GENERATION 11

GENERATION 10

Biography

JOHN GRAVES was born about 1625 in England. He came to America, in 1629, with his parents and four siblings. He married MARY SMITH, of Wethersfield, Hartford, CT, on May 18, 1654. She was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, Oct. 9, 1628. She came to America, in 1634, as a young child with her parents and settled in Watertown, Middlesex, MA.

JOHN was a man of probity and education and was employed in 1655 and again in 1659 to run a boundary line between Wethersfield, Hartford, CT, and Mattabessett (now Middletown, Middlesex, CT). He exchanged land with John Goodrich about 1645. He bought the land of John Coultmans and also that of Gregory Gibbs.

In 1661, when his father THOMAS decided to leave Hartford, and found the settlement of Hatfield, Hampshire, MA, JOHN decided to join him. The reason for this move was over differences in their relgious beliefs as compared with the majority at the Hartford and Wethersfield churches. MARY died Dec. 16, 1668, in Hatfield. JOHN married second, Jul. 20, 1671, Mary Bronson, daughter of John and Hannah (Scott) Bronson, and widow of John Wyatt of Haddam, Middlesex, CT.

JOHN and his brother, Isaac, were killed by Indians in an attack on Hatfield, on Sep. 19,1677. The town of Hatfield was the most exposed, of the Connecticut river valley towns, as it was the frontier town. In response to the numerous attacks by the Indians, the people, to better protect themselves, built a stockade in the autumn of 1675, composed of timbers set in the ground, and about ten feet high. This stockade was built on both sides of Main Street, and enclosed most of the village. The houses of JOHN and Isaac were within the stockade. Unfortunately for them, on that 19th day of September, they were about half a mile north of the stockade, building a house for JOHN's son, John Jr., on a lot adjoining that of Benjamin Waite. Without any warning or thought of danger, they were attacked by Indians and shot. Two other men working with them, John Atchinson and John Cooper, were also killed. In addition eight others were killed, and presumed skalped, as the account speaks of them being disfigured. Seventeen more were taken prisoners, all but one, Obadiah Dickinson, were women and children.

His widow then married Lt. Willis Allis, in 1678, and she married as her fourth husband, Samuel Gaylord, on Mar. 16, 1681.