ORIGIN OF THE WOODRUFF NAME

Woodreeve. In the Saxon period in England, a “reeve” represented the lord of a district, whether township or hundred, at the folkmote (meeting or assembly) of the county. Within his district he levied his lord’s dues, and performed some of his judicial functions. A “wood-reeve” was presumably reeve for his lord’s woodlands. Sometimes written: Woodrove, Woodroffe, Woodroufe, Woderofe, Woodrofe, Woodrufe, Woodruffe, Woodruff, Woodrow, Woodrop, Woodreefe.
 

THOMAS WOODROVE Generation 1

The Abbot of St. Augustine’s Monastery, outside the walls of Canterbury, was Lord of the Manor of Fordwich, and claimed many rights within the Liberty (Borough) which were at variance with what the Mayor and Commonalty considered to be their chartered privileges. One obnoxious claim to which they had to submit was that the Abbot’s bailiff must be present whenever the Mayor held court. In 1510, it was to summon a non-resident bailiff from his home that our ancestor was despatched with all speed to the neighboring Isle of Thanet. A few years after he rode on a longer, more hazardous, journey, with a therefore needed companion, to Westminster, so that, as trusted envoy of the town, he might pay a fine incurred by his fellow townsmen into the King’s exchequer. Because in later days such duties were almost invariably entrusted to the town clerk, while there was then no office with that title, he was probably acting in that capacity.

If so, it would have been in the line of promotion that he was a Jurat* in 1538, when, during Henry VIII’s suppression of the greater monasteries, St. Augustine’s estates were given over to the rapacity of the King and his courtiers.

In the following year, Thomas Woodrove sat with his fellow magistrates at Fordwich to arrange for the conveyancing to the favored courtiers of a portion of the possessions of those against whom the Liberty had so long struggled for its privileges.

No other “Woodruff” was recorded until the Town Books mentioned his son William in 1550. Shortly after this the name of Thomas disappeared from the records. He died about 1552. 
 

WILLIAM WOODROFFE - Generation 2

WILLIAM WOODROFFE “The Elder” died in 1587, when Elizabeth was Queen. During his lifetime, Fordwich, now freed from the restrictions imposed by the Abbot of St. Augustine’s, was encouraged to rebuild its Court Hall, and the unpretentious little building of timber and plaster, on the banks of the Stour, remained until at least 1909, the publication date of the Woodruff genealogy.

William took an active part in municipal affairs, and became a Jurat. From his generally signing the minutes of the Court, he apparently presided, perhaps as senior Jurat, in the frequent absences of the Mayor. He was also a “Key Keeper of the Town Chest,” a very honorable office conferred upon “the two best men of the Liberty.” The “chest” was for the safe custody of deeds and other important records, fees being charged for the service. There is little further mention of him in the annals other than the entry in the Fordwich muster roll of 1573 that “Willyam Wodruf thelder wt his men Robert Woodrufe and Edward Parker wt his furniture” is credited with “one calyver furnyshed one almon rivett furnyshed.”

 

His other son, William Jr., was also on the roll.
 

CHILDREN OF WILLIAM WOODROFFE “The Elder”

1. William Woodroffe, Jun. This line became extinct, when William’s grandson, Thomas, died without issue.
2. ROBERT WOODROFFE; married Alice Russell.

ROBERT WOODROFFE - Generation 3

ROBERT WOODROFFE, from whose day our descent can be verified by the parish register as well as by the town records, figured, as did his brother William, in the Town Books as a freeman (entitled to the privileges of the Borough). He is also on record as a Jurat and a Churchwarden in 1584.

As far back, then, as 1508, our Woodruff ancestors were freemen of Fordwich and men of standing in the community. Apparently they were Kentish yeomen* of Saxon blood, to judge from the surname. 

 In 1572, he married ALICE RUSSELL, of the parish of St. Mary Northgate. The parishes of Fordwich, St. Mary Northgate, and Sturry are contiguous.

Robert Woodroffe died in 1611, when James I reigned.
 

