Once Upon a Time…
(roughly late 1646 or early 1647)
in a land far far away…
(roughly East Lyme Connecticut, USA)
my 10x great grandparents were married across a brook that separated Massachusetts from Connecticut.
In researching my Bingham family line I found this fun story about my 10x great grandparents. They lived in Saybrook, CT and when their wedding day arrived the magistrate who was supposed to marry them couldn’t make it because of a snowstorm. The nearest qualified person was John Winthrop, Esq who lived in New London (and later became the governor of Connecticut Colony). He was the son of John Winthrop who was the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1629 and 1649. His authority to marry was as a Massachusetts magistrate so he told the couple to meet him in the forest on the side of a brook that was on the boundary of the two colonies. In the dead of winter, in the middle of the woods, with him standing on the Massachusetts side, my great grandparents on the Connecticut side, he performed the ceremony. The stream from that time on has been knows as “Bride Brook”.
Governor Winthrop later gave his account of the marriage:
“It fell out, the first winter of our setling there, that Jonathan Rudd being to be maried at Saybrooke, there falling out at yt time a great snow, the magistrate intended to goe downe thither was hindred by the depth of yt snow; whereupon they desired me to assist them there in yt businesse. But I saw it necessary to denye them in yt way, but told them yt for an expedient for their accommodation, if they come to ye plantation it might be done: but that being too difficult for them, it was agreed they should come to yt place wch is now called Bride brooke; and accordingly I mett them there, at the tyme appointed (others of our plantation being wth me, knowing the place) and there those persons were then maried, as being a place wthin the bounds of yt authority wherby I then acted; otherwise I had exeeded ye limits of my commission. And at that tyme, that place had the denomination of Bride Brooke. And the gentlemen were well satisfied with what was done there in the premises (as far as I could ever vnderstand,) as wth a legall act.”: Deposition made by Gov. Winthrop.”
My Great Grandfather, Jonathon Rudd, was a soldier and leatherworker and died about 10 years after the wedding.
John Rudd – Mary (Rudd) Bingham- Deacon Abel Bingham-Joohn Bingham-Mary Bingham Billings- Justus Billings- Amos Billings- Amelia Billings Starr- Emory Starr-Ernie Starr-Ken Starr-Dad, Me