Family-histories and genealogies : containing a series of ...

#fl5en=3Jo|inBxin
Their dates of birth are not known, but they first appear in the records in
I, 2, 3 the following order: John 1639, Robert 1641, Thomas 1647.
John^ Johnson consented to the Planters' Covenant June 4, 1639, and
signed the Agreement later in the same year. He built a house in New
Haven (from which we infer that he was married, and had a household) ;
" but his heart drew him," says Rev. Mr. Atwater, "to Rowley, and he
sold his house to his brother Robert." He " was one of the early Select-
men at Rowley, that title being used much earlier in Massachusetts than in
the New Haven Colony." On the 3* of November 1641, Robert Johnson
having made
" clame to the house and lott of his brother John Johnson, late planter of this
towne deceased, by vertue of a contract betwixt them, the Court haveing debated itt,
and nott findeing itt ripe for issue, itt was ordered thatt those thatt can give best light
about itt should ripen their app^hensions so as they may be able to make oath to
whatt they can testifie concerning itt, w"h may stand vpon record for posterity.""
The " ripening of apprehensions," here referred to, would seem to
have been a slow process; for, after several years had passed, in 1646,
Robert Johnson's right to the house and lot was still in question ; when
was testified that,
it
" When Jn° Johnson was p'paring to goe to the Bay, he told mee he had sould
his howse and accomodations belonging to it vnto his brother (viz") Robert Johnson,
for the 40/. he said I knew he received in Old England, vpon condicon that, if he
should see it his way to come back and live here, then he might have it, paying to his
brother the said 40/. and what chardges he should lay out about it, or, if h's brother
should sell it to come and live in the Bay, 40/. of the price he should keepe to him-
selfe, and pay the overplus to him, only deducting his chardges. But if the said John
should not returne, and the said Robert his brother should resolve to setle here, then
the said Robert Johnson should have it forever, for the said 40/. . . ." "
" Records of the Colony and Plantation of New Haven from 1638 to 1649.
Hoadly. . . . Hartford, 1857, p. 59.
'" Col. Records, ut supra, p. 272.
286
By Charles J.