CHILDREN OF ROBERT AND ALICE (RUSSELL) WOODROFFE

1. JOHN WOODROFFE I, born in 1574. He married Elizabeth Cartwright.
2. William Woodroffe.

JOHN WOODROFFE - Generation 4

JOHN WOODROFFE I was born in 1574, at Fordwich. As an adult, he lived in Northgate, where his uncle, William Russell, was a churchwarden.

He married in 1601, ELIZABETH CARTWRIGHT. Their son John II was baptized in 1604.

At the relatively young age of 37, John Woodroffe I, “delivered this [sic] of September, 1611,” when he was “very sick in bodye.” His will was proved in October of 1611.

He, “John Woodruffe, husbandman” (head of a household), requested that he be buried at the direction of his “well-beloved wyffe”. He made minor legacies to his young and only son John II, and to others; and left all the rest of his “goods and chattills” to his wife, Elizabeth.

The times were so stormy that women and children must have protection, and in the same month her husband died, Elizabeth Cartwright Woodruffe married, on 24 October 1611, John “Gosmore”. Both were of the parish of St. Mary, Northgate. The marriage appears in the registry of St. Mary’s Bredin, in Canterbury, Kent, England. He thus became the stepfather of our ancestor. 

WHO WAS JOHN GOSMER?

Mr. John Gosmer’s name was first seen in Fordwich, Kent, England, as a signature – John Gozmur – as witness to the will written in September 1611 of John Woodruffe, of the parish of St. Marie’s of Northgate (adjoining Fordwich) in which Woodruffe had named his wife Elizabeth and young son John, our immigrant ancestor.

In 1613 he was a “sidesman,” the churchwarden’s assistant. As such, he signed – after the vicar and churchwardens – a bill of “Christenings, Marriages, and Burials in the Parish of St. Mary, Northgate.”

In 1618, a John Gosmer, bachelor, joiner, of St. Mary Northgate, married Ann Woodruff, widow (Canterbury Marriage Licenses). What are we here to think? Was the emigrant John Gosmer a widower himself, when he married the widow Elizabeth Cartwright Woodruff? Was he the father – by a first wife – of the John Gosmer of 1618 who married widow Ann Woodruff, and as has been suggested, of the Anne who married our ancestor John Woodruff II b. 1604? Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary, has something to say about this, as do notes 12 and 21 in The Woodruffs of New Jersey.

In 1637 it is recorded that there was a dispute between the Fordwich Corporation and Mr. Gosmer, as a tenant of the Chapter of Canterbury, regarding the extent of their respective rights over some land, which was referred to arbitration. The result is not known to us but in 1638 Mr. Gosmer was himself the Mayor of the Corporation, i.e., the Mayor of Fordwich.

All England was then in the throes of the impending civil war, and, like other ports, Fordwich resisted King Charles’ illegal exaction of ship-money. In 1639 the Council in Whitehall demanded from Mr. Gosmer’s mayoral successor the unpaid assessment for 1638, “which should long since have been paid to the Sheriff of Kent or the Treasurer of the Navy.”

It is very likely that our Mr. Gosmer was fed up, cut his losses, and ran.

He and Elizabeth had immigrated to America sometime between 1638 and 1640. Efforts made at Sandwich (a port just seaward of Fordwich) and Dover in England, and in the United States, have failed to find any record of his emigration. The item may possibly be buried in the unexamined manuscripts of the Public Record Office of England. But Hotten’s Introduction (in his List of Emigrants, 1600-1700) says in effect that only the names of those emigrants were taken who legally left the shores of England. Those who went (as Mr. Gosmer obviously did) to avoid payment of the hated ship-money left secretly; and that of such, no record would exist.

All that said, the Woodruff genealogist has never found another John Gosmer in America at that time. Howell adds his authority that there can be no reasonable doubt, it was the ex-Mayor of Fordwich who is next on record at Lynn, Massachusetts, where already on 10 March 1639, the founding of Southampton, Long Island, had been formally “undertaken”.

By the mutilated declaration of the Company we know that on or about June 4, 1640, “Mr. John Gosmere was admited an undertaker”. At Southampton, on December 16, 1640, the name of “Mr. John Gosmer” headed the list of the purchasers on the “Indian Deed” for the land lying eastward “between the foresaid bounds by water” from the place “where the Indians hayle their cannoes out of the North Bay to the southside of the Island,” later known as Canoe Place.

