Henry TREFETHEN (of New Castle, New Hampshire) 0001
(born around 1640; died about 1698 or 1699)
Married to Joanna (Foster?)2001
Biography:
He is the ‘original’ American TREFETHEN, probably immigrating from Cornwall, England and was in New Hampshire by 1687. Settled in New Castle, New Hampshire.
A Shipwright
June 7, 1679, he was a juryman at the inquest of the Death of Antipas Maverick, whose body was found on Fernald’s Island. Antipas was seen earlier paddling off in his canoe, quite drunk.
Joanna: (around 1645 - around 1722)[Source 147] daughter of William[Source 39]. Only 1 vague Source has her as a “Foster” (so beware!)
PARENTS: POSSIBLY (but don’t hold your breath!) Walter & Margarita (Foster) of Cornwall, Wales[pure speculation for now by Source 63 via 147]
Possibly he died in New Castle, New Hampshire
His death date is deduced by the fact that he vanishes from the tax lists in ‘99.[Source 147]
Joanna Foster was born reportedly about 1645 in New Castle, New Hampshire. Identification of her parents is pending further research.
Joanna married Henry Trefethen about 1670. They had at least three children including: Elizabeth born 1670, married George Trundy; Foster, born 1672, married Martha Paine; and Henry Jr. born about 1678, married Mary Robinson. A fourth child, George, may have died young.
Joanna was still living in New Castle in 1708 and in possession of land “by Penhallow” that she granted to son Henry Jr. This transaction and Joanna’s possession of land infer that her husband, Henry Sr., had passed away in or before 1708 likely in New Castle. Joanna passed away after 1708 in New Castle, New Hampshire.
Foster-7831 (WikiTree.com) was originally created by Joan Kelly through the import of Kelly McCrea Borgquist Fryer 2.ged on Sep 18, 2014.
Source American Trevathan Family reads:
The first colony settled by a Trevethan was New Hampshire on the north east coast of America. A number of explorers visited the New Hampshire area in the early 1600’s but it was not until 1620 that Edward Hilton settled at what is today called Dover. Times were not happy with French and Indian wars off and on over a long period of time up until 1763. New Hampshire was as you would expect a rural society with the settlers busy building homes and tending their crops. The first Trevethan to arrive in New Hampshire was Henry Trefethen.
Henry Trevethan , who was a shipwright was living in New Castle, New Hampshire on the east coast of America as early as 1678 and is the first of that name on the records in the Colonies.
The New World of America had only been started to be explored by the English and French from about 1500 but it was not until after 1607 that they started to establish permanent settlements there. They established thirteen colonies on the east coast one of which was New Hampshire the colony that Henry Trefethan was to establish himself. Although it is not known when Henry immigrated to America it can be seen that he was one of the very early arrivals.
During the period from 1678 to 1699 his name appears on records as an appraiser and witness of wills and he also served on the Grand Jury.
Henry was married to Joanna, whose family name is not known, and they had two children named Henry and Foster. Henry junior later married Mary Robinson and they lived in Rye, New Hampshire while Foster, who perhaps was given his mothers family name, married Martha Paine, the daughter of James and Martha Paine. Foster and Martha lived around the New Castle area and later at Monhegan Island, House Island and Peaks Island. Foster was a ship’s carpenter.
Interestingly the spelling of the name of this family changed at some time to Trefethen a spelling I have not seen before and on one document concerning this family the name was even spelt as Triferinge surely the strangest spelling on record.
The interesting history of this family can be read in a small book written by Jessie Trefethen ca. 1959 called “Trefethen The Family and The Landing” which I am lucky enough to have a copy of. You can also read this book by clicking on the link in the sources list, below.
Libby, Charles Thornton. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. Portland, ME, USA: The Southward Press, 1928, pp. 690 & 695. [Repository: Ancestry.com. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire (database on-line, frame #709 of 809). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.] (vital data)