Michael Mitton

- 1661

• Name	Michael Mitton  [1]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Between 25 Aug 1660 and 7 Oct 1661  [2]
  Alternate death	Bef 1663	Maine   [3]
  Person ID	I42496	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2025

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth Cleeve,   b. Abt 1619   d. Aft 1682 (Age > 64 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1639  [1]
  Children	+ 1. Elizabeth Mitton,   b. Abt 1645   d. 1736, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age 91 years)
  Family ID	F24856	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2025

  
  

• Notes

  He is described in Noyes, Libby, and Davis's Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire as "gentleman, sportsman and teller of tall stories to Mr. John Jocelyn." Gentleman he may have been — it's possible he came from the gentry Mitton family of Shropshire and Staffordshire — but the historical record includes a severe indictment of his character. In the mid-1640s one Francis Martin, needing to return to England to settle certain affairs, placed two of his daughters in the care of the family of Michael Mitton. Evidently Mitton seduced one of them, Mary, leaving her with child. Fleeing to Boston, she delivered the child and then, overcome with shame, caused its death; for this she was herself put to death. This summary barely touches on the gruesome details of this whole affair, more of which can be read in the journal of John Winthrop.

  
  

• Sources

  [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. [S7605] Ancestry of Edward Wales Blake and Clarissa Matilda Glidden with Ninety Allied Families by Edith Bartlett Sumner. Los Angeles, 1948. [S660] Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire by Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby, and Walter Goodwin Davis. Portland, Maine: Southworth Press, 1928-1939.