Freemen of Coventry, CT

NOTE:  The second page of Freemen of Coventry, page 57 of "Miscellaneous Town Records, Volume 1", includes overflow from the first page - those listed on 28 Apr 1738. However, more individuals were added over time on this second sheet and it is difficult to tell where the original list ends. Some later additions were dated, others were not. To discern many of the later additions from the originals, I noted differences in handwriting, ink, pen, and/or spelling. Sometimes knowing a birth year of some of the individuals helped. I made every attempt to group the persons accordingly in the charts below.

This list was transcribed from "Miscellaneous Town Records, Volume 1", Coventry, CT, page 57. This is a large bound volume of copies of the original documents. It is located in the Coventry Town Clerk's office. Per the label, the volume contains the following, but is obviously not all-inclusive: Town Meetings 1713-1782; Freemen 1730-1775; Vital Records 1692-1840 (includes birth dates of some of the founders of Coventry). The original restored documents are held in the Connecticut State Archives at Hartford.

Although the pages within "Miscellaneous Town Records, Volume 1" are quite interesting and contain many documents of genealogical value, the copies are not in chronological order and dates are not noted on each page. Adding to the difficulty in using this book, the pages were re-numbered when restored, but old page numbers are sometimes still visible AND the book has no index. Due to these problems, please do not ask the nice folks in the Coventry Town Clerk's office to look up information in this volume. They will not be able to fulfill your request.

The vital records information within this book was the town source for Susan Whitney Dimock's, Births, Marriages, Baptisms, and Deaths From the Records of the Town and Churches in Coventry, Connecticut 1711-1844, Baker & Taylor Company, New York, 1897. If you need vital records information for your Coventry, CT ancestors, this is the best source at this time.

Transcribed by Jan (Wilson) Ramos 3 Aug 1999 preserving original spelling. When known, I have inserted the contemporary spelling of surnames within brackets [ ] to facilitate searching with your FIND feature. I have also done this with the full name when the original doesn't resemble the current spelling at all. Illegible or hard to read letters and names are indicated with [?].