Person Page - 1053

       Daniel/2 Lester was born 16 Apr 1642 at Gloucester, MA.¹ Removed with his family as a boy, 1651, to New London, CT, where he married, 11 Aug 1669, Hannah/3w Fox, daughter of Thomas/1 Fox and Hannah/2w Brooks.² (Their siblings Mary Lester and Samuel Fox also married.). They lived near Daniel's brothers Samuel and John, and his sister Hannah Lester, in the "General Neck" a few miles south of New London village.³ His wife Hannah died 22 Feb 1712/13.⁴

       Hannah/3w Fox was born 25 Sep 1648 at Concord, MA.¹ With her widowed mother removed to New London, CT, where she married, 11 Aug 1669, Daniel/2 Lester of New London, son of Andrew/1 Lester and Barbara (–?–).² (Their siblings Samuel Fox and Mary Lester also married.). They lived near Daniel's brothers Samuel and John, and his sister Hannah Lester, in the "General Neck" a few miles south of New London village.³ She died 22 Feb 1712/13 at age 64.⁴

       Isaac/1 Willey "was of Boston, MA as early as 1640, and removed to Charlestown before 1644. All that is known about him there are the records of his children given by Savage and in the Boston Record of births, &c."¹ His 1st wife, Joanna (–?–), was the mother of his children.¹ In 1645 they went with John Winthrop Jr. to New London, CT.¹ After Joanna's death at N.L., Isaac married (2), as her 3d husband, "after 1670" [Caulkins] or "after 1679" [Cutter], Hannah/2w Brooks, daughter of Henry/1w Brooks and (–?–) (–?–), and widow of Thomas/1 Fox and Andrew/1 Lester.^2,3 Isaac Willey died in 1685.⁴ His widow Hannah died in 1692.⁵
     Isaac Willey's house lot was on Mill Brook, at the base of Post Hill. He soon removed to a farm at the head of Niantic River, described as "rounding the head of the river," which was confirmed to "old Goodman Willie" in 1664.⁶
     In 1645 Isaac Willey and John Stebbins mowed the meadows of the Upper Mamacook. At a meeting 25 Feb 1647, he was chosen, with John Winthrop, Robert Hempstead, Samuel Lothroup and Thomas Minor, "to act in all Toune affaires," and "to have a planting lot at the other side of the cove, near Mr. deane winthrops lot." Of the house lots in the town plot, the first grantee was John Winthrop, Esq., and Isaac Willey was fifth after him, "his homestead lying north west of Mr. Winthrop's on the upper part of what are now Williams street and Main street."
     Isaac Willey was one of 16 men with cattle marks before 1650. At a General Court, May 1649, "certain individuals at Pequot" (Robert Bedell, Cary Latham and Isaac Willey), charged with resisting a constable and releasing an Indian committed to their charge, were summoned to appear at Hartford and answer for their conduct.
     Caulkins, describing the estate of the town's early planters, writes of 1657: "After enumerating house and houselot, meadow, marsh and upland, the planter had from two to four cows; half a dozen calves, yearlings and two years old; a litter of swine and two or three sheep, or perhaps a share in two or three sheep.This was all the ratable property of even some of the oldest settlers, as Willey." About 1652, Isaac Willey had a grant of two necks of land, one of them a "pyne neck," with a broad cove between, east of Pequot River, and sold all to Amos Richardson.
     In 1669, Isaac Willey's name was 15th on a list of 21 freemen. 29 Nov 1669, the town appointed Wm. Hough, John Stebbins, Clement Minor and Isaac Willey to lay out the King's highway between New London and the head of Niantic River. As a participant in an affray, Aug 1671, over lands disputed between New London and Lyme (now East Lyme), Isaac Willey was among those arraigned at Hartford, 12 Mar 1671-2, "for attempts by violence to drive Mr. Mathew Griswold and Lieut. Wm. Waller off their lands, and resistance to authority and assault." He took probate, 9 Jul 1663 at Hartford, of his son-in-law Thomas Hungerford's will.⁷

       Andrew/1 Lester perhaps came from County Cheshire, England.¹ He married (1), by 1642, Barbara (–?–), with whom he had 4 children.² His name first appears in New England in the 1642 birth record of his child Daniel at Gloucester, MA.³ Andrew Lester was appointed constable of Gloucester, 7 Jan 1643, and admitted a freeman of the colony 10 May following.^4,5 He was licensed by the county court, 26th of 2d mo. 1648, to keep a house of entertainment.⁶ 19 Oct 1650, Andrew Lester and seven other Gloucester men had grants of land at New London, CT. "Mr. Richard Blinman had been the minister of Gloucester, for eight years, and was now engaged to become the minister of the Pequot plantation (New London). The others were a party of his friends, who purposed to remove with him, and came on to make preparatory arrangements."⁷
     Andrew Lester sold his Gloucester property in 1651 to Clement Colden, and left town with the company that went to Pequot (New London). "In the early part of that year, the Cape Ann Company opened up a new street named Cape Ann Lane, containing nine lots, of which Hugh Calkins owned No. 1; Hugh Roberts, No. 2; a Mr. Coit, No. 3; and Andrew Lester, No. 4. In April 1651, a company of promoters, then termed 'undertakers,' consisting of Hugh Calkins, Mr. Denison, John Elderkin and Andrew Lester, took over a tract of lowland bordering Alewife Cove, with a view of reclaiming it."⁸
     "During the winter of 1651-2 the common lands upon the Great Neck, consisting of all the old ground between the town and Alewife Brook, were laid out and divided by lot … The waste marsh generally overflowed, was given to a company of undertakers, viz., Mr. Denison, Hugh Caulkins, John Elderkin and Andrew Lester, who undertook to drain it, and were to have all the land 'now under water forever.' It was added: 'The undertakers have liberty to make a weare. They are to leave it open two nights every week for the coming up of the alewives. The town to have freedom to take what they please at the usual place or to buy them at the weare at 20 alewives for a penny for their eating.'
     "The salt marshes were esteemed as the first class of lands by the planters. Those near the harbor's mouth were known by the Indian name of Quaganapoxet and were mostly granted to the settlers from Gloucester, as a kind of bonus to induce them to remove, and as furnishing a ready-made food for the cattle they brought with them. They are often referred to as 'the marshes given to Cape Ann men.⁹'" Andrew Lester was an early resident on the west side of Jordan Cove, known as Bruen's Neck.¹⁰
     Andrew Lester's 1st wife Barbara died at New London 2 Feb 1653/54, "the first death of a woman on record in the plantation."² Caulkins, the historian of New London, says he married (2), Joanna/2 Willey, daughter of Isaac/1 Willey and Joanna (–?–), and widow of Robert Hempstead, who died before 1660, "no children mentioned."^11,12,13,14 Savage and Willey dispute this claim, which is otherwise problematical in that Andrew's 3d wife and widow Hannah married, sometime after 1670, Isaac Willey, Joanna's father.¹⁵ Andrew Lester did marry (3?), as her 2d husband, 1661 at New London, Hannah/2w Brooks, daughter of Henry/1w Brooks and (–?–) (–?–), and widow of Thomas/1 Fox, with whom he had 3 children.^14,6,13
     In a list of ministry rates for 1664, containing 105 names, 13 men had estates valued in excess of £150, including Andrew Lester, Sen., £170.¹⁶ He was constable and collector at New London in 1668, and died there 7 Jun 1669.⁶ His widow Hannah married (3) Isaac/1 Willey, whom she survived, and died at New London in 1692.^17,18