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- The will of Thomas Durfee of Portsmouth, dated 4 Feb 1709/10, proved 17 July 1712, mentions wife Deliverance; sons Richard (eldest), Thomas, William, Richard (dec'd), and Benjamin (youngest); daughters Patience Tallman and Deliverance Durfee (youngest); grandsons, sons of Richard: Richard & Thomas.
"Thomas DURFEE (742) was born in 1643 in England. LDS Family Search Ancestral File indicates that he was born Oct 1643 in Portsmouth, RI, where he was also chistened. (AFN: 9M2P-N5 & film # 1760781) Bonnie Hubbard's material indicates that he was born in England in 1643. He died on 14 Jul 1712 in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI. He was buried in Portsmouth, Newport Co., RI. (LDS Family Search Ancestral File, AFN: 9M2P-N5) IMMIGRANT - "The Durfee article in Boyer, p. 183, says that there were no Durfees in England before 1628 nor after 1723 and that they were probably French Huguenot. The first in America was Thomas, born in England in 1643. Family tradition (Reed) says he came to Portsmouth in 1660 and 'The recorded evidence of his appearing at the session of the Colonial General Assembly of Rhode Island, in October 1664, carries unmistakable proof of his presence in the Colony many months previous to that session.' The family wasn't admitting it even as late as 1902 but Boyer describes the proof: 'In 1664 the 'insoelent carriadge of Thomas Durfee with the sayd [Peter] Tallmans wife' was brought to the attention of the Rhode Island General Assembly {RCRI, 2:85], and on 3 May 1665 Peter Tallman was given a divorce from his wife as she admitted she had had a child 'begotten by another man' [RCRI, 2:123].' Thomas probably came as a redemptioner. Such a person was one who couldn't pay his passage and was sold at auction for the lowest term of years for which anyone would take him. Thomas was admitted a freeman of Portsmouth in 1673 and served on a petit jury in 1677. He was elected Constable for one year terms in 1687 and 1690. He was chosen one of the Overseers of the Poor in 1691 and made a Deputy that same year and again in 1694. He was elected to the town council in 1692 and again in 1694. It appears that the townspeople had forgiven if not forgotten his sin. I wonder what Peter Tallman was like -- in 1683 he had moved to Guilford, near New Haven, Connecticut, and sold eight acres of Portsmouth land to Thomas Durfee for
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1643 - 1712 (69 years)
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