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WILLIAM
MEEKER, (my 9th great grandfather)...
grandfather
of Timothy, was born about 1620 at Leamington, Warwickshire, England.
The year he and his brother came to America is not known. They were in
the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1635. Both were in New Haven, Connecticut
by the first of July, 1644, when they took the oath of fidelity. By 1646
William was employed for a 12 month period as a "loader to mill,"
indicating that he was in some manner concerned with the handling of grain
in the mill of New Haven. He married Sarah Preston about 1646-47 and for
the next 18 years was in some type of work in or near New Haven. In 1664
or later, William along with several neighbors joined a group of settlers
from Long Island in establishing the first English settlement in New Jersey.
It is said he transported those neighbors on his own sloop. He had the
honor of being on the first jury on New Jersey in 1671. That same year
he became invovled in the political struggle between the associates and
their governor, Phillip Carteret, as the leader in the so called "Meeker
Riot." |