Greenfield Larrabee^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]}

1620 - 1661  (41 years)

• Name	Greenfield Larrabee  [1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
  Birth	1620	Saybrook, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America   [1, 8]
  Gender	Male
  Death	17 Oct 1661	New London, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America   [8]
  Burial	19 Oct 1661	Saybrook, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America   [8]
  Person ID	I312684223659	Oswald Genealogy
  Last Modified	15 Jun 2025

  
  

  Family	Phoebe Browne,   b. 01 Oct 1620, Rusper, Sussex, England d. 28 Dec 1664, Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America (Age 44 years)
  Marriage	1647	Saybrook, British Colonial America
  Children	1. Greenfield Larrabee, II,   b. 20 Apr 1648, Saybrook, British Colonial America d. Norwich, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]   2. Joseph Larrabee,   c. 10 Aug 1657, Saybrook, British Colonial America d. 10 Aug 1657, Saybrook, British Colonial America (Age ~ 0 years)  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]   3. Elizabeth Larrabee,   b. Saybrook, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America d. 04 Dec 1727, New London, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]   4. Sarah Larrabee,   b. Saybrook, New London, Connecticut Colony, British Colonial America d. 15 Jun 1738, New London, New London, Connecticut, British Colonial America  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]   5. John Larrabee,   b. Saybrook Middlesex Connecticut d. 06 Oct 1725, Windham, Windham, Connecticut, United States  [Father: unknown]  [Mother: unknown]
  Family ID	F1885	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	15 Jun 2025

  
  

