Thomas Hayward

  General Notes:

"Thomas HAYWARD, tailor, of Aylesford, England, with wife Susannah and 5 children came in the Hercules in March 1634. Settled at Cambridge;
proprietor 1635-6. Rem. to Duxbury, propr. and purchased 5 Nov 1638. In court 1644. From. 1 Jun 1647. Rem. to Bridgewater. Will dated 29 Jun 1678;
yeoman, Sen.; beq. to sons Elisha and Joseph and gr. ch. Joseph." ( Pope, Pioneers of Massachusetts, p. 224)

Thomas Hayward came from England in the same vessel with John Ames and settled in Duxbury before 1638: was an original proprietor, and among the
earliest and eldest of the settlers of Bridgewater; he d. 1781: his will dated 1678: no wife living." (Mitchell, Hist. of Bridgewater, MA p 176.) The LDS
ancestral file indicates that he m. Susannah, daughter of William Towne but there is a question of any evidence that Susannah Towne was ever in New
England. Walter Goodwin Davis has stated that Susannah Towne died without issue.

Thomas Hayward, a Kentish tailor, eventually settled in the new town of Bridgewater, where he became an original proprietor and began to call himself
a yeoman ....

Thomas Hayward of Bridgewater possessed (and presumably studied) "Mr. Sheppards book upon the parable of the ten virgins & Mr. Sheppard upon
the sincere Convert, Mr. Ralph Allen of the riches of the covenant of grace, also his victory over the world: & doctor pressons of gods alsufficiency &
severall other sermons Annexed there unto & Mr. Dod upon the Commandements & Mr Coopers book of Jacobs wrestling with God[,] Mr. Byfield his
marrow & his principles," along with a bible and "some other smale books" -- an impressive library indeed for a farmer of modest means.

Thomas married Susanna Towne about 1622 in Ayelsford Co, Kent, England. (Susanna Towne was born about 1601 in England and died in 1678 in Massaschusetts.)