The Bliss Family

Our Bliss family is believed to be the same as the Blois family of Normandy, gradually modified to Bloys, Blyss, Blysse, Blisse, and in America, to Bliss. The family has been in England since the time of the Norman con­quest. The same coat of arms is borne by the Bliss and Bloys families, viz.: "Sable a bend vaire between two fleurs-de-lis or. Crest: — a hand holding a bundle of arrows. Motto: Semper Surum." The ancient tradition of the Bliss family represents them as living in the south of England and belonging to the yeomanry, though at various times some of them were knighted.
The first of our branch of this family of whom we have definite knowledge was Thomas Bliss.
THOMAS BLISS, born about 1560, in Belstone Parish, Devonshire, England, died in 1636. He was a wealthy land owner. He was also a devout Puritan, and frequently found himself in conflict with both civil and religious authorities. In fact, on numerous occasions he was imprisoned and heavily fined because of his religious convictions. This ultimately reduced him to poverty and ruined his health. His sons, Thomas, Jr., George and Jonathan, shared his persecution and imprisonment. After losing all his possessions, Thomas Bliss and his wife went to live with his daughter, Eliza­beth, who had married Sir John Calcliffe, a member of the established church. His sons were advised to go to America to escape further persecu­tion. Accordingly, Thomas, Jr. and George emigrated to America in the fall of 1635. However, Jonathan being ill, was unable to leave and died in 1636. Jonathan’s son, Thomas, II, later came to the New World and settled near his uncle, Thomas Bliss, Jr.
THOMAS BLISS JR., born in 1585, in Belstone, Devonshire, England. In 1613, he married Margaret Lawrence of that town. She was born in 1594. Thomas, Jr. moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1638, and died in that town in 1639. After his death his widow managed the affairs of the family with prudence and good judgment. In 1643, fearing the epidemic of "fevers" then prevalent in that section of Connecticut, Margaret Bliss sold her property and moved with her children to Springfield, Massachusetts. She purchased a tract of land a mile square in Springfield, in the south part of the settlement. One of the streets of this section is still named "Bliss". Margaret Bliss died on August 29, 1684, 45 years after the death of her husband and nearly 50 years after her immigration to America. The first of the ten children born to Thomas Bliss, Jr. and Margaret Bliss, was Ann Bliss.
ANN BLISS, born in 1614, in Belstone, Devonshire, England. She came to America with her parents when about 20 years of age. On April 29, 1643, she married Robert Chapman, a first settler of Saybrook.
The Bliss Family thus merges into the Chapman Family.