorrect transcriptions could also be the reason for errors. Erwarton, according to Mr. Wood, was likely Edwardstone and he suggested that the name Rawlings possibly could be a similar error.
With Mr. Woods input, I decided to contact Francis J. Bremer, Professor and Chair of the History Department at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He published thirteen books and numerous essays, most dealing with puritanism in Old and New England, including the book, "John Winthrop, America's Forgotten Founder." I knew that his expertise regarding John Winthrop and the Winthrop Papers would be beneficial. I asked him his thoughts about Rawlings vs. Monninges. He said, "There are transcription errors in the early Winthrop Papers volumes. The footnote would have been done by a local researcher in the early twentieth century. The information in the note would have been drawn from parish registers and other sources -- not from documents in the Winthrop collection." He went on to say that given what I have found, he "would guess that the annotation is incorrect."
From our first discussion, Mr. Wood advised me not to focus my research based on only one spelling of the Nutting surname. He stated that the education of the church recorder in the late 1500s through the 1600s and the pronunciation of the name often dictated the way in which the surname was spelled in the record. Mr. Wood said that the name Nutton would have been spelled in a variety of ways to include Nuton, Nuten, Nutten, Neuton and Newton. With that advice, I focused on all forms of our ancestor's last name and in doing so, I came across a Newton family from Groton that possibly could be John's family. In the Winthrop Papers Vol. IV, page 508, Charles Newton sent a letter in 1644 to Governor Winthrop asking about his son John. In his words, "Sir I have a son I hope alive in your land. He is the nephew of my worthy Brother Mr. Edward Allen latly disceasd and I doe most humbly thank your worship for your Love to him and lovinge wife advice giuen him in his busines about his vncles will." He continued to say, "If it had bine soe in this our Kingdom we had stood to this day Noble Sir I shall thinke my selfe much bound to you and to your family to take notice of my poore Boy, and I shall thinke my selfe happy if in any respect, he may be servicable to your selfe or place wher he lives and I thanke God who gaue me him, and only him, that he gaue me and him a minde and him a call to that place wher he is, and wher he hath receivd so much good and God hath soe blessd him. I may com to him. I doe not desire he shold returne to me.'
Charles Newton was a woolen draper in Groton. He married Susan Gostlin, the daughter of Phillip and Alice Gostlin, in 1602. Their son, John Newton, was born 11 January 1623 in Groton, England. When Phillip Gostlin died in 1626, he left his home in Groton to Charles Newton and his daughter Susan based on his will. Susan died just two years later and sometime between her death and 1644, Charles sent his son John to America. Based on his 1644 letter to John Winthrop, he showed interest in making the voyage to America to be with his son, but it is uncertain if he was successful in doing so. Further research should be conducted on this family because of their ties to the Gostlin and Winthrop families and the fact that John Newton left England around the same time as our Founder. There is also one record of interest that should be investigated in Boston. John Nutting was listed in a record under the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Deponents (1649-1700). According to the record dated 1667, John Nutting was 42 years of age which would make his birth year 1623, six years older than John Nutton's (1592-1627) son, three years younger than Edward Nutton's son and the same age as Charles Newton's son.
While visiting the Suffolk County History Center in Bury St. Emonds, I discovered fairly early in my research that the Nutting spelling did not surface in Suffolk County until the latter part of the 1600s. This has continued to make me wonder whether our Founder actually came from this county. Another issue I found is with the naming patterns of our Founder's children. I noticed that both John Nutton born in 1575 and 1592, followed the typical patterns for old England; however, John Nutting did not. Although his first son was named after his father, the second son should have been named after Sarah's father, Stephen. Both John and Sarah had mother's named Elizabeth, but they didn't name their daughters after them. There could be two possibilities for this: Either the parentage of our Founder and his wife are incorrect or they chose to name their children after names in the Bible to symbolize a new beginning in Puritan Massachusetts.
A few years ago, I wanted to cover all my bases to find out if our Nutton/Nutting family was educated. I contacted Trinity College in Dublin and asked them if they had student records for John Nutton/Nuton between 1600-1650 since he was known to be there based on John Winthrop's letters. Unfortunately, they had no record of him. I also checked with the school in Boxford, Suffolk England for a general search of the Nutton name in their student files. They had no record either. While this is not uncommon, it still made me wonder how our Nutton/Nutting family beginning with our Founder, rose to the status that he did in Groton, Massachusetts. Based on this finding, I came to the conclusion that our Founder may not have been educated in school prior to leaving for America. It is more likely that he received his education as an indentured servant or apprentice, learning specific skills that helped him to become a surveyor, a town officer and a well-respected citizen in his community.
