Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Jeffrey Ferris

Jeffrey Ferris

Male Abt 1604 - 1666  (~ 62 years)

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  • Name Jeffrey Ferris  [1
    Birth Abt 1604  [2
    Gender Male 
    Alternate birth Abt 1610  [3, 4
    Alternate death 31 May 1666  Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [5
    Death 31 May 1666  Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [2, 6, 7
    Alternate death Abt Nov 1666  Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [4
    Burial Tomac Burying Ground, Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location  [3
    Person ID I1153  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TNH
    Last Modified 13 Nov 2024 

    Family 1 Mary   d. 31 Jul 1658, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage Bef 1629  [2
    Children 
    +1. Peter Ferris,   b. Abt 1629, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Sep 1706, Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 77 years)
     2. Joseph Ferris,   b. Abt 1632   d. Between 9 Jun 1699 and 24 Jul 1699 (Age ~ 67 years)
    Family ID F5449  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 May 2020 

    Family 2 Susanna Norman,   b. Abt 1615   d. 23 Dec 1660, Greenwich, Fairfield, Connecticut Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 45 years) 
    Marriage Abt 1659  [2
    Family ID F17047  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 May 2020 

    Family 3 Judith Feake,   b. Abt 1621, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage Abt 1662  [2, 6
    Family ID F3377  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 22 May 2020 

  • Photos
    Jeffrey Ferris
    Jeffrey Ferris
    Stained-glass window, First Congregational Church of Greenwich, Connecticut.

  • Notes 
    • He came to New England in the spring of 1633; first in Watertown; Wethersfield 1635, Stamford 1641, Greenwich 1650, East Town 1655, Greenwich 1659. "On 18 July 1640, a group of men, believed to include Ferris, signed a deed that purchased the land now called 'old Greenwich' from the local Native Americans. The deed noted that one chief, called Keofferam, had already sold his interests to 'Jeffre Ferris.' The present city dates its existence to that date." [Wikipedia]

      In 2023, Travis Dodge Miscia (citation details below) established that the colonist Jeffrey Ferris was either born in Essex or had close ties to that county.

      In 2024, the NEHGR (178:370-71) published a correction by Randy A. West to the abovementioned Travis Dodge Miscia article, establishing from English court records that Jeffrey Ferris cannot have sailed for the New World before January 1632/3, and that he probably sailed in the spring of 1633 and arrived by May of that year.

      Jeffrey Ferris appears briefly in Anya Seton's 1958 historical novel The Winthrop Woman, about TNH ancestor Elizabeth Fones, where he is described as "a lean taciturn farmer of thirty, with a crest of auburn hair" and a man who "never spoke idly".

      Ferris is portrayed in a stained-glass window in the First Congregational Church of Greenwich, Connecticut, along with the dates "1610 1666". Below him, another window depicts Tomac Cemetery, including a stone reading "Ferris". However, no record or stone has been found of his burial there.



      He was the GX4-grandfather of George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-1896), inventor of the Ferris wheel.

  • Sources 
    1. [S7430] Travis Dodge Miscia, '''Nowe Lately Gone Into New England': The Essex Origins of Jeffery and Mary (_____) Ferris." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 177:387, Fall 2023.

    2. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

    3. [S665] Stained-glass windows of the First Congregational Church of Greenwich, Connecticut.

    4. [S7416] Frederick C. Hart, Jr., "Ancestry of William Weed of Stamford and Darien, Connecticut." Connecticut Ancestry 50:101; 50:145; 51:1, 2008.

    5. [S119] Ancestors and Descendants of Andrew Lee and Clarinda Knapp Allen by Gerald R. Fuller. Esther Fuller Dial, ed. The Andrew Lee Allen Family Organization, 1952.

    6. [S1272] George E. McCracken, "The Feake Family of Norfolk, London, and Colonial America." New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 86:132, 86:209 (1955), 87:28, 87:104 (1956), 92:229 (1961), 94:243 (1963), 136:303 (2005).

    7. [S4171] The History and Descendants of John and Sarah Reynolds by Marion H. Reynolds. Brooklyn: The Reynolds Family Association, 1924.