Gardiner, Lion (1599–1663), military engineer and colonist, was born in England. His birthplace and parentage are uncertain. He served in the English army and went to the Netherlands, where he became a “Master of Works of Fortification” in the armies of the prince of Orange. In 1625 he married a Dutch woman, Mary Wilemson (or Duereant) of Woerden, Holland. They eventually had three children, of whom David Gardiner (born in 1636) was the first white child born in Connecticut, and Elizabeth (born in 1641) was the first English child born in New Netherland (present-day New York State). In 1635 Gardiner made contact with ...
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Gardiner, Lion (1599-1663), military engineer and colonist
Samuel Willard Crompton
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Willard, Simon (1605-1676), soldier
Mary Rhinelander McCarl
Willard, Simon ( April 1605–24 April 1676), soldier, was baptized at Horsmonden, Kent, England, on 7 April 1605, the son of Richard Willard, a yeoman, and Margery (maiden name unknown). His father, who died in 1616, stipulated in his will that Simon should be apprenticed to learn a trade or business, but there are no records of Simon having done this. He must have had military training in England, for he was chosen in Massachusetts to drill the militia. Nor is there reliable information regarding his first marriage, said to have been to a Mary Sharpe, also of Horsmonden. He married twice in America. His second brief marriage, about 1650, was probably to Elizabeth Dunster, sister of the first president of Harvard College. His third marriage, about 1652, was to Mary Dunster, a relation of Elizabeth’s. He had seventeen children....
