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Descendants of Matthew Grant

Generation No. 1

1. MATTHEW⁵ GRANT (JOHN⁴, GEORGE³, JOHN², WILLIAM¹)¹ was born October 27, 1601 in Devonshire, England¹, and died December 16, 1681 in Windsor, CT¹. He married (1) PRISCILLA GREY¹ November 16, 1625 in England, daughter of REV GREY and MAGDALENA PURIFOY. She was born February 27, 1600/01 in Devonshire, Devonshire, England¹, and died April 27, 1644 in Windsor, CT¹. He married (2) SUSANNA CAPEN¹ May 29, 1645 in Windsor, CT, daughter of BERNARD CAPEN and JOAN (PURCHIS). She was born April 05, 1602 in Dorchester, Co. Dorset, England¹, and died November 14, 1666 in Windsor, CT¹.

Notes for MATTHEW GRANT:
On March 20, 1630 he embarked with his family on the "Mary and John" at Plymouth, England, and reached Boston harbor May 30, 1630. He settled at Dorchester, Mass., and was admitted a freeman May 18, 1631; but, with many others, he disliked the close union of church and state that characterized the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as well as the growing tendency to establish the government in the hands of a privileged class and to minimize the voice of the people in the conduct of their own affairs. Accordingly, in Oct. 1635 , he went overland to the Connecticut River, with the party that prepared for the settlement of Windsor, although his family probably did not remove to Windsor until the following April. There, freed from the trammels of a royal charter, he assisted in forming a true democracy, the germ from which American political institutions have grown. His lot was in the Palisado, next the town lot. This he gave to his son John, with whom he spent his declining years. It is said that he was a carpenter. He was the first, and for many years the principal, surveyor; deacon of the first church; recorder (town clerk) 1652-77; townsman (selectman) many years, frequently receiving the highest number of votes; on the committees to lay out the bounds between Windsor and Hartford in 1651 and 1660, and to view the state of the town in 1651 and 1654. "Genealogical History of the Descendants of Matthew Grant 1898" by Arthur Hastings Grant.

On March 20, 1630 the John and Mary set sail from Plymouth, England on its journey which lasted 70 days during which the company had preaching and expounded the bible every day. Captain Squeb, Master of the vessel was supposed to land the travelers on the Charles river where a place for them had been suggested, consonant with Rev. White's request. But on their arrival May 30, 1630 at the barren, uninhabited Nantasket Point, Squeb put them and their cattle and goods ashore, much to their complaint and displeasure, claiming that his unfamiliarity with the coast line there abouts made any other plan unsafe. This left the 140 emigrants at least 12 miles across the bay from where they had expected to land, and nearly 8 miles where Boston later stood. One of the passengers, Roger Clapp, referred to this a forlorn place in the wilderness. He says "we got a boat from some planters" (probably from Salem and Charlestown and they were the only English settlements at this time)" and loaded her with goods, and some able men, well armed, went in her unto Charlestown where we found some wigwams and one house." He says, they "unloaded their goods where Watertown was presently settled, starting to build a shelter and exchanged biscuits with the Indians for fish," Ref. Dawes and Allied Families, Vol. 1, page 295 Sturgis Library, Yarmouthport, Mass. Of the passengers on the John and Mary, Christopher Grant removed to Dorchester and later to Watertown. It is Christopher from whom our material lineage descended. Matthew Grant, also a passenger also removed to Dorchester and then to Windsor, Connecticut. This material has been compiled as accurately as possible. The fact that parts of Watertown were given to Weston in 1713, Waltham in 1738, Cambridge in the part where Christopher Grant lived in 1754 and Belmont in 1859, presented a few problems. Whether the ship bringing the Grants and others here in 1630 was named the "John and Mary" or "the Mary and John" is not important. Records show that it was called both. In Dawes and Families, "a history of some of the passengers on the "John and Mary, " "Early Settlers of Watertown" by Bond, and an article in the Boston Globe in 1927 the ship ws referred to as the "John and Mary", Grants in Scotland and England. This ancient Scottish clan name is of Norman and French Origin. It is derived from LeGrand, meaning the great, distinguished person. When Richard Grant became archbishop of Canterbury, they latinized to Richardus Magnus, thus Richard the Great. While little effort has been made by me to trace in England or Scotland the Grant ancestry, we have learned from Robert Baine's The Clan Grant is one of the Clans claiming to belong to Siol Alpine and to be descended from Kenneth MacAlpine, King of Scotland in the 9th Century. In the 13th century the Grants appear as Sheriffs of Inverness, and they exerted considerable influence in the north-east of Scotland, and supported Wallace in his struggle. John (Grant) chief of the clan, married the daughter of Gilbert of Glencairnie, and from his elder son sprung the Grants of Freuchie. His younger son was progenitor of the Tullochgorm branch of the Clan. From John Grant of Freuchie are descended the Earls of Seafield, the Grants of Corrimony and the Grants of Glenmoriston. The Grants were consistenly Royalists and took part in the notable battle on the haughs of Cromdale which gave its name to the pipe tune made famous by being played by Piper Findlater of the Gordon Highlanders at the balltle of Dargai in 1897. In the Jacobie Risings the Clan supported the Hanoverian side, but the Grants of Glenmoriston supported the Jacobite cause. Ludovic Grant, of Grant, the then Chief, married for his second wife Lady Margaret Ogilvie, daughter of the Earl of Findlater and Seafield, and his grandson succeeded to the Seafield peerage. The 8th Earl died without issue and the titles passed to his Uncle James, 9th Earl of Seafield. The 11th Earl of seafield was killed in World War I (1914-1918) and the Ogilvie honours passed to his only child, Nina, Countess of Seafield. The Chiefship of Clan Grant remains in Lords Strathapey." Pipe Music; Stand fast Craigillachie Crest Badge: A Mountain inflamed, Proper War Cry; Stand Fast Gaelic Name; Grannd, orgin of name, French Grand Plant Badge: Pine the 42nd or Black Watch Tartan is Worn......Howard Alexander

Went to Windsor with the Dorchester Company. Compiled a Book of Records in Windsor. Samuel Richardson and Josiah Ellsworth

Matthew was a Puritan. The Emigrant Ancestor of this Great Family. The original name for Windsor, CT was Matianuck.

Children of MATTHEW GRANT and PRISCILLA GREY are:

2.	i.	PRISCILLA⁶ GRANT, b. September 14, 1626, England; d. October 22, 1669, Windsor, CT.
	ii.	MATTHEW GRANT¹, b. 1628, England¹; d. September 10, 1639, Windsor, CT¹.
3.	iii.	SAMUEL GRANT, b. November 12, 1631, Dorchester, MA; d. September 10, 1718, East Windsor Hill, CT.
4.	iv.	TAHAN GRANT, b. February 03, 1632/33, Dorchester, MA; d. May 30, 1693, East Windsor, CT.
	v.	BABY GRANT¹, b. 1638; d. 1638.
	vi.	BABY GRANT, b. Bef. January 01, 1641/42, Windsor, CT; d. January 01, 1641/42, Windsor, CT.
5.	vii.	JOHN GRANT, b. September 30, 1642, Windsor, CT; d. July 22, 1684, Windsor, CT.

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