Joseph Benham b. 1623 Plymouth, Devon, England d. 1702 Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America: Tangled Roots

GRANDPARENTS

MEDIA

INFO

Print Bookmark

1623 - 1702 (79 years)

Personal Information | Notes | Sources | Event Map | All

Name	Joseph Benham
Born	1623	Plymouth, Devon, England
Gender	Male
Birth	1630	Plymouth, Devon, England [1, 2]
Died	1702	Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America [3, 4]
Person ID	I572	TangledRoots
Last Modified	22 Oct 2021

Father	John Benham, b. 1600, Dorchester, Dorset, England , d. 1661, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 61 years)
Mother	_____ _____, b. Abt 1600, England , d. Bef 1660, New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age < 59 years)
Married	Abt 1618	New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America
Family ID	F369	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Winifred King, b. 1635, England , d. Staten Island, Richmond, New York, British Colonial America

Married 15 Jan 1657 Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America [5, 6, 7, 8]

[15da 11mo 1656]

Children

	1. Mary Benham, b. 18 Sep 1657, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 10 Apr 1660 (Age 2 years)
	2. Joseph Benham, b. 25 May 1659, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1702, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 42 years)
	3. infant girl Benham, b. 1661, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1661, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 0 years)
	4. Joanna Benham, b. 25 Jul 1662, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1668 (Age 5 years)
	5. Elizabeth Benham, b. 13 Sep 1664, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1 Aug 1669, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 4 years)
	6. John Benham, b. 28 Dec 1666, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 16 Nov 1670, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 3 years)
	7. Sarah Benham, b. 3 Oct 1668, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. Aft 3 Oct 1668, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age > 0 years)
	8. Anna Elizabeth Benham, b. 1669, New Haven, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1736, New York Colony, British Colonial America (Age 67 years)
	9. John Benham, b. 3 Nov 1671, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1751, Long Island, Kings County, New York, British Colonial America (Age 79 years)
	10. Mary Benham, b. 12 May 1672, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 1674 (Age 1 years)
	11. Samuel Benham, b. 12 May 1674, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. Aft 12 May 1674 (Age > 0 years)
	12. Sarah Benham, b. 6 Sep 1676, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. Abt 1752, New Jersey, British Colonial America (Age 75 years)
	13. James Benham, b. Sep 1679, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. 10 May 1745, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America (Age 65 years)
	14. Winifred Benham, b. 21 Aug 1684, Wallingford, New Haven County, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America , d. New York Colony, British Colonial America

