Robert Titus:
Robert Titus was born in 1600. He was the first Titus immigrant from England to America and is the progenitor of many of the Tituses in America today. Marriage records of the parish register of Watford, England show a Robert Titus and an Anne Carter who were married on June 24, 1624. Based on the date and similar names it has been assumed by other genealogists that this record refers to Robert Titus and Hannah Carter of St. Katherines who immigrated to America on the Hopewell on April 3, 1635.
Robert Titus is described on the Hopwell's passenger list as being a husbandman (farmer). Robert was 35 years old when he took his family; Hannah age 31, John age 8 and Edmond age 5 and embarked with a minister's certificate from St. Katherine's by the Tower in the city of London. The following is the entry in the passenger list for April 3rd, 1635:
Theis underwritten names are to be transported to New England, imbarqued in ye Hopewell, Mr. WM. BUNDICK, the pties have brought certificates from the Minister and Justices of the Peace, that they are no subsedy men. The have taken the oath of allegeance and supremacie.
ROBERT TITUS, husbandman of
St. Katherines............................35
Uxor HANNA TITUS...................... 31
John. Titus.......................................8
Edmond.......................................5
The family arrived in Boston a few weeks after leaving London and Robert was granted some land in the present town of Brookline, Massachusetts. They lived in Brookline for two or three years and then moved to the town of Weymouth. Robert's land in Weymouth is described in the town records and is printed on page 274 of The History of Weymouth:
The practice of banishing a family from the colony was known as a "Warning
Out Notice" and the actual Warning Out of the Titus family was the first
recorded in the Plymouth Colony Record (22. p. 52):
6 June
Robert Titus enformed this Court, that hee, haueing sold his house and land att
Rehoboth, and being ere long to remoue out of this goument, and that Mr Browne
had layed an attachment vpon some pte of his estate to the vallue of aboue fifty
pounds, requiring him to cecure the towne of Rehoboth of Abner Ordway; and vpon
hearing and debateing the matter, it did euidently appeer that the said Robert
Titus had, contrary to the mind of the towne, receiued into and harbored in his
house as inmates Abner Ordway and a woman, psons of euill fame, with children.
It is therefore ordered by the Court, that the said Titus, when hee remoueth
himselfe and famyly, shall carry the said Abner, and all that appertaineth vnto
him, or else giue such cecuritie as Mr Browne shall see meet for the saueing the
inhabitants of the towne harmles from any determent that may befall them by
Abner Ordway, or any such as belong vnto him; and in the interim of his
remoueall to repaire such dammage as any shall sustaine therby.
Robert took his family to Long Island in the summer of 1654 after being forced
out of Plymouth Colony. His son Edmond had moved to Long Island four years
earlier and later became a Quaker. Robert settled near Oyster Bay in Huntington,
Long Island. Robert and Hannah had 6 children:
1. John b. in England in 1627 d. Apr. 16, 1689
2. Edmond b. in England in 1630 d. 1727
3. Samuel b. ? d. ?
4. Susanna b. ? d. ?
5. Abiel b. in Weymouth, MA - March 17,1640 d. 1736/37
6. Content b. in Weymouth, MA - March 28,1643 d. Jan. 17, 1730
Robert's oldest son John was a land holder in Rehoboth in 1654 and remained
there when his father moved to Long Island. John had
several children and is the ancestor of most of the New England Tituses today.
Robert probably died before 1679 when his wife Hannah's will was read.