Comfort Starr | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 2 January 1659 Boston,
Massachusetts Bay Colony | (aged 69)
Resting place |
King's Chapel Burying Ground Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Nationality | English |
Occupation | Physician |
Spouse |
Elizabeth Watts
(
m. 1613; died 1658) |
Comfort Starr (6 July 1589 – 2 January 1659) was a 17th-century English physician who emigrated to the Thirteen Colonies. He was one of the founders of Harvard College, serving as a member of the earliest incarnation of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Starr was born in Cranbrook, Kent, [1] on 6 July 1589. [2] He was one of the seventeen children of Thomas Starr. [3]
In 1635, aged 45, Starr left the Kingdom of England aboard the Hercules, which launched from Sandwich, Kent. He settled in Cambridge, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, [4] where he was a founder of Harvard College the following year. [2] [5] He came with three of his children and three servants; his wife followed with most of the other children. [1] One of his daughters did not emigrate until after his death. [6]
His sister, Suretrust, also emigrated, and lived in Charlestown, Colony of Massachusetts Bay, with her husband Faithful Rouse. [7]
Prior to his family's emigration, Starr was a warden at St Mary's Parish Church in Ashford, Kent, where he also had a surgery. [3] [7]
Starr married Elizabeth Watts on 4 October 1614. They had nine children: Thomas (1615–1658), Judith (1617–1622), Mary (1620), Elizabeth (1621–1704), Comfort (1624–1711), John (1626–1704), Samuel (1628–1633), Hannah (1632–1662) and Lydia (1634–1653). [8] Mary married John Maynard in 1640. [9] Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, was a descendant of John. [10]
After arriving in the Massachusetts Bay, in 1635 he purchased the homestead of William Peyntree in Duxbury. [6] The family moved to Boston just over a decade later. [6]
Their grandson, Comfort Starr (1666–1743), built the Comfort Starr House in Guilford, Connecticut Colony, in 1695. [11]
Starr died on 2 January 1659, aged 69, just over six months after the death of his wife. [10] They are buried in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. [2] A memorial plaque to Starr was installed in St Dunstan's Church in Cranbrook, Kent, where he was baptised. [8] [12]