The Minor Family of Somerset

William Cheesbrough (As spelled in England), In the "Arbella o
f the WinthropFleet, from Boston, Lincolnshire, England
Biographical sketch of William and aletter from Rev. Amos Chese
brough about the sketch from Anna Chesebrough Wildey's book:
"William Chesebrough, the first settler of English lineage in th
e town of Stonington Connecticut, was born in England in the yea
r of our Lord, 1594. The place of his nativity and the name o
f his parents cannot with certainty be determined. The probabil
ities are, that he was born in or near Boston, Lincolnshire, whe
re he is known to have had his residence some eleven or twelve y
ears prior to his emigration to America in the Massachusetts Ba
yColony, and where he and h is wife were communicants in St. Bo
tolph's Church.
The home of the Cheesbourgh family was in the easern counties o
f England, and the name occurs in the public registries of Will
s in the County of Norfolkwhich adjoins Lincolnshire. Sarah Ch
esebrough whose name stands No 78 on the roll of the First Churc
h of Boston, Mass., was a passenger with William onthe ship Arb
ella, and was thought to have been his mother but is recorded a
s a daughter in the Winthrop Fleet records. His wife, Anna an
d three surviving children of the eight that had been born to hi
m - the youngest, Nathaniel,an infant in arms, - came with hi
m in the same company. The Arbella, a shipof three hundred an
d fifty tons, where of Captain Peter Milborne was master,receiv
ed its name 'in honour of the Lady Arbella' wife of Isaac Johnso
n, Esq., one of the more prominent personages among the passenge
rs. This ship was one of a fleet of fourteen vessels with eigh
t hundred and forty passengers,comprising the Massachusetts Ba
y Colony. It set sail from Coews, Isle of Wight, on TuesDay, Ma
rch 30, 1630, and was termed the "Admiral" of the fleet, for th
e reason partly, that it was the staunchest and best furnished o
f thevessels, and partly perhaps, as Savage in his notes in Win
throp's Journals suggests, that it was owned by and carried "th
e principal people" of the Colony, including, Johnson, Winthrop
, Coddington, Dudley, Bradstreet and Saltonstall with their resp
ective families among others.
The first thirty-six years ofWilliam Chesebrought's life were c
losing when he st foot upon American soil.They covered the las
t nine years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the entire reign of Jam
es I, and the first five years of the righ of the ill-fated Char
les I, and they were among the most eventful years in the histor
y of England.Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded only seven yea
rs before Chesebrough's birth, and only six years before, occurr
ed the issue of the first English newspaper, and also the destru
ction of the Spanish Armada. It was the period in which Edmun
d Spencer, William Shakespeare and Lord Bacon won their undyin
g fame: in which the first telescopes were invented, and in whic
h also the authorized version of the Bible was prepared by orde
r of King James. He was elevenyears old at the time of the Gun
powder Plot, thirteen when Jamestown (now NewYork) was settle
d by the Dutch, and twenty-six when the Pilgrim Fathers landed u
pon Plymouth Rock.
The corruption in both Church and State in England, the high-han
ded and cruel measures of the Courts of High Commission and of t
he Star Chamber to crush out all freedom of thought and speech a
nd worship, the insecurity of life and property, and the civil a
nd religious disintegration which threatened ruin to the nation
, prompted many of the better class of the clergy and of the peo
ple to sacrifice thier homes and seek an asylum wherethey coul
d enjoy a rational liberty. The immiGrants who came to New Engl
and with the illustrious Winthrop, organised their Churches on t
he simple policy of self-governing brotherHood. Such an organiz
ation was effected in theirnew settlement which they named Char
lestown, o