| Notes |
- Emigrated 1635 in the James of Bristol. He was a merchant.
From Matthew Wood, "English Origins of the Mitchell, Wood, Lum and Halstead Families" (citation details below):
Matthew Mitchell and family, including Samuel Butterfield, came on the James in 1635. Cotton Mather's Magnalia gives an account of this prominent and wealthy "Son of Misfortune". He immediately bought a house in Charlestown, Massachusetts, but removed to Concord in the early spring. Here he lost home and goods by fire. In May he was at Springfield with Edmund Wood, but in the summer removed to Saybrook further down the Connecticut. This was, as genealogist Natalie Seth stated, "the most unfortunate possible" move. His step-son, Samuel Butterfield, was taken alive by Pequot Indians and tortured to death. "The rest of the Winter they lived in much fear of their lives from these Barbarians," continued Mather, "and many of his cattle were destroyed, and his estate unto the Value of some Hundred[s] of Pounds was damnified." The Indians chased away the cattle but most of them came back home with arrows in them. "A Shallop which he sent unto the River's Mouth was taken, and burned by the Pequots, and three men in the vessel slain, in all of whom he was nearly concerned. So that, indeed, the Pequot scourge fell more on his family, than on any other in the land." In the spring he moved his family and cattle up the river to Wethersfield, losing a few of the latter to Indian raids along the way. "He was a great addition to that settlement," wrote Stiles, being a man of considerable (if not large) means despite his previous losses; and possessing also sound judgment and executive ability, which his fellow citizens were not slow to recognize." He was elected to the General Court which declared war against the Pequots.
Despite his wealth and leadership abilities, he became involved in an entanglement with Deacon Clement Chaplin, "the very sensitive Ruling Elder" of the church, as Stiles says. "Afterwards there arose unhappy Differences in the place where he lived," wrote Mather, "wherein he was an Antagonist against some of the Principal Persons in the place. And hereby, he, who hitherto Lived in previous Esteem with Good Men wherever he came (as a Record I have seen testifies concerning him) now suffered much in his Esteem among many such men, as is usual in such contentions, and he met with many other injuries." A contingent of Wethersfield men voted him constable, but when he was presented before the General Court for confirmation he was fined 20 guilders for accepting an office while under censure for not paying court fines to Deacon Chaplin. The men who voted for him were fined £5 each. These were extraordinary sums, and the contingent favoring Mitchell was forced to remove from the bounds of Connecticut Colony. They founded a new town, Stamford, under the jurisdiction of New Haven. "Here," continues Mather, "his home, barn and goods were again consumed by Fire; and much internal distress of mind accompanied these humbling dispensations. At last, that most horrible of diseases, the Stone, arrested him, and he underwent unspeakable dolours from it, until the year 1645, when he went unto his rest about the fifty-fifth year of his age."
Stiles gives an historian's view of these quarrels. "Elder Chaplin, as we may judge from what little the records have preserved to us... was of a proud, arbitrary character, whose spirit of rule was that of 'rule, or break,' and who, having what would now be called 'a pull' with the Gen. Ct. was able to antagonize, both in civil and ecclesiastical matters, those who did not think or act his way. This is evidenced, also, by the trouble which he subsequently made for the Rev. Henry Smith; but, by that time, he had apparently lost somewhat of his influence." Stiles contrasts his opponent: "Mr. Mitchell's character, however, was such as secured the respect of those who knew him, and among whom he lived, both in Weth. and Stamford. He was of excellent social position, and education, a man of enterprise, unbounded patience and resolution, clear judgment and earnest, positive convictions of duty; his staunch uprightness commanded respect and his unswerving integrity invited confidence in times when trials demonstrated character. And, truly, he seems to have been sorely tried, by fires, by Indian attacks, and by human animosities -- under all of which he exhibited a high degree of Christian humility and patience."
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
Abt 1589 - 1645 (~ 56 years)
[2, 3]