| Notes |
- Dr. Comfort Starr immigrated with children Thomas, Comfort, Jr., Mary and"Truth-Shall-Prevail", probably daughter Elizabeth, on the Hercules ofSandwich, which arrived in the summer of 1634. They were accompanied bySamuel Dunkin and John Turvey. Comfort is listed as "of Ashford,Chirurgeon", and bound for Cambridge. It seems likely that his wife,having just given birth to twin girls Ruth and Liddia about two weeksbefore their sailing date, followed sometime later with young Hannah andthe newborns, perhaps with Comfort's brothers Joyful and Jehosahat,though a record of their crossing has not been found.
Comfort must have known the owners of the Hercules, for the followingdeposition was taken in England shortly before they sailed: "ComfortStarr of Ashford in the county of Kent, chirurgeon, aged 45, deposes 11February, 1634-5, that about the latter end of November last JohnWitherIcy of Sandwich, mariner, did buy at Dunkirk a certain Flemishbuilt shipp lately called the St. Peter, now the Hercules of Sandwich,for the sum of Ð340 the first penny, which shipp now lies at Sandwich,and is of the burthen of 200 tonnes. Examinate, being noe seaman, cannottell of what length, breadth or depth she is, but he guesseth her to beabout twelve foote broad above the hatches, fowerscore foote longe, andsix-teene foote deepe. She belongs to this examinate. John Witherley,Nathaniel Tilden and Mr. Osborne, and William Hatch is to have a parte inher with this examinate."
Comfort was a physician, and the first of the name in New England. Hemarried Elizabeth. He died at Boston, Jan. 1660, and Elizabeth died therein 1658.
Comfort was of Cambridge 1635, Duxbury 1640, also at Yarmouth for a shorttime, then removed in 1643 to Boston and spent the later years of hislife there. He was one of the first surgeons to come to the colony, andwas one of the charter fellows of Harvard College in 1650.
His will was dated Apr. 22, 1659. In it, he provides for son John, fivedaughters of daughter Maynard deceased, the children of son Thomas,deceased, his grandson Simon Eyre, the three children of ElizabethFerniside wife of John, his daughter Elizabeth and his daughter-in-law,widow of Thomas. He also bequeaths to, in England, daughter Hannah, andhe gives to son Comfort, and his heirs, the house and land at Ashford,County Kent.
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1589 - 1660 (70 years)