On 7 March 1644, it was ordered that “yf by the providence of God there shall be henceforth within the bounds of this plantacon any whale or whales cast up,” certain designated townsmen should attend to their “cutting out.”

In this; in dealing with the Shinnecocks, Montauks and other tribes; in dividing the lands among the townsmen; in fencing out the wilderness; in clearing off the forests; and in all the varied tasks of a new settlement, the town records show that “John Gosmer, Gentleman,” took a leading part. For the enforcement of law and order, generally three magistrates were elected by the General Court (town meeting), “who were looked upon with a degree of veneration that the modern occupants of the office can hardly hope to obtain”. It was in 1647 when Southampton entered into a compact with Connecticut. Gosmer and one other were the first to represent the town in the House of Magistrates in the General Court at Hartford.

Then, in the midst of his prosperity, a lifelong grief came to him in the death of his only son, Richard, whose estate he administered in the year 1650.

Richard had been appointed to the whaling squadron along with his father in March of 1644. He was presumably born in England due to his being an adult at this time. And he also presumably had a house of his own, as he had been appointed from the 3rd Ward, while his father was appointed from the 2nd Ward.

Notwithstanding this, Howell says that he appears to have died unmarried; and without children. The Gosmer name dropped out of the records after John Gosmer’s death.

In 1652 Mr. Gosmer was the Primus of the three Southampton magistrates; and he was re-elected several years in succession. During 1655-58, he again represented his town at Hartford. When, in 1657, there was an Indian alarm, and “for preservation of ye towne” it was voted that all men should “lay downe themselves in respect of their persons & estates, to bee disposed of by the said 7 men in a way of righteousness, to attend any means that may in their Judgement effect the said ends,” he was one of the seven.

Already, however, he had begun to set his house in order. In 1655 he bought property in Boston. In 1658 he made it over “to his kinswoman, Ann, widow of Richard Carter.”

In 1657 his stepson, John Woodruff, succeeded him in the whaling squadron. It is probably in the same year that this John Woodruff, Sr., received from him the “messuage or tenement over against the said Mr. Gosmer his home lot, which said tenement he bought of John Topping” in 1657, and “five acres of land”, though the deed was not recorded until 20 February 1660/61.

And then on 29 July 1659, he deeded to his “adopted sonne, who hath lived with me from a child, all my goods and chattells, house and lands”; to which Elizabeth his wife consented. No other will has been found. After this deed, he was lost from the town records, this man who was called “The Honorable”; who was considered one of the seven leading men of Western Long Island.

John Gosmer died in 1661. A masterful man of affairs, upright, able, energetic, wealthy, dignified, and perhaps just a little bit dictatorial. In his Puritan Settlers, Hinman has written: “an examination of the Colony records of Connecticut shows that Hon. John Gosmer, ...[and others] were the leading men in the eastern half of Long Island in its early settlement.” Doubtless, John Gosmer lies with his fellow pioneers in the old South End burying ground at Southampton; but their tombstones have crumbled into dust. 

 

CHILD OF JOHN I AND ELIZABETH (CARTWRIGHT) WOODROFFE

1. JOHN WOODRUFFE I, baptized in 1604. John married Anne.

JOHN WOODRUFFE II - The Immigrant -Generation 5

JOHN WOODRUFFE II, was baptized in 1604, the only son of John Woodruffe I of St. Mary Northgate (1574-1611). By the remarriage of his mother, Elizabeth, he became the stepson of Mr. John Gosmer, of Fordwich, where John grew to manhood.

At the age of 32, John Woodruffe II served as churchwarden in Fordwich parish. Only one adult “John Woodruff” could be found throughout the three parishes – Fordwich, St. Mary Northgate, and Sturry – between the years 1625-1640, and that was the one baptized at St. Mary Northgate in 1604, and who was churchwarden at Fordwich in 1632. He was, beyond reasonable doubt, the “son John Woodruffe” named in the will of his father, John I, of Northgate (b. 1574).

