Richard Booth

  General Notes:

~The Family of Richard Boothe: An Original Settler in Stratford, Conn., by Benjamin Lincoln Swan, alludes to the possible ancestry of Richard Booth back to the Norman progenitor Adam de Bothe.
~The Genealogy of the Booth Family: Six or More Generations in Connecticut, by Donald L. Jacobus, disagrees with Swan. Jacobus says that there is no proof of the connection. ^288,602

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ⁵⁵⁵
From A History of the Old Town of Stratford..., page 119
Richard Boothe, was born in England in 1607. Richard's and his descendants's names are prominent on Stratford records. His home lot, 29, indicates his settlement there was among the earliest, but probably not before his marriage in 1640. He married first, Elizabeth the sister of Joseph Hawley. He was one of the proprietors of the township and received divisions of land located in various parts of the town, as did all of the other proprietors. He was likely married twice and had eight children. The mention made of him was in March 1688/89 in his eighty-second year.

• Burial. ⁵⁵⁵
~From History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Samuel Orcutt, Inscriptions in the Congregational Burying-place, pg. 209

Epitaph:
Richard Booth, From England, one of the first settlers in this town in 1639. Born 1606, aged 82 years in 1688.

• Background Information. ²⁸⁸
Richard Booth was born in England about 1607/08, and died at Stratford Connecticut after 1688. He was married to Elizabeth Hawley. His brother-in-law, Joseph Hawley, was from Parwick, Derbyshire, so it is likely that he was a member of the Derbyshire contingent that came to New England. There is no certainty about how many times Richard was married, except for a single record which refers to "my now wife," which may inply the existence of an earlier wife.


Stratford, Connecticut was settled in 1639. Richard Booth and his brother-in-law, Joseph Hawley were living in Stratford before 1650, and likely came there a decade earlier. From the dates of his children's births we can conclude that Booth married his wife sometime around 1640. All the births of the Booth children can be found in records in Stratford, beginning with 1641. The earliest of the children are entered together in a group, which may be due to the fact that Stratford didn't start recording births until 1649.

Richard Booth's home lot in Stratford was numbered 29, was on the Main Street, and lied between Joshua Hudson and Adam Hurd. In 1662, Richard signed a document as Townsman, a named that later was referred to a selectman. He name is in the list of inhabitants drawn up for Connecticut Colony, dated 28 Mar 1668.

Booth was one of those who received land by 1670 in the section known as Nichols' Farms, where one branch of his descendants lived for serval generations. In an affidavit made 15 Mar 1687/88, he described himself as aged about eighty-one. He may not have lived much beyond this age. His children recorded at Stratford were:
• Elizabeth, b. 10 Sep 1641; d. 24 Oct 1732; m. 19 Oct 1658, to John Minor who was bap. at Charlestown, 30 Aug 1634 and d. 17 Sep 1719 at Woodbury in his 85th year. He was the son of Thomas Minor and Grace Palmer.
• Anna, b. 14 Feb 1643/44
• Ephraim, b. 1 May 648; d. 1683
• Ebenezer, b. 18/19 Nov 1651; d. 1732
John, b. 5 Nov 1653
• Joseph, b. 8 Mar 1656; d. 32 Aug 1703
• Bethia, b. 18 Aug 1658; m 9 Nov 1676, Joseph Curtis, who was b. 12 Nov 1650 & d. in Stratford, 1742, son of Sergt. John & Elizabeth Curtis.
• Johanna, b. 21 Mar 1661
~The genealogy of the Booth family: Booth families of Connecticut for six or more generations, pg. 3

Richard married Elizabeth Hawley, ²⁸⁸ (Elizabeth Hawley was born in England ⁷² and died in Sep 1689 in Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut ⁷².)