Conklin Family

Unproven and controversial, but plausible, origins of the Westchester, NY, Conklin Family

By 1638, the Conklin brothers - John and Ananias, of Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England - had emigrated (1637-1640) from Nuthall, Nottinghamshire, England to Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where they were welcomed as glassmakers. Nuthall, Nottinghamshire, England, was a center known for the manufacture of bottle glass and window glass.*

However, there were three Concklin glassmakers in Nuthall and it appears from church marriage records there that the third glassmaker - Jacob Conklin (c. 1615 in Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England - bef.1642, Nottingham, England) - was related in some way to John and Ananias. All three originally came from Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England - another glassmaking area in the midlands near Burmingham. In Nuthall, Jacob married Elizabeth Hickton and they had children - John (c.1635, ? Nuthall - c.1678, Eastchester, NY), Cornelius (2 Jul 1637, Nuthall, England - 1667/68, Salem, MA), and Philip (?-?). Jacob died by 1642, about three years after the marriage, and Elizabeth remarried Thomas Cooke (? -1650), 'pistor' [baker] and 'bachellar' of Ilkeston, Co. Derby, England," just across the Nottinghamshire border.*

There appears to have been a strong connection between John Concklin "The Orphan" and later "of Flushing & Rye" with John Concklin "The Puritan" (b.1598, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England) and associated with Nuthall, England, Salem, MA, and Southold, LI, NY, where he died on 23 Feb 1684. DNA analyses of Conklin descendants strongly suggest that neither John "The Puritan" nor his brother, Ananais (b. 1594 in Kingswinford and associated with Nuthall, England, Salem, MA, Southold, LI, NY, and East Hampton, NY), is the father or uncle of John "of Flushing & Rye". Whether they are even of the same family is doubtful. It is possible that Jacob Conklin was not a blood relative or that Jacob was not the biological father of Elizabeth Hickton's son, John.*

Whether or not Elizabeth and her 2nd husband, Thomas Cooke, emigrated to Salem is moot for both apparently died before 1650. The three orphaned children - John, Cornelius, Philip - seem to have come to live with their uncles in Salem, MA: John and Phillip with the family of John Conklin and Cornelius with the family of Ananais Conlkin.*

When the Conklin brothers - John "The Puritan" and Ananais - left Salem (between 1637 and 1640) for Long Island, NY, Cornelius Conklin remained in Salem and would marry Mary Aborne in 1666.** It appears that John "The Orphan" left for Long Island, NY, with John Concklin & Elizabeth Myler Allseabrook, along with their own children - one of whom also was named John II and would marry Sarah Horton.

In 1661, John "The Orphan" had married Helena/Magdalena and recorded as living in Flushing, Queens, NY.**

It is interesting that the given name "Jacob" appears among the children of John and Ananias as well as among the grandchildren of John Concklin of Flushing & Rye, but Ananias (by some accounts the father of John) never reoccurs in either line. **

It may be more than coincidental the Hortons and Budds of Southold and Rye, were closely connected to John Conklin of Flushing & Rye. John Conklin of "F & R" purchased land in Rye, NY (then Connecticut), on 19 Jul 1665 from John Budd of London, England and a founding member of New Haven, Southold, and Rye. In 1676 John Conklin of "F & R" sold his Rye property to John/Jonathan and Joseph Horton of Southold, NY. This suggests that they may all have been neighbors in Southold at some time before 1661.

* Charlotte L. Giltner: "John Concklin of Flushing, LI, and Rye, New York.
A Tentative Compilation." 15 January 1990

** Conklin Mann: "John Concklin of Flushing and Rye, New York."
The American Genealogist, Vol. 21 page 48.