Elias Gillett

Other Events and Attributes:

• Other-Begin: 4 Feb 1609/10, Chaffcome, Somersetshire, England; appointed rector

Notes:

BIRTH AND POSSIBLE ANCESTRY: In an article in The American Genealogist (July, 1979) by George E. McCracken, he suggests that it is unlikely that Gillett is French in origin and disagrees with the view of writers who suggest that the Gillett family originally were Huguenots. He points out that the name Gillett is found in west country records before there were any Protestants. It is believed that Jonathan and Nathan were among the children born before the institution of their father as rector of Chaffcome, Somersetshire, on 4 Feb 1609/10 and that they were baptized at some other parish that is unknown as yet. He suggests that future research ought to be concentrated on getting a complete reading of all occurrences of the name in the parish registers of Bruton, Somersetshire, and of Muchelney, Craneborun and Caudle Hatton, all in Dorset.
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Ever since the publication of the will of Rev. William Gillett, Rector of Chaffcombe, Somersetshire [ NYGBR 41:282-83], Jonathan and Nathan Gillett of Dorchester and Windsor have been considered his sons, although there have been some nagging doubts. In 1979 George E. McCracken published additional information which makes the identification solid [TAG 55:170-73]. McCracken suggested that Jonathan, Nathan and some of their siblings were born before 1610, when William Gillett was instituted at Chaffcombe; but we only have scattered Bishops' Transcripts for some of the years after 1610, and there is a ten-year gap when several Gillett children could have been born. Jonathan was probably older than Elias, who was baptized on 11 February 1611/2 and so could well have been born at an earlier residence for the family. Nathan, however, need not have been born until 1613, and he could have been born at Chaffcombe, next after Elias, during a period when neither the parish register nor the Bishops' Transcripts survive for that parish.
https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/5244153