MARRIAGE

John Woodruffe married ANNE (-). She may have been the daughter of John Gosmer by a former wife.*

John II and Anne had four children – two sons and two daughters – all step-grandchildren of John Gosmer. Both of their sons bore the name John, so they both were, technically, John III. The younger, our ancestor, was called John Jr. or “the Younger Brother”. More on this shortly.

EMIGRATION TO AMERICA

John and Anne Woodruff, and their son John III accompanied the Gosmers on their journey to Lynn, Massachusetts, and Southampton, Long Island, in 1639-40.* They were among the settlers who arrived at Southampton, Long Island, during the first twelve months of 1640-41. Southampton Town Records show one adult John Woodruff of the period as a member of the Gosmer household.

 

CHALLENGES IN THE NEW LAND

For years after the founding of Southampton, although the land was honorably purchased of its original owners, yet the settlers never saw a moment’s rest for fear of their dreaded neighbors. In the field a guard was kept; at night none knew at what hour the alarm would sound; to meeting, on the Lord’s day, they went as men prepared for instant war. Every male, from 16 to 60, was enrolled in the ranks. Under such circumstances it might be expected Ann and John would live with the Gosmers, both no longer young. That belief is confirmed by Mr. Gosmer’s statement (in the deed that was his will): that the Woodruff’s younger son, John, born in Southampton, whom he adopted, “hath lived with me from a child.”*

 

In those patriarchal days, as a member of Mr. Gosmer’s household, John Woodruffe II would not have been considered a “head of family,” and, therefore, would not appear in the List of May, 1649. And he did not. He did not appear, in fact, in the town records until he was 53 years old, named on April 30th, 1657, among the arms-bearing men to whom gunpowder was served out because of an Indian attack on the town.

LAND

On September 17, 1657, Mr. Gosmer “bought an hundred pound lot” from John Topping, with “the housing and fences and all his accommodations,” in Southampton. This he handed over to his stepson; possibly to qualify him as his successor in the whaling squadron, which he became the same year. Some town offices and privileges depended on ownership of property. That lot is on the west side of Main Street, nearly opposite and SW of the Gosmer home lot.

In 1657 also, but probably later than September, John Woodruffe II is on the list of the representatives of the town houses, while Mr. Gosmer’s name is not. And he is recorded in the Plan of Main Street, in Southampton, as having, in 1659, succeeded Mr. Gosmer in his homestead.

In 1659, also, he is for the first time mentioned as exchanging land. On February 20, 1660/61, the gift (1657) of house and land to him was registered by Mr. Gosmer, after which the name of Gosmer disappeared from the records.

Apparently, therefore, John Gosmer, who had retired from active work in 1657, died in 1661; and John Woodruff II, then 57 years of age, became head-of-household in his stead.

In 1661 and 1662 he was only recorded as a successful plaintiff; as on an important jury; as “giving in his ear-mark”; and as dealing in land.

In 1663, at the town meeting of May 1st, when new rules were established regarding the keeping up of fences to prevent the trespassing of “cattell, sheepe, goats and hoggs” that had been breeding quarrels and lawsuits, he was elected and “sworne impounder.”
 

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’
 

Many good men went into opposition against all this, and perhaps John Woodruff was among them. But, except such mention in land matters as would be expected for a large proprietor, he does not appear in the records until the final entry of 22 February 1669, when he joined in signing a petition to “our honorable Governor Gen’l. Lovelace” that they might not be deprived

Possibly, also, his absence from public life was, at least in part, due to his having grown older than his years. He was “weak in Body” when he made his will on May 4th, 1670. He died on May 9th, and his will was proved on July 1st . He was 66 years of age. The inventory of his estate was valued at £122.7.8.

CHILDREN OF JOHN & ANN (-) WOODRUFFE II

1.   John Woodruffe III, was baptized in 1637 at Sturry, Kent, England, within a half-mile of Fordwich.
 

He came to America in 1639-1640 with his parents and grandparents on the journey from Fordwich. He does not appear in the Long Island records until 30 April 1657, when at twenty he was included in a list of arms-bearing men.

He was first mentioned as a landowner on 20 February 1659/60. About the same time, he married Sarah Ogden, a daughter of Mr. John Ogden, of Southampton. Ogden added to his land, and in 1664, gave him a “house and home lot” on Main Street which he had bought from a relative who was leaving Southampton.