• Notes

  Alternate surnames: Larribee, Larrabee, Alternate surnames: Larribee, Larrabee, Larabey (IGI (International Genealogical Index)) Greenfield Larrabee is not know to be connected with the Larrabees of Massachusetts and Maine As stated in The Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Vol. 3, p. 417, in the entry for "7. William", the Larrabees of Massachusetts and Maine "... are not known to be connected with the Larrabees of R.I. and Conn. A New Haven record of Greenfield Larrabee was misapplied" The supposed connection between these Larrabees appears to have arisen, at least in part, as the result of an error in G. T. Ridlon's "Saco Valley Settlements and Families" (1895). In it he states: "A Greenfield Larrabee was before the court as a mariner in New London, Conn., for doing some work on board his vessel during a storm, while lying in the harbor, on the Sabbath, in 1637, and in 1647, just ten years later, William Larrabee, a 'stranger,' was called to answer for the same offense ... As we find no further mention of William in Connecticut, and as a William Larrabee was married in Maiden, Mass., in 1655, these may have been identical." There are a couple of problems with the above: one, New London didn't even exist in 1637 - he was brought before the court in New Haven; and two, this case took place in 1647 not 1637. In the 1647 case, he is only referred to as "Mr. Larabe". Somehow this was applied to a "William" Larrabee - who of course seems to disappear from the record after that, and the thought was, perhaps this was the same William in Malden, Mass. The problem though, the Mr. Larabe in 1647 was never said to be "William", just a seaman aboard a vessel called "Phenix". A subsequent case later in the year in which, again, a seaman named Larabe aboard a vessel called "Phenix" is mentioned, is this time explicitly named Greenfeild Larabe, so they are the same man. There never was a William Larrabee in Connecticut at that time (at least there is no record of one) so this cannot be used as connection between the Connecticut Larrabees and the Maine and Massachusetts Larrabees. The above mentioned court cases have been attached as sources to Greenfield Larrabee. See "Records of the Colony and Plantation of New-Haven, from 1638 to 1649" HISTORY OF NORWICH, 1866, Caulkins, pg. HISTORY OF NORWICH, 1866, Caulkins, pg. 248: An original emigrant. HISTORY OF NORWICH, 1845, Caulkins, Pg. 119: m. to Alice Youngs recorded in 1673, He d. in 1739. Sons: Thomas, John & Nathaniel. This is the death date for son Greenfield Jr !FGR: Page 142; BOOK Ancestry of Lawren !FGR: Page 142; BOOK Ancestry of Lawrence Williams, Part 1, Part II, compiled by Cornelia Bartow Williams, Privately printed Chicago, 1915 copy % Pat Roberts, American Fork, Utah. !BESP: Batch F610798; Sheet 12; Source 1 !BESP: Batch F610798; Sheet 12; Source 1621482 !SS: Batch 6010798; Sheet 12 !From Saybrook, Middlesex,CT Ancestral L !From Saybrook, Middlesex,CT Ancestral Lives of Diantia Lois Barber !FGS compile from: Savage and American !FGS compile from: Savage and American Compendium, The Parentage ofPhebe Brown-Lee-Larrabee-Cornish by Parkhurst, Diary of Joshua HempsteadJr., Records and Papers of New London, Connecticut Historical Society,Vol III, pp 112-126. !IGI Bap 31 Mar 1999 ANCHO, 26 Aug 1993 !IGI Bap 31 Mar 1999 ANCHO, 26 Aug 1993 SLAKE, 24 Jan 1996 IFALL End 24 Sep 1999 ANCHO, 20 May 1995 SLAKE, 17 Jul 1996 IFALL !NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat !NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM); ; July 1996 (c), data as of 2 January 1996; ; , Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150 USA !NOTE: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM); ; July 1996 (c), data as of 2 January 1996; ; , Family History Library, 35 N West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150 USA WFT CD2; !Vital Records of Saybrook Colo WFT CD2; !Vital Records of Saybrook Colony, Extracts from the Land Records 1:14; Lists children, page 38; 1:190 & 1:191, called "Mariner" 3 June 1687; Grandmother's "Family Tree" indicates: Grandmother's "Family Tree" indicates: Greenfield, Larrabee, New London 1637, Fill filed 1671. Not sure exactly what event the date 1637 indicates, or where New London is. Is 1637 birth? Don't know! Greenfield Jr died 4 Feb 1637/38 Genealogical Dictionary of New England S Genealogical Dictionary of New England Settlers Volume 3 page 58 GREENFIELD, Sayrook, had (by his w. [p.58] suppos. to have been a Brown of Providence) Greenfield, b. 20 Apr. 1648; John, 23 Feb. 1650; Eliz. 23 Jan. 1653; Joseph, Mar. 1655, d. young; and Sarah, 3 Mar. 1658. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret Dismant O'Brien, Descendants of Greenfield Larrabee, 1989, provided by Patricia Stone. Greenfield Larrabee, Sr., p. 17 GREENFIELD LARRABEE, SR. Greenfield was born sometime in the 1620s. (American Genealogical Biographical Index, Denver Public Library, Genealogical Department.) How long the family had been in the New World is not known. The Larrabee family were so numerous in the New England area that a concise, logical train of investigation is nearly impossible. Since the Larrabee name does not appear on the list of Mayflower passengers (1620), it is almost positive that they immigrated after that, and that they came from England. To date, the ship's manifests of that time, I have found only one Larrabee, from THE TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF 2,885 ENGLISH EMIGRANTS TO NEW ENGLAND 1620-1650, by CHARLES EDWARD BANKS. LARREBEE, WILLIAM Home: Devonshire, England, Bigbury Parish to Dorchester, Massachusetts on the ship Abigail (page 20:(Devonshire). In the material as copied from Bernon Larrabee's letter (copied in prologue) he has the name spelled "Larrabee" but in checking the original source I found it spelled "Larrebee". The difficulty here of connecting William to Greenfield as related to one another is that Banks did not put the year of any voyage, and further if Greenfield Larrabee's family came in a ship privately owned by one man, the manifest of passengers may not have survived. There seems to be no way of connecting the different branches of Larrabees with one another. One would assume they were related some way, but there is no way to prove it, at least to the present date. The Larrabees are listed as such early settlers, I can hardly believe they were not passengers on the Mayflower, in fact, I wonder yet if there were not Larrabees on the 'Speedwell', the ship that set out with the Mayflower, but had to turn back as unseaworthy, and those people did not reach America for a couple of years; they had to save money to re-outfit a ship. The first mention of Greenfield Larrabee, Sr. is in 1837. He was arrested for working on his boat on a Sunday, during a storm. If his birthdate is in the 1620's, this would make him a teen-ager, and sounds like the kind of thing a boy would do. He could be fairly sure he would not be as severely punished as an adult by the church authorities. You must understand that the Larrabees were Puritans, and the church laws governed every aspect of life in Puritan New England. In the