E. B. Huntington, who gives an insider view of the Lothrop/Lathrop families involved, notes: Samuel2 Lathrop married “Nov. 28, 1644, Elizabeth Scudder, who had been dismissed from the church in Boston Nov. 10, 1644, to remove her church relation to that in Barnstable. She is reported in Savage as a sister to that John Scudder who was in Barnstable in 1640
Curiosity can sometimes lead to unexpected but pleasing discoveries. When Dr. John and Harriet (Waterbury) Scudder set sail for Calcutta and Ceylon, three other missionary couples were with them. We couldn’t help but ask, “Who were they and what life experiences brought them to dedicate themselves to missionary service for the rest of their lives?”
To begin their amazing multigenerational saga of providing more than 40 Scudder missionaries to Ceylon and India, Dr. John Scudder and his wife Harriet (Waterbury) Scudder had to go through the formal goodbyes with their families in America.
It is well known to history that the Scudders and Winslows commenced their missions to Ceylon together. What is not well advertised is that Rev. Miron Winslow’s wife, Harriet Wadsworth (Lathrop) Winslow, of Norwich, Connecticut was a distant cousin to Dr. John Scudder.
This is the first in a series of articles to appear in the next few issues of Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal about the sons of Henry Scudder, yeoman, of Horton Kirby, Kent. This brief summary of conditions in their homeland gives context to the life choices each son would make.