The Goodhue Family - William Goodhue

The following typewritten manuscript is from my grandmother's binder on the Goodhue family. At the end of the document there is a handwritten note that says: "written by Ellen Brooks Goodhue (Mrs Henry Van Kleeck)". There is no date on the document. This will be split into several posts.

THE GOODHUE FAMILY

William Goodhue

     William Goodhue, the first settler of the name, who emigrated in 1635, is supposed to have come from Kent in England, because the name is not found elsewhere, and because his wife, Margery Watson, was from that county. The name in England is spelled Goodhugh and Goodhew, which last method is the way it is spelled on the grave of  the 2d William Goodhue in Essex, formerly called Chebacco, a part of the town of Ipswich, Mass. A mile from Seale Church in Kent is an ancient country seat called Stonepit, at one time owned by Goodhughs as was the nearby Manor of Spellhurst, and County Hill near Deptford, Kent. These country seats have passed to descendants of the Goodhughs in the female line, but none of the name were found there when visited by Mr. Jonathan Goodhue of New York in the year 1830. The house occupied in Ipswich by Rev. T. Frank Waters, Minister of the South Congregational Church, and president of the Ipswich Historical Society, was built on the site of the house built by William Goodhue the first settler, about 1639. The surrounding land, nine acres, had been bought by his wife's father--Watson, who remained in England. This was in the South village. Adjoining was the house and land of Rev. Nathaniel Ward, "The Sweet Singer of Agawam." William Goodhue was deacon and a man of importance in the community as shown by the fact of his being Deputy to the General Court in the years 1667-73-76-66-80-83. The last years of his life were spent with his son William at Chebacco, now Essex, after he had given up his Ipswich home and  farm to his eldest son Joseph. See Goodhue History [History and Genealogy of the Goodhue Family in England and America to the Year 1890, compiled by Rev. Jonathan E. Goodhue, A.M., published by E.R. Andrews, Rochester, NY, 1891] for further data. Dates of service have been verified by W. K. Watkins, Genealogist, 18 Somerset St., Boston.

© 2011, copyright William C. Haskell