Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

establishment they have poured the full
currents of their life and strength. Few
families have had more educators and
professional men among them, scholars,
physicians, lawyers, teachers, preachers,
judges, senators and military officers ; and
a host of successful business men whose
high ideals and straightforward methods
have won the confidence of the communi-
ties in which they reside.
It has been stated that the patronymic
of the family was originally McStrachan,
and that it has gone through the follow-
ing changes : McStrachan, Strachan,
Strachn, Strong. The family is an ancient
one in England, the County of Shrop-
shire being its original seat. One of the
family married an heiress of Griffith, of
the County of Caernarvon, Wales, and
went there to reside in 1545.
Richard Strong, of that family, was
born in that county in 1561. In 1591 he
removed to Taunton, Somersetshire, Eng-
land, where he died in 1613, leaving a
son John, then eight years of age, and a
daughter Eleanor. John removed to London,
and thence to Plymouth, England.
The cause of the Puritans enlisted his
sympathies, and he joined the company
of one hundred and forty who sailed from
Plymouth in the "Mary and John," March
20, 1630, arriving at Nantasket, May 30,
1630.
This company finally decided upon a
site for their settlement, which they
called Dorchester. Having assisted in
founding and developng the town of
Dorchester, John Strong, in 1635, removed
to Hingham. He was made freeman
in Boston, March 9, 1636. On December
4, 1638, we find him recorded as
an inhabitant and proprietor of Taunton,
Massachusetts, and he was made a freeman
of the Plymouth Colony in the same
year. He removed from Taunton to
Windsor, Connecticut, probably about
1645. That town had been settled in 1636
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
55
by some of his Dorchester friends. John
Strong was appointed one of the commit-
tee of five leading citizens "to superin-
tend and bring forward the settlement of
that place." In 1659 he removed to
Northampton, Massachusetts, of which
he was one of the most active founders.
There he lived for forty years, one of the
leaders in affairs of church and State. He
was a prosperous tanner and acquired
considerable land. He was an elder in
the church and is generally spoken of as
Elder John Strong.
He married, for his second wife, in
December, 1630, Abigail, daughter of
Thomas Ford, of Dorchester, Massachusetts.
She died July 6, 1688, the mother
of sixteen children, after fifty-eight years
of married life. John Strong died April
14, 1699. Thomas Ford came to Amer-
ica with John Strong, and was one of
the founders of Dorchester. He was
one of the early settlers of Windsor, Connecticut;
was deputy to the General Court
in 1637-38-39-40; grand juror in 1643. He
removed to Northampton, probably at the
same time with John Strong in 1659. His
wife died in Windsor, April 18, 1643.
Thomas Strong, son of Elder John
Strong, was a trooper in 1658, under
Major Mason, at Windsor, and he removed
to Northampton with his father.
He married, December 5, 1660, for his
first wife, Mary, daughter of Rev. Ephraim
Hewett, of Windsor. She died Feb-
ruary 20, 1670-71. Thomas Strong died
October 3, 1689. Rev. Ephraim Hewett
had been settled at Wraxall, Warwick-
shire, England, but was proceeded against
in 1638 by Archbishop Laud, of unpleas-
ant memory, for neglecting ceremonies,
and came to America in 1639 with his
wife Isabel, settling in Windsor. It was
said of him,: "He was a man of superior
talents and eminent usefulness." He died
September 4, 1644.
Asahel Strong, youngest child of