All per Ancestry File - NOT VERIFIED

Other children: Joseph, William, Elizabeth, John, and Walter

Fairfield County Hsit Soci

William b, exeter Eng 1585 Dorchester 1630 Windsor 1636 died 1673
Lester Card collection



From the History and Pedigrees of the House of Gaillard or
Gaylord (Page 15):

William Gaylord (supposed a native of Exeter, in the county of
Devonshire, England) emigrated to New England with his brother, John
Gaylord, in the spring of
1630. he was of a good family and good estate. He came over in
the ship Mary + John, arriving at Nantucket, Boston Bay, May 30,
1630, and was made freeman
Oct. 19th, following. he was chosen a Deacon of the gathering
at Plymouth, Devonshire county, England, March 1630, when the church
was organized, under
Rev. John Maverick and rev. John Warham, who also came with
the company in the Mary + John, and were the pioneers in the
settlement of the new town of
Dorchester.

Deacon William Gaylord signed the first land grants in
Dorchester, and his own grant was recorded there in 1633. Was
Selectman and representative to the
General Court, 1635-6-8, when he removed to Windsor, Conn.,
with Warham's company, which town he represented near forty sessions
(to 1664) in the
General Assembly; and died at Windsor, July 20, 1673.

The name of his wife is not known, she may have deceased
before he left England, as his children were then nearly of an adult
age.

John Gaylord, brother of the above William, also settled in
Dorchester where he resided in 1632, and was one of two to meet the
Court of Assistants relating to
the system of representation. "Whether he died soon or
returned to England, is unknown."

I have been at very considerable pains to trace the history of
Mr. John Gaylord from this point down, but with little success; the
records at Dorchester are
silent on the subject, nor have I found any proof of his
return to England - my belief, however, is that he did return. Mr
reasons for so thinking I will state as
concisely as possible.

1st. Had he died here, there is every reason to believe there
would have been some mention of the circumstance. There is a pretty
full record of his brother
William. Why should there not also have been as full a record
of John, had he remained?

2nd. In Dr. Stiles' History (Supplement, page 14) a widow
Gaylord is mentioned who devised moneys and twenty acres of meadow
land to the Church at Windsor
forever, on certain conditions, which was the beginning of a
Church Fund in that place, after which she returned to her home at
Tiverton, in the County of
Devon, England, and their died.

3rd. Among the oldest members of the family in Devonshire, I
have found a report current that some of their ancestors went to
America in the early time, but
returned again, on account of the inclemency of the cold
during the New England winters. My impression is, that the widow last
mentioned, and John, were the
parties who thus returned.

The winters in Devonshire are usually quite mild, and not
unlike those of their native "sunny France." Both the widow and Mr.
John Gaylord were evidently
persons in good circumstance, and, having the means, would
naturally desire to end their days in a more genial climate, and
preferred their old home, with its
conveniences and comforts, to the hardships of a pioneer life.


I would further suggest here, which seems to me as not an
improbable conjecture, vis., that he did return, and is probably the
principal progenitor of those
bearing the name in the west of England at this day. If he
returned for the reasons before given, it is more than likely that he
would have settle near his old home.
Wincanton being but a few miles from Exeter, I think it very
probable that he was either the father or grandfather of the William
who was at Sedgmoor in 1685.
One or two other circumstances tend to confirm this belief -
the strong resemblance, or family likeness, which I find existing
between the families in Old and
New England, and their similarity of names. William and John
have been the two principal names in use in the male line among the
Gaillards of Devonshire
down to the present time.
________________________________


William Gaylord (supposedly a native of Execter, in the county of
Devonshire, England) is said to have emigrated to New England with
his brother, John
Gaylord, in the Spring of 1630. It is thought he came over on the
ship "Mary and John," which arrived at Nantasket, near Dorchester
Neck, Boston Bay,
Massachusetts, 30 May 1630. Mr. Burton Spear of "The Mary & John
Clearing House" has a series of books titled "Search for the
Passengers of the Mary
& John, 1630." In Volume 1 he has detailed a synthetic passenger list
from various sources and why they were or were not a passenger on the
Mary &
John. As to John Gaylord, nothing has been found as to whether he
died shortly after arriving or went directly back to England.

Present evidence indicates that the parents and wives of William are
still unknown. Exactly where William was from and where he was prior
to coming to
New England is still unknown. John I Coddington in "Clues to the
English Home of William Gaylord, of Dorchester, MA., and Windsor,
CT." in The
American Genealogist, Volume 17, said William was in Crewkerne at
least from 1619 through 1624, as three of his sons were baptized
there (Samuel, John
and Joseph). Where he was prior to 1619 and after 1624 is still a
puzzle.

Mr. Coddington says that the will of Joan Patten showed a definite
connection of William to Crewkerne. Joan was buried at Crewkerne 29
April 1634, and
made bequests to everyone of her brothers, to her sister Sarah and
the latter's children, to her sister Elizabeth and her sister Marie,
and "to William Gaylard
in New England, 5 (pounds), to be bestowed for him as my executor
shall think fit." The will did not show the relationship between Joan
and William.

Some researchers think William, the emigrant, was the one who married
Jone Ashwood 11 June 1610. Mr. Coddington believes it is nevertheless
impossible to tell whether this record refers to this William or not.
There are sources that state that William married second a Sarah or
Mary Walters after
Jone died 20 June 1657 in Windsor, CT. One researcher said that this
Mary was an incorrect reading of the gravestone, that this was the
wife of Walter
Gaylord.
http://home.att.net/~bcwood/
____________________________

There's no proof that William Gaylord was ever married to anybody
named Mary Walter or Walters. There were two articles published in
the 1980s,
both called "The Wives of William1 and Walter2 Gaylord of Dorchester
MA and Windsor CT." The second of these articles has the subtitle "A
Reprise."
The first was by Michel L. Call and the second was by Robert Charles
Anderson. They were published in The American Genealogist (TAG).
The article by Call was in Vol. 60, 1984, pp. 213-4. He says that
somebody misread a note that should have read "Mary, Walter's first
wife [died]
1657." Instead they thought it read "Mary Walters, first wife [died]
1657." Those commas and apostrophes are important. The article by
Anderson was
in Vol. 61, 1985-6, pp. 95-6. In this article he corrects one
assumption by Call concerning the fact that William's wife and
Walter's wife died only nine
days apart. Also, Anderson did not name a wife for William in The
Great Migration Begins, for which he dredged up all available records
to come up
with authoritative information.