Jared Eliot - Family

Family

Jared’s family tree – beginning with his grandfather John Eliot and his wife Hannah – is extensive, with several children from each marriage. John and Hannah Eliot had six children. Their first two children were named after them; Hannah was the firstborn, followed by John. Joseph was born on December 20, 1638, the only son to bear grandchildren of John and Hannah. Next was Samuel (born June 22, 1641); however, he died shortly after receiving his advanced degree from Harvard in the 1660s. Aaron, the fifth-born, died at age 11. The youngest child was Benjamin; born in January 1647, he graduated from Harvard and became his father's assistant in teaching the Indians.

Since Joseph was the only child of John and Hannah to bear children, Jared had no cousins – only siblings, an aunt and his uncles. Joseph was married twice, fathering children from both marriages (four from each). Joseph first married Sarah, daughter of William and Martha (Burton) Brenton of Rhode Island, in 1676. All of the children borne by Sarah were girls (Mehitabel, Ann, Jemima and Barsheba), and all four daughters married well. Joseph's second marriage was to Mary Wyllys, and Jared was the firstborn of the second marriage; his younger siblings were Mary, Rebecca and Abiel. Both Mary and Rebecca married several times – Mary four times; her last husband was Samuel Hooker of Farmington, Connecticut. Rebecca married three times; her last husband was Capt. William Dudley of North Guilford, Connecticut.

Jared had a difficult childhood, since his father died when he was only eight years old. Since Jared’s father and grandfather had both been physicians, he took up the practice. Jared also became a minister, in accordance with his father's dying wish. He determined to live a successful life, to preserve his family's reputation; one of his goals was to “obtain a liberal education in ‘an academic course of studies’”.