colonies ruled by the Puritans, the age of knowing right from wrong was set at fourteen, the age of understanding was sixteen, and the legal age was twenty one. At no other time in the history of America was a church so powerful, so bigoted and so narrow. (continued, pg 18) Greenfield's family settled in Saybrook, Connecticut, which was settled in 1634-1635, so Greenfield must have been born in England. The family, however, could have been born in England. The family, however, could have moved to the area from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. If the Larrabees came to Connecticutt from England, they were settlers who came to America to colonize with the Warwick land patent. The first white child born in Connecticutt was David Gardiner, born April 29, 1636. The Larrabees had to be Puritans, to have settled in Puritan colonies. Based on the fact that Greenfield worked on the Sabbath, either it was a bad storm and he had to save his boat, or he was not lacking in courage and maybe did not take Puritan ethics too seriously! The American Genealogical Biographical Index has two listings for Greenfield's wife: Phoebe Brown Lee b. 162....?, married Greenfield Larrabee 164.....?. The other listing spelled her name Phebe Brown Lee. I have not found any listing for he under PHOEBA, but on the comprehensive research compiled by Ann Wright, her name is listed as Phoebe. The above book gives Greenfield Sr. and Greenfield Jr. several listings apiece, one of which has a Greenfield listed with a date of 161...?, and one with 162....?. as his birthdate. Since the 162...? date is given two other places, I am fairly sure it is the correct time period, even if we do not know the exact year of his birth. It is such an immense distance back from 1986 to 16.. whatever, and records in the 17th century were so ill-kept and limited in quantity, there are some questions which can never be answered in researching a family history. However, the marriage date given in the Descendants of Greenfield Larrabee In Tracing The Ancestry of Wilber D. Vincent - is obviously wrong. In all the records Greenfield is listed as having only one wife, Phoeba (Phoebe). The above American Genealogical Biographical Index gives the marriage date on both Phoebe's and Greenfield Sr.'s listings as 1648. The date of the births of their children are all indicative of the 1647-1648 date of marriage as the correct one. The names of Greenfield's parents seem not to have survived, nor the names of brothers or sisters, if any. Perhaps his parents died young. The Larrabees named their children consistently family names, and for more than a century used the mother's maiden name as the first name for a son. Since this appears as a definite pattern, the assumption that Greenfield was named for his mother's or grandmother's maiden name seems safe. In very early records, there are families of Greenfields both in the Massachusetts Bay Colony records and early Connecticut records. (1) Greenfield Family (spelled Greenfeild also) from Essex County, England. members of Connecticut Militia in War of 1812. (Newberry Library of Genealogical Index, volume 2.) (2) Greenfield .................Massachusetts persons whose names have been changed (sp) See Indices E 6954205 From Denver Public Library Genealogical Department There are not many references to the Greenfield family, however, just enough to make one wonder if they are related to the Larrabees and if that was how Greenfield got his name. (continued, p. 19) Phoeba (Phoebe) Browne (Brown) was born in England in 162....?. (American Genealogical Biographical Index). The same source says she married Greenfield Larrabee in 1648. She was born in Rusper, Essex, England, the daughter of William and Jane (Burgis) Browne (Brown). Now stop a minute. Taking 20 years as a generation, if Phoebe was born circa 1625, then her parents, William and Jane (Burgis) Brown were born circa 1605. Jane Brown, nee Burgis, Phoebe's mother's parents (Burgis) and her father's parent's (Browne) would have been born circa 1580. In 1580, Elizabeth I (1533-1603), the Virgin Queen was on the throne of England. How many people can say they can trace their lineage back to the time of Elizabeth I, Sir Walter Raleigh and the Spanish Armada in an unbroken line? I'll answer for you, -- not many. We all know we have ancestors going that far back, but have no idea of their names, or where they lived. Essex is directly north-east of London on the North Sea. The town of Rusper is not on the atlas I have. These most ancient of days are part of the history of your family. Phoebe and her first husband, Thomas Lee, came to America on the ship "Passage". En route, Thomas died of small pox. There is no date given. Phoebe and Greenfield were married in 1647-1648. I lean toward the 1647 date, since their first child, Greenfield Jr. was born in April of 1648. Greenfield Sr. died in 1661, and Phoebe married again, to James Cornish, Sr. of New London, Connecticutt and North Hampton, Massachusetts. She died on December 22, 1664, in New Hampton, Massachusetts, surviving her second husband, Greenfield by just three years. When Phoebe died, her children by Greenfield were still very young, and her death made them orphans. Greenfield Jr. was 16, John was 15, Elizabeth 12, and Sarah 6. Nothing is known about who assumed their care; whether Greenfield Jr. was able to do so at 16, or if their step-father did. (continued, p. 20) ----------------- FROM THE GENEALOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NEW ENGLAND STATES VOL. 2 AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Willis mentioned is a chronicler of early New England history. To date I have not been able to find a copy of his history. LARRABEE, Benjamin, Falmouth, son of Isaac, a military man, recovered the property of his father when with his family had been forced to flee from the war, married Deborah, daughter of John Ingersoll, had Benjamin, born 1700, and he died in 1733. See Willis, II, 27. Greenfield, Saybrook, had by his wife supposed to have been a Brown of Providence, Greenfield, born 20 April, 1648, John, born February 23, 1650, Elizabeth, born January 23, 1653, Joseph, born March, 1655, died young, and Sarah, born March 3, 1658. Greenfield, Saybrook, son of the preceding married Alice, daughter of Thomas Parke of New London. Isaac, Falmouth anno 1680, being driven off by Indians went to Lynn, says Willis; had Benjamin, born 1666, at Casco, before mentioned, beside Samuel, and Thomas. In Maine the name spread much. William, married at Malden November 1655, Elizabeth, perhaps daughter of George Felt: was freeman 1690. Sometimes this name is perverted to Leatherby, as very often it was sounded. ------------------------ FROM THE LAND RECORDS OF SAYBROOK, PAGE 14 "The Lands of Greenfield Laribee: "His house and home lot of 2 ac res abutting north to the highway east to the lands of Will Beamon, south to the cove, west to John Clark's land ------------------------------------------ Elizabeth, daughter of Greenfield, Sr. and Phoebe Larrabee, sister of Greenfield, Jr., and an approximately 12th generation great-aunt of the descendants of Greenfield Sr. ma

