159. Miles Family Origins (Pal's maiden name) Puritans from England, in 1630s.
My maiden name was Miles -- I am Paralee Miles (Eckman) and my father was Orson Pratt Miles, my grandfather William Gustavus Miles, and my great grandfather Samuel Miles. Each of their histories are in this blog, and can be found listed under their names. Today I will give a brief history of the Miles (Myles) line back as far as we have information.
THE MILES FAMILY ORIGINS
The name is said to date back to the Roman Occupation of the British Isles in the 500's, and was originally Miles-itis, meaning a soldier – (hence militia, military, etc.) It also is generally accepted that the origin of the family was in Wales, and from which all the families in other parts of the British Isles descended.
The first Miles (Myles) we know of is William Miles or Myles of Great Munden, Hertfordshire, England, who was a yeoman, and probably lived in the first half of the 1500's. Yeomanry was a class of small freeholders who cultivated their own land. We have his probable birth date as about 1510. He married Joan Alyngham, and they had two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas Miles, born abt 1536 married Elizabeth Eacre, on 2 December, 1652, and they had seven children. Their son Richard, born about 1567 married Alice Cherry of that parish, at Great Munden, October 1597. Each of these men were yeoman.
This Richard was the father of Richard Miles, christened 27 August 1598, his only child, who emigrated to America.
"Richard Miles the elder, of Great Munden, husband of Alice Cherry, evidently lived in that part of the parish which includes the hamlet of Nasty (1 ½ miles northwest of the present St. Edmund’s College), for he named “my close called Nastie Croft” and “my lands called Nastie field” in his will. He was a prosperous man as his will shows, and a careful provider for his wife Alice and son Richard. His household was precisely the kind in which we should expect a future pillar of the Puritan community in New Haven to be born; a family of well-to-do yeomen with Puritan leanings.” (From The American Genealogist)
His will is quite interesting. There are many wills available for ancestors from this period of time. His will mentions several parcels of land from 1 acre to 6 acres which his wife would inherit, and keep the rest of her life, providing she doesn’t remarry. After her death, their son Richard would inherit all of it including “the household stuff in the hall of my mansion house except the chair in which I usually sit which I give to Alice my wife.” She died 9 September 1628, at the age of 52, and her husband Richard the elder died just 5 weeks later, 14 October, 1628, at the age of 65.
Richard Miles, the younger and the immigrant, married in England, first, Mary Chambers, in Wormley, Hertfordshire, England, and they had 4 children. She died, and he then married Mary Katherine Elithorpe Constable, the widow of Reverend Marmaduke Constable. He had been the Rector of Everingham, Yorkshire, England, and was a Puritan. She was presumably born at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. She had three sons by Constable. Soon after settling his estate on 18 September 1638, she decided to emigrate to New England. It is almost certain that she and her husband must have been friends of Reverend Ezekiel Rogers, the Puritan Rector of Rowley, Yorkshire, a parish twelve miles southeast of Everingham. Mr. Rogers gathered a band of Yorkshire Puritans, and led them by ship to America in 1638, where on the Merrimac River he founded a plantation named Rowley after his English home.
Saint Peter's Church, Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire--
A fine old church which once served the village of Rowley, which no longer exists. In the early 1600's, King Charles issued the 'Book of Sports' which gave authority for the 'common people' to practice certain sports and other leisure activities on the Sabbath after they had attended church services. As they worked on all the other six days of the week, this was their only opportunity! But this offended those who took the Sabbath as being 'sacrosant'. Thus the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers persuaded the villagers to emigrate en masse in 1638 and they founded the town of Rowley which is now a suburb of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Mr. Rogers had been negotiating with Mr. John Davenport and Mr. Theophilus Eaton, the founders of New Haven, about joining them in the new settlement at “Quinnipac” on Long Island Sound, and though these negotiations fell through because the authorities in Massachusetts Bay made more attractive offers to Mr. Rogers, several of his Yorkshire group did move on to New Haven. It is not known just when Mrs. Constable and her sons came to New England, how long they tarried in the Bay Colony, or just when they arrived in New Haven, but they were already there in March of 1641.
Katherine and Richard must have met and married soon, as their first child together, Anna, was baptized at New Haven on 7 October 1642. Their son (Capt.) John Miles, our ancestor, was baptized at New Haven in October 1644. (Children were baptized often on the day of their birth, and often the midwife would take them to be baptized before the father saw the child.)
Katherine’s sons by Mr. Constable evidently returned to England, and it is thought that one of them died young. The will of Richard Miles, “husbandman,” dated at New Haven 28 December 1666, mentioned his wife Katherine Miles and her “children” by her former husband, “who are now in England.” Yet Katherine herself remained in America after becoming a widow for the second time. The Wallingford Vital Records attributes her to have reached the age of 95.
