William Judson came from Yorkshire, England, in 1634, with his wife, Grace, and three sons, Joseph, Jeremiah, and Joshua. He first settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where a town act of February 5, 1636, refers to "Goodman Judson's lott." He lived in Concord for about four years and then appears to have been a original proprietor of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639. He lived on the southwest corner of Watch-house Hill. His "stone house" occupied a spot just to the west of the present (1939) Judson house, now the home of the Stratford Historical Society. In 1644 he and John Hurd are engaged as a committee from Stratford "who shall demand what every family will give" for the "mayntenance of scollers at Cambridge."
A few years later he removed to New Haven, where he "took the oath of Fidelity." March 7, 1647, he purchased a house and homelot. The next day he applied to the court to be "freed from watching, but the courte sawe no cause to grant it," and again in June, 1649, he renewed the request, "but nothing was done."
He gave to his son, Joseph, his house and homelot on Academy Hill, and to his sons Jeremiah and Joshua, homelots adjoining each other, on the west side of lower Main Street, with much other land in Stratford.
He became an owner in the iron works in East Haven and made his residence in New Haven, where he died. His will was dated September 20, 1661 (abstract printed in "Early Probate Records of New Haven," NEHGS "Register," Vol 81, pg. 127) and the inventory of his estate was taken 15 Dec. 1662, totaling 369 pounds, 16, 06. He died in New Haven, as did his first wife, in 1659. In the will he conveyed to sons Joseph and Jeremiah an "interest in iron works" and mentions wife Elizabeth and her daughters Hannah & Elizabeth Wilmot and indentured servant Peter Simson. |