Robert Seely the first generation of Seely in this country.
Robert Seely, a staunch Puritan, came from England in 1630. He was a
surveyor, leather sealer, shoemaker, and was prominent in the investment
companies of those days when patents were taken for land grants. He owned
land in Wethersfield, New Haven Colony, Stamford, and Stratfield, CT., in
Huntington,LI and Elizabeth NJ. His places of residence included Watertown,
MA. 1631-34; Wethersfield, CT,1635; New Haven Colony, CT 1639; Saybrook Ct,
1661; Huntington LI 1666.
Robert Seeley's military service started as Lieutenant and second in command
under Capt. John Mason, Pequot War, May 1637 was Marshal of New Haven, Oct
1639 to Nov. 1642; Lt. New Haven Train Band, Aug. 1642; Lt. Artillery, Mar.
1645; Capt. 1654; led a force under Sedwick and Leverett against the New
Netherlands, Oct. 1654; Lt. and Chief Military Officer, Huntington Train Band,
May 1663 and was referred to as "Captain"; was Judge of Huntington, LI, May
1663 and 1664; Deputy from Huntington to the Ct. Legistature May 1664.
The early life of Robert Seeley in England is already well covered in the
article: "The English life of Robert Seeley" by Ralph M. Seeley.
Information from the SGS files.
Search Terms: SEELY (5)
Database: Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33
Combined Matches: 5
Previous Hits Next Hits
ROBERT SEELEY
ORIGIN: London
MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Watertown
REMOVES: Wethersfield 1636, New Haven 1639, Saybrook, Stratford, Huntington
1662
RETURN TRIP: "Lieut. Robert Seely had liberty to go for England although a
public officer," 26 October 1646 [NHCR 1:275], but apparently did not go, as
he was in New Haven on 1 February 1646/7 [NHCR 1:292]
OCCUPATION: Cordwainer. On 25 May 1646 and 31 January 1647/8 "Lieutenant
Seely" was chosen leather sealer at New Haven [NHCR 1:242, 356]. In court in
1647, Lieut. Seely and others were asked to render an opinion on a case over
bad shoes. Seely, speaking for them all stated that
the leather is very bad, not tanned, nor fit to be sold for serviceable
leather, but it wrongs the country, nor can a man make good work of a great
deal of it. And we find the workmanship bad also, first there is not
sufficient stuff put in the thread, and instead of hemp it is flax, and the
stitches are too long, and the threads not drawn home, and there wants wax on
the thread, the awl is too big for the thread. We ordinarily put in seven
threads, and here is but five, so that according to our best light, we lay
the cause both upon the workmanship and the badness of the leather [NHCR
1:351-52].
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: On 25 October 1639 "Lieutenant Seely" was one of those
"members of other approved churches" who had been received into the New Haven
Church since 4 June 1639 (implying that he had been a member of the church at
Watertown or Wethersfield, or both) [NHCR 1:20]. By 10 March 1646/7 he had
been assigned a place in the fourth seat in the meetinghouse [NHCR 1:302].
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 18 May 1631 [MBCR 1:80, 366].
New Haven freeman's list by 1639 [NHCR 1:9, 17].
EDUCATION: Served an apprenticeship as a cordwainer and purchased his freedom
in the Cordwainers' Company, which presumes some education [NEHGR 116:160].
OFFICES: Watertown lot layer, 13 [worn]ember 1634 [WaTR 1:1]. Ordered to
cease to do any business for the town, 14 [worn]ember 1636 [WaTR 1:2].
New Haven committee to "walk the woods," 25 November 1639 [NHCR 1:25].
Viewer of meadow, 2 September 1640, 16 June 1645, 1 February 1646[/7], 31
January 1648[/9], 10 March 1648[/9] [NHCR 1:41, 164, 292, 428, 446].
Committee to consider the digging of a channel, 3 July 1644 [NHCR 1:143].
Leather sealer, 8 April 1645, 25 May 1646, 31 January 1647[/8], June 1648 [
NHCR 1:161, 242, 356, 384]. Advisor on lots, 23 March 1647[/8] [NHCR 1:376].
