John Strong was an English-born New England colonist, politician, Puritan church leader, tanner and one of the founders of Windsor, Connecticut and Northampton, Massachusetts as well as the progenitor of nearly all the Strong families in what is now the United States.
Background
John Strong was born in England in about 1610 in Chard, Somerset, England and emigrated to Massachusetts with his pregnant wife and a one-year-old child in 1635 aboard the sailing ship Hopewell. With a one-year-old son to take care of, John Strong Junior., in December of 1635 John Senior married sixteen-year-old Mary & John (1630) passenger Abigail Ford, daughter of Thomas Ford and Elizabeth Charde.
Career
He was referred to as Elder John Strong because he was an Elder in the church. They settled originally in Hingham, Massachusetts, a New-Plymouth Colony, in 1635. In 1638 he was made a "Freeman" (eligible to vote in town and colony elections and serve in the church), and went to Taunton, Massachusetts.
While in Taunton, Strong represented the town in the General Court of Plymouth Colony for four years, from 1641 to 1644.
He later moved to Windsor, Connecticut, on the Connecticut River where he was a leading figure in the new Connecticut colony. In 1659 he moved 40 miles further up the river to the Connecticut River town of Northampton, Massachusetts—then a frontier town surrounded by Indians about 100 miles (160 km) inland from Boston.
In 1661, John Strong was one of the eight men who founded the First Church of Northampton. Of their number, Eleazer Mather, the older brother of Boston minister Increase Mather, was chosen as the first pastor.
Two years later, 1663, Strong was ordained an elder of the church.
The following year, he and several other church leaders extended a call to Solomon Stoddard, who formally accepted in 1672, and was ordained by John Strong. John Strong died on April 14, 1699, at Northampton and is buried at the Bridge Street Cemetery, Northampton Massachusetts. John Strong was the first of the Strong family to settle in New England, and is the ancestor to most of that name in the United States.
His descendants include many prominent figures in the early history of the United States, including perhaps most notably his great-grandson, Caleb Strong, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a United States Senator, and Governor of Massachusetts from 1800-1807 and 1812-1816.
Views
One of the early settlers of the town, he operated a tannery for many years, helped defend the town against Indian attacks during King Philip"s War (1675-1676) and also played an important role in town and church affairs
Membership
In addition, Strong"s descendants included, as of 1889, three other governors, four other Senators, 12 Congressmen, four members of the Continental Congress, and 29 judges, including United States Supreme Court justice William Strong, who served from 1870 to 1880.