Sixth Generation

25. Reverend Thomas GRIGGS (*) (!) (`)⁶¹ was born on 5 December 1585 in Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^{16,25,44,45,59,66,70,71,72,73} (His date of birth is also listed as 2 Sept 1585 and 1587 in various sources.)

From the Macdonough-Hackstaff Ancestry: "The earliest recorded mention made of Thomas Griggs is among the Roxbury (Mass.) town records, on a loose leaf, somewhat torn and obscure but in a tolerable state of preservation, written between 1638 and 1640. It is by nearly ten years the oldest record in the town books and contains, no doubt, an accurate and complete list of the inhabitants of Roxbury at that time. It is headed 'A note of ye estates and persons of ye inhabitants of Roxbury,' and Thomas Griggs is mentioned therein as being the owner of 12 acres of land.

He, with his wife and children, came to this country in or before 1639. The family was no doubt a substantial and respectable one, for it is recorded that 'the Roxbury people were of the best that came.'

No particulars concerning his life have come to us. He must have been an honorable and useful member of the community and an upright and conscientious Christian, for the Reverend John Elliot in recording his death speaks of him as 'Bro. Griggs, who lay in a long affliction of sicknesse & shined like gold in it, greatly glorifying God & magnifying his grace in Christ.'

He was married twice. His first wife was Mary ( ), who, according to Pope, was buried November 29, 1639. His second wife was Mary Greene, whom he married August 26, 1640. There were no children by the second marriage so far as is known. He died May 23, 1646, and the widow married Jasper Rawlings.

The children of the first marriage, in tabulated form for convenience only, were:
1. John, married Mary ( ) and had no issue.
2. Joseph, married Mary Crafts and had issue.
3. Mary, married Thomas, son of John and Elizabeth (Bigg) Stow, December 4, 1639, and had issue; died August 21, 1680.
4. A daughter who died in 1645 about twelve years old.

INVENTORY.

An inventory of the goods & chattells of Thomas Griges deceased made this 25th of ye 3d moneth 1646.
one ffeatherbedd Bolster & pillowes 03 10 00 (GLG Note: their value is in Pounds, Shillings, and Pence)
one Coverledd 8s one blankett 2s 00 10 00
A paire of Sheets 10s two billowbeeres 2s & a Diap tablecloth 4s 00 16 00
An old Chist 1s a reasonable goad chest 5s a boxe 3s 00 09 00
one flockbed 12s 4 pillowes 8s 3 blankets 3s 01 03 00
Three kettells the greatest 10s the lessor 6s 8d the least 4s 01 06 08
A pewter milke Bason 38s 1d A morter & pastell 3s A chaffing dish and a strong water bottell 2s 00 09 01
A pottattage pott & an old ladle 00 10 00
Tonges hangers Smoothing Iron 00 03 06
A Table & kneading trough 00 05 00
Bacon in weight 82 poundes 01 10 09
There is one Cow & two yeerelings 06 10 00
one white backt Cowe which his wife is to have dureing her liffe with liberty to change her & if the Cowe or the exchange dy she is not to make it good but it if live she is to ritorne the Cowe or ffour pounds which she please.

Taken uppon oath of Philip Eliot & John Grigges before the court 1 (5) 1647.
William Aspinwall Recorder"

From Pitman, “Early Griggs Families,” pp 171–72.
“It is suggested by J. W. Linzee, Jr., in his Ancestors and Descendants of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles, 1913, p. 475, that Thomas was a son of John and Martha Griggs of Boxted, Co. Suffolk, England born in 1585 whose ancestral chart is reproduced on page 475 from Joseph James Muskett’s Suffolk Manorial Families (1900), 1:265. However, there seems to be no proof whatever of the identity of the two Thomases. It might equally well be claimed that George son of John and Martha Griggs of Boxted, given in the same chart as born in 1595, was the George, subject of the first part of this article. The age very nearly corresponds. The latter George, however is given in the shipping list as of Landon, Bucks. A search of the wills or estates of John and Martha Griggs of Boxted might reveal the validity or falseness of either or both of these assumptions. “Clarence Bowen in his History of Woodstock, vol. 6, states that this Thomas Griggs was born in 1603 (which might well be) and that he came to New England in 1635. He claims also that Thomas’ first wife was Grace Wells (not Mary _____). This writer has been unable to determine the source of such statements, but, because much of Bowen’s account of the Griggs families is erroneous, not much reliance can be placed on any of the statements about the Griggs families.”