Rater, 15 October 1649 [NHCR 1:495].
Judge, Huntington, May 1663, May 1664 [CT Civil List 47]. Deputy,
Huntington, May 1664 [CT Civil List 47].
Lieutenant (second in command under Mason), Pequot War, May 1637 [CT Civil
List 47]. Marshal, New Haven, October 1639 - November 1642 [CT Civil List
47]. Lieutenant, New Haven train band, August 1642 [CT Civil List 47].
Lieutenant, Artillery Company, March 1645 [CT Civil List 47]. Captain, New
Haven Col. Tropp, June 1654 [CT Civil List 47]. Commander New Haven troops
again Ninigret, October 1654 [CT Civil List 47]. Lieutenant/Captain,
Huntington train band, May 1663 [CT Civil List 47].
ESTATE: At Watertown his holdings included "an homestall of sixteen acres ...
granted to him"; "twenty two acres of upland ... granted to him" [WaBOP
83-84].
In a list of the planters at New Haven about 1643 "Robt. Ceely" had four
persons in his household, was valued at £179, had 18 3/4 acres and 32 acres
in the first division, 3 3/4 and 8 acres in the neck, 10 3/4 and 32 acres of
meadow, 43 acres in the second division, and paid 18s. 5d. in a yearly rate
on land [NHCR 1:91]. On 16 June 1645 "Lt. Seely and Jer. Witnell" complained
that their meadows were completely unserviceable and petitioned to have their
rates altered; the court agreed to study the matter [NHCR 1:164].
On 3 November 1646 the court recorded that "Lt. Robert Seely" had sold his
house and houselot in town to John Basset, with two acres of upland from the
first division [NHCR 1:276].
On 22 December 1662 William Jones of New Haven "in the right of my wife
Hannah Jones otherwise Eaton daughter of Theophilus Eaton" sold to "Captain
Robert Ciely all that island commonly called Eaton's Neck on the eastward of
Oyster Bay otherwise Huntington Bay together with a parcel of land upon Long
Island joining thereunto to the eastward" [HuntTR 1:42-43].
On 19 October 1668 letters of administration on the estate of Robert
Seeley were granted to his widow Mary [FOOF 1:524].
On 15 July 1669 "Mary Seely, widow, of the City of New York, and Captain
John Manning, of the City of New York, aforesaid, executor in trust to the
aforesaid widow," sold to Andrew Messenger of Jamaica, Long Island, yeoman,
"all our right, title and interest in an accommodation or allotment situate
and lying in Huntington upon Long Island ... formerly in the tenure or
occupation of Captain Robart Seely deceased and since confirmed unto me Mary
Seely widow, late wife of the said Captain Seely deceased, and to my trusty
and well beloved brother Captain John Manning" [HuntTR 1:137-38].
BIRTH: Baptized St. Johns, Huntingdon, Huntingdonshire, 4 July 1602, son of
William and Grace (Prett) Seeley [Seeley Anc 6]. (Alan Phipps demonstrated
that an earlier claim for the baptism of the immigrant, in another parish in
the same county, was a misreading of an entry for a person of another surname
[NEHGR 116:160, 164; Seeley Anc 1-2].)
DEATH: By 17 October 1668 (when his widow applied for administration on his
estate). (Fanjoy and Ward state that "Robert Seeley died intestate Oct[ober]
1667, and in Oct[ober] 1667, the General Court of Connecticutt abated the
widow's vote [sic] `for last yeare and this yeare'" [Seeley Anc 24]; this
error derives from a misreading and misapplication of a record of 18 October
1677 in which the Court granted "the widow of Captain Seely about
thirty-three shillings due from her for her country rate last year, and her
rate this year," an entry pertaining to the widow of Nathaniel Seeley, who
had been killed during King Philip's War [CCCR 2:327].)
MARRIAGE: (1) St. Stephen, Coleman Street, London, 15 December 1626 Mary
(_____) (Heath) Mason, widow of William Heath and Walter Mason [TAG 16:43;
NEHGR 116:163; Seeley Anc 4-5]. "Sister Seely" was placed in the sixth seat
in the New Haven meetinghouse, 10 March 1646[/7] [NHCR 303]. She died before
1651.