Last Modified 16 Jan 2022

Family ID F368 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Notes

...His youthful shenanigans having been duly brought to public attention and publicily punished, Joseph Benham apparently settled down to being a solid citizen, first, of New Haven, and later, of Wallingford, Connecticut.
...At a session of the New Haven Court of 5 February, 1655, it was noted: "John Benhan, Senior, passeth over to his sonn Joseph Benham all the accommodations which belonged to that lott which was at first given him by the Towne." We know that he had been made Freeman the year before that....Probably Joseph spent the next two years farming and getting a home built for his intended bride, for on 15 January, 1657, in Boston, Joseph Benham married Winifred King of that town. We's not been able to find the names of Winifred's parents. There were many King families in all of the settlements.
...Joseph and Winifred had fourteen children during their marriage. Only six of them lived beyond infancy or early childhood.
...In 1660, just a year before John Benham's death, New Haven, which had been a independent colony, became part of the State of Connecticut. After that, the General Court was held at Hartford, though there were still regular town meetings in the town of New Haven.
...Church and state were closely allied. People must attend church on Sunday. As the population grew, town and church leaders worried about the souls of people who lived too far away from the meeting house to get to church without spending the night in town. They began thinking in terms of starting a new colony "above ye great Plaine.
...Two years went into planing the new village, building a meeting house, and hiring a minister. Planters to settle the new town were selected by a committee as being "fit and offering themselves, so far as it can consist with the good of the place and capacity thereof."
...A Covenant for the new town of Wallingford was drawn up and signed by the heads of families chosen. Among them were Joseph Benham, Nathaniel Merriman, and Eliasaph Preston.
...Little is known of the wives of most early colonists. Winifred Benham was an exception, though not for a reason she would have wished. Other than the death of so many children at an early age (and that was apparently a common problem, considering the state of sanitation and medicine in those early times), things seemed to be going well for the Benham family. The children who did grow up married and started families.
...In November of 1692, though, Winifred Benham and her thirteen-year-old youngest daughter, also named Winifred, were accused of witchcraft trials in Salem and other ciites in Massachusetts. News traveled fast, probably by traders, and it would seem that some adolescent girls must have wondered, if their counterparts in other towns were getting so much attention by accusing people of witchcraft, why shouldn't they? Witchcraft was taken seriously, and had been for many centuries in Europe. People who were perfectly innocent were pointed out as the cause of all kind of misfortunes,m and all the accuser had to assert was the "witch's" shape had appeared to them before the misfortune occurred.
...At any rate, the Benham women, Winifreds Sr. and Jr., were accused, and the trials continued at frequent intervals over the next five years. Twice, during those years, Joseph had to pay large bonds, once 20 pounds and later, 40 pounds, to assure their appearance in Court. Even after acquittal, in August, 1697, the same young people accused them again. At that point, Joseph and both Winifreds fled to New York State, where two married daughters already lived. Young Winifred, like her two older sisters, married in New York. Joseph died there in 1703.
...Two sons, Joseph, Jr., and James, remained in Wallingford, and it was there that the Benham real estate was divided among the heirs in 1727-1728. (Source: written and edited by Lela (Shepherd) Wilkins, with added research and writing by Gladys (Benham) Hall, June (Benham) Stricklin and Loretta (Lee) Chapman, The American Ancestors of William R. Benham (1823-1907) and his Wife, Helen Maria Bingham (1827-1900)(: Cousins Etc., 1994) Chapter 2, pg. 9-11.)

Joseph was the son of John Benham and first wife, probably named Mary. (Note: both sons named their first daughters Mary)

Joseph Benham took the oath of fidelity in 1654. " EARLY FAMILIES OF WALLINGFORD, Connecticut", pg.47 says Joseph Benham came from New Haven to Wallingford in 1670 with the first settlers in the village, and some of his children were born after his removal there.

"A MEETING OF YE COURT EXTRAORDINARY, MARCH 23, 1652"
"Upon a complaint made to ye govenor of sundrie in ye Towne that had committed much wickedness in a filthy corrupting way with another, they were called before the Govenor & Magistrats, visd: Benjamin Bunill, Joshua Bradley, Joseph Benham, William Trobridg, Thomas Tutill and Thomas Kimberly: they were examined in a private way, and their examination taken in wrighting, wch were of such a filthy nature as is not fitt to be made known in a publique way: after wch the Court weere called together, and ye youthes before them; their examinations were read and vpon their severall confessions the Court, being mett at the meeting house vpon the day aboue written, sentenced the youthes aboue named to bee whipt publiquly."

Joseph Benham, Jun 25
In the year 1677, there was a grant of land "at the head of the plains," which is another phrase which by which Hanover was then designated. A very natural phrase; for at that point, the stretch of level land which extends comes from New Haven, through North Haven and Wallingford terminates. In 1680 a grant was made "to Sam'l Hough, to settle on the head of the plain near to Nehemiah Royces". In 1689 this "head of the plain," or "falls plain," was considered so beautiful a spot, that it was reqularly laid out for a village. The main street was to be eighty rods long, and on each side of it were staked out bilding lots; the western lots extending to the hill, and the eastern ones to the river. These lots were assigned by raffle, each planter in the town of Wallingford being allowed to draw one lot. "Att a lawful towne meetin 19 Febrary, 1689-90, the towne voted Yt falles plaine shall be cast lots for and laid out according to above written ....and mape. The Lotts being cast each mans Lott is as followeth Joseph Benham, sen 63.