 1633 - 1688
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| Name |
Simon Couch [1, 2, 3] |
| Born |
1633 |
Devonshire, England  |
| Gender |
Male |
| Died |
15 Mar 1688 |
Greens Farms, Fairfield Co, CT |
- Simon Couch - Will 22 Dec 1687, probated 1689.
|
| Buried |
Couch Burial Hill, Greens Farms, Fairfield Co, CT |
| Person ID |
I2771 |
adkinshorton |
| Last Modified |
11 Mar 2020 |
| Father |
Lewis Couch, b. 20 Sep 1583, Hartland, Devonshire, England , d. Hartland, Devonshire, England |
| Mother |
Isot Maine, b. 1590, Hartland, Devonshire, England , d. 16 Jul 1610, Hartland, Devonshire, England |
| Married |
16 Jul 1610 |
Hartland, Devonshire, England |
| Family ID |
F27051 |
Group Sheet |
| Family |
Mary Frances ANDREWS, b. Abt 1645, Fairfield, Fairfield Co, CT , d. 1691, Fairfield, Fairfield Co, CT |
| Married |
1664 |
Fairfield Co, CT |
| Children |
| | 1. Thomas COUCH, b. 1659, d. 1689 |
| | 2. Mary COUCH, b. 1663 |
| > | 3. Simon COUCH, II, b. 1669, Fairfield, Fairfield Co, CT , d. 1713 |
| > | 4. Samuel COUCH, b. 1666, Westport, Fairfield Co, CT , d. 11 Dec 1739, Westport, Fairfield Co, CT |
| > | 5. Martha COUCH, b. 1667, d. 1725 |
| > | 6. Sarah COUCH, b. 1669 |
| > | 7. Hannah COUCH, b. Abt 1671, Fairfield, Fairfield Co, CT |
|
| Documents |
 | Simon Couch & Mary Frances Andrews - Marriage Record (compiled)
New England Marriages Prior to 1700, page 186 |
| Histories |
 | History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield - Couch References
Compiled & Edited by Donald Lines Jacobus, 1902
(retyped as searchable PDF 2011) |
| Family ID |
F20130 |
Group Sheet |
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| Notes |
- Simon treated slavery as indentured servitude. He became a free man in 1665 having endentured himself to the Andrews family for his passage over from Plymouth. Plymouth is close to Cornwall, England. By the time of his death, he owned two neighboring "bankside farms," on Long Island sound in CT and had 3 businesses. In his will, his slaves were to be set free and were each given 8 acres of the farm lands.
Unfortunately, when I copied the above statement about Simon Couch's treatment of slaves, I did not record the source. It is important to note that despite any benefit received by indentured people (of all colors including white), indentured people were essentially owned and treated poorly. Some did become free and climb to success, but this was not typical. If they did not in their "owner's" view proved to be loyal, many were sold into slavery. During Simon's lifetime, freeing slaves and giving them land may have been a good thing, and yet it was really only a small thing compared to what slaves endured in slavery. In later years, slave owners were required by law to support slaves they had liberated, and were also required to give them 50 acres each...so Simon's gifts, while perhaps better than many slave owners of his time, were not special and good, but were minimal, and could easily leave his freed slaves to a life even worse than slavery in his care. In fact, it was practices such as his, of freeing slaves and not necessarily assisting them afterward, that prompted the passing of laws to prevent such practices or penalize them to ensure freed people could survive without criminal activities they were often forced to engage in just to stay alive.
— Footnote by Doug Couch, 2020
- Buried at Couch Burial Hill, Fairfield Co., CT
Will 22 Dec 1687, proved 15 Mar 1687/8; wife Mary; eldest son Thomas; 2nd son Simon; 3rd son Samuel; brother's son Thomas Couch that lives with me; brother's daughter living at John Grumman's; cousin Susannah Couch living at Milford; eldest daughters, Mary and Martha; daughters Sarah and Hannah. - "History & Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield" by Donald Lines Jacobus, Eunice Dennie Burr Chapter DAR, Fairfield, CT, 1930. Allen Co. Public Library, Ft. Wayne, IN. Gc 974.602 F161j
Simon Couch was made a freeman 13 Oct 1664 - "History of Fairfield Vol 1 1889" pg 364 ("50 Puritan Ancestors")
The History of Fairfield Co, CT 1700-1800 Vol.1 gives Simon's will as 22 Dec 1687, proved in 1689. If his death date is 15 Mar 1687/88, the sequence is correct, allowing for transcription errors in how the dates were to be recorded.
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| Sources |
- [S18732] History & Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield, Jacobus, Burr, DAR 1930.
- [S18733] History of Fairfield.
- [S18734] 50 Puritan Ancestors.
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