Henry CHAMPION (1611 – 1709) was Alex’s 10th Great Grandfather; one of 2,048  in this generation of the Miner line.

Immigrant Ancestor – Champion Coat of Arms

Henry Champion was born about 1611 in Norwich, Norfolk, England.  His birthdate is estimated based on the story that he was 98 when he died. His parents were Henry CHAMPION and Mary RAMSEY. He  immigrated before 1647 and became a freeman on 12 May 1670 in Lyme, Connecticut Colony.  He married Sarah [Bennett?] on 1 Aug 1647 in Lyme, Saybrook Colony, now New London County, Connecticut.  He married his second wife  Deborah Palmer Jones on 21 Mar 1697/98 in Lyme, Connecticut Colony.  Henry died on 17 Feb 1708/09 in Lyme, Connecticut Colony.

Henry was a founder of Lyme CT.   Connecticut River Old Lyme

Sarah [Bennett?] was born in 1626 in England.  Sarah died in 1697 in Saybrook, CT.

Deborah Palmer was born 5 Feb 1643 in Wethersfield, Hartford, CT. Her parents were Henry Palmer and Katherine  [__?__]. She first married Lewis Jones 4 Dec 1660 in Wethersfield, CT. She next married Samuel Burnwell in 1685 in Milford, New Haven, CT and finally married Henry Champion 21 Mar 1697/98. She was evidently very shrewd, as she induced the old man to make a very good marriage settlement on her and finally involved him in a lawsuit with the widow of his eldest son, who maintained a strong fight for her rights in the property of her husband.  Deborah died Oct 1727 in Saybrook, Middlesex, CT.

Children of Henry and Sarah:

Henry Champion  came to the American colonies and settled at Saybrook, CT as early as 1657.   His land is described in the records of 1660, when they were first kept. Before 1660 he had sold his lot on the town plot to Jonathan Rugg. He removed, with his family, to the east side of the Connecticut river, and became one of the most active founders of Lyme, being propounded a freeman May 12, 1670. The records of that town were begun in 1674, and on June 18, 1674, a record of his land is made; he owned several lots at this time.

The portion of the territory of the Saybrook Colony east of the Connecticut River was set off as the plantation of East Saybrook in Feb 1665. This area included present-day Lyme, Old Lyme, and the western part of East Lyme. In 1667, the Connecticut General Court formally recognized the East Saybrook plantation as the town of Lyme now Old Lyme. Lyme disease was first discovered in the town in 1975.

Old Lyme, New London, CT

Henry lived in the house which he had built on the hill just east of the meeting-house, near the old burying-ground, and he very likely was a farmer as the rest of the settlers were. His ear-mark was recorded March 24, 1673/74. In Mar 12, 1671, representatives of the town of New London entered a complain against Henry Champion and several of his fellow townsmen in the court at Hartford. The trouble between the town was a strip of land between Birde Brook and Niantic river, including Black Point in Lyme, which both towns claimed by virtue of previous grants. New London was fined nine pounds and Lyme five pounds, and these fines were afterwards remitted.

His name occurs frequently in the records as a grantor or grantee of land. He was a witness of the will of Tobiah Colls, of Saybrook, Sep 2, 1664, and was a beneficiary in it, as were the other two witnesses.

When Sir Edmund Andros received the government of Connecticut in Oct 1687, he ordered an inventory to be taken, Aug 27, 1688, and Henry Champion’s property was valued at 37 pounds. At this time he had given much of his property to his sons. Nov 12, 1706, there is a deed of gift to his grandson Henry, eldest son of Henry, his son, in which he gives part of his home lot on Meeting House Hill, and “said Henry was not to put any tenant on this tract during the liftime of his grandfather or his wife Deborah,” who signed the deed of consent “as per marriage agreement.”

His wife was probably a sister or daughter of one of the early settlers of Saybrook. His second wife  Deborah was evidently very shrewd, as she induced the old man to make a very good marriage settlement on her and finally involved him in a lawsuit with the widow of his eldest son, who maintained a strong fight for her rights in the property of her husband.