As mentioned above, in 1664, King Charles’ granting Long Island (and other territories) to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, caused bitter discontent among the inhabitants, including, certainly, our Woodruffes. To make matters worse for John, now that his father was dead, his younger brother would have possession of the homestead that ordinarily should be his as head of the family. And possibly lastly, his daughter Sarah died, probably in 1664. So it seems he made the choice to join his father-in-law, Mr. Ogden, in the emigrating to New Jersey.

Between August 29th and September 7th of 1665, he recorded sales of his house to Robert Woolley, his brother-in-law, and of his land to other fellow townsmen. He arrived in Elizabeth Town, New Jersey, before, or at least by, February 1666.

He and Sarah had other children, as follows: sons John, Jonathan, Benjamin, Joseph Sr., David, and Daniel; and daughters Elizabeth, Sarah, and Hannah.

After the death of his wife, he remarried Mary Parkhurst. And on 27 April 1691, in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, when only fifty-four years old – but “in hazard of life” – he made his will, and on May 25th it was proved.

He was a founder of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Descendants of this John III have been called the Elizabethtown Woodruffs.

2.   Anne Woodruffe; mar. Robert Woolley.
 

3.   Elizabeth Woodruffe; mar. Robert Dayton.
 

4.   JOHN WOODRUFFE III, called “The Younger Brother”, was born about 1650 at Southampton, Long Island; the heir and adopted son of his step-grandfather, John Gosmer. He married Hannah Newton.

JOHN WOODRUFFE III “The Younger Brother” - Generation 6

John Woodruffe III, “The Younger Brother”, was born in Southampton, about 1650.

On 29 July 1659, there is the following record:

Be it known unto all that are present and to come that I, John Gosmer of Southampton upon Long Island in America (Gentleman), have given and granted and by this my present Deed have confirmed to my adopted sone John Woodruf whoe hath lived with me from a child, All my goods and chattells, howses and lands with all the appurtenances, thereunto belonging, and all privileges pertaining thereunto; To have and to hold and to enjoy the above mentioned gifts as his owne forever. Also Elizabeth the wife of ye said John Gosmer (gent.) hath consented and confirmed all the above mentioned gifts in witness whereof they have boath of them hereunto set to their hands and seals this Day of July 29; in the year of ye nativity of our Lord Christ one thousand six hundred fifty-nine.

His first appearance by his own act in the town records was in June 1666, when he (then probably about sixteen years of age) registered as his earmark (brand for cattle, sheep, etc.) “a half-penny under the left ear.” The “one half-penny” earmark had probably been used earlier by his older brother, but when he emigrated to New Jersey, it was abandoned and he was free to use it. His father’s earmark was “two half-pennys under the left ear.”

It was perhaps not until 1670, or later, that he married HANNAH NEWTON.

Benoni Newton, in a deed of 1682 described John Woodruff as his “brother”. As he had not married either of John’s two sisters, “brother” doubtless meant “brother-in-law”. Mr. Newton was a Town Trustee in 1693.

In 1675 he joined in the town agreement to set apart a house and land to “Bee and remain from time to time and forever to the use of ye ministry of our said towne, as the providence of God shall, hereafter dispose ministers of the word successively unto us.”

On 26 October 1682, he again recorded an earmark, this time registering it for “his son John Woodruff, Jun.,” which was to be “two half-pennys under the left ear which earmark was his grandmother Woodruff’s and is by her made over to the said John Woodruff, Jun.” This earmark she inherited upon the death of her husband.

And again, on 8 January 1693/94 “John Woodruff records earmark yt was formerly recorded to his son John Woodruff to Samuell Woodruff his son being two half pennys under the left ear”. In his will, son Samuel is named as the “eldest son”. So we know that his firstborn son John Jun. died before 8 Jan 1693/4.

He was included, for purposes of taxation, in “The Estemate of the Town of Southampton for the year 1683.” In 1694 he subscribed for the support of two of schoolmaster Mr. Mowbrey’s “schollers”; and in 1696 he was among the inhabitants of the town assessed for a contribution to the “defence of the fronteer.” From 1674 until 1698 there are numerous items, besides those already mentioned, regarding the division, dealing in, and management of land.

