Isaac Sheldon

A first settler of Northampton. Savage has him at Windsor about 1640: "in 1653 he m. Mary, d. of Thomas Woodford of Hartford, had Mary, b. 1654; rem. with his f.-in-law and sett. at Northampton a. 1655" (source). The children came steadily: Isaac, 4 Sept 1656; John, 5 Dec 1658; Thomas, 6 Aug 1661; the twins Ruth and Thankful, 27 Aug 1663; Mindwell, 24 Feb 1666; Joseph, 1 Feb 1668; Hannah, 29 June 1670; Eleazer, 4 Aug 1672, who died at six months; Samuel, 9 Nov 1675; Ebenezer, 1 Mar 1678; and Mercy, who died a few days old, 24 Feb 1682.

King Philip's War. The family lived at Northampton through the war; Samuel was born in its first autumn. The town was palisaded that winter, and on 14 Mar 1676, just before dawn, while Capt. William Turner's Massachusetts company and two Connecticut companies under Major Treat were quartered in the town, warriors broke through the palisade at the lower end of what is now Pleasant Street. Robert Bartlett, Thomas Holton, twelve-year-old Mary Earle and two of Turner's soldiers were killed, and five houses and five barns burned, the houses of Holton, Alvord, Alexander, Allen and Clesson. The Sheldons were very probably in the town that morning, and their house was spared (History of Northampton, 1:307-312; Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 235-236, 240). His son Joseph, then eight, grew up to serve as a Northampton soldier in the next war, King William's (Trumbull 1:575).

Mary died on 17 Apr 1684. Isaac married again in 1685 and had a son Jonathan in 1687. His daughter Hannah married in 1690 Samuel Chapin of Springfield, a son of Japhet Chapin. He died at Northampton on 27 July 1708, aged 79, "when twelve of his ch. were liv." (Savage).

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin; the war: King Philip's War: the Connecticut valley, the Colony of Connecticut, Long Island and New Paltz.

Open questions

• His parents and English origin.