The surname 'Griggs' comes from Grig, son of Gregor, who was the son of Chief Alpin, b. A.D. 787. In the words of Sir Walter Scott: 'They were the most lawless of a lawless lot, of untamable and innate ferocity.'

"The relationship, if any, between George Griggs, who came to America aboard the 'Hopewell' in 1635, and Thomas is not known. It was suggested in 'Ancestors and Descendants of Peter Parker and Sarah Ruggles,' by J.W. Linzee, Jr., that Thomas was a son of John and Martha Griggs of Boxted, co. Suffolk, England, born in 1585. See Joseph James Muskett's 'Suffolk Manorial Families,' 1900, 1:265 (reproduced in Parker/Ruggles on page 475). However, proof on this relationship is lacking." He was christened on 5 December 1585 in Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.⁶⁶ He emigrated about April 1639 from Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^{74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81} An article in the Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, CT notes that: "Thomas Griggs came from England to Roxbury, Mass., in 1639, and brought with him his son Joseph."

An article in the "Genealogy of The Griggs Family" states, "Thomas Griggs, who came from England in the spring of 1639, settled in Roxbury. With him were his wife, Mary, and two sons, John and Joseph."

The obituary of John Chandler Griggs says that his ancestors came from Northamptonshire, England, in 1637. A report entitled "The Descendants of Chauncey Wright Griggs and Martha Ann Gallup" based on "The History of Woodstock, Connecticut," indicates that he settled in Roxbury in 1636. Those dates are believed to be incorrect.

Excerpt from "Genealogy of The Griggs Family": "The earliest colonial ancestors bearing the name of Griggs settled in Massachusetts, Virginia and North Carolina. The New England families descended from George and Thomas, who arrived from England about the year 1635.... The original settlers in Massachusetts found their off-spring moving to Connecticut, or New Hampshire, and then to New York, and later to Michigan, Ohio and the West and Northwest...." Thomas and his children were the Massachusetts branch of the family. After 1639 Thomas was in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.⁴² He died on 23 May 1646 at the age of 60 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{16,44,45,66,71,72,78,81} (His place of death may have been Roxbury Crossing. His date of death is also listed as 23 Jun 1646.)

From the "Genealogical and Biographical Notes Prepared in connection with the publication of 'More Lasting Than Brass: A Thread of Family from Revolutionary New York to Industrial Connecticut' (Boston: The Northeastern University Press and the Newbury Street Press, 2004) by Peter Haring Judd":

"THOMAS GRIGGS, d. 23 May 1646 at Roxbury, Mass., having lain 'in a long affliction of sickness and shined like gold in it, greatly magnifying his grace in Christ'; m(arried) (1st wife) ca. 1615, prob. in England, MARY _____, (who was) bur(ied) 29 Nov. 1639 at Roxbury; m(arried) (2nd wife) on 26 Aug. 1640, at Roxbury, MARY GREEN, prob. wid. of John Green who d. in 1638/9. She m(arried) (2nd husband) 8 June 1651, in Roxbury, Jasper Rawlins.

H. Minot Pitman, in his 1982 survey of the available data on the early Griggs family in America, concluded that there was no definitive information concerning the English origin of Thomas Griggs." He was buried on 23 May 1646 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^42,66

Reverend Thomas GRIGGS (*) (!) (`) and Mary Grace WELLS (*) were married in 1615 in Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^{39,62,72,74,82,83,84} (Their marriage year is also listed as 1617.) Mary Grace WELLS (*)^{42,55,56,85,86}, daughter of John WELLS and (Unknown) UNKNOWN (WELLS), was born in 1590 in Boxted, Babergh District, Suffolk County, England.^42,62 She died on 25 November 1639 at the age of 49 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{16,25,59,71,87,88} She was buried on 29 November 1639 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^{16,72,87,88,89} Mary has Ancestral File Number L5RZ-KKZ. (Her name is listed as Mary Grace Green (1590-1639) on a FamilySearch.org family tree. Other sources list her as Mary Wells.)

Reverend Thomas GRIGGS (*) (!) (`) and Mary Grace WELLS (*) had the following children:

Reverend Thomas GRIGGS (*) (!) (`) and Mary GREEN were married on 26 August 1640 in Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.^46,66 Mary GREEN⁸⁹, daughter of John GREEN and Elizabeth HAMMOND, was born in 1600 in Suffolk County, England.^5,66,92 She died after 1666 at the age of 66 in Roxbury Neighborhood, Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Colony, British Colonial America.^5,92 She was buried on 22 February 1682 in Middlesex County, England.⁵