LET’S TALK ABOUT LAND

By the Lynn agreement of 1639, Southampton land was owned by the Proprietors as tenants in common, until it was, from time to time, divided by the drawing of lots. The shares were proportioned to the amount of money each had contributed to the “undertaking.” To provide a convenient unit, the town, in 1648, adopted one-fortieth of £6,000 – £150 – as the value of one “lot”, to be subdivided into three “fifties.”

Shares passed by inheritance, and could be purchased. The undivided land was called “commonage.” As the divisions were made at different times in separate localities, and as in each division each proprietor was entitled to his share of homestead, meadow, upland, arable, and wood lands, their holdings were necessarily widely dispersed, and there were naturally very many exchanges between individuals to make their farms better suited to their purposes. Hence it came about that the “swapping of land” seems to have taken the place of the “swapping of horses” elsewhere; and John Woodruff evidently did his share.

The Woodruffs of New Jersey provides a full list of the deeds in the endnote 69 on page 54.

His share ended when, on 14 January 1701, he “in health of body” made his will, and on 1 April 1703, it was proved. Between the death of his father in 1670, and his own death in 1703, Southampton had passed through many changes with ups and downs along the way.
 

WHAT KIND OF UPS AND DOWNS?

In July 1673, New York was captured by the Dutch, for one.

In a manly petition of August 14th, the “Inhabitants of the East Riding of Long Island (namely, Southampton, Easthampton, South Hoold, Seataukok, and Huntington)” surrendered under duress. But, with some aid from Connecticut, and one “spirited engagement,” they successfully resisted the taking of an oath of allegiance until, on 10 November 1674, Gov. Andross replaced the Dutch.

Instead of rewarding the East Riding for its brave loyalty, the Governor promptly forced the inhabitants to take out, and pay for, new patents for land that was already indisputably their own. The later change of their lord’s title from Duke of York to James II only increased the power to oppress, until the revolution of 1686 brought relief.

No doubt John Woodruff did his duty as a good citizen, but the records don’t show that he took a prominent part in public affairs. Born with the silver spoon in the mouth that deprives of one incentive to exertion, although soon surpassed in wealth by many in the growing community, yet still the possessor (as his will shows) of broad and scattered acres, now unhappily subjected to grinding taxation and extortion, and with ten children to bring up, he was perhaps one of those upon whom Gov. Lovelace and his successors had laid such taxes as to “leave no time for thinking of anything else than how to pay them”; and was what we would, nowadays, call “land poor.” John Woodruff III’s Will

He bequeathed his possessions to his wife, Hannah; to his sons Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Isaac and Jonathan; and to daughters Sarah Davis, Hannah, Abigail, and Elizabeth. When the will was drawn in 1701, all, from Nathaniel down, were not yet twenty-one.

To the daughters, he left £10 each on their coming of age, Sarah no doubt having had a portion on her marriage, and the others to be similarly cared for by his heirs.

To JOSEPH, his second surviving son, he left £20 and a remote reversionary interest in lands willed to the younger brothers. He had emigrated to New Jersey in 1701, and had probably received a portion in money already.

To his wife and his other sons, he bequeathed all his houses and lands, including commonage.

The home lot was on the east side of Southampton’s Main Street, near the “Hampton Road” to Bridgehampton, Easthampton, etc. Its “three acres” of 1648 had been later extended eastward “as much as may be”.

To give an idea of what type of land a man like this would own, following is a list of his holdings and how they were situated:

• Adjoining a pond called Scuttle Hole (about 1-1/2 miles NW from Bridge Hampton);
• by Long Pond, a string of ponds extending southerly from the above to a point on the “Hampton Road”, just W of Bridge Hampton; and
• Brushey Neck, a part of Hog Neck, lying just W of Sag Harbor’s Main Street. There was another “Brushey Neck” west of Westhampton.
• Lands also adjoining the W side of the Town Pond (Lake Agawam, the Indian name of Southampton), continuing westward, in Captain’s and Halsey’s Necks of the Great Plain, and at Shinnecock;
• Land northward also at Sebonnucke (Seponnucke, Sebonic, Sebonac), just N of the golf grounds;
• The farm was in the possession of Captain White in 1909.
• Land on the Aqauebauge (or Accabog) meadows, going W past Canoe Place, along the S shore of Great Peconic Bay, SE from Riverhead.

