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Birth:          Nov 1595 Isle of Thanet, Kent, England
Christening:    23 Nov 1595 St Peter, Isle of Thanet, Kent, England
Death:          Oct 1635 Newton, Middlesex Co., Mass.

Notes
Lawrence-Somers tree on ancestry
Left England 1 Dec 1630 on ship Lyon, with other Puritans (including Roger Williams, 
with whom he was a friend). Accompanied by wife and infant son. Reached Boston 5 
Feb 1631. Was one of original settlers of Newtown, Mass., renamed Cambridge.
findagrave came from St John Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent
died between 5 and 10 Oct
http://www.sackettfamily.info/g1/p1306.htm
 Simon and Isabel emigrated from Thanet, Kent, to Boston, Massachusetts, between 
1630 and 1631.8 They were amongst the first settlers of Newtown, sometime before 
1632, and remained there until Simon's death just a few years later in 1635. On 5 
August 1633, Simon was granted half an acre for a cowyard in Cambridge.9 On 20 
August 1635, he was also granted a one-acre share of meadow land.10 Administration 
of Simon's estate was granted by the General Court to his widow Isabel on 3 
November 1635.11 
     After Simon's death, Isabel removed with her young sons Simon and John to 
Hartford, Connecticut, travelling with the hundred-strong Hooker congregation. There 
she married, as his second wife, William Bloomfield. 
Despite a short life—he had probably not reached forty when he died in 1635—Simon 
Sackett the colonist enjoys a pivotal position in the history of the Sacketts, being 
regarded as the progenitor of a major part of the American branch of the family. 
     Early migrants from England to the New World had various motivations for seeking 
a new life in a virtually unknown country and for undertaking the hazardous journey. 
Many fled religious persecution, but others removed in hopes of a better, more 
prosperous future. England had entered on a half-century of chronic trade depression. 
Propagandists for the Massachusetts Bay Company, which had been founded in 1629, 
were active in the recruitment of settlers. And there was the promise of boundless 
fertile lands. Some were escapees from threatening plague or famine. Survival in the 
new land would depend crucially upon the application of essential practical skills; 
thus, many were farmers or were engaged in allied trades. Well-placed migrants took 
with them their servants and these, too, were to become founding fathers of America.
     Simon's reasons for embarking on his American adventure are not known. Nor do 
we know his occupation. Given the documentation of the time, it would seem likely 
that, had Simon emigrated for reasons of religious conviction, there would remain 
recorded evidence of the fact. But it is dangerous to speculate as to his reasons; it is 
to be hoped that further information will come to light. It is worth, however, 
considering Simon's family circumstances at the time.
     Simon Sackett was born, probably in November 1595 (he was baptised on 23 
November 1595), in the small rural parish of St Peter in the Isle of Thanet on the 
north-east coast of Kent. He was the sixth of nine children, and third of five sons, 
born to Thomas Sackett and his wife, Martha (nee Strowde). Simon's father, Thomas, 
who had died when Simon was 20, was a yeoman farmer in Birchington, a parish some 
five miles west of St Peter. Thomas had evidently established a farm at Birchington 
some time after the birth of his youngest child, Elizabeth, in 1604.
     The description of Thomas, in his will made in 1615, as a 'yeoman' implies that he 
owned at least some of his land. However, the term does not necessarily imply 
significant wealth and it is clear from his will that his house and land at St Peter's 
were mortgaged and that his house and land at Birchington were rented. His will 
directed that the St Peter's property be sold to pay his debts and legacies. Thomas 
had inherited lands and a tenement at St Peter's from his father, also Thomas. Thomas 
the elder, although possessed of property, described himself in his will as a 'labourer'; 
again, that will does not suggest significant wealth.
     Simon was about 35 years old when he made his fateful decision to emigrate. Two 
of his brothers had died, older brother Thomas some eleven years earlier, and younger 
brother William about fifteen years earlier. Although there is no direct confirmatory 
evidence, it is possible that they were victims of plague or other epidemic which 
occurred frequently in Birchington in the early part of the 17th century13. His eldest 
brother John and youngest brother Henry survived and, although it had not been 
specified in their father's will, it would seem possible that John continued to farm the 
family lands in Birchington.
     Simon had by then been married twice; first in 1618 to Elizabeth Boyman, and 
following her death in 1625/26, secondly to Isabel Pearce in 1627. Elizabeth had 
borne him three daughters, Christianna in 1620, Elizabeth in 1623, and Martha in 
1625. Of these, only Christianna is known to have survived to adulthood, marrying 
Thomas Tanner in 1641. No death or burial records for Elizabeth or Martha have been 
found but it is reasonable to assume that they died in infancy or childhood, perhaps 
the victims of plague. In any event, when he emigrated, Simon left at least one young, 
motherless, daughter behind, presumably in the care of one of his brothers or sisters.
     Although Weygant gives specific details of the dates and method of Simon's 
journey to Boston, Massachusetts, on the Lyon from Bristol on England's west coast, it 
has not yet proved possible to verify from primary sources that he was a passenger on 
this particular voyage.14,15 Weygant's version is probable but is known to be 
inaccurate in the important particular of Simon's origin, Weygant stating this to be the 
Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire instead of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Other writers have 
proposed various dates for Simon's migration (Riker, "about the year 1628 or '29"; 
Savage and Anderson, 1632). The earlier dates would seem less likely as there were 
relatively few settlers before the sailing of the Winthrop fleet of eleven ships in 1630. 
If Simon was indeed on this Lyon voyage then he would certainly have met John 
Winthrop as the latter boarded the ship on 8 February 1631 as it rode at anchor off 
Long Island.16
     Weygant records Simon as being engaged, with others, in building dwellings in 
Newtown, Mass., in 1631. Confirmation of this date would be of help in determining 
Simon's date of migration. Although it is likely that Simon was there in 1631, it has not 
been possible to confirm this. The first record of Simon found in Newtown (Cambridge) 
is in the undated list (almost certainly of 1632) in the Cambridge Town Records. The 
Cambridge Historical Commission have placed a plaque in Winthrop Park stating that 
Dudley, Bradstreet, Lockwood, Poole, Patrick, Spencer, Kirman, and Sackett had 
completed and occupied houses in Newtown by 26 July 1631. However, study of the 
Commission's source (Lucius Paige's History of Cambridge) suggests that this rather 
stretches the evidence. It would perhaps be more accurate to say that Dudley and 
Bradstreet had built houses in Newtown by 1631 and it is likely that the others had 
also done so.17
     Weygant relates the family tradition as told to him by his father-in-law, Samuel 
Bailey Sackett, that Simon with his brother, John, travelled on the Lyon in company 
with Roger Williams. The existence of this brother has since been challenged (by 
Anderson) and our further researches have revealed that Weygant's primary evidence 
in support of the family tradition, that John Sackett, Simon's alleged brother, filed an 
inventory of his own son's estate (in 1684) was mistaken. With the removal of Simon's 
brother, John, the question is opened of the relationship between Simon and John of 
New Haven (claimed by Weygant to have been the son of Simon's brother)—and, 
indeed, the migration of this John Sackett. 





Parents
SACKETT Thomas (ABT 1557 - Nov 1615)
STROWDE Martha ()

Siblings
SACKETT Simon (Nov 1595 - Oct 1635)

Marriage To PEARCE Isabel (1610 - 1663)
    m. 6 Aug 1627 St John the Baptist, Margate, Isle of Thanet, Kent Co., England

Notes


Children by PEARCE Isabel 1610 - 1663
SACKETT Simon (1630 - 9 Jul 1659)

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