William Fowler came over in the company of Rev. John Davenport, Gov. Eaton and others, and arrived at Boston 26 June 1637. William Fowler is mentioned as a prisoner in Bridewell with other Puritans in the year 1592. The list of prisoners is
immediately preceded by a petition addressed to the Lord Treasurer by many of the "poor Christians imprisoned by the Bishops in sundry prisons in and about London." About this time a congregation of Puritans were discovered at Islington, and fifty-six were sent to prison.
William Fowler came over in a ship that sailed from London. There were those of the name in Islington, which was then and now is a part of London. He was an old man when he settled in Milford, having died sixty-eight years after, and if he was, say, twenty at imprisonment, this would make him 88. There is therefore nothing improbably in the supposition that the prisoner was the William Fowler that came to New Haven.
William Fowler sailed with Mr. Davenport and Mr. Eaton from Boston, and arrived at New Haven in April, 1638, and was at the famous meeting in Mr. Newman's barn, 4 June 1639, when the peculiar constitution and policy of Mr. Davenport, which afterwards characterized the New Haven Colony, was agreed upon. Mr. Fowler subscribed to that agreement.
In the spring of 1639, the settlement of Milford had been arranged, and Mr. Fowler is the first named of the trustees, and the only one bearing the honorable prefix of "Mr." At the first meeting of the Milford Company he was chosen one of the
"Judges." The church was organized 1639, and he was elected one of the "seven pillars," - Mr. Peter Prudden, Pastor. Mr. Fowler was elected magistrate, and reappointed yearly to 1654.
In 1640, by agreement with the town, he built a mill, the first erected in New Haven Colony. His name is in the roll of planters at New Haven, 1642, as having an £800 estate, and a family of three persons. He died 25 January 1660/1, and his will was presented by his son William to the General Court of the Colony6 1661, but was not recorded, and being unfortunately lost, we are without knowledge of its contents. His children were born before his removal to America, he at the time of his settlement being an old man, and "his family of three" were doubtless himself, wife and one child. The child may have been Mary who married John Caffing.