Whether our Founder was the son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Cooke, the son of Edward Nutton and Rebecca Ada or the son of Charles Newton and Susan Gostlin, it is still a fact that our Founder ended up in America and started a family that has descended into numerous families across the United States. For the purpose of this memorial, I have attached John Nutton, born in 1592, as his father. The date to which he came to America is not precisely known, but he did come during the Great Migration with John Winthrop's fleet. There have been a few theories as to when he came. Wallace Nutting, a descendant of the Founder, suggested that John came in 1639 as John Winthrop's land steward. This would mean that John Nutton was educated before leaving England or he served as an apprentice on the long journey. A few years ago, a researcher and descendant contacted me with information showing that John came to America on the ship "Abigail" as a servant and in the company of Dean Winthrop who was then a young boy. Another researcher found possible evidence that John Nutton came as an indentured servant under John Ruggles. All of these theories should be investigated further and hopefully with time, technology will uncover more documents that will answer all of our questions relating to our Founder.
And the rest is history...
By 28 August 1650, John married Sarah Eggleston, the daughter of Stephen Eggleston and Elizabeth Jane Bennett. The couple had nine known children: John, James, Mary, Josiah, Sarah who died young, Sarah, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Deborah.
John was a surveyor, a property owner, a town officer, and he tended to the town meeting house. His home became one of the fortified garrisons where his neighbors sought shelter during dangerous conditions.
On 13 March 1676, while protecting the families from an ambush of a local Indian tribe, John Nutting was killed. According to town records, "The Indians cut off the head of him who had been killed by their first fire, and did set it upon a pole, looking unto his own lande."
No one knows for certain where our ancestor was laid to rest, but based on the fact that John Nutting was a religious man, it is likely that his body was eventually buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts after the tensions between the residents of Groton and surrounding communities and the local Native American tribes subsided.
In his book, "Nutting Genealogy: A record of some of the descendants of John Nutting, of Groton, Mass.," Rev. John Keep Nutting made several references to possible locations in England that our Founder came from. "There was a rumor that our Founder was from Nottinghamshire. That was soon disposed of." He continued to write, "Then Yorkshire. And some one suggested Kent. No one mentioned Oxfordshire. But I have lately come upon what seems good evidence that as long ago at the middle of the 16th century (say as early as 1570 or thereabout), there was in Oxfordshire a Sir Godfrey Nutting, Baronet; and that in 1594, his son, Sir Robert Nutting of the Inner Temple, London, was granted a coat of arms. And I seem to have farther proof that at this early date there were Nuttings in Ireland, near Dublin, and also in Suffolk, England, the families being closely related. The only promising clue I have come upon, I found in Life and Letters of Governor John Winthrop, by his descendant, Hon. R.C. Winthrop of Boston. The home of the Winthrops in England was at Groton Manor, Suffolk, of which John Winthrop was lord before he came to America."
I was stationed in England with my family between 1999-2002. During those three years, I had the opportunity to research in a few county historical centers. Early on, I discovered a large group of Nuttings in Chislet, Kent County, not far from the village Biddenden where Sarah Eggleston was from. I then turned my attention to several Nutting families who lived just west of Suffolk county in Hertfordshire between 1500-1600s. In fact, there was a John Nutting from this area and time frame that I focused on for awhile. Keeping in mind that many of the folks from Kent and Hertfordshire left for Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet, these are still two possible leads to our Nutting connection. I do believe, however, there is more convincing evidence to the Groton-Winthrop-Nutton connection, just as Rev. Nutting suggested.
I visited the Bury St. Edmond's History Center in Suffolk County on numerous occasions, often spending several days at a time in order to research the old records they had in their collection. One of my first goals was to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling/Rawlings. According to a footnote in "Winthrop Papers, Volume I," John Nutton was the son of William, baptised at Edwardstone, February 2, 1575-76, and married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rawling. Many researchers have indicated that their marriage took place in Erwarton in 1618, but there is no date associated with this footnote other than the journal entries on the same page for the year 1603. So I spent the day looking for a record as early as 1590-1630. I searched in the records for Erwarton, Suffolk County which is located about 28 miles east of Edwardstone and closer to the coast, but I found no such record, nor did I find any mention of Nutton/Nuton/Nutting or Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) families living there. I changed direction and focused on the small villages closer to Groton in the Babergh District. There I found numerous records for Nutton/Nuton & Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) in Groton, Edwardstone, Kersey, Milden, Hadleigh, Lindsey and Boxford. While going through the records, I found a 30 January 1591 marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges that took place in Kersey. With further research, I managed to find eight children born to this couple: John, Mary, Edward (who died young), Edward, Susan, Thomas, Elizabeth and Robert. I wasn't able to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling; however, I did locate a marriage record for Edward Nutton & Mary Rauling on 27 April 1627 in Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk County, England. It is likely this Edward belongs to the same family line as John Nutton (1575-1626) and could possibly even be John's son.
Many researchers have assumed that John Nutting's father was John. It is a fact that John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges had a son named John who was born in 1592. He married Elizabeth Cooke in 1616 and they had a son named John Knutton who was christened in Hadleigh on 23 November 1617. Since I was not able to find a death date for this John, I assumed that he lived into adulthood. As a researcher who sometimes isn't satisfied with my own findings, I continued to look for another possible parentage for our Founder. Edward, who was the second oldest son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges, had a son named John whose christening date was 31 December 1626. This theory, of course, could only be proven if the actual birth date predates his grandfather's death of 24 September 1626. I learned that most christenings during that time period were done within days of the birth, so it would seem unlikely that Edward's son John was our Founder.