Richard was admitted a member of the General Court 29 November 1641, deacon of the church, and held many other offices in New Haven until his death there, 7 January 1666. (The preceding information comes from The American Genealogist.) He served as a Judge at New Haven in May 1648, May 1649, May 1650, May 1651, and May 1652. He was a prominent settler of New Haven, and made a freeman there in 1639.
He came to America as a member of the group of Puritans led by the Reverend Peter Prudden, which consisted chiefly of families from Hertfordshire and adjoining counties.
The rolling hills which make up the 17.6 square miles of Orange, located just west of New Haven, were once owned by the Paugusset Indians. In 1639, the Rev. Peter Prudden purchased the land from the Indians for six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives and a dozen small mirrors. (From the internet)
He is mentioned in nearly all of the books pertaining to the history of the New Haven Colony. The main mention of ancestors during that period were when they became a “freeman” in the colony, or served some community office, or held office in the church, or appeared in court or left wills. Details about their daily life are very scarce. Most didn’t live long lives – perhaps 50's to 60's.
We descend through his son John, (Capt.) b. 1644, who married Elizabeth Harriman, born 1648.
"John Miles (1644-1704) New Haven, Connecticut, was chosen Ensign for New Haven Trainband, June 1673, and confirmed Ensign, Oct. 1673; at a meeting of the Council, Sept. 9, 1675, he was ordered to stay at Westfield with twenty-six men in his charge. He was appointed a Lieutenant by Nov. 1675; appointed 7th in command of Connecticut Forces, Nov. 1675; appointed Captain in command of New Haven County Dragoons, for service against the French and Indians in April, 1690; and appointed Captain of New Haven Trainband, May 1690. He was appointed Captain of one hundred and fifty men raised for the Relief of Albany, Feb. 21, 1693. He was a deputy for New Haven to the Connecticut General Court, Oct. 1690, May 1691." From Connecticut Colony Records.
We then descend through their son Richard Miles, born 1672, who married Hannah Easton, born 1673, to Joseph Miles, born 1712, who married Elizabeth (Elsie) Munson, born 1716, to James Rowe Miles, born 1745, who married Elizabeth Osborn, born 1750, to Samuel Miles Sr, who married Prudence Marks.
They were the first to join the Church, which they did 29th April, 1833, just 3 years after the Church was organized. They lived neighbors to Warren Cowdery, the brother of Oliver Cowdery, who told them about the Church. Their son Samuel was in the Mormon Battalion and a pioneer in St. George.
There could be many stories told of the Harriman, Easton, Munson, and Osborn lines, who all were early immigrants to New England, and came from prominent families. I am trying to tell mostly about the first ancestors to come to America, and pioneer stories written by each ancestor of his/her life.
THE MILES FAMILY ORIGINS
The name is said to date back to the Roman Occupation of the British Isles in the 500's, and was originally Miles-itis, meaning a soldier – (hence militia, military, etc.) It also is generally accepted that the origin of the family was in Wales, and from which all the families in other parts of the British Isles descended.
The first Miles (Myles) we know of is William Miles or Myles of Great Munden, Hertfordshire, England, who was a yeoman, and probably lived in the first half of the 1500's. Yeomanry was a class of small freeholders who cultivated their own land. We have his probable birth date as about 1510. He married Joan Alyngham, and they had two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas Miles, born abt 1536 married Elizabeth Eacre, on 2 December, 1652, and they had seven children. Their son Richard, born about 1567 married Alice Cherry of that parish, at Great Munden, October 1597. Each of these men were yeoman.
This Richard was the father of Richard Miles, christened 27 August 1598, his only child, who emigrated to America.
"Richard Miles the elder, of Great Munden, husband of Alice Cherry, evidently lived in that part of the parish which includes the hamlet of Nasty (1 ½ miles northwest of the present St. Edmund’s College), for he named “my close called Nastie Croft” and “my lands called Nastie field” in his will. He was a prosperous man as his will shows, and a careful provider for his wife Alice and son Richard. His household was precisely the kind in which we should expect a future pillar of the Puritan community in New Haven to be born; a family of well-to-do yeomen with Puritan leanings.” (From The American Genealogist)
His will is quite interesting. There are many wills available for ancestors from this period of time. His will mentions several parcels of land from 1 acre to 6 acres which his wife would inherit, and keep the rest of her life, providing she doesn’t remarry. After her death, their son Richard would inherit all of it including “the household stuff in the hall of my mansion house except the chair in which I usually sit which I give to Alice my wife.” She died 9 September 1628, at the age of 52, and her husband Richard the elder died just 5 weeks later, 14 October, 1628, at the age of 65.
