John Benham

Birth: possibly Dorchester, England

Immigration: 1630

Birth of Son:  05 MAY 1659 
Name: Joseph Benham
Place: New Haven, Connecticut

Occupation: Brickmaker and farmer

Will: Page 485 Inventory of estate, (of John Benham 3rd of 11th mo. 1661)(Jan. 1662, recorded May 6, 1662) This inventory appears in 1:117 of the NEW HAVEN PROBATE records, also, as taken 3rd of 11th Mo. 1662. Much of the record is illegible. The inventory included: Halfe ye dewelling house and halfe ye house lott, halfe ye land in ye quarter yt belong to the house and two acres fo meadow - - - 33.00.00. One feather bed, one bolster, one old blanket - - 05.02.00 One old trunk - -old hogshead, one old barrell - - 4 hopps, 1 pillyan, one frying pan, one small - - - a payre of tongs, 2 andirons, one payre of pothangers, one pitch fork, one old axe, one wedge - - - one iron skillet,- - - of old pweter, - - of lead, on bray - - one wooden, one wooden mortar, one payle, pump irons, 12 - - 2 Bibles, 1 old musket, 1 sword, halfe ye - -, one iron pot, one dun mare one black oxe - - 16.00.00. One black horse fifound, halfe belongs to this estate, one barrel of porks, one bush of wheat, one bush of iyan(?), one old axe, one old bor- - -. The estate OW 09.05.00 The estate IV about 59.13.90 Thomas Munson and Jon Herriman, appraisers.

Death: 1661  Wallingford, New Haven Co, Connecticut

Parents are unknown

The Benhams are of English origin, and John BENHAM, the first American ancestor, sailed from Plymouth, England in the Ship "Mary and John", March 20, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket Point May 30, 1630. Next day Captain Squib put them on shore and left them. By the aid of planters they obtained a boat and went up the Charles River to a place called Watertown, where they landed. They found a neck of land at Mattapan and removed there naming their town Dorchester. They had many cattle. John's two sons John and Joseph probably came with him. John Benham was one of the first set of "freemen" of Boston of May 18, 1861. In 1639 he and his sons came with the original colony of Eaton and Davenport to New Haven, he being one of the 70 heads of families that settled that place. To him was assigned one each of the four acre house lots and sixteen acre out lots set off to those first principal colonists.

The Great Migration Begins
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PRESERVED PURITAN

"In a compilation of New Haven families and estates, undated but from about 1640, John Benham appears with a household of five, and an estate estimated at £70, paying a rate of 12s. 4«d.; he had received sixteen acres in the first division, twenty-four in the second, three acres and a fraction in the neck, and six acres of meadow

Fined for having a defective gun, 4 January 1643/4, 7 September 1652 . Absent from training 4 November 1651  On 28 July 1656 "John Benham, Senior, being lame in his arm and having lost one of his thumbs, was upon his desire freed from training"

At the court held at New Haven on 5 February 1655/6, the following transaction was recorded: "John Benham Senior passeth over to his son Joseph Benham all the accommodations which belonged to that lot which was at first given him by the town, next the lot of Thomas Nash which he lately sold to Robert Talmage"

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Death: 

Parents are unknown

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