He had previously, by exchange or sale, disposed of other lands at Quogue; at Catchaponak (just W of Quogue meadows); at Sagaponack (Sagg, 2-3 miles SE of Bridge Hampton); and of a part of his home lot. And more.

THE LAST ON LONG ISLAND

All the siblings except Joseph, remained on Long Island. Samuel, as the oldest son in 1703, inherited the Gosmer-Woodruff homestead. In subsequent years, it was rebuilt and remodeled to some extent, and as thus altered, is shown in volume one of the Southampton Town Records and in Mr. Howell’s History. The house stood for many years, being the last on Long Island that retained the old-fashioned rhomboidal window-panes once in general use, and was for this reason known as the house of the diamond windows. Samuel’s son, Junior, was on record in Southampton as dealing in land in 1733; but by 1738 he passed from view.

His brothers presumably scattered to the farms that had been bequeathed to them near the town. None of their graves or of their sisters has been found; however, there are tombstones of their descendants in the Bridge Hampton, Scuttle Hole, and Shelter Island burying-grounds, and perhaps elsewhere. The descendants mentioned were living (apparently not very far apart) to the eastward of Water Mill. Doubtless the tombstones still exist, but possibly are hidden from view beneath the soil.

Formerly, many families living outside the villages buried their dead on their own farms, or with their neighbors in a nearby plot. If the land was kept in the family, the graves might have been preserved; but in changed hands, it’s anyone’s guess. Existing tombstones illustrate every stage of change from upright positions until only scraps are still left bare by the ever encroaching sod. At Scuttle Hole, for instance, in some cases, the entire space is fast being covered by an undergrowth, and before many years have passed even the memory that it was a burying-ground may be obliterated from the minds of all but a few genealogists.  

CHILDREN OF JOHN III & HANNAH (NEWTON) WOODRUFF
All born at Southampton, Suffolk Co, Long Island

1. John Woodruff IV, d. prior to 1703, the date of his father’s will.
2. Samuel Woodruff; mar. Hester (-); d. 1715.

As mentioned above, Samuel inherited the home site in 1703. He and his wife, Hester, died 1715-1717, leaving a son Samuel, Jr., who inherited the place. On 12 April 1728, it was this son, Samuel Woodruff Jr., and Sarah, his wife, who deeded the home site, that had been eighty years in the Gosmer and Woodruff families, to Mr. Francis Pelletreu.

3. JOSEPH WOODRUFF was born 1676; mar. Hannah (-).
4. Benjamin Woodruff; mar. 12 Sep 1704, Margaret Davis; d. 1750 at Bridgehampton, Long Island.
5. Nathaniel Woodruff Sr.; b. about 1680; mar. Abigail Leake (dtr. of Ebenezer Leake, of Easthampton, Long Island); d. 1725.
6. Isaac Woodruff; b. after 1680.
7. Jonathan Woodruff [named in father’s will].
8. Sarah Woodruff; mar. Zachariah Davis; d. before 1716.
9. Hannah Woodruff.
10. Abigail Woodruff.
11. Elizabeth Woodruff.

Joseph Woodruff, married Hannah

A Joseph Woodruff (1676-1742) lies buried at Westfield, New Jersey, whose existence in his own right has not been recognized by modern historians. These have merged the scanty records of his life in that of his Elizabeth Town cousin Joseph (1674-1746), or sometimes in that cousin's son Joseph ; but their error has been the more excusable because the cousins were only two years apart in date of birth, and because not only they but their fathers bore the same given names as well as surname.

The Etown father, John Woodruff (1637-91), was the elder son of the Immigrant, John Woodruff (1604-70), while the Westfield Joseph's father was the younger son and brother, John Woodruff (1650-1703), of Southampton, Long Island ; from which town our Joseph emigrated to New Jersey.

