Thomas Fairchild

One of the first settlers of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1638/9, and a merchant: the Colony Records call him “Thomas Fairchild, of Stratford, merchant.” “He was a Deputy from Stratford to the General Court and served eleven sessions from Apr 1646 to Oct 1665,” and more than once a commissioner, an office like a justice of the peace (source); in October 1654, for instance, “Tho: Fairechild” sat among the deputies (source). His first wife was a daughter of Robert Seabrook, an early settler of Stratford; their son Samuel, born on 31 August 1640, was “Probably the first white child born in Stratford” (source).

After her death he went back to London to marry again. “A copy of the marriage contract between Thomas Fairchild, of Stratford, merchant, and Katherine Cragg, a sister of Elizabeth Whiting, widow, of London, (executed in England, 22d Dec. 1662,) is in Priv. Controv. Vol. I. Doc. 20. Mr. Fairchild binds himself to convey to the said Katherine, a life estate in his lands at Stratford, or, in case of his death before his arrival in N. England, to cause to be paid to the said Katherine, the sum of £200.” He died at Stratford on 14 December 1670, aged 60. His will, made a week before, named the children of his first wife and his wife Katherine but not her children (source). In May 1673 the General Court, on “the petition of Mrs. Katheren Fayrechild,” found “a non-performance of the sayd condition obliged, nor any prouision made by will or otherwise for three children of the sayd Thomas and Katherin Fayrechild,” and allowed her the £200 “as just debt to be payd out of the estate,” expecting that she “will secure meet portions out of the same to the sayd three children, as shee may be able”; the inventory came to £160 10s (source). She married Jeremiah Judson in 1675.

His children by his first wife, born at Stratford: Samuel, 31 August 1640; Sarah, 19 February 1641/2, who married her cousin Jehiel Preston; John, 1 May 1644, who died young; Thomas, 21 February 1645, of Woodbury; Dinah, 14 July 1648; Zechariah, 14 December 1651; and Emma, October 1653, who married Hackaliah Preston. By Katherine: Joseph, 1664; John, 1666; and Priscilla, 1669 (source).

Where he came from is not known. Banks’s “perhaps from High Laver,” in Essex, could not be verified by Gilmore, who leaned towards Cambridgeshire; none of it is proven.

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: research/mcmillan/Fairchild_Raymond_Woodworth.md.

Open questions

• His English origin and birth (about 1610, by his age at death).