Married:     about 1620, Suffolk, England

Children:    Thurston, Joseph, Elizabeth, Sarah, Deborah, William, Lydia (Lupton), Hannah (Howell)

    Thurston Raynor, his wife, Elizabeth, their five children, and Thurston’s ten year old nephew, Edward Raynor, residents of Elmsett, in the County of Suffolk, left Ipswich, England in April 1634 aboard the ship, Elizabeth. They arrived in Boston three months later and settled in the town of Watertown. In 1636, a group of  Watertown families including the Raynors, seeking more land than was available in Massachusetts,  moved to the Connecticut Colony, where they founded the town of Wethersfield. Thurston was one of the representatives for Wethersfield in the Connecticut Colony government.

    By 1641, feuding within the town had grown so serious that over half the residents, including the town minister, the Rev. Richard Denton,  and the Raynors, decided to leave. They settled on land in southwest Connecticut that the New Haven Colony had purchased from the Indians, founding the new town of Stamford. Thurston was one of the five men who comprised to original town government.

    By 1644, many of the residents of Stamford, again including Rev. Denton and the Raynors, had become so dissatisfied with life in the New Haven Colony that they again moved, this time to land that the Dutch government of New Amsterdam made available to them on Long Island, where they founded the town of Hempstead.

    Sometime between 1646 and 1649, Thurston Raynor and his family left Hempstead and moved yet again, to the young village of Southampton on the southeast shore of  Long Island.  In Southampton, Thurston Raynor was a large landholder and became prominent in the affairs of the village.  He died there in1667. 

Ancestry of Thurston Raynor

Robert Raynere of Wickham Market, Suffolk UK (will dated Oct 1571). Survived by son John, daughters Dorothie and Rose, and son Edward, to who he left the remaining leasehold of his farm, his cattle, horses, grain etc.

Edward Reyner of Elmsett, Suffolk UK (will dated Mar 1620). Wife Margery ___, children Thurston,  John, Samuel, Anna (Lewes), Edward, Margery (Pinson)

Trivia

Thurston is almost certainly the ancestor of the great American golf course archtect, Seth Raynor

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