Research Notes:
The Great Migration reports [1]:
Nathan Gillett
Origin: Chaffcombe, Somersetshire
Migration: 1633
First Residence: Dorchester
Removes: Windsor 1636Church membership: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 14 May 1634 implied by freemanship.
Freeman: 14 May 1634 [ MBCR 1:369]. In list of Windsor freemen, 11 October 1669 [ CCCR 2:519].
Offices: Served in Pequot War, 1637 [ CCCR 2:161].Estate: In the grant of meadows beyond Neponset in Dorchester, "N. Gillet" held Lot #33, four acres [ DTR 321]. (A grant of two acres of marsh on 27 June 1636 to "Jellets" may have been to Nathan as well as to Jonathan [ DTR 17].)
Granted fifty acres by Connecticut court for service in Pequot War, 12 October 1671 [ CCCR 2:161, 251, 288].
In the Windsor land inventory in January 1640 Nathan Gillett held five parcels: a homestead of five acres (annotated "sold to his brother Jonathan"); three and a half acres in the Little Neck (annotated "sold to Mr. Warham"); "in meadow and upland adjoining in the second meadow twenty[?] acres more or less" (annotated "sold to Robart Hayward"); "in Long Meadow three acres more or less and adjoining to it two acres" (annotated "sold to J. Enows"); and "over the Great River begins one hundred sixty rods back & then is in breadth eleven rods, in length two miles and half" (annotated "this is now Owen Tudor's"). This list was amended 5 June 1660 to include "fifteen acres of land" granted to Nathan Gillet [ WiLR 1:36].
On 31 May 1678 Nathan "Gillit" and John Moses came to an agreement allowing John Moses three rods of Gillett's land. "Elias Gillit and John Mosses Junior, both sons to the aged men above written, to perfect and settle the line," also agreed to the line as it was run [ SimsLR 1½:109].
In an undated deed "Nathan Gillit of Windsor who is deceased did give unto his son Elias Gillit his heirs and assigns forever and ordered me so to record it to him and them ... as attest Jno Slater, Register" [ SimsLR 1:142]. The same John Slater noted that the record of "Nathan Gillit Senior's" land laid out in 1672 or 1673, being approximately eighty-six acres, was re-recorded in the town records, the original "being burnt" [ SimsLR 1½:142].
"In the year 1687 or 88 Nathan Gillit of Windsor ... being disposed before his death to dispose of his land did in his lifetime make distribution to his children of said meadow lot in the township of Simsbury to each his proportion being personally himself present ... and is as followeth: "First to his son Elias being the eldest son living" three acres and three rood at Weatoug; to "Nathan Gillit Junior" one part of "Nathan Gillit Senior's" meadow in Simsbury; and to "Thomas Wapples of Hartford" Nathan being "his wife's father" meadow in Weatoug being approximately eleven acres and three roods [ SimsLR 1½:143].
On 18 April 1688 "Nathan Gillyt senor of Windsor" deeded to "Nicholas Gozard of the town of Simsbury ... my son-in-law ... and husband to my daughter Elizabeth" fourteen acres of meadow. But Nathan died before signing the deed and "Elyas Gillit being the eldest son to my father that is now living" honored the deed to Gozzard 26 May 1692 [ SimsLR 1:96-97]. On 19 April 1688 "Nathan Gillit Senr of Windsor" deeded to "Eliez[e]r Hill of the town of Simsbury ... husband to my daughter Sarah" a parcel of land, part upland, part meadow in Simsbury on the east side of the river. Elias confirmed this under the same conditions as the Gozzard deed [ SimsLR 1½:125].Birth: By about 1613 based on date of freemanship, son of Rev. William Gillett of Chaffcombe, Somersetshire.
Death: Windsor 15 September 1689 [ CTVR 57].
Marriage: By 1639 _____ _____. She was "above fifty years" old on 30 May 1667 [ TAG 23:126, citing WMJ 730] and died at Windsor 21 February 1670/1 [ WiVR ].
Children (all born or baptized Windsor [ Grant 40]):
i Elizabeth, born 6 October 1639; m. by about 1672 Nicholas Gozzard (eldest child aged twenty-one in 1693 [ Manwaring 1:453; TAG 56:130]).ii Abiah, born 22 August 1641; m. (1) Windsor 3 December 1663 Isaiah Bartlett [ Grant 28]; m. (2) Windsor 15 July 1669 John Slater [ CTVR 12].
iii Child, d. Windsor 1646 [ Grant 81] (probably a son since Elias is often called "the eldest son now living").
iv Rebecca, born 14 June 1646; d. Windsor 13 July 1655 [ Grant 81; CTVR 43].
v Elias, bp. 1 July 1649; m. (1) Simsbury 29 October 1676 Sarah Griffin [ SimsVR Barbour 60], daughter of John Griffin; m. (2) between 1694 and 1699 Rebecca (Kelsey) Messenger, widow of Nathaniel Messenger and daughter of Mark Kelsey.
vi Sarah, born 13 July 1651; m. Simsbury 29 December 1679 Eleazer Hill [ SimsVR Barbour 61].
vii Benjamin, born 29 August 1653; d. Windsor 13 July 1655 [ Grant 81; CTVR 43].
viii Nathan, born 17 August 1655; m. Windsor 30 June 1692 Rebecca Owen [ WiVR Barbour 119], daughter of John Owen. (Stiles erred in giving him his nephew's wife in a second marriage [ TAG 56:133].)
ix Rebecca, born 8 December 1657; m. by 1684 Thomas Whaples [ TAG 56:134, citing SimsLR 1:109].
Associations: Jonathan Gillett was his brother. In his will of 1641 Rev. William Gillett, Rector of Chaffcombe, Somersetshire, made note of "land which my son Nathan made over to me by letter of attorney" [ NYGBR 41:282-83].
Comments: In his 17 August 1677 accounting of "what children has been born in Windsor from our beginning hither," Matthew Grant says that Nathan Gillett had eight children, which apparently does not take into account the unnamed child who died in 1646 [ Grant 91].
Although Nathan Gillett was an original grantee of land at Simsbury, and several of his children resided there, Nathan himself apparently never moved to Simsbury.Bibliographic Note: In addition to the many items listed under Jonathan Gillett, we are greatly aided with the family of Nathan Gillett by an article by George E. McCracken, "Nathan Gillett's Earlier Descendants" [ TAG 56:129-40].
[1] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 770, [AmericanAncestors].