In 1630, at age 45, John Hoskins took his son Thomas, and Anne took her son Walter and daughter Katherine and joined this mass migration. They sailed on the Mary and John from England on March 20, 1629/30. John and Anne had lost their spouses but found each other and were married either on board or shortly after landing in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

As first settlers, they endured tremendous hardship and overcame many challenges to establish a home in the new world. Unfortunately, would-be elitists and church rulers often migrated and tried to develop their own little empires in the new world. Such was the case at Dorchester. After six years of hardships, a group of settlers, including John and Anne Hoskins and their children, migrated to the Connecticut River Valley and founded the town of Windsor. Once again, they were the first settlers and faced many challenges.

They built a new life for themselves and their family, which had grown to five, including John's son Thomas, Anne's son and daughter Walter, and Katherine, and two children born to the couple while they were in Dorchester, a son, Anthony, and a daughter, Rebecca. Anthony is our direct ancestor.

Click on the icon on the left to read about the lives of Johm amd Anne Hoskins.

Anthony was born in the newly formed town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, about two years after his parents arrived there on the ship Mary and John as part of the founders of Massachusetts Bay Colony. When Anthony was only three or four years old, his parents moved their family to the central Connecticut River Valley to become founders of Windsor.

Anthony married Isabel Browne on July 16, 1656, in Windsor. Isabel was the mother of Jane Hoskins, the mother-in-law of Jeremy Alford, and the maternal grandmother of Jeremy and Jane's children, including Benedict Alford, our ancestor. They lived in Windsor for the rest of their lives, and Anthony became one of the wealthiest men in Windsor in his day.

There is controversy surrounding the parentage of Isabel Browne. Older genealogies state that she is the daughter of Peter Browne, who came to America on the Mayflower, and that she was born in Plymouth Colony. More recent research indicates that this is not true. The recent publication of the Bishop's Transcript of Cheshire, England, contains baptismal records for Peter Browne, son of Peter Browne, on February 5, 1632, in Tarvin, Cheshire, England, and Isabel Browne, daughter of Peter Browne, baptized on December 14, 1634, at the same location. These two are probably the brother and sister who first appear in the Windsor records in the mid-1650s. Peter became a Freemen on May 20, 1658.

Click on the icon on the left to read about the lives of Anthony Hoskins and Isabel Browne.