During one of my first visits to Groton, I stopped with my family to see St. Bartholomew's Church. This church is situated in the center of the village next to the Groton Manor. While we were there, an older gentleman walked in and introduced himself as Martin Wood. I told him that I was researching my Nutting family and how they were connected to John Winthrop. As the town historian, he said he worked with the descending Winthrop families, many of whom live in America, in order to help them with their family history. I have kept in touch with him ever since. He helped me transcribe John Nutton's will, both the old English document and the Latin document. He also found records about this family and pointed me in the right direction when I hit a brick wall. With all the family trees that I have looked at relating to the Erwarton-Rawlings connection, I asked him what his thoughts were. He stated that histories that are passed down from generation to generation often lose factual aspects of the story. Incorrect transcriptions could also be the reason for errors. Erwarton, according to Mr. Wood, was likely Edwardstone and he suggested that the name Rawlings possibly could be a similar error.
With Mr. Woods input, I decided to contact Francis J. Bremer, Professor and Chair of the History Department at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He published thirteen books and numerous essays, most dealing with puritanism in Old and New England, including the book, "John Winthrop, America's Forgotten Founder." I knew that his expertise regarding John Winthrop and the Winthrop Papers would be beneficial. I asked him his thoughts about Rawlings vs. Monninges. He said, "There are transcription errors in the early Winthrop Papers volumes. The footnote would have been done by a local researcher in the early twentieth century. The information in the note would have been drawn from parish registers and other sources -- not from documents in the Winthrop collection." He went on to say that given what I have found, he "would guess that the annotation is incorrect."
From our first discussion, Mr. Wood advised me not to focus my research based on only one spelling of the Nutting surname. He stated that the education of the church recorder in the late 1500s through the 1600s and the pronunciation of the name often dictated the way in which the surname was spelled in the record. Mr. Wood said that the name Nutton would have been spelled in a variety of ways to include Nuton, Nuten, Nutten, Neuton and Newton. With that advice, I focused on all forms of our ancestor's last name and in doing so, I came across a Newton family from Groton that possibly could be John's family. In the Winthrop Papers Vol. IV, page 508, Charles Newton sent a letter in 1644 to Governor Winthrop asking about his son John. In his words, "Sir I have a son I hope alive in your land. He is the nephew of my worthy Brother Mr. Edward Allen latly disceasd and I doe most humbly thank your worship for your Love to him and lovinge wife advice giuen him in his busines about his vncles will." He continued to say, "If it had bine soe in this our Kingdom we had stood to this day Noble Sir I shall thinke my selfe much bound to you and to your family to take notice of my poore Boy, and I shall thinke my selfe happy if in any respect, he may be servicable to your selfe or place wher he lives and I thanke God who gaue me him, and only him, that he gaue me and him a minde and him a call to that place wher he is, and wher he hath receivd so much good and God hath soe blessd him. I may com to him. I doe not desire he shold returne to me.'
Charles Newton was a woolen draper in Groton. He married Susan Gostlin, the daughter of Phillip and Alice Gostlin, in 1602. Their son, John Newton, was born 11 January 1623 in Groton, England. When Phillip Gostlin died in 1626, he left his home in Groton to Charles Newton and his daughter Susan based on his will. Susan died just two years later and sometime between her death and 1644, Charles sent his son John to America. Based on his 1644 letter to John Winthrop, he showed interest in making the voyage to America to be with his son, but it is uncertain if he was successful in doing so. Further research should be conducted on this family because of their ties to the Gostlin and Winthrop families and the fact that John Newton left England around the same time as our Founder. There is also one record of interest that should be investigated in Boston. John Nutting was listed in a record under the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Deponents (1649-1700). According to the record dated 1667, John Nutting was 42 years of age which would make his birth year 1623, six years older than John Nutton's (1592-1627) son, three years younger than Edward Nutton's son and the same age as Charles Newton's son.
While visiting the Suffolk County History Center in Bury St. Emonds, I discovered fairly early in my research that the Nutting spelling did not surface in Suffolk County until the latter part of the 1600s. This has continued to make me wonder whether our Founder actually came from this county. Another issue I found is with the naming patterns of our Founder's children. I noticed that both John Nutton born in 1575 and 1592, followed the typical patterns for old England; however, John Nutting did not. Although his first son was named after his father, the second son should have been named after Sarah's father, Stephen. Both John and Sarah had mother's named Elizabeth, but they didn't name their daughters after them. There could be two possibilities for this: Either the parentage of our Founder and his wife are incorrect or they chose to name their children after names in the Bible to symbolize a new beginning in Puritan Massachusetts.
