MATHEW GRANT

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General Notes

MEMOIR ULYSSES S. GRANT

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85). Personal Memoirs. 1885–86.
I Ancestry—Birth—Boyhood
MY family is American, and has been for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral.    1
Mathew Grant, the founder of the branch in America, of which I am a descendant, reached Dorchester, Massachusetts, in May, 1630. In 1635 he moved to what is now Windsor, Connecticut, and was the surveyor for that colony for more than forty years. He was also, for many years of the time, town clerk. He was a married man when he arrived at Dorchester, but his children were all born in this country. His eldest son, Samuel, took lands on the east side of the Connecticut River, opposite Windsor, which have been held and occupied by descendants of his to this day. I am of the eighth generation from Mathew Grant, and seventh from Samuel. Mathew Grant’s first wife died a few years after their settlement in Windsor, and he soon after married the widow Rockwell, who, with her first husband, had been fellow-passengers with him and his first wife, on the ship Mary and John, from Dorchester, England, in 1630. Mrs. Rockwell had several children by her first marriage, and others by her second. By intermarriage, two or three generations later, I am descended from both the wives of Mathew Grant.
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MATHEW GRANT married (2) Susannah Chapen 29 May 1645. She died 14 Nov 1666.
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Notes for Matthew Grant:

     Mathew Grant, the progenitor and emigrant ancestor of the Grant family of New England, was born in England on Tuesday, October 27, 1601. He came to this country May 30, 1630, in the good "Ship Mary and John", with his family, and landed at Dorchester, Massachusetts.

     He was admitted a freeman in the Massachusetts Colony in 1631, but did not long remain in Dorchester, for as early as 1635, he took and active part in forming the company that migrated to Windsor, Connecticut, and went with them to that place, and was elected first town clerk thereof, which office he held for a good many years. He also held the position of town surveyor, and took a prominent part in the organization, and also in transplanting the Congregational Church there, which had been previously formed in Plymouth, England, and first transplanted in Dorchester, Connecticut. Mathew Grant and Priscilla_______, born Feb. 27, 1600, married Nov. 16, 1625; she died April 27, 1644, aged 43 years. He married second, Susannah (Chapen) Rockwell, widow of Dea. William Rockwell, May 29, 1645; she died Nov. 14, 1666; he died Dec. 16, 1681.

More About Priscilla:

Baptism: 14 Mar 1608/09, Burbage, Liecestershire, England

Occupation Details
- MATHEW's occupation was Matthew was one of the original company who came, in 1630, to Dorchester, Mass., in the Mary and John, with Maverick and Warham..
  - Occupation Notes
    - He was admitted a freeman 18 May, 1631, and continued in Dorchester till the removal of the company which settled Windsor, of which he was a prominent member. His name appears on the Dorchester records as late as 2 Nov., 1635, and though he was, without doubt, among those who went, in 1635, to prepare their new homes at Matianuck, now Windsor, it is not likely that his wife and children left Dorchester before 18 April 1636.
      
      With many others, he disliked the close union of church and state that characterized the colony of Massachusetts Bay, as well as the growing tendency to establish the government in the hands of a privileged class and to minimize the voice of the people in the conduct of their own affairs. In Windsor, freed from the trammels of a royal charter, he assisted in forming a true democracy, the germ from which American political institutions have grown. 4
      
      He was the second town clerk in Windsor, also the first and for man years the principal surveyor; was a prominent man in the church; evidently was just and exceedingly conscientious in all his public and private transactions and duties, and, as recorded, he often added notes, explanatory or in correction, to the records which have considerable value to present day investigators; if he had only used women's maiden names more often.
      
      In 1654 he compiled A Book of Records of Town Ways in Windsor. He was also the compiler of the Old Church Record, which has furnished the basis for the histories of most of the families of ancient Windsor. 4

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MATHEW GRANT

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