Hannah Backus

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1676, Norwich, New London, Connecticut

Notes:

She and her half-brother John Backus married on the same day.

"She was a younger sister of John Backus who was to marry Thomas [Bingham's] sister, Mary." [The Bingham Family in the United States, citation details below.]

The Granberry Family (citation details below) shows that she was a daughter of William Backus's second wife, Elizabeth Pratt, while John Backus was a daughter of the first wife, Sarah Charles.

Hannah married Sgt. Thomas Bingham on 17 Feb 1692 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. Thomas (son of Deacon Thomas Bingham and Mary Rudd) was born on 11 Dec 1667 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut; died on 1 Apr 1710 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Deacon Joseph Bingham was born on 4 Jun 1709 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut; died on 4 Nov 1787 in Bennington, Bennington, Vermont; was buried in Old Bennington Cemetery, Bennington, Bennington, Vermont.

Notes:

Made freeman at Hartford 8 Oct 1663.

William married Elizabeth Pratt about 1664. Elizabeth (daughter of William Pratt and Elizabeth Clark) was born on 1 Feb 1641 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut; died in 1730 in Norwich, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 1 Feb 1642, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut
• Alternate birth: 1 Feb 1642, Saybrook, Middlesex, Connecticut

William married Elizabeth in 1627 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. Elizabeth died before 9 Feb 1643 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

His name is on the Founders Monument in downtown Hartford.

F. W. Chapman's The Pratt Family (1864) asserted that William and his older brother John Pratt were sons of the Rev. William Pratt of Stevenage, Hertfordshire. This conclusion was attacked in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register's review of Pratt's book the following year, which pointed out that the birthdates of the John and William known to have been the sons of the Rev. William Pratt would have made them far too young to have emigrated to New England and become prominent early citizens of Connecticut by 1636. This same criticism was repeated with great force by Donald Lines Jacobus in Hale, House and Related Families (1952; citation details below).

But in 1995 Matthew J. Grow published "A Belated Reply: The English Origins of John and William Pratt of Connecticut" (NEHGR; citation details below), in which he demonstrated that the original Stevenage parish record had been rebound with pages out of order, and that a careful study of the original artifact, plus examination of the bishop's transcript (to which the original 1857 Pratt researchers, Mormon missionaries Orson Pratt and Charles Penrose, would not have had access), yielded baptismal dates for John and William Pratt that are fully consistent with the other known events of their lives. This problem solved, the other evidence (wills, marriage records, known associations, on-the-record allusions by individuals to their kinship with other individuals) adds up to a satisfactorily strong case for John and William as sons of the Rev. William.

Further from Hale, House and Related Families (citation details below):

William Pratt was appointed Lieutenant of the Saybrook Train Band, Oct. 1661. He was Deputy for Saybrook to the Conn. General Court or Assembly, at the sesions of Oct. 1666, Oct. 1667, Oct. 1668, May and Oct. 1669, Oct. 1670, May and Oct. 1671, May 1672, May and Oct. 1673, May and Oct. 1674, May and Oct. 1675, May and Oct. 1676, May and Oct. 1677, and May 1678. He was Commissioner (justice) for Saybrook, 1666 to 1678 inclusive. In Oct. 1670 the General Assembly granted him 100 acres in recognition of his service in the Pequot War. The length of his Deputy service qualifies him as an ancestor for the Society of Colonial Dames of America, and the Pequot War service for the Society of Colonial Wars. William Pratt received a lot in Soldier's Field, Hartford, as one of the band that went from Hartford to fight the Pequots; he sold it in 1645 and removed to Saybrook, probably about that time. He married, by 1641, Elizabeth Clark, daughter of 'Elder' John Clark, who later was a Patentee of Connecticut Colony named in the Royal Charter of 1662. This is proved by John Clark's will. William became possessed of considerable land, more than 250 acres being found on record which were acquired by grant or purchase. He was also a legatee for a large tract of land in the will of the Indian Attawanhood who was known to the English as Joshua Uncas.

William married Elizabeth Clark before 1641 in Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut. Elizabeth (daughter of John Clark and Lydia Kellogg) was born about 1622; died before 2 Apr 1695. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A graduate of Cambridge, he was rector of Stevenage from 1598 to his death.

William married Elizabeth. Elizabeth died after Nov 1629. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"He was an original proprietor of Hartford, Connecticut, though he seems not to have gone there with the first settlers. He was, however, a member of the Hartford contingent which took part in the Pequot War, 1637, and received a lot there in Soldiers' Field in recognition of his services." [Hale, House and Related Families]

"[He] was a Patentee of Connecticut Colony named in the Royal Charter of 1662." [Hale, House and Related Families, entry on his son-in-law William Pratt]

In The Great Migration Begins (citation details below), Robert Charles Anderson points out that, despite many assertions by others, no solid evidence establishes that the John Clark who arrived at Cambridge in 1633 is the same man as the John Clark who died at Milford in 1674. It's clear that the emigrant of 1633 removed to Hartford sometime after the spring of 1636 (as Anderson observes, "almost the entire population of Cambridge moved to Hartford in 1635 and 1636"). And it's clear that the man who later died in Milford first appears at Hartford in about 1637. But that they were the same person is not clear.

He removed to Saybrook by 1647, where he held many public offices between then and the mid-1660s. He appears to have been at Norwich for a short time; in 1665 he was admitted to the church at Milford, recorded as being dismissed from Norwich. There is no evidence that he was related to the already-present Milford family of Clark.

His will mentions his daughter Elizabeth Pratt, husband of William Pratt.

John married Lydia Kellogg. Lydia (daughter of Daniel Kellogg and Bridget Bouton) was born in Apr 1676 in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]