A few years ago, I wanted to cover all my bases to find out if our Nutton/Nutting family was educated. I contacted Trinity College in Dublin and asked them if they had student records for John Nutton/Nuton between 1600-1650 since he was known to be there based on John Winthrop's letters. Unfortunately, they had no record of him. I also checked with the school in Boxford, Suffolk England for a general search of the Nutton name in their student files. They had no record either. While this is not uncommon, it still made me wonder how our Nutton/Nutting family beginning with our Founder, rose to the status that he did in Groton, Massachusetts. Based on this finding, I came to the conclusion that our Founder may not have been educated in school prior to leaving for America. It is more likely that he received his education as an indentured servant or apprentice, learning specific skills that helped him to become a surveyor, a town officer and a well-respected citizen in his community.
Whether our Founder was the son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Cooke, the son of Edward Nutton and Rebecca Ada or the son of Charles Newton and Susan Gostlin, it is still a fact that our Founder ended up in America and started a family that has descended into numerous families across the United States. For the purpose of this memorial, I have attached John Nutton, born in 1592, as his father. The date to which he came to America is not precisely known, but he did come during the Great Migration with John Winthrop's fleet. There have been a few theories as to when he came. Wallace Nutting, a descendant of the Founder, suggested that John came in 1639 as John Winthrop's land steward. This would mean that John Nutton was educated before leaving England or he served as an apprentice on the long journey. A few years ago, a researcher and descendant contacted me with information showing that John came to America on the ship "Abigail" as a servant and in the company of Dean Winthrop who was then a young boy. Another researcher found possible evidence that John Nutton came as an indentured servant under John Ruggles. All of these theories should be investigated further and hopefully with time, technology will uncover more documents that will answer all of our questions relating to our Founder.
And the rest is history...
By 28 August 1650, John married Sarah Eggleston, the daughter of Stephen Eggleston and Elizabeth Jane Bennett. The couple had nine known children: John, James, Mary, Josiah, Sarah who died young, Sarah, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Deborah.
John was a surveyor, a property owner, a town officer, and he tended to the town meeting house. His home became one of the fortified garrisons where his neighbors sought shelter during dangerous conditions.
On 13 March 1676, while protecting the families from an ambush of a local Indian tribe, John Nutting was killed. According to town records, "The Indians cut off the head of him who had been killed by their first fire, and did set it upon a pole, looking unto his own lande."
No one knows for certain where our ancestor was laid to rest, but based on the fact that John Nutting was a religious man, it is likely that his body was eventually buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts after the tensions between the residents of Groton and surrounding communities and the local Native American tribes subsided.
*Note: John Nutting was my 8th Great-Grandfather
In his book, "Nutting Genealogy: A record of some of the descendants of John Nutting, of Groton, Mass.," Rev. John Keep Nutting made several references to possible locations in England that our Founder came from. "There was a rumor that our Founder was from Nottinghamshire. That was soon disposed of." He continued to write, "Then Yorkshire. And some one suggested Kent. No one mentioned Oxfordshire. But I have lately come upon what seems good evidence that as long ago at the middle of the 16th century (say as early as 1570 or thereabout), there was in Oxfordshire a Sir Godfrey Nutting, Baronet; and that in 1594, his son, Sir Robert Nutting of the Inner Temple, London, was granted a coat of arms. And I seem to have farther proof that at this early date there were Nuttings in Ireland, near Dublin, and also in Suffolk, England, the families being closely related. The only promising clue I have come upon, I found in Life and Letters of Governor John Winthrop, by his descendant, Hon. R.C. Winthrop of Boston. The home of the Winthrops in England was at Groton Manor, Suffolk, of which John Winthrop was lord before he came to America."
I was stationed in England with my family between 1999-2002. During those three years, I had the opportunity to research in a few county historical centers. Early on, I discovered a large group of Nuttings in Chislet, Kent County, not far from the village Biddenden where Sarah Eggleston was from. I then turned my attention to several Nutting families who lived just west of Suffolk county in Hertfordshire between 1500-1600s. In fact, there was a John Nutting from this area and time frame that I focused on for awhile. Keeping in mind that many of the folks from Kent and Hertfordshire left for Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet, these are still two possible leads to our Nutting connection. I do believe, however, there is more convincing evidence to the Groton-Winthrop-Nutton connection, just as Rev. Nutting suggested.
I visited the Bury St. Edmond's History Center in Suffolk County on numerous occasions, often spending several days at a time in order to research the old records they had in their collection. One of my first goals was to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling/Rawlings. According to a footnote in "Winthrop Papers, Volume I," John Nutton was the son of William, baptised at Edwardstone, February 2, 1575-76, and married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rawling. Many researchers have indicated that their marriage took place in Erwarton in 1618, but there is no date associated with this footnote other than the journal entries on the same page for the year 1603. So I spent the day looking for a record as early as 1590-1630. I searched in the records for Erwarton, Suffolk County which is located about 28 miles east of Edwardstone and closer to the coast, but I found no such record, nor did I find any mention of Nutton/Nuton/Nutting or Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) families living there. I changed direction and focused on the small villages closer to Groton in the Babergh District. There I found numerous records for Nutton/Nuton & Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) in Groton, Edwardstone, Kersey, Milden, Hadleigh, Lindsey and Boxford. While going through the records, I found a 30 January 1591 marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges that took place in Kersey. With further research, I managed to find eight children born to this couple: John, Mary, Edward (who died young), Edward, Susan, Thomas, Elizabeth and Robert. I wasn't able to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling; however, I did locate a marriage record for Edward Nutton & Mary Rauling on 27 April 1627 in Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk County, England. It is likely this Edward belongs to the same family line as John Nutton (1575-1626) and could possibly even be John's son.
Many researchers have assumed that John Nutting's father was John. It is a fact that John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges had a son named John who was born in 1592. He married Elizabeth Cooke in 1616 and they had a son named John Knutton who was christened in Hadleigh on 23 November 1617. Since I was not able to find a death date for this John, I assumed that he lived into adulthood. As a researcher who sometimes isn't satisfied with my own findings, I continued to look for another possible parentage for our Founder. Edward, who was the second oldest son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges, had a son named John whose christening date was 31 December 1626. This theory, of course, could only be proven if the actual birth date predates his grandfather's death of 24 September 1626. I learned that most christenings during that time period were done within days of the birth, so it would seem unlikely that Edward's son John was our Founder.
During one of my first visits to Groton, I stopped with my family to see St. Bartholomew's Church. This church is situated in the center of the village next to the Groton Manor. While we were there, an older gentleman walked in and introduced himself as Martin Wood. I told him that I was researching my Nutting family and how they were connected to John Winthrop. As the town historian, he said he worked with the descending Winthrop families, many of whom live in America, in order to help them with their family history. I have kept in touch with him ever since. He helped me transcribe John Nutton's will, both the old English document and the Latin document. He also found records about this family and pointed me in the right direction when I hit a brick wall. With all the family trees that I have looked at relating to the Erwarton-Rawlings connection, I asked him what his thoughts were. He stated that histories that are passed down from generation to generation often lose factual aspects of the story. Incorrect transcriptions could also be the reason for errors. Erwarton, according to Mr. Wood, was likely Edwardstone and he suggested that the name Rawlings possibly could be a similar error.
With Mr. Woods input, I decided to contact Francis J. Bremer, Professor and Chair of the History Department at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He published thirteen books and numerous essays, most dealing with puritanism in Old and New England, including the book, "John Winthrop, America's Forgotten Founder." I knew that his expertise regarding John Winthrop and the Winthrop Papers would be beneficial. I asked him his thoughts about Rawlings vs. Monninges. He said, "There are transcription errors in the early Winthrop Papers volumes. The footnote would have been done by a local researcher in the early twentieth century. The information in the note would have been drawn from parish registers and other sources -- not from documents in the Winthrop collection." He went on to say that given what I have found, he "would guess that the annotation is incorrect."
From our first discussion, Mr. Wood advised me not to focus my research based on only one spelling of the Nutting surname. He stated that the education of the church recorder in the late 1500s through the 1600s and the pronunciation of the name often dictated the way in which the surname was spelled in the record. Mr. Wood said that the name Nutton would have been spelled in a variety of ways to include Nuton, Nuten, Nutten, Neuton and Newton. With that advice, I focused on all forms of our ancestor's last name and in doing so, I came across a Newton family from Groton that possibly could be John's family. In the Winthrop Papers Vol. IV, page 508, Charles Newton sent a letter in 1644 to Governor Winthrop asking about his son John. In his words, "Sir I have a son I hope alive in your land. He is the nephew of my worthy Brother Mr. Edward Allen latly disceasd and I doe most humbly thank your worship for your Love to him and lovinge wife advice giuen him in his busines about his vncles will." He continued to say, "If it had bine soe in this our Kingdom we had stood to this day Noble Sir I shall thinke my selfe much bound to you and to your family to take notice of my poore Boy, and I shall thinke my selfe happy if in any respect, he may be servicable to your selfe or place wher he lives and I thanke God who gaue me him, and only him, that he gaue me and him a minde and him a call to that place wher he is, and wher he hath receivd so much good and God hath soe blessd him. I may com to him. I doe not desire he shold returne to me.'
Charles Newton was a woolen draper in Groton. He married Susan Gostlin, the daughter of Phillip and Alice Gostlin, in 1602. Their son, John Newton, was born 11 January 1623 in Groton, England. When Phillip Gostlin died in 1626, he left his home in Groton to Charles Newton and his daughter Susan based on his will. Susan died just two years later and sometime between her death and 1644, Charles sent his son John to America. Based on his 1644 letter to John Winthrop, he showed interest in making the voyage to America to be with his son, but it is uncertain if he was successful in doing so. Further research should be conducted on this family because of their ties to the Gostlin and Winthrop families and the fact that John Newton left England around the same time as our Founder. There is also one record of interest that should be investigated in Boston. John Nutting was listed in a record under the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Deponents (1649-1700). According to the record dated 1667, John Nutting was 42 years of age which would make his birth year 1623, six years older than John Nutton's (1592-1627) son, three years younger than Edward Nutton's son and the same age as Charles Newton's son.