  
  

• Sources

  [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, Manwaring, Charles William, 1829-1905. A Digest of the Early Connecticut Probate Records. 1904. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, Godfrey Memorial Library; Middletown, Connecticut; American Genealogical Biographical Index; Volume Number: 100. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, Book Title: Hyde Genealogy, or, The Descendants, in the Female as Well as in the Male Lines, From William Hyde,. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74P-XM2 : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for John Larabee, 1649. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2SD-R2S : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for Joseph Larabee, 1655. [S1173462465] FamilySearch.org, FamilySearch FamilyTree, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WV-FSM : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for Sarah Larabee, 1658. [S1173462472] FamilySearch.org, Find a Grave Index, "Find a Grave Index", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVL7-GFMR : Fri Apr 04 03:09:45 UTC 2025), Entry for Greenfield Larabee. [S1173462633] FamilySearch.org, Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74P-X3D : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for Greenfield Larabee, 1648. [S1173462633] FamilySearch.org, Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74P-XM2 : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for John Larabee, 1649. [S1173462633] FamilySearch.org, Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WV-F97 : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for Elizabeth Larabee, 1652. [S1173462633] FamilySearch.org, Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906, "Connecticut, Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7WV-FSM : 7 January 2020), Greenfield Larabee in entry for Sarah Larabee, 1658.