scar Weed, who lives in the old Sears homestead at Mill Plains, CT., has a deed dated July 10, 1739, from Robt. Hebard, Jr., and Ruth, his wife, of the town and county of Windham, CT, to James Sears, late of Yarmouth, county Barnstable, Province of Mass. bay, of a tract of land in Windham, near the Shautucket river, containing 52 acres, the consideration being £275. How long James Sears remained in Windham, if he lived there at all, is not known, but he is supposed to have removed to Mill Plains, then a part of Ridge- field, about 1740-45, although his name does not appear in "listable estates" of Ridgefield for 1746. James Sears was chosen pathmaster, Kent, CT (which is near by,) Apr. 7,1747, and in 1756, of the Old Gilead Church in Carmel. He was one of the organizers of the Congregational Church in Ridgebury, (the northern society of Ridgefield) in 1769. After the death of his wife, Desire, he lived with his son Comfort, and tradition tells of his orderly habits and rigid religious observances. When he first settled in Ridgefield wild turkeys and other game abounded. It is related that one Sabbath morning a flock of wild turkeys alighted in his cornfield. Taking his gun he started to shoot them, but remembering that it was the Lord’s Day, he returned, remarking, "you did not get to me that time, Mr. Devil." Esther A Savage-The CT Nutmegger, Dec 1992, p. 363 James SEARS(May p.64-65)

Pelletreau (p.756) says the SEARS family came to Putnam co (then Dutchess co, NY) in 1743. James SEARS lived on a farm adjacent to that of Eleazer HAMBLIN (No.135 RIN13969) in 1762, as shown by records of a survey of Lot 6 in that year. (Pelletreau, p.269). Near by, in the town of Southeast, "The most numerous families in former times were the CROSBYs" (Pelletreau, p.429), descended from three brothers who came from Harwich, MA. David (No. 582 RIN3725) and Joshua SEARS (No.256 RIN4061?) came in 1749. Thomas SEARS (No.587 RIN3730) settled on a farm south of Carmel in 1753. These three were descended from the Rev Thomas CROSBY baptized... James SEARS, his brother-in-law, arrived to settle near the HAMBLINs in 1743. [S.P. May p.99 - Sears Homepage]

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