While visiting the Suffolk County History Center in Bury St. Emonds, I discovered fairly early in my research that the Nutting spelling did not surface in Suffolk County until the latter part of the 1600s. This has continued to make me wonder whether our Founder actually came from this county. Another issue I found is with the naming patterns of our Founder's children. I noticed that both John Nutton born in 1575 and 1592, followed the typical patterns for old England; however, John Nutting did not. Although his first son was named after his father, the second son should have been named after Sarah's father, Stephen. Both John and Sarah had mother's named Elizabeth, but they didn't name their daughters after them. There could be two possibilities for this: Either the parentage of our Founder and his wife are incorrect or they chose to name their children after names in the Bible to symbolize a new beginning in Puritan Massachusetts.
A few years ago, I wanted to cover all my bases to find out if our Nutton/Nutting family was educated. I contacted Trinity College in Dublin and asked them if they had student records for John Nutton/Nuton between 1600-1650 since he was known to be there based on John Winthrop's letters. Unfortunately, they had no record of him. I also checked with the school in Boxford, Suffolk England for a general search of the Nutton name in their student files. They had no record either. While this is not uncommon, it still made me wonder how our Nutton/Nutting family beginning with our Founder, rose to the status that he did in Groton, Massachusetts. Based on this finding, I came to the conclusion that our Founder may not have been educated in school prior to leaving for America. It is more likely that he received his education as an indentured servant or apprentice, learning specific skills that helped him to become a surveyor, a town officer and a well-respected citizen in his community.
Whether our Founder was the son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Cooke, the son of Edward Nutton and Rebecca Ada or the son of Charles Newton and Susan Gostlin, it is still a fact that our Founder ended up in America and started a family that has descended into numerous families across the United States. For the purpose of this memorial, I have attached John Nutton, born in 1592, as his father. The date to which he came to America is not precisely known, but he did come during the Great Migration with John Winthrop's fleet. There have been a few theories as to when he came. Wallace Nutting, a descendant of the Founder, suggested that John came in 1639 as John Winthrop's land steward. This would mean that John Nutton was educated before leaving England or he served as an apprentice on the long journey. A few years ago, a researcher and descendant contacted me with information showing that John came to America on the ship "Abigail" as a servant and in the company of Dean Winthrop who was then a young boy. Another researcher found possible evidence that John Nutton came as an indentured servant under John Ruggles. All of these theories should be investigated further and hopefully with time, technology will uncover more documents that will answer all of our questions relating to our Founder.
And the rest is history...
By 28 August 1650, John married Sarah Eggleston, the daughter of Stephen Eggleston and Elizabeth Jane Bennett. The couple had nine known children: John, James, Mary, Josiah, Sarah who died young, Sarah, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Deborah.
John was a surveyor, a property owner, a town officer, and he tended to the town meeting house. His home became one of the fortified garrisons where his neighbors sought shelter during dangerous conditions.
On 13 March 1676, while protecting the families from an ambush of a local Indian tribe, John Nutting was killed. According to town records, "The Indians cut off the head of him who had been killed by their first fire, and did set it upon a pole, looking unto his own lande."
No one knows for certain where our ancestor was laid to rest, but based on the fact that John Nutting was a religious man, it is likely that his body was eventually buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts after the tensions between the residents of Groton and surrounding communities and the local Native American tribes subsided.
In his book, "Nutting Genealogy: A record of some of the descendants of John Nutting, of Groton, Mass.," Rev. John Keep Nutting made several references to possible locations in England that our Founder came from. "There was a rumor that our Founder was from Nottinghamshire. That was soon disposed of." He continued to write, "Then Yorkshire. And some one suggested Kent. No one mentioned Oxfordshire. But I have lately come upon what seems good evidence that as long ago at the middle of the 16th century (say as early as 1570 or thereabout), there was in Oxfordshire a Sir Godfrey Nutting, Baronet; and that in 1594, his son, Sir Robert Nutting of the Inner Temple, London, was granted a coat of arms. And I seem to have farther proof that at this early date there were Nuttings in Ireland, near Dublin, and also in Suffolk, England, the families being closely related. The only promising clue I have come upon, I found in Life and Letters of Governor John Winthrop, by his descendant, Hon. R.C. Winthrop of Boston. The home of the Winthrops in England was at Groton Manor, Suffolk, of which John Winthrop was lord before he came to America."
