The Hosmer Family

Two brothers, Thomas and James Hosmer, came to Massachusetts in the early days of that colony. They were the sons of Stephen and Dorothy Hosmer of Hawkhurst, Kent County, England. Thomas was the first to leave home and cross the Atlantic. Three years later his brother, James, came over in the Ship Elizabeth from London (1635). James at that time was 28 years of age and with him were his wife, Ann, and two small daughters, Mary and Ann; also two maid servants. He settled at Concord, Mass.
THOMAS HOSMER, the elder of the two immigrants, was born at Hawkhurst, Kent County, England, in December, 1603. He came to Mass., in 1632, and settled at Newton (now Cambridge) where he was admitted freeman in 1635. In June, 1636, he (and Thomas Bull) left Newton with the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his party, and assisted in the founding of Hartford, Conn., being one of the original settlers. In the first record of "Town Proprietors" of land we find that he was assigned sixty acres on January 14, 1639. His name on the old Colonial records is sometimes written "Osmer." He became a prominent member of the new settlement and was constable, selectman and representative several times. He was twice married. His first wife was Frances (surname unknown). She was born in England in 1602. She died at Hartford on February 15, 1675, at the age of 73. On May 6, 1679, Thomas Hosmer married Catherine Wilton, widow of David Wilton, at Hartford, Conn. After his second marriage he moved to Northamp­ton. He died there on April 12, 1687. Thomas and Frances Hosmer had four children, the second of whom was Hester Hosmer.
HESTER HOSMER, born in 1646, at Hartford, Conn. On Sept. 20, 1666, she married the Rev. Thomas Buckingham, Jr., son of Thomas and Hannah Buckingham, of Milford, Conn. They resided in Saybrook.

The Hosmer family thus merges into the Buckingham family.