(2) (New York license) 22 December 1666 Mary (Manning) Walker [NYMarr
345]. She died after 15 July 1669 [HuntTR 1:137-38].
CHILD:
i NATHANIEL, bp. St. Stephen, Coleman Street, 16 September 1627 [TAG
16:43]; m. (1) about October 1649 Mary Turney, daughter of Benjamin Turney [
FOOF 1:525;Gillespie Anc 474]; m. (2) say 1674 Elizabeth (Burr) (Olmstead)
Gilbert, daughter of JEHU BURR and widow of Nehemiah Olmstead and Obadiah
Gilbert [Fairfield LR 1:615;FOOF 1:221, 452, 525-26].
COMMENTS: On 9 October 1648, Lieut. Seely suggested that the court set out a
place "to shoot at a mark upon" [NHCR 404].
On 14 May 1649 "Leiutenant Seely" made a motion to the court that they
would be pleased to accept of the service he had done in the town in the
place of a lieutenant for the time past, and that they would be pleased to
choose some other to supply the place for the time to come, for he finds it
not comfortable for his family, nor pleasing to his own spirit to hold it as
the case stands. He doth not desire to put the town upon charge in point of
any salary, yet leaves it to themselves to do as they shall see cause,
professing it is an affliction to him to withdraw from this society, but
there is a way open for him, and he desires to attend providence in it, if he
cannot see a way of comfortable subsistence here [NHCR 1:457].
The court discussed this motion for a long time and agreed to bring it
before the next general court that "he may not go out of the jurisdiction" [
NHCR 1:457]. At the next court no settlement was reached, but a small sum was
gathered in the town which "satisfied him for the present" [NHCR 1:461]. A
similar partial resolution was offered at the next court, which he again
accepted 25 June 1649 [NHCR 1:466].
At court 12 November 1649 the governor suggested that
Lieutenant Seely might have some help from the town to buy Robert Bassett's
house, for he is now resolved to stay here & to follow his trade of
shoemakeing, and shall not remove unless the town be satisfied that God by
his providence calls him away [NHCR 1:500].
Many secondary sources claim that Obadiah Seeley of Stamford was a son of
Robert Seeley, but this should be rejected. Robert Seeley married for the
first time in 1626, and had son Nathaniel in 1627, so Obadiah, if he was a
son of Robert, must have been born in 1629 or later. But the eldest son of
Obadiah was born in the late 1640s, when Obadiah, under this hypothesis,
could have been nor more than twenty, and perhaps even less. This
chronological impediment is not fatal, but it makes the connection highly
unlikely. Beyond this we see that Robert Seeley and Obadiah Seeley lived in
different towns, that they do not appear in the records together in any
action, and that the name Obadiah does not appear among the immediate
descendants of Robert (through his son Nathaniel), nor does the name Robert
appear among the immediate descendants of Obadiah. All these clues indicate
that Obadiah was not son of Robert.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: In 1939 Helen Turney Sharps published a brief article
including entries from the parish register of St. Stephen, Coleman Street,
London, pertaining to Robert Seeley and his family [TAG 16:43-44]. (In 1946
this same journal published an even briefer note claiming that there was a
second baptism in that parish for a Nathaniel Seeley, son of Robert [TAG
22:194]; Ralph M. Seeley accepted this in 1962 [NEHGR 116:163], but in 1992
Alan Phipps showed that this was an erroneous reading and belonged in another
family [Seeley Anc 5].)
In 1962 Ralph M. Seeley published records relating to Robert's
apprenticeship, his residence in London and his first wife's prior marriages [
NEHGR 116:159-65].
In 1992 Harold N. Fanjoy and C.G. Ward published a volume on one branch of
the descendants of Robert Seely, and included a chapter, prepared by Alan
Phipps, on the English ancestry of the immigrant [The Seelys of New Brunswick
[St John, N.B., 1992], cited above as Seeley Anc]. While the material in this
English section is excellent, the rest of the volume should be used with
caution.
Page built by Gedpage Version 2.20 ©2000 on 12 October 2007