Children

1. Sarah CHAMPION (See Henry BENNETT‘s page)

2. Mary Champion

Mary husband Aaron Huntley was born 15 Apr 1654 in Boston, Suffolk, Mass. His parents were John Huntley and Jane Curtis. Aaron died 24 May 1745 in Lyme, New London, CT.

4. Henry Champion

Henry’s first wife Deborah Crane was born 1660 in Lyme, New London, CT. Deborah died before 1684 when Henry remarried.

Henry’s second wife Susanna DeWolf was born 22 Dec 1664 in Lyme, New London, CT. Her parents were Balthazar DeWolf and Alice Peck. Susanna died Jul 1704 in Lyme, New London, CT.

Henry Champion Jr. Husband of Sussana De Wolf. Their children are Joshua, Henry, Susanna, Samuel, Alice, Henry, Rachael, Abigail, Stephen and Mary.

Alice may have been the daughter of William Peck who owned land in East Saybrook.  There doesn’t seem to be a connection to our Rehoboth Pecks Rev. Robert PECK and Joseph PECK. He is not connected to the Van Peeks. According to Savage he was a London merchant. There were lots of William Pecks, but this one had a son Jeremiah who was perhaps born in London, and 3 children born in the colonies. Since there are more than 10 years between Jeremiah’s birth and the ones born here there is lots of room to add Alice. Jeremiah was born in 1623, so perhaps Alice was born about 1625. There is no marriage record of Bal and Alice. There is no birth record of Alice. Alice could not be in her father’s will for she had already died, and she already had received her dower.

Bal sold part of her dower to her brother Jeremiah Peck, who was the minister in Saybrook for a short time, and her brother Joseph, who owned the property adjacent to the De Wolfs, witnessed the deed. Virgil tells us that the Huntleys lived on one side of Bal and Alice, who lived on the other side?

I decided that Alice was Bal’s wife because her property showed that her father owned land in Saybrook, yet no Saybrook proprietor had a daughter Alice. The answer is simple. When most of Saybrook moved to Norwich, a lot of land was purchased by outsiders, including William Peck. The deeds show he owned land on the east side at Brides Plaine and the Cove. He gave some of his land outside the fort and a hundred and fifty pound right at Saybrook to Alice as her dower. When Jeremiah Peck resigned, the de Wolfs returned to Saybrook from Wethersfield. Jeremiah sold one lot to his neighbor, one of the Lord family. After he left, Joseph and the De Wolfs were in possession of a hundred and fifty pound right. This was about the time the Love Parting created Lyme, so there were no record keepers yet in Lyme.

The fact that Joseph owned a fifty pound right and a lot on Lyme Rd. shows up in his first deed giving him a new land, and Baltazar is recorded in the grant book with a hundred pound right. However at the first division of the commons, he was only given land for a fifty pound right “in his wife’s right.” It appears that Alice and Bal each controled a fifty pound right. This can be proven by the fact that he was given only a ten acre lot in each division. If he had a hundred pound right, he would have gotten twenty acres each time. He sold his land from the first three divisions of the commons to Henry Champion, but Alice seems to have taken her share at Duck River. The De Wolf lots were never surveyed until Alice gave her original lot to her son Edward, adjoining the lot of Joseph.

Henry Champion Jr – Headstone  Burial: Duck River Cemetery Old Lyme New London County Connecticut,

5. Thomas Champion

Thomas’s wife Hannah Brockway was born 14 Sep 1664 in Lyme, New London, CT. Her parents were Wolston Brockway and Hannah Briggs. After Thomas died, she married 21 Jun 1709 in Lyme, New London, CT to John Wade (b. 1663 in Lyme – d. 24 Mar 1728 in Lyme). Hannah died 2 Mar 1750 in Lyme, New London, CT.

7. Rachel Champion

Rachel’s huband John Tanner was born 1651 in Middlesex, CT.   John died in 1720 in East Haddam, Middlesex, CT.

Sources:

http://www.gulbangi.com/5families-o/p16.htm#i400

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hubbard/NNY_index/champion.html

http://genforum.genealogy.com/dewolf/messages/671.html

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/13935922/person/34358616