"HUMPHREY PINNEY (Pynney, Pinne), the son of John Pinney, came to America in the Mary and John with Rev. Mr. Warham's company in 1630, and settled at Dorchester, where he married Mary Hull, who had been a fellow passenger. His immediate ancestors appear to have resided in Broadway, Somersetshire, England which is in Chard Union, in the deanery of Crewkerne, archdeaconry of Taunton, diocese of Bath and Wells, Hundred of Abdick and Bulstone, West Somerset.
From the will of Humphrey’s uncle, Edmund Pynney of Broadway, dated 1631, we learn that Edmund was buried in the south aisle of Broadway Church, in a tomb called The Pinney Tomb. Broadway Church is a small, ancient, but beautiful structure, situated in a picturesque churchyard, adorned with yews, located upon a little knoll in an extensive valley, about two miles from the rise of the hill …commanding one of the finest views in Somerset County.
Broadway, a long, straggling village of some 400 agricultural inhabitants, an almshouse, etc., is said to have taken its name from a Roman road which led to Nevocke Forest… Pinney’s Ground…is in Ile Abbots, an adjoining village, boasting of a still more beautiful little church.
Edmund Pynney’s will informs us that he had a brother JOHN the elder, and a brother JOHN the younger; a sister ALICE, who married a Way; a sister JOHANNA who married Giles Godwin. John the elder married Johanna ___, and had children (1) ELIZABETH, (2) EDMOND, (3) RICHARD, (4) ROGER, (5) NICHOLAS, (6) WILLIAM, (7) HUMPHREY (the emigrant to Dorchester and Windsor), (8) JOHN OF EXETER, (9) AGNES (prob. M. John House), (10) MARY (prob. M. Thos. Pearce), (11) SARAH (poss. m. John Turberfield), (12) ALICE (poss. m. Wm. Standerwicke).
Humphrey Pinney was an original member of the Dorchester Church; removed to and settled at Windsor in 1635; and his residence was on the East side of the main street, about a mile and a quarter north of the present Congregational Church on lot N. and adjoining Gov. Haynes lot, which lay between Dea. Wm. Gaylord’s lot and “Mr.” Pinney’s lot… He died 20 Aug 1683; his widow died 18 Aug 1684."
Below is a list of the Pinney children (all but the eldest born in Windsor):
1636 Samuel, b. Dorchester
1641 Nathaniel, our ancestor
1644 Mary
1648 Sarah
1651 John
1654 Abigail
HUMPHREY PINNEY
BORN: 1600 in Broadway, Somersetshire, England
MARRIED: 14 May 1634 in Dorchester, Massachusetts
DIED: 20 Aug 1683 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut
MARIE MARY HULL
BORN: 27 Jul 1618 in Crewkerne, England
DIED: 18 Aug 1684 in Windsor, Hartford, CT
SOURCES: ancestry.com FAMILIES OF ANCIENT WINDSOR CONNECTICUT, Consisting of VOLUME II, The History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, Connecticut; Including East Windsor, South Windsor, Bloomfield, Windsor Locks, and Ellington, 1635-1891, by HENRY R. STILES. Excerpts about the Pinney family, beginning on image, page 610.
