Thomas Trowbridge, ancestor of Cindy Crawford
Dorchester Illustration 2642
Sometimes our knowledge of former Dorchester residents comes from unexpected sources. We learned of supermodel Cindy Crawford’s efforts to trace her ancestry, through a YouTube video. One of her ancestors was Thomas Trowbridge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA_UYcGDhYw
Thomas Trowbridge left Taunton, England where he was born, to live in Exeter in Devon. He established himself as a mercer (a dealer in textiles such as silks and velvets). He married an Exeter girl in 1627, Elizabeth, the daughter of Mrs. Alice Marshall.
Trowbridge was one of the early settlers of Dorchester, Massachusetts, probably about 1636, and of New Haven, Connecticut. In the late 1630s, he was a merchant engaged in the Barbados trade. He was likely a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company under the name listed as Thomas Strawbridge (the spelling was probably a scrivener’s error).
Trowbridge moved his family to New Haven about 1639-41 and appears in the census of 1641. His estate is given at 500 pounds, a large sum for the time.
He returned to England about 1641-44 and left his three sons under the charge of Sgt. Thomas Jeffries who came from the vicinity of Taunton, England. Jeffries was in Dorchester in 1634 and New Haven in 1637 or 1638. Trowbridge sailed for England leaving his houses, goods, lots and estates and chattel in trust with his steward, Henry Gibbons, who kept possession of Trowbridge’s estates at New Haven for many years. It appears that he never returned to New England.
Trowbridge served as a captain in Cromwell’s army in the English Civil War. He died in 1672 in Taunton, England.
Other information is available at https://homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps14/ps14_015.htm
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute