Richard Stratton - Two Years in Watertown

     Richard Stratton, my 8th great-grandfather lived in the Massachusetts Colony for about 26 months.  In that time a few records about him have survived.   
     Richard Stratton was a son of Samuel Stratton.  Samuel had arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts sometime before 1647.  Samuel had settled in Watertown with his wife, Alice and two of his sons, Samuel and John.  Richard Stratton arrived in Massachusetts in late spring or early summer of 1656, aboard the Speedwell.   

1656 A lyst of the passengers aboard the Speedwell of London
Robert Lock Master bound for New England¹

     The next two documents pertaining to Richard appear in the records of Watertown, Massachusetts².  On April 8, 1658, a son named, Samuel, is born to Richard and Susannah Stratton in Watertown.  A little less than four months later, Richard Stratton died.   

Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850

     Richard's death gives rise to the last record, a Probate record, regarding Richard.  According to A Book of Strattons³, Richard's estate left no land to his wife or son.  

     Richard's wife remarried a few years later and lived in Concord, Massachusetts.  Richard's son, Samuel, was mentioned in his grandfather, Samuel's will and Samuel received land when he became of age. 

     Richard is most likely buried in the Old Burying Place in Watertown since it was the active cemetery at that time.  The land that Samuel Stratton owned was in close proximity.

Standing near some Stratton graves at the Old Burying Place in Watertown

1. "The passenger list of the "Speedwell," 1656 - Beinecke Rare ..." 2013. 3 Aug. 2014 <http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3522732>
2. Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2010).
3.  Stratton, Harriet Russell, A Book of Strattons; being a collection of Stratton records from England and Scotland, and a genealogical history of the early colonial Strattons in America, with five generations of their descendants Volume 1, The Grafton Press, New York, 1908

No Legend in this Sleepy Hollow

     It is that time of year again.  It is a time for scary movies and stories.  One such story that has endured almost two hundred years is the Washington Irving short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with the Headless Horseman.  There is also a new television show called Sleepy Hollow.  Wouldn't it be sort of cool if our ancestor was buried in the real Sleepy Hollow?
     I have located the graves of a few of my Stratton ancestors.  Mary Stratton Fox is buried in Buckingham Cemetery in Glastonbury, Connecticut.  Her grandfather, Enoch Stratton is buried just down the road in Old Eastbury Cemetery, but I haven't been able to locate any other Stratton graves.  The first two generation of Strattons in Massachusetts are probable buried somewhere in Watertown or Cambridge but the third generation Stratton, Samuel should be buried somewhere in or near Concord, where he passed away.

"Concord, Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Towns Records, 1627-2001." Images. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org : accessed 2013.

     There are three cemeteries in Concord: South Burying Place, Old Hill Burying Ground, and Sleepy Hollow.   Sleepy Hollow is a large and interesting cemetery but unfortunately Samuel is not buried there.  The town started using Sleepy Hollow as a burial place about one-hundred years after Samuel died.  I haven't found a listing for Samuel Stratton in the other Concord cemeteries, both of which were in use at the time of his death.
     Even if Samuel Stratton was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord he wouldn't have been buried where the Headless Horseman was located.  That Sleepy Hollow is in New York, not Massachusetts.

    [Note: A number of famous authors are buried in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery including:  Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.]