His Westfield tombstone tells us that he departed this life February the 2nd, Anno Domini 1741-2, in the 65th year of his age ; so he was born in 1676 or 1677. While living at Southampton, and some seventeen or eighteen years old, he was quite possibly one of the two "schollers" for whom in 1694 his father subscribed "att twelve shillings In cash per scholler for the Terme of Six Months," they to be taught " In the hours following viz, from Eight to Eleven a Clocke In the forenoone, and from one to five of the clocke In ye afternoone"; but nothing is certainly known excepting that he was included as the second son of John Woodruff in the 1698 list of the inhabitants of Southampton, and that his father's will, signed on the "14 day of January Anno Dom 1700 alias 1701", treated him as one who had already gone from home.

There were good reasons why the second son should have sought a career elsewhere. His father although a wealthy landowner was because of extortionate taxation land-poor, and there were five brothers and four sisters to be provided for : while there were influential relatives in New Jersey, where in 1699 there was to be a distribution of rich lands; and his cousin Robert Woolley of Southampton was also to become an Etown Associate and draw a Westfield lot. ^° So Joseph transferred the history of our line from Long Island to New Jersey.

In Joseph's will the eldest son named (John) was not born until 1704, but as the daughter Abigail (Gold) was among the five children already provided for she may have been the first born, or in the beginning of the settle- ment deaths may have left no record. Certainly, because in 1699 Joseph would have been some twenty-three years of age and his wife Hannah perhaps sixteen, it would be expected that they came together to New Jersey : and there was an abundant choice at Southampton of maidens of her given name. Practically, however, nothing is known about the wife and mother excepting that there were ten sons and three daughters to mourn when but a few months after her comrade's death she followed to a grave beside him.

Hannah ye Wife of Joseph Woodruff Died August the 11th
Anno Domini 1743
In ye 58th Year of her Age.
Their married life had been one long anxiety. Barely 95 In the 1698 List (Howell p. 34) there were some 34 unmarried (Brides married) of the variously spelled name of "Hannah" in a total number of 350 women.

PRIMARY REFERENCE

Francis E. Woodruff. The Woodruffs of New Jersey: Who Came from Fordwich, Kent, England, by way of Lynn, Massachusetts, and Southampton, Long Island. New York: The Grafton Press, 1909. This book is a revision and enlargement of the book, “A Branch of the Woodruff Stock”.

Along with all the textual data are maps, including
Plate C: The Southampton Lands;
Plate E: The Division of the Eastern Section of the Town of Southampton; and
Plate G: Washington Corner and Mendham. 

SECONDARY REFERENCES

Benjamin F. Thompson. History of Long Island: From Its Discovery and Settlement to the Present Time. 3rd ed. New York, New York: R. H. Dodd, 1918.

SLC Family History Library Cat. No. 974.721 H2t.

Records of the Town of Southampton (printed 1874-96).

George R. Howell. The Early History of Southampton, L. I.. 2nd ed., 1887.

Early Long Island Wills of Suffolk County: 1691-1703, with notes by Wm. S. Pelletreau, 1897.

Royal R. Hinman. A catalogue of the names of the early Puritan settlers of the colony of Connecticut, etc. Hartford, CT: Case, Tiffany and Company, 1852-1856. SLC Family History Library Cat. No. 974.6 D2hra 1852-56 pt. 1-5. 

James Savage. A genealogical dictionary of the first settlers of New England. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1860-1862. 4 v. On 3 microfilm rolls at SLC Family History Library: Film Nos. 1351-1352-1353.

Hatfield.

Clayton’s History of Union County [New Jersey]. 

NOTE

Much work was done on behalf of the Woodruff and all connected families, by a friend of the family, name unknown to me. My 2nd cousin once removed, Mildred McVea, had a sister named Mrs. Brooks ("Jinny") Chandler. Jinny's dear friend living in New Jersey became fascinated with our New Jersey families, and spent hundreds of hours researching, typing, and writing up her research on all the connected families; e.g., Woodruff, Coe, Fitz Randolph, and dozens more. All the materials that she sent to Jinny were later sent by Jinny to me as I was by then the family genealogist. All her data are now in my possession. I have not located the research's name on any of the papers she produced. Her correspondence with Jinny was in 1974. I got the materials in the 1983.