I hope everyone had a nice Labor Day Weekend. It was very hot here – still is. I had a yard sale with some friends of mine. The yard sale was a success, I’m happy to say. We had so much fun, we are going to do a smaller one in October.

This week, our topic is tradesmen. My mother’s father’s family has been here since 1635. Thomas the immigrant, left England apprenticed to Francis Stiles. Stiles led this group on behalf of the patent granted to Sir Richard Saltonstall. They were known as the “Lords and Gentlemen”. Arriving in Boston Harbor on 16 June 1635, they made their way down the Connecticut River to Windsor. These apprentices, including my ancestor, were to build homes in a manor-like style. They wished to live in a similar manor to their lives in England.

Carpentry is a talent passed down through this branch of my family. Thomas was a talented carpenter, and several of his sons followed in his footsteps. I recently found evidence of his expertise in a booklet by the Windsor Historical Society. It details his life after moving to Windsor and shows a couple examples of his work still in existence. Below is a picture which is believed to possibly be his work. It is described as in the Barber tradition; something called the Trefoil style.  Key similarities are that the work still in existence is more than fifty inches wide. They have a pattern of Trefoil that interlock and are carved into the front of each chest.

Thomas the Immigrant did not have an easy time in Windsor. He was given thirty acres far from the palisade in the center of town. He was getting ready to move to Northampton, Massachusetts, when he died in 1662. Sadly, so did his wife the same year. Thomas Jr. was awarded part of his father’s woodworking at age eighteen, with three years left on his apprenticeship. Samuel, my direct ancestor, was ultimately apprenticed to Thomas, and learned the family trade.

Until next week when our topic is “Prosperity”.

Lane, Joshua W. and White III, Donald P., The Woodworkers of Windsor A Connecticut Community of Craftsmen and Their World, 1635-1715, 2003, Historic Deerfield Inc, Deerfield, Massachusetts. The section about Thomas Barber and family is on pages 35-41. The chest pictured above is on page 41, a gift of J. Pierpont Morgan to the Wadsworth Atheneum.All information about Thomas and his sons is from this same booklet.