Francis Brown b. 1610 9th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

Francis Brown was born in England and sailed to America by 1636 when he married Mary Edwards. Francis connected with a Boston group led by Theophilus Eaton (would become gov’r) and John Davenport (religious leader).

In August 1637 Francis was part of an expedition searching for a new settlement, they found Quinnipiac (today East Haven, CT, also the name of a Native American nation long gone). Francis was one of seven to stay behind and begin building a settlement for all the group to join spring of 1638. “We may imagine they spent their time hewing, cleaving and sawing, hunting, trapping and collecting by bartering with the natives beaver and other furs.” The land was probably purchased with “twelve coats of English cloth, twelve alchemy spoons, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, twelve porringers, and four cases of French knives & scissors.” New Haven Connecticut was officially founded April 14, 1638, the first planned city in America, a “Nine Square Plan”.

In 1639 Francis became a freeman. In 1645 Francis asked the colonial court for a bit of land in exchange for being an on call ferryman. Francis stayed in New Haven until his death, noted in Connecticut Town Death Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection) at Ancestry. “Brown, Francis the first of that family d. 1668.”

Francis Brown 1610-1668
Eleazer Brown 1642-1714
Rebecca Brown 1684-1768
Mary English 1715-1791
Elizabeth Connable 1757-1821
William Newcomb Gaines 1825-1907
Mary Ella Gaines 1855-1917
William Earl Miller 1879-1949
Faber Miller 1905-1957 m. Gladys Cable 1913-1991

Sources:
Land in exchange for ferry. Page 165 New-Haven Colony. Records of the Colony And Plantation of New Haven. Hartford: Case, Tiffany and company, 1857.

7 who stayed behind. Page 63 Atwater, Edward E. History of the Colony of New Haven, New Haven: Printed for the author, 1881

At Wikipedia, sources are provided
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Eaton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Davenport_(clergyman)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Haven,_Connecticut