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

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count of generations shows that he must have been born about 1590, and
could not, therefore, well have been the father of a son born, as our
Edward was, in 1607, but must have been of the same generation with
our Edward, Matthew and Thomas.
The George baptized at Solihull in 1548 doubtless came of some
younger branch of the family, and (supposing him the father of our three
brothers) probably lived in Kenilworth, whence his two elder sons
emigrated to America in 1639, when he was, in all probability, already
dead ;
for, if alive in 1639, he would have reached the age of ninety-one
years. At the birth of Thomas, not earlier than 162 1, he must have been
about seventy-three years old.
This identification seems so probable that, for the present, until it shall
be refuted, we rest upon it ; and
we assume also, as probable, from circum-
stances to be referred to presently, that he was of the " gentle " Solihull
family. We are unable, however, to give the particular steps of descent
of the George Greswold baptized in 1548, because the Parish- Register tells
us nothing of his parentage. It is important to add that the Parish-
Register of Kenilworth prior to 1630 was destroyed under Cromwell,
and that the name of Griswold or Greswold does not occur in it after
1651.
As has been noticed, our Griswold family possessed lands in fee in
England, both before and after the emigration of Edward and Matthew.
We can only wonder at the enterprise, courage and energy of these early
pioneers. Matthew Griswold, at the early age of nineteen years, came
with his brother Edward to Windsor, among its earliest settlers ; then
struck out from there to find a new home in Saybrook ;
then, as if that
spot had become too narrow, crossed the "Great River," and made his
final settlement as the first man who took up land in Lyme. Perhaps this
may have been partly due to the English passion for landed possessions
also, perhaps, to a hereditary longing which could be fully gratified only
by first occupation.
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