I was stationed in England with my family between 1999-2002. During those three years, I had the opportunity to research in a few county historical centers. Early on, I discovered a large group of Nuttings in Chislet, Kent County, not far from the village Biddenden where Sarah Eggleston was from. I then turned my attention to several Nutting families who lived just west of Suffolk county in Hertfordshire between 1500-1600s. In fact, there was a John Nutting from this area and time frame that I focused on for awhile. Keeping in mind that many of the folks from Kent and Hertfordshire left for Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet, these are still two possible leads to our Nutting connection. I do believe, however, there is more convincing evidence to the Groton-Winthrop-Nutton connection, just as Rev. Nutting suggested.
I visited the Bury St. Edmond's History Center in Suffolk County on numerous occasions, often spending several days at a time in order to research the old records they had in their collection. One of my first goals was to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling/Rawlings. According to a footnote in "Winthrop Papers, Volume I," John Nutton was the son of William, baptised at Edwardstone, February 2, 1575-76, and married Elizabeth, daughter of John Rawling. Many researchers have indicated that their marriage took place in Erwarton in 1618, but there is no date associated with this footnote other than the journal entries on the same page for the year 1603. So I spent the day looking for a record as early as 1590-1630. I searched in the records for Erwarton, Suffolk County which is located about 28 miles east of Edwardstone and closer to the coast, but I found no such record, nor did I find any mention of Nutton/Nuton/Nutting or Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) families living there. I changed direction and focused on the small villages closer to Groton in the Babergh District. There I found numerous records for Nutton/Nuton & Rawling(s)/Rauling(s) in Groton, Edwardstone, Kersey, Milden, Hadleigh, Lindsey and Boxford. While going through the records, I found a 30 January 1591 marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges that took place in Kersey. With further research, I managed to find eight children born to this couple: John, Mary, Edward (who died young), Edward, Susan, Thomas, Elizabeth and Robert. I wasn't able to find a marriage record for John Nutton and Elizabeth Rawling; however, I did locate a marriage record for Edward Nutton & Mary Rauling on 27 April 1627 in Stoke by Nayland in Suffolk County, England. It is likely this Edward belongs to the same family line as John Nutton (1575-1626) and could possibly even be John's son.
Many researchers have assumed that John Nutting's father was John. It is a fact that John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges had a son named John who was born in 1592. He married Elizabeth Cooke in 1616 and they had a son named John Knutton who was christened in Hadleigh on 23 November 1617. Since I was not able to find a death date for this John, I assumed that he lived into adulthood. As a researcher who sometimes isn't satisfied with my own findings, I continued to look for another possible parentage for our Founder. Edward, who was the second oldest son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Monninges, had a son named John whose christening date was 31 December 1626. This theory, of course, could only be proven if the actual birth date predates his grandfather's death of 24 September 1626. I learned that most christenings during that time period were done within days of the birth, so it would seem unlikely that Edward's son John was our Founder.
During one of my first visits to Groton, I stopped with my family to see St. Bartholomew's Church. This church is situated in the center of the village next to the Groton Manor. While we were there, an older gentleman walked in and introduced himself as Martin Wood. I told him that I was researching my Nutting family and how they were connected to John Winthrop. As the town historian, he said he worked with the descending Winthrop families, many of whom live in America, in order to help them with their family history. I have kept in touch with him ever since. He helped me transcribe John Nutton's will, both the old English document and the Latin document. He also found records about this family and pointed me in the right direction when I hit a brick wall. With all the family trees that I have looked at relating to the Erwarton-Rawlings connection, I asked him what his thoughts were. He stated that histories that are passed down from generation to generation often lose factual aspects of the story. Incorrect transcriptions could also be the reason for errors. Erwarton, according to Mr. Wood, was likely Edwardstone and he suggested that the name Rawlings possibly could be a similar error.
With Mr. Woods input, I decided to contact Francis J. Bremer, Professor and Chair of the History Department at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He published thirteen books and numerous essays, most dealing with puritanism in Old and New England, including the book, "John Winthrop, America's Forgotten Founder." I knew that his expertise regarding John Winthrop and the Winthrop Papers would be beneficial. I asked him his thoughts about Rawlings vs. Monninges. He said, "There are transcription errors in the early Winthrop Papers volumes. The footnote would have been done by a local researcher in the early twentieth century. The information in the note would have been drawn from parish registers and other sources -- not from documents in the Winthrop collection." He went on to say that given what I have found, he "would guess that the annotation is incorrect."
From our first discussion, Mr. Wood advised me not to focus my research based on only one spelling of the Nutting surname. He stated that the education of the church recorder in the late 1500s through the 1600s and the pronunciation of the name often dictated the way in which the surname was spelled in the record. Mr. Wood said that the name Nutton would have been spelled in a variety of ways to include Nuton, Nuten, Nutten, Neuton and Newton. With that advice, I focused on all forms of our ancestor's last name and in doing so, I came across a Newton family from Groton that possibly could be John's family. In the Winthrop Papers Vol. IV, page 508, Charles Newton sent a letter in 1644 to Governor Winthrop asking about his son John. In his words, "Sir I have a son I hope alive in your land. He is the nephew of my worthy Brother Mr. Edward Allen latly disceasd and I doe most humbly thank your worship for your Love to him and lovinge wife advice giuen him in his busines about his vncles will." He continued to say, "If it had bine soe in this our Kingdom we had stood to this day Noble Sir I shall thinke my selfe much bound to you and to your family to take notice of my poore Boy, and I shall thinke my selfe happy if in any respect, he may be servicable to your selfe or place wher he lives and I thanke God who gaue me him, and only him, that he gaue me and him a minde and him a call to that place wher he is, and wher he hath receivd so much good and God hath soe blessd him. I may com to him. I doe not desire he shold returne to me.'
