Deborah Stowers

     Deborah was born on Saturday, 1 May 1593 in Upwey Parish, Dorchester, Dorchestershire, England.¹ On 5 June 1593, she was christened in Upwey Parish, Dorchester, Dorchestershire, England. Deborah married Simon Hoyt, son of John Hoyt and Ruth (?), on 12 December 1612 in Upwey Parish, Dorchester, Dorchestershire, England. In 1628, Simon immigrated from Salisbury, Wiltshire, England to Salem but within the year had moved on to Charlestown,Massachusetts as one of its first settlers. Simon again moved, staying at Charlestown for only a year or two, before becoming one of the first settlers of Dorchester, Mass. From here he moved on to Situate, Mass. where there is a record of "Goodman Haites house" between September 1634 and October 1636. Three years later in 1639, Simon left Situate for Windsor, Conn. and by 1649 he had gone to Fairfield, Conn. Before his death, he moved to Stamford, Conn. Here a document is recorded as to the agreement in the distribution of his estate. Simon was a member of the Society of Friends or the "Quakers".
The chronicles of the time give us some idea of the hardships endured by thefirst settlers of Charlestown and Dorchester - they suffered many hardships; the conspiracy of the Indians to put off the English, whenever one was working to build the fort, and perils of pestilence and famine, when they were compelled to live on clams, muscles, and fish. Simon experienced this seven times as he moved from one settlement to another, and at very least he was one of the first white men at each of these locations. On 20 June 1628, Deborah & her husband, Simon, left from Weymouth, England aboard the ship, "Abigail", |They were accompanied by the Stowers, Spragues & the to be govenor of Massachustts Bay Colony, John Endicott. They arrived at Naumkeag [now Salem, Massachusetts] in September of 1628.² Deborah departed this life before 2 April 1635 in Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts.