Person Page - 1639

       Richard/1e Brooks ["Brooke"], 24, was enrolled 18 Apr 1635 at London as a passenger for New England on the Susan and Ellen, Edward Payne, master, and, on the 9th of May, enrolled again on the same ship. In both of these entries, the following name was Tho[mas] Brooke, presumed to be his brother.^1,2 Both men initially settled at Lynn, MA.^1,3 There Richard Brooks received 10 acres in a 1638 distribution of land, and in Aug 1639 was to pay 40s. to John Fuller of Lynn.⁴
     Hist. Lynn (1865), probably following Savage (1860), says that Richard of Lynn is the same man who, 1650, "went to Easthampton [L.I.], being one of the first settlers there." Torrey gives a migration sequence of Lynn, Southampton and East Hampton (as it is spelled today).³ The Great Migration authors conclude, "Richard Brooke does not appear in the records of Southampton in its early decades, and so there is no particular reason to believe that the 1635 passenger was the man of the same name who much later appeared in Easthampton."⁴ He is, nonetheless, here identified with the emigrant of 1635. Just as evidence is lacking to prove the connection, so evidence is lacking to refute it. Because the given name Richard is not found elsewhere within 17th century Brooks families of New England, and because East Hampton was in part settled by men from Lynn and the towns around it, the likelihood that the Lynn and Long Island men are the same strikes this author as equally (or more) plausible than attributing the facts to mere coincidence.
     In the witchcraft proceedings which electrified the village of East Hampton in 1657, one Goody Brooks, presumably Richard's wife but otherwise unidentified, "gave important evidence. She heard Mrs. Gardiner say 'her daughter was bewitched and y^t it was a woman.⁵'" 9 Jun 1668, Richard Brooks of East Hampton was treated for stomach pain by Dr. John Winthrop, Jr., who recorded the event in his medical journal.⁶
     An East Hampton tax list of 24 Aug 1675 rates Rich: Brooke at £146-13-4.⁷ The will of William Edwards of East Hampton, 1 Feb 1680/81, mentions a "lot in the old Eastern plains, bounded east by Richard Brooks."⁸ A tax list of 9 Oct 1683 shows Rich: Brook with 2 polls, 15 acres of land, 2 oxen, 5 cows, 2 swine and 9 sheep, valued at the decreased sum of £120-0-0, perhaps attributable to advancing age or to disposition of property to his children.⁹ 9 Dec 1683, Richard Brooke witnessed the will of John Mulford of Easthampton.¹⁰ 10 Mar 1685/86, Richard Brooks of Easthampton made a deed of gift to son John Brooks of land "in bounds of East hampton." Two days earlier, Richard Brooks deeded to my gr child John Brooks. Both deeds were filed 10 Mar, and witnessed by Josiah Hubert and Bazeliall osborne.¹¹ The will of John Parsons of Easthampton, proved at Southampton 16 Mar 1685/6, leaves to eldest son Samuel Parsons two acres on the Eastern Plain, bounded by Richard Brooks and John Kirbe.¹²
     Richard Brooke/Brooks of East Hampton died in 1687 (Torrey).¹³
     For a debunking of Pope's claims about Richard Brooke, see The Great Migration, 1634-1635, 1:405-06.⁴
     "Here also," says a history of East Hampton, "at this attractive spot were the families of Schillinger, Fithian, Baker, Shaw, Conklin, Brookes, Meacham, Chatfield, and Bishop. The thatched roofed houses of most of these families bordered the east and west sides of the main street, which like the old street in Maidstone, England, runs north and south. The historian Thompson gives us this brief description of their houses: 'Their dwellings being of the rudest construction with straw roofs and wooden chimneys, plastered on the inside, no glass in the windows and destitute of most of the conveniences of a later period.'."¹⁴
     "By the Records," says another work, "it appears that East Hampton was at first called Maidstone. Some of the First Settlers appear, by the Records to have come from Stansted in the county of Kent in England. Probably some of them might have come from Maidstone in the same County. It is very evident from the Records, that some of the original 35 settlers and purchasers of the Town removed from Lynn in Massachusetts; and tradition informs us that they came from several of the towns on the Sea coast to the Eastward of Boston."¹⁵

       William Lord Jr. was born 13 Oct 1643 at Saybrook, CT.² He married, as her 1st husband, 1678, Sarah/2h Brooks, daughter of Thomas/1h Brooks and Marah/2 Spencer.¹ He died at Haddam shortly before 4 Dec 1696.²

       Eliphalet/2 Fox was born circa 1644 at Concord, MA (no record survives).¹ His father's will, 25 Jan 1657/58, leaves his estate in the hands of wife Hannah until my eldest son Eliphalet shall arrive at the age of one and twenty years; at which time Eliphalet shall inherit two-thirds of the estate, the remainder secured to his mother until her death, on condition that he agrees to pay each of his siblings (of whom only Elizabeth is named) £5 each.³
     He married (1), 26 Oct 1665 at Concord, Mary/2 Wheeler of Concord, daughter of George/1 Wheeler and Katherine Pin, with whom he had 6 children, and who died at Concord 24 Feb 1678/9.⁴ Lived on the Bedford Road, in Concord's East District, 1666, when his taxes were abated on 14 lots comprising 106 acres.⁵ He married (2), 30 Nov [Torrey; Sep, Savage] 1681, Mary/3 Stone of Concord, widow of Isaac Hunt, with whom he had 2 sons.^6,7,8 Freeman of Concord, 21 Mar 1689/90.⁹ There he died 15 Aug 1711.¹⁰
     Shattuck mentions descendants of Eliphalet living [1835] in New Hampshire, but misidentifies Eliphalet's mother as Hannah Brooks.¹¹