• ROBERT HEMPSTEAD
The name Hampstead or Hampsted are both claimed as the original name before changing to the present style of spelling. The Long Island branch of the family, about 1651, spelled it Hempsted.
Sir Robert Hempstead was born in England in 1600 and he died in New London, Conn., in June, 1654. He married Joanna Willey in New London in 1646. In 1640, to escape the persecutions resulting from the civil and religious war under Charles 1st, having opposed the Church of England party, he emigrated from Groton (or Hempstead, twenty-three miles from Old London) Suffolk County, England, and landed on Long Island, N.Y., founding there the town of Hempstead. Removed to Saybrook, Conn., and later in 1643 to New London, Conn., then called Pequot Plantation, joining with John Winthrop in founding that place in 1645, and with him took a prominent part in the early history of Connecticut. There is at the present time a station on the Northwestern Railway of England near London, called Hernal Hempstead.
Joanna Willey Hempstead married after the death of Sir Robert, Andrew Lester. She died about 1660, having no children by the second marriage.23, p 1

• Robert Hempstead was one of the 36 grantees of original house lots in New London. From facts recently brought to light it is more probable that Robert Hempstead came from Hempstead, Long Island, rather than with Winthrop’s men. So far as known all of the Hempsteads in this country are descended from Robert Hempstead and his brother.2636, p 2

• THE HEMPSTEAD FAMILY
There have been many incorrect statements made about Robert Hempstead, the emigrant, most of these being corrected by the late Col. Charles Parkhurst in the New York B. & G. Record, 51:259-266. He was not Sir Robert; he was not one of the founders of Hempstead, Long Island; his wife was not Joanna Willey.
The Hempstead House in New London was not built by Robert but by his son Joshua[2] in 1678 when Robert had been dead many years; the stone house called the Huguenot house was not built by Huguenots but by Joshua[3]’s grandson Nathaniel to whom the house was given by Joshua[3] Hempstead. These two items proven by Joshua Hempstead’s Diary which he kept from 1711 until his death in 1758 and which was published by the New London Historical Society in 1901. [It was built abt. 1758-9 (New London Land Records).]
The list of children of Joshua[2] Hempstead as printed by the Historical Society is also incorrect and corrected by Col. Parkhurst; all his corrections based on statements in this Diary.
The first definite fact we have about Robert Hempstead is that he was one of the few men sent by Winthrop to prepare the way for the settlement of New London. In 1653 he testified that he was 40 years old, placing his birth at about 1613.
According to Col. Charles E. Banks’ Topographical Dictionary of English Emigrants, 1620-1650, Robert Hempstead came from Steeple-Bumsted, Essex, England but a search of his manuscripts has failed to give further information.
The claim that all the Hempsteads in this country are descended from Robert is not a fact; there was a William in Maryland the same year Robert was sent to the present New London; there was a Richard very early in New York state who must be the ancestor of several lines that do not fit into the families of Robert of New London; possibly brothers of Robert but no proof of ancestry of any of them.
Miss Caulkins in her History of New London2501, p 72 made a wild guess in her statement that Robert Hempstead married Joanna Willey and that “his was the first marriage in the colony.” There is no record of his marriage; nothing to indicate Isaac Willey had a daughter Joanna; in the few instances where his wife’s name is recorded it is given as Joane, not Joanna. Further, and the greatest proof of all, no relationship is mentioned in Joshua Hempstead’s Diary with the Willey family though they were living in New London during his lifetime. None of his very frequent references to “cousin,” “kinsman” or “kinswoman” refers to anyone who can possibly have been of his grandmother Joane’s family.
Robert and Joane may have been married in England just before he sailed for America; she may have been an English sweetheart who followed him over when he became located; or she may have been one of the single women who came over hoping for betterment of circumstances as so many did come; all guesses and unprovable.
Robert Hempstead was a surveyor; he owned land in New London, Mystic and on the Nahantic River as shown in his will, dated Sept. 30, 1653 in which he gave the birth dates of his children, not elsewhere recorded. His will was dated Sept. 30, 1653, inventory dated Nov. 17, 1654; presented to court June 25, 1655. Joane married second, March 2, 1654-5, Andrew Lester; she had no Lester children and died about 1660, see Minor’ Diary. Children of Robert and Joane were Mary born March 26, 1647, Joshua July 16, 1649, Hannah, April 11, 1652.
References: History of New London; Col. Parkhurst’s Mss.; Thomas Minor’s Diary; Probate Records.2429, pp 1-2

• On page x, Introduction, appears a genealogy of the immediate families of Robert, Joshua, and Joshua Hempstead 2d.
First: “Robert Hempstead married Joanna Willie.”
Now did he? There is not the slightest shred of evidence that his wife’s name was Joanna Willie, or Willey.2637, p 261

• [excerpts] Andrew Lester first appears at Gloucester, Mass. An early settler from 1643. He removed to Pequot (now New London, Conn.), in 1651.
Andrew Lester's second wife was Joanna, widow of Robert Hempstead, and probably daughter of Isaac Willy. She died in 1659, without issue.2863, pp 142-3

• Andrew Lester was licensed to keep a house of entertainment at Gloucester, by the county court, 26th of month, 1648. He removed to Pequot in 1651; was constable and collector in 1668.2501, p 286

• Andrew Lester1 is said to have arrived in America about 1640 with a group of Welsh gentlemen. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1643 in Gloucester. It is not known if Barbara, his first wife, came over with him or if he met her in Gloucester, but four of their children were born in Gloucester, the first in 1642. He brought his family to Pequot (New London) with a group calling themselves the Cape Ann Company in 1651 and was assigned a lot on Alewife Cove. His wife Barbara died in 1653 and Andrew married twice more; first, Joanna Hempstead, and, lastly, Anna Fox, with whom he had three more children. In 1665, he divided his 250 acres of land granted him across the river in now Groton between his two sons Daniel2 and Andrew2.1924, p 139