Thomas Lechford, Esq.

Not the same as Thomas Lechford

Thomas LECHFORD, Esq.

• Birth: ca. 1590, England
• Death: 1644(?), England
• Occupation: solicitor, author
• Historical: America's first practicing attorney
• Marriage: by 1639, probably earlier
• Migration-1: 27 Jun 1638, arrived Boston from England
• Migration-2: 3 Aug 1641, departed Boston for England
• Wife: Elizabeth __?__
• Birth: ca. 1600, presumably in England
• Death: aft. 1657, presumably in MA
• Other Spouse: m2. 1644/5, Samuel WILBORE
• Other Spouse: m3. 20 Feb 1656/7, Henry BISHOP
• Children: (none) -

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Biography

Appleton's cyclopedia of American biography, vol. 3 (Grinnell - Lockwood), by Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914, ed; Fiske, John, 1842-1901, joint ed. (New York: Appleton, 1887), p. 651. < GoogleBooks >

Thomas Lechford (c. 1590 – 1644) was an English lawyer and author who wrote about his experiences in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Born in London, Lechford emigrated to Boston in 1638. He became the first man to practice law in New England. Lechford returned to England in 1641, very dissatisfied with his experiences in the colony. Lechford published Plaine Dealing, or Newes from New England (London, 1642), and New England's Advice to Old England (1644). A new edition of Plaine Dealing with notes by J. Hammond Trumbull was published in 1867.

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Origins

From THOMAS G. BARNES, Thomas Lechford and the Earliest Lawyering in Massachusetts, 1638–1641 < link >

Of his family background, nothing is known. J. Hammond Trumbull speculated in the introduction to the 1885 edition of the Lechford’s Note-Book that Lechford was a descendant of Sir Richard Lechford of Shelwood, Surrey (obiit 1611) and therefore closely related to Sir Richard’s grandson and heir, a knight of the same name and Gentleman Pensioner, who was a notorious Roman Catholic at the court of Charles I until put from his place in 1634 for attempting to send two of his daughters to nunneries in Europe.This is unprovable.

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References

1. Clarence Almon Torry. 1985. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA (reprinted 1997, Genealogical Publ. Co., Baltimore, MD): p. 458 LECHFORD, Thomas (-1648?, 1645?) & Elizabeth ? , m/2 Samuel WILBUR 1645, m/3 Henry BISHOP 1657; b 1645?; Boston
2. http://dgmweb.net/FGS/L/LechfordThomas-Elizabeth_.html.
3. Hale, Edward Everett, 1863-1932; Trumbull, J. Hammond (James Hammond), 1821-1897. Note-book kept by Thomas Lechford, Esq., lawyer, in Boston, Massachusetts Bay, from June 27, 1638, to July 29, 1641 by Lechford, Thomas, ca. 1590-1644?; Page XIV < Archive.Org > “ Of the birth and parentage of Thomas Lechford (1590-1644) or of his early life, I have no certain knowledge. His surname is that of a family which, at about the middle of the sixteenth century, became seated at Leigh, near Reigate, in the county of Surrey, where Henry Lechford, great-grandson of a Thomas Lechford who lived in the reign of Edward IV. (1401-1482), bought the manors of Shellwood and Charlwood, with other estates. … From succeeding pages of his Note-look we gather some — but scanty and unsatisfactory — knowledge of his domestic relations. His wife is mentioned in 1639 and afterwards ; and, as no evidence has been discovered of his marriage on this side of the water, we infer that she accompanied him from England ; but he nowhere gives any information of her family, nor even introduces her Christian name.”
4. Barnes, Thomas G. Thomas Lechford and the Earliest Lawyering in Massachusetts, 1638–1641 link > “He and his wife, who apparently joined him in 1639, had a maid and ate the “best suger.” He sported a “silver laced coate and a gold wrought cap” and his wife a “tuft holland” waistcoat in 1639 and a new gown in 1640. There was beer for his table, and he smoked Spanish tobacco from Venezuela, the most expensive at the time. Moreover, in September 1640 he was able to buy a house and garden in Boston from a tailor who removed to Connecticut. Whatever Lechford’s status before, he was no longer, as Trumbull erred in supposing, “not even a householder; in the eye of the law . . . merely a ‘transient.’””
5. Plain dealing: or News from New England. With an introduction and notes by J. Hammond Trumbull. < Hathitrust >