Richard Miles, the younger and the immigrant, married in England, first, Mary Chambers, in Wormley, Hertfordshire, England, and they had 4 children. She died, and he then married Mary Katherine Elithorpe Constable, the widow of Reverend Marmaduke Constable. He had been the Rector of Everingham, Yorkshire, England, and was a Puritan. She was presumably born at Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. She had three sons by Constable. Soon after settling his estate on 18 September 1638, she decided to emigrate to New England. It is almost certain that she and her husband must have been friends of Reverend Ezekiel Rogers, the Puritan Rector of Rowley, Yorkshire, a parish twelve miles southeast of Everingham. Mr. Rogers gathered a band of Yorkshire Puritans, and led them by ship to America in 1638, where on the Merrimac River he founded a plantation named Rowley after his English home.
Saint Peter's Church, Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire--
A fine old church which once served the village of Rowley, which no longer exists. In the early 1600's, King Charles issued the 'Book of Sports' which gave authority for the 'common people' to practice certain sports and other leisure activities on the Sabbath after they had attended church services. As they worked on all the other six days of the week, this was their only opportunity! But this offended those who took the Sabbath as being 'sacrosant'. Thus the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers persuaded the villagers to emigrate en masse in 1638 and they founded the town of Rowley which is now a suburb of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Mr. Rogers had been negotiating with Mr. John Davenport and Mr. Theophilus Eaton, the founders of New Haven, about joining them in the new settlement at “Quinnipac” on Long Island Sound, and though these negotiations fell through because the authorities in Massachusetts Bay made more attractive offers to Mr. Rogers, several of his Yorkshire group did move on to New Haven. It is not known just when Mrs. Constable and her sons came to New England, how long they tarried in the Bay Colony, or just when they arrived in New Haven, but they were already there in March of 1641.
Katherine and Richard must have met and married soon, as their first child together, Anna, was baptized at New Haven on 7 October 1642. Their son (Capt.) John Miles, our ancestor, was baptized at New Haven in October 1644. (Children were baptized often on the day of their birth, and often the midwife would take them to be baptized before the father saw the child.)
Katherine’s sons by Mr. Constable evidently returned to England, and it is thought that one of them died young. The will of Richard Miles, “husbandman,” dated at New Haven 28 December 1666, mentioned his wife Katherine Miles and her “children” by her former husband, “who are now in England.” Yet Katherine herself remained in America after becoming a widow for the second time. The Wallingford Vital Records attributes her to have reached the age of 95.
Richard was admitted a member of the General Court 29 November 1641, deacon of the church, and held many other offices in New Haven until his death there, 7 January 1666. (The preceding information comes from The American Genealogist.) He served as a Judge at New Haven in May 1648, May 1649, May 1650, May 1651, and May 1652. He was a prominent settler of New Haven, and made a freeman there in 1639.
He came to America as a member of the group of Puritans led by the Reverend Peter Prudden, which consisted chiefly of families from Hertfordshire and adjoining counties.
The rolling hills which make up the 17.6 square miles of Orange, located just west of New Haven, were once owned by the Paugusset Indians. In 1639, the Rev. Peter Prudden purchased the land from the Indians for six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives and a dozen small mirrors. (From the internet)
He is mentioned in nearly all of the books pertaining to the history of the New Haven Colony. The main mention of ancestors during that period were when they became a “freeman” in the colony, or served some community office, or held office in the church, or appeared in court or left wills. Details about their daily life are very scarce. Most didn’t live long lives – perhaps 50's to 60's.
We descend through his son John, (Capt.) b. 1644, who married Elizabeth Harriman, born 1648.
"John Miles (1644-1704) New Haven, Connecticut, was chosen Ensign for New Haven Trainband, June 1673, and confirmed Ensign, Oct. 1673; at a meeting of the Council, Sept. 9, 1675, he was ordered to stay at Westfield with twenty-six men in his charge. He was appointed a Lieutenant by Nov. 1675; appointed 7th in command of Connecticut Forces, Nov. 1675; appointed Captain in command of New Haven County Dragoons, for service against the French and Indians in April, 1690; and appointed Captain of New Haven Trainband, May 1690. He was appointed Captain of one hundred and fifty men raised for the Relief of Albany, Feb. 21, 1693. He was a deputy for New Haven to the Connecticut General Court, Oct. 1690, May 1691." From Connecticut Colony Records.
We then descend through their son Richard Miles, born 1672, who married Hannah Easton, born 1673, to Joseph Miles, born 1712, who married Elizabeth (Elsie) Munson, born 1716, to James Rowe Miles, born 1745, who married Elizabeth Osborn, born 1750, to Samuel Miles Sr, who married Prudence Marks.
They were the first to join the Church, which they did 29th April, 1833, just 3 years after the Church was organized. They lived neighbors to Warren Cowdery, the brother of Oliver Cowdery, who told them about the Church. Their son Samuel was in the Mormon Battalion and a pioneer in St. George.
There could be many stories told of the Harriman, Easton, Munson, and Osborn lines, who all were early immigrants to New England, and came from prominent families. I am trying to tell mostly about the first ancestors to come to America, and pioneer stories written by each ancestor of his/her life.
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