Robert Seabrook

One of the earliest settlers of Stratford, Connecticut, and the father of Emma (Seabrook) Fairchild, Thomas Fairchild's first wife (source). He is known almost wholly through his grandchildren's land. His grandson Samuel Fairchild had land "received by gift from his grandfather Seabrook" (source); he "gave to his grandson Jehiel Preston half of his home lot in Stratford"; and John Wheeler, who married a Sherwood granddaughter, "says, in a deed, he had sold the land that came to his wife from her grandfather Seabrook" (Orcutt).

His daughters, as Orcutt and Jacobus give them: Mary, who married William Preston of New Haven and then Thomas Kimberly; Emma, who married Thomas Fairchild; and Alice (or Sarah), who married Thomas Sherwood.

His English origin is not proven. A Robert Seabrooke was baptized at Tring, Hertfordshire, on 11 January 1572/3 and married Alice Goodspeede at Wingrave, Buckinghamshire, on 12 September 1596; their children were baptized at Tring from 1599 to 1608 (Gilmore). The American Genealogist (50:95-96) notes that if he is the Stratford man, he must have had a second wife, mother of the younger daughters, as neither Emma nor Faith is in the Tring register. Possible only.

The family's descent from him rests on the identification of Jonathan Fairchild of East Jewett with Jonathan, born at Norwalk in 1744, which is only possible (see Jonathan Fairchild).

Research: Notable connections of Frances Fairchild Holbrook: the Fairchild branch and the families that married in.

Open questions

• His origin, his wife or wives, and when he came to Stratford.