Charles Newton was a woolen draper in Groton. He married Susan Gostlin, the daughter of Phillip and Alice Gostlin, in 1602. Their son, John Newton, was born 11 January 1623 in Groton, England. When Phillip Gostlin died in 1626, he left his home in Groton to Charles Newton and his daughter Susan based on his will. Susan died just two years later and sometime between her death and 1644, Charles sent his son John to America. Based on his 1644 letter to John Winthrop, he showed interest in making the voyage to America to be with his son, but it is uncertain if he was successful in doing so. Further research should be conducted on this family because of their ties to the Gostlin and Winthrop families and the fact that John Newton left England around the same time as our Founder. There is also one record of interest that should be investigated in Boston. John Nutting was listed in a record under the Middlesex County, Massachusetts Deponents (1649-1700). According to the record dated 1667, John Nutting was 42 years of age which would make his birth year 1623, six years older than John Nutton's (1592-1627) son, three years younger than Edward Nutton's son and the same age as Charles Newton's son.
While visiting the Suffolk County History Center in Bury St. Emonds, I discovered fairly early in my research that the Nutting spelling did not surface in Suffolk County until the latter part of the 1600s. This has continued to make me wonder whether our Founder actually came from this county. Another issue I found is with the naming patterns of our Founder's children. I noticed that both John Nutton born in 1575 and 1592, followed the typical patterns for old England; however, John Nutting did not. Although his first son was named after his father, the second son should have been named after Sarah's father, Stephen. Both John and Sarah had mother's named Elizabeth, but they didn't name their daughters after them. There could be two possibilities for this: Either the parentage of our Founder and his wife are incorrect or they chose to name their children after names in the Bible to symbolize a new beginning in Puritan Massachusetts.
A few years ago, I wanted to cover all my bases to find out if our Nutton/Nutting family was educated. I contacted Trinity College in Dublin and asked them if they had student records for John Nutton/Nuton between 1600-1650 since he was known to be there based on John Winthrop's letters. Unfortunately, they had no record of him. I also checked with the school in Boxford, Suffolk England for a general search of the Nutton name in their student files. They had no record either. While this is not uncommon, it still made me wonder how our Nutton/Nutting family beginning with our Founder, rose to the status that he did in Groton, Massachusetts. Based on this finding, I came to the conclusion that our Founder may not have been educated in school prior to leaving for America. It is more likely that he received his education as an indentured servant or apprentice, learning specific skills that helped him to become a surveyor, a town officer and a well-respected citizen in his community.
Whether our Founder was the son of John Nutton and Elizabeth Cooke, the son of Edward Nutton and Rebecca Ada or the son of Charles Newton and Susan Gostlin, it is still a fact that our Founder ended up in America and started a family that has descended into numerous families across the United States. For the purpose of this memorial, I have attached John Nutton, born in 1592, as his father. The date to which he came to America is not precisely known, but he did come during the Great Migration with John Winthrop's fleet. There have been a few theories as to when he came. Wallace Nutting, a descendant of the Founder, suggested that John came in 1639 as John Winthrop's land steward. This would mean that John Nutton was educated before leaving England or he served as an apprentice on the long journey. A few years ago, a researcher and descendant contacted me with information showing that John came to America on the ship "Abigail" as a servant and in the company of Dean Winthrop who was then a young boy. Another researcher found possible evidence that John Nutton came as an indentured servant under John Ruggles. All of these theories should be investigated further and hopefully with time, technology will uncover more documents that will answer all of our questions relating to our Founder.
And the rest is history...
By 28 August 1650, John married Sarah Eggleston, the daughter of Stephen Eggleston and Elizabeth Jane Bennett. The couple had nine known children: John, James, Mary, Josiah, Sarah who died young, Sarah, Ebenezer, Jonathan and Deborah.
John was a surveyor, a property owner, a town officer, and he tended to the town meeting house. His home became one of the fortified garrisons where his neighbors sought shelter during dangerous conditions.
On 13 March 1676, while protecting the families from an ambush of a local Indian tribe, John Nutting was killed. According to town records, "The Indians cut off the head of him who had been killed by their first fire, and did set it upon a pole, looking unto his own lande."
No one knows for certain where our ancestor was laid to rest, but based on the fact that John Nutting was a religious man, it is likely that his body was eventually buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton, Massachusetts after the tensions between the residents of Groton and surrounding